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Welcome Fellow Park Operators

 

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Welcome to Michcampgrounds.org, ARVC Michigan’s new site for RV Park and Campground owners and operators. This is the place for information, news, events and updates on all things happening in the Travel and Tourism industry.

If you’ll take a few moments to enter your email address in the top right corner of this page, you will automatically receive updates each time something new is posted here.

You can also comment and let us know how we’re doing. There will be a comment box at the bottom of most pages on this site. Please, fill it in and let us know what you want and need. The comments will go to Executive Director, Wayne Purchase. Wayne will see to it that the board hears what you have to say.

We are fortunate to have a variety of people who will be posting information here. You’ll be getting updates from Wayne Purchase regarding Association business, Dianna Stampfler of Promote Michigan, regarding Public Relations and Christina Lawrence of The Lawrence Group, regarding Public Affairs.

Thanks very much for visiting and commenting. We are looking forward to your input.

In the event you are a CAMPER who has accidentally landed here,

we have a great place just for you to visit. It’s at michcampgrounds.com.

You’ll find lots of useful information there for planning your next camping trip.

Written on 03 June 2007 by Tate Fisher under Main with Comments Off

Michigan Campground Operators Fall 2008 Convention

Michigan Campground Operators

Fall Convention & Campground Tour

Comfort Inn

Chelsea, Michigan

October 19 – 21, 2008

Discover the opportunities!

Educational seminars with exciting speakers, campground & RV park tours, Networking, Sunday night cracker-barrel, low registration fee. Don’t miss your chance to attend the only fall conference for our industry held in Michigan.

Why Attend?

The most important reason for you to attend this convention is to learn. You will learn from the educational seminars! You will learn by listening to the outstanding speakers! You will learn the “how to’s” & “why’s” of our camping business from the campground tour! This convention is an opportunity to visit with those experts, your friends and other industry members, for a free flowing exchange of ideas and vital information that is specifically designed to meet your needs. Your business and the industry will move forward because of your attendance.

Cracker-barrel!

This is your time to discuss: anything and everything. The cracker-barrel has become a mainstay at the fall convention. It is your chance to ask a room full of experts in the campground industry your most important question. Because of the great turnout the cracker-barrel is again scheduled for Sunday night.

Campground Tour!

On Monday October 20th we will set out on buses to tour area campgrounds. There is no better way to learn new ideas than to tour campgrounds and have the opportunity to ask the owner/operator questions about how and why he/she does things certain ways. This year we will be visiting

Greenwood Acres

Apple Creek

Michigan International Speedway

Seminars!

We have got some great seminars for you this fall. Green Cleaning and Recycling will begin the day off with an exciting seminar done by Craig Banes also. And then we will end the day with seminars by the Michigan Film Industry and one on Geocaching.

Hospitality!

The convention is about relaxing, having a good time, making new friends and visiting with your friends you haven’t seen in a while. During the convention you will have ample opportunities in an informal atmosphere to share ideas relating to all facets of the campground industry with other campgrounds owners/operators.

How to Reserve a Room!

You need to call the Comfort Inn at (734)433-8000. They will make your reservation for you. The rate is $94.00 single or double. Make sure you mention that you are with the ARVC Michigan group.

How to Register for the Convention!

The last page is the registration form. Please fill it out and send it along with payment to the ARVC Michigan office before October 16th. We hope to see you in Chelsea. Registration will be accepted at the conference space permitting

Fall Convention Agenda

October 19 – 21, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

7:30 p.m. - ? Cracker-barrel in Village Conference Center

Monday, October 20, 2008

7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Breakfast Served In Village Conference Center

9:00 a.m. Buses Depart

5:00 p.m. Buses Return

6:00 p.m. Dinner in Village Conference Center

7:30 p.m. Annual Meeting & Elections

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Breakfast Served In Village Conference Center

9:00 a,m, - 10:30 a.m. Seminars

1. Green Cleaning & Recycling

2. Craig Banes C.P.A., Accounting & Tax Solutions

10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Break

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Seminars

1. Michigan Film Industries

2. Geocaching

12:15 p.m. Lunch In Village Conference Center

THANKS FOR COMING!

you can download this information and the registration form by clicking on the links below.

michcampgrounds-fall-2008-convention-info.pdf

michcampgrounds-fall-2008-convention-application.pdf

 

Written on 06 September 2008 by Tate Fisher under Conventions with No Comments

CAMP STORE - Weekend Canoeing in Michigan: The Rivers, The Towns, The Taverns

Author and canoe enthusiast Doc Fletcher takes you on twenty adventures down rivers across the state of Michigan in his first book Weekend Canoeing in Michigan: The Rivers, The Towns, The Taverns. From the Ontonagon River in the western Upper Peninsula to the Huron River in southeastern Lower Michigan, Doc gives you the information and the desire to take up your paddles and follow the words of Henry David Thoreau – “Everyone must believe in something. I believe I’ll go canoeing.”

For the casual canoeist looking for a fun 2-4 hour trip, this book has everything you need to get the most out of your day. Planning is often half the fun and Doc gives you all the information you’ll need – the canoe livery, an overview of the river, level of difficulty, what music you’ll need to get you in the proper frame of mind, the local radio station to tune in the Tigers’ games, how far it is from various Michigan towns (and Milwaukee – the home of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer) and the tavern where you can grab a bite to eat and a beer after the trip.

While you’re on the river, Doc provides you with landmarks to help determine the speed, depth, width of the river, obstacles you might encounter and camping locations. From well-researched sources such as tavern placemats, barkeeps and their patrons you’ll have lots of history to discuss as Doc describes the nearby towns and their stories.

