Public Affairs Resources – Kansas RV Park Owners Association (KPOA)

LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE (LAC)

KPOA has a committee of volunteers who strive to protect Kansas’s private sector outdoor hospitality businesses. Those who serve, monitor and evaluate released bills for any possible impact on the businesses of our members. Examples are endless but include camping related bills, campground fees, business taxes, employment laws, etc.

KPOA has limited resources, so we don’t take official positions on most bills. If a bill impacts thousands of businesses, we usually rely on others to handle the position statements, testimony, and media. If it’s a direct hit to our industry, see below under BILLS THAT AREN’T OURS BUT IMPACT US.

KPOA is a member of the Travel Industry Association of Kansas (TIAK). They are our main lifeline to legislative affairs, so they’ve become our voice for the general bills that are beyond our resources. When it comes to bills that impact only campgrounds, they are less apt to lobby on our behalf (although it’s always possible they’ll take a supporting position on our bills).

CRITICAL INSIGHT FOR EACH MEMBER:

KPOA has insight and information, yet no one is to speak on behalf of KPOA in a public hearing. We communicate with legislators through written communication from our office (unless we hire a lobbyist). Lobbyists represent groups, such as KPOA. When you speak regarding legislative matters, you are actually speaking as a Kansas private business or a Kansas resident, unless KPOA has asked you to register as our lobbyist.
If you are testifying in person or visiting with a legislator outside of the public hearing, you are still speaking as a Kansas private business. Our president is the only one with authority to speak on behalf of KPOA (yet even he/she cannot cross into the category of lobbyist in a public hearing without registering as a lobbyist), unless other arrangements have been made by KPOA’s president or executive committee.
If anyone, especially a lobbyist, approaches you about amendments to a bill KPOA has initiated, it’s inappropriate to comment for or against such an amendment. Sometimes it might even be presented as “an idea.” Don’t bite! Let the public hearing process unfold. If you are asked during a public hearing, remind them you’re speaking for your specific business, or for you personally (see #1 and #2 above), and then offer your opinion.
Many legislators and lobbyists easily forget that those who own or manage campgrounds are actually professionals. When you identify yourself in any call or testimony or written communication, it’s wise to state something like this: “I’m John Doe, and I’m the President of XYZ, LLC, which owns and operates ABC RV Park, in Your County.” Such an introduction is much stronger than “I’m John Doe and I own ABC RV Park, in Your County.”
When testifying in person, stick to NEW testimony. If you came in with a few bullet points, and someone ahead of you spoke on two of them, give only the fresh points and then state that you also agree with the earlier testimony.

STATS

It’s helpful if you research your statistics well ahead of time. Consider some of these details for letters to legislators, at public town hall meetings, in formal testimony, or even at an informal ‘coffee with the legislators.’ But make sure they’re helpful details. If you’ve had to evict one person in ten years, at a cost of $75, that isn’t exactly supportive of the state needing to have an ejection law.

How many acres is your property?
How long have you been in business?
How many people stay per year? Saying, “I host about 9,400 visitors a year” can be more powerful than “I have 60 campsites.”
How much is your liability insurance premium (when we’re talking about inherent risks of camping)?
How many times were you told by law enforcement that you need to comply with the eviction laws for landlord/tenant relationships (for our ejection bill)? How much money did that set back you?
Average length of stay at your place (insurance agents tell me that overnight parks are more prone to suits because there is no loyalty, compared to those parks where the guests stay a long time).
Where do your guests come from (other states VS in-state)?
Whatever else you can think might come in handy about your place.

If you’ve had any history that:

Nearly escalated into an ugly litigation situation, share just a snippet and tell them you’re seeking stronger laws since we live in such litigious times.
Would have been been easier to endure if our legislative bills were already laws, have those details available (please, don’t tell them how you resolved it because that actually weakens the need for a law).

By snippet, here are two hypothetical examples:

”Last year, a guest stubbed her toe on a tree root while she was waiting in the shade near our laundry room. If this is how people are going to be, well, to me it’s criminal! My liability insurance should be for genuine issues, not for guest clumsiness or for acts of nature. These are just the inherent risk of camping … or of being outside … whether you’re on my property or in you’re own yard!’ (Notice I didn’t go into great detail, nor did I elaborate on the outcome.)
In 2021, I had a guest who was stung by a bee. She lost her cool and threatened to sue me! (fill in the ending of the example above).’

Some may claim that Kansan’s aren’t litigious. Regardless of that being truth or myth, most who camp in Kansas aren’t from Kansas. Have stats on hand of the percentage of out-of-state guests stay with you.

The KPOA Legislative Affairs Committee hopes everyone will step up!

BILLS THAT AREN’T OURS YET THEY IMPACT US

Those on our Legislative Affairs Committee will outline a plan for reviewing the bills as they’re introduced. If a bill seems to impact campground businesses, the committee members will need to pass it to the Executive Committee along with a simple position statement (typically one to 10 sentences beyond the words “oppose” or “support”). The Exec Cmte will then decide whether KPOA will be taking a public stand, and to what degree.

THE DEGREES OF EFFORT

The KPOA Executive Committee understands our resources and the efforts of TIAK. When a bill is introduced and our Legislative Affairs Committee brings it to their attention, they might do any or several of the following:

Have our office submit a letter to the assigned legislative committee in Topeka (or D.C.).
Have our office notify the members to encourage them to share our position statement with their district’s legislators.
Ask our Legislative Affairs Committee to try to get a few to testify at the public hearing.
Ask TIAK to stand beside us (or more).
(there’s probably more but this gives you a sense of our channels of communication).
And the last option is they might say, “Let it go. Do nothing.”