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The proposed guidelines will not be in place until 2004 for the 2005 directory. No changes will be made in 2003 for the 2004 directory.

According to the letter that was sent out to park owners on March 17, 2003, "We performed market research with the help of campground owners and active RV customers to help us determine how the system could be adapted. The result is an improved system that gives credit for things like phone line availability for modem hookups and the ability to accommodate bigger rigs. Refinements were also made in visual appeal to make it more objective and easier to understand."

Several of the campground owners we have spoken with would take exception to this explanation of the proposed changes, noting that many campgrounds and resorts are already outfitting their sites for Wi-Fi capability and the phone line and modem issue is already being obsoleted. By 2005, nobody who understands how to use a computer will be looking for a phone line hook-up.

While it is nice to see campgrounds and resorts making changes to accommodate bigger rigs, the owner who chooses not to make such changes should not be penalized by a rating system designed to tell the park owner what they must do to stay in favor with TL and Good Sam.

Campground owners and RV resorts, for the most part, are owned by entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses based on their client’s desires and the natural settings that make their park attractive to their customers.

We find it interesting that the cover letter didn’t allude to some major point restructuring that will have a detrimental impact, and a decrease in points awarded, based on what TL and Good Sam think they should do with their campgrounds and resorts.

There is a major change in the Interior Road section. Currently a park could be awarded a full point with roads that were a minimum 12’ wide. The new rating system says the roads should be a minimum 12’ wide on a one-way road, but must now be a minimum 18’ wide for two-way.

Many campgrounds do not have the space or capital to undertake such a major construction project, and will thus suffer a reduced point total in 2005. You may have a park with a 10 rating, that consumers love that has always been at the top of the rankings and because somebody else thinks your roads should be wider, you will pay for it in points, and perhaps lost customers.

Another item that we find interesting, that actually did not change, is a requirement for a registration procedure for offhours. In this day and age, privacy and security are paramount in an RVers mind. In fact, they are two of the main reasons why the industry continues to grow. We sell them on security, peace of mind, and the peacefulness of the RV lifestyle and then TL and Good Sam think you should be open seven days a week and 24 hours a day, or provide for a registration procedure for somebody, a stranger, that shows up at 3:00AM and decides to park that big rig that they want you to accommodate.

No thank you. I’ll take a campground with a security gate and defined operating hours for check-in, and if you can’t get there on their terms, then head for the nearest Wal-Mart parking lot for the night because you are not getting through the gate.

Have you arrived at a motel after 11:00PM these days, only to find the door locked? Guess what, that’s what people want and expect in the world we live in today.

Another area that will cost many campgrounds points is the size of their sites. Current guidelines call for a majority of the sites to be at least 22 feet wide, from hookup to hookup. The new regulations, if the owners do not protest, call for sites at least 24 feet wide from hookup to hookup and 60 feet in length with 14’ overhead clearance.

We do not disagree that these would be nice dimensions for a site, and easy to work with if you are building a new campground or resort which would easily qualify you for the points in this category. But what about all the campgrounds that have been supporting TL and Good Sam for all these years, who will now be penalized unless they undertake another massive construction project and perhaps lose sites by the time they reconfigure their entire campground.

Is this the way that TL and Good Sam say thank you for your business?

TL continues the assault on intelligent thinking with a change in electrical hookup requirements. The current guidelines call for a majority of receptacles to 30 or 50 amps. The new guidelines, if you want the points, will force significant electrical upgrade costs by requiring a minimum of 25% having 50 amp service.

This is a costly change. Electrical conversions are not inexpensive, especially in parts located in the northern tier of the United States, whether it is Washington or Maine. Many campgrounds up North are not open all year, so any additional expense incurred to accommodate the new 2005 guidelines will take twice as long to recoup the investment.

Perhaps TL and Good Sam are putting the emphasis on the wrong things. Remaining unchanged in their new guidelines are the requirements for toilets and showers. If a park has 100% full hookups, then they can earn a point simply by having only two showers and toilets for men, and only two showers and toilets for women. No change in 2005.

Most states have established guidelines for the number of showers and toilets a park can have, and in almost every case it is a percentage of the number of actual sites, regardless of what your hookups might be. Under the TL plan, a campground could add five hundred new sites and would not be required to add a single toilet or shower.

Would you rather have an extra two feet at your site, or a warm shower? Where are the priorities here?

Significant changes were made in the visual appearance & environment quality section. Most of which we agree with and it is much more objective, and certainly seems fairer than the current system.

However, once again, the proposed changes are going to cost a lot of money, can result in lost points, and you may have one of the best campgrounds or resorts listed in the directory.

A new site layout requirement calls for no side-by-side hookups and a majority of the sites with a minimum 50’ between parking spaces. Again, these are excellent suggestions if one was building a new park.

Why penalize an established park that meets all local and state codes, because somebody at TL or Good Sam thinks you should change.

Our objection with most of these changes is that it hurts well established campgrounds and resorts that have excellent parks and have enjoyed high ratings from TL and Good Sam. These same owners will now be penalized by many new guidelines that seem better suited for new construction than for existing facilities.

This is America. In most cases, these are private businesses owned by hard working men and women. They should be allowed to run their business the way that they want to run them as long as they are meeting the needs of their customers. When the day comes that they are not, then the customers will stop coming.

Under the new guidelines, the campground owners will lose customers, and revenue, because many people do rely on the directory rating systems. One can envision an experienced camper who has a favorite park that was always a 10 in the ratings. They purchase the new 2005 TL Directory only to find out that the park is now rated only a 7 because they didn’t widen roads, expand sites and add 50 amp service. The customer doesn’t know that the rating system changed and assumes the campground is a less favorable destination this time around. In reality, nothing has changed … and that is not bad and it should not be a punishable offense by TL or Good Sam. The customer decides not to go back to a campground they love simply because a desk jockey who probably has never been under the trees or down by the brook decided they should change the rating system.

Fortunately, the guidelines have just been sent out and there will be no impact on this years’ rating system. Owners of campgrounds and RV resorts have plenty of time to tell TL and Good Sam just what they think of the proposed 2005 guidelines.

And they should do just that.

There are other things they can do also. They can switch to regional and state publications or take some of the money they are sending to the AGI juggernaut and increase their exposure and advertising in Gloria Telander’s Wheelers RV Resort & Campground Guide www.wheelersguides. com/.