Doc Fletcher is a life-long Michigander who is truly “smitten with the mitten”. He took his first canoe ride in 1978 on the Pere Marquette River and ever since gets into a canoe whenever possible.

ORDER BOOKS AT A WHOLESALE RATE OF $10.77 (MINIMUM ORDER OF SIX BOOKS) DIRECTLY FROM THE PUBLISHER — ARBUTUS PRESS — BY CALLING TOlL FREE 866-794-8793. THIS PAPERBACK BOOK RETAILS FOR $17.95.

Written on 20 August 2008 by Dianna Stampfler under Camp Store Items with No Comments

Labor Day Availability?

Hard to believe the summer is nearly over! I’m working on my next ARVC news release on the availability at member campgrounds for Labor Day Weekend. If you have spots open, please let me know by Friday, August 22. My release will go out on Monday, August 25 and will also be posted on the MichCampgrounds.com website.

I also welcome your POSITIVE comments about how the summer of 08 has been for you…did you see higher numbers because travelers were sticking close to home? Were stays longer than normal due to the consolidation of vacation schedules?

Also…if your community hosts a Labor Day celebration or event (such as the Mackinac Bridge Walk), please let me know about those as well.

When responding to this email, please be sure to include:

Campground Name
City
Phone
Website

Thank you!

Dianna Stampfler - Promote Michigan
Dianna@promotemichigan.com

Written on 16 August 2008 by Dianna Stampfler under Media Releases with No Comments

Vote for Travel Michigan’s Website!

Travel 2.0 Interactive, a national blog site, is holding an online contest for the best state tourism office website. There have been two rounds of voting already and Michigan (www.michigan.org) is now in the semifinals going head-to-head with Ohio.

We need your vote for Michigan (for the best state tourism website).

Please go to: Travel Trend Report and vote for Michigan (click on circle next to Michigan and then click on “vote”). Please vote by this Friday.

Thanks for your help (and please feel free to share this vote site with all your colleagues). When Michigan makes it to the finals, we’ll again need your vote.

Ron Marabate, Manager
Consumer Information Servs. Div.
MEDC/Travel Michigan
Phone: (517) 241-7200
Fax: (517) 373-0059
Email: marabater@michigan.org
Website: www.michigan.org

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Written on 10 July 2008 by Tate Fisher under News, Tourism with No Comments
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RV park is site for star-studded Hollywood movie

Roll ‘Em: Film sets up shop in Leelanau
RV park is site for star-studded Hollywood movie

BY MELISSA DOMSIC

LAKE LEELANAU — Tourists and locals in this small, usually quiet resort town were abuzz with excitement as production crews prepared to film a movie.

Workers painted, drilled and pieced together a two-story trailer at Lake Leelanau RV Park for the set of “Youth in Revolt,” a flick starring Michael Cera, Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta and Jean Smart.

“The people who reside at the park, the snowbirds, they’re just all atwitter, like Hollywood has come to our little corner of the world,” said Phillip Thies, owner of Jaffe’s Resale & Consignment shop in the heart of town. “They’ve certainly made it known they’re available to be an extra.”

The campground is one of several Michigan filming locations, including Frankfort, Interlochen and Royal Oak.

“Never in my wildest imagination would I have ever thought they’d be doing a movie in here,” said Don Wilson, who owns the RV park.

READ THE FULL STORY AND VIEW PICTURES HERE:

Written on 21 June 2008 by Dianna Stampfler under News with No Comments

Do you Youtube? Your campers do.

When is the last time you watched a Youtube video? I’m guessing, for most of us, the answer is “yesterday”. They are everywhere. We get them in our email, we watch them on our favorite websites, we even see television commercials urging us to go to Youtube and watch their video.

Want to learn woodcarving? Check out Banjoman15

Want to check out the latest Ford Trucks? Go to  FordandLincoln

Want to see how Youtube works for an Exterminator? Check out Hal Coleman’s Yucky, Nasty Bug Facts

Want a virtual tour of the local Funeral Home?

And…..what if you have an RV Park or Campground?

The RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads

Shipshewana RV Park

Mayfair Campground

Go. Now. Get yourself a Youtube account. It’s free. Then use any camera you have. Even your cell phone will work. Create something to show your campers around your park. They’re much more likely to visit in person if they’ve had a look-see online. Don’t know how to upload and all that jazz? Call your sister’s kid. He’ll know how. Get one of your employees to help. They know how. Email me at tate@tatefishermarketing.com, I’ll talk you through it.

One more tip…put good tags and titles in when you upload. Enter the name of your park, the city and state you’re located in, outdoor pool, large rv sites, cabins and cottages, online reservations, (also list the url of your park), pig roasts, lakefront sites, kids activities, boating, fishing, anything you do that people might specifically be looking for.

Then, like you did with your Myspace page, put a link to your Youtube page on your website.

Hey, we’re moving right along; aren’t we? You can be behind the wheel of the online presence of your park. Next time we’ll probably talk about Flickr and what you can do with all those great park photos you have. You can put them to work for you and I’ll show you how.

Thanks for your time. Hope your phones are ringing off the hook.

Tate

Written on 23 May 2008 by Tate Fisher under YouTube with 1 Comment

Think Myspace is for teen girls-gone-wild? Think again.

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I read recently that if Myspace were a country it would be the 14th largest in the world.

That’s a lot of people!!

It may not matter to you that millions of people are networking on Myspace but consider this…..many, many, many of them are campers.

We spend a lot of energy deciding what we can do to get more campers in our parks. I’m suggesting we flip that thought process a little and start asking where we can go to get campers?

Myspace is a great place to start.

Another option for you to consider is that you may not have to do a thing. You may already have a Myspace expert on staff. You could think about assigning one of your employees to create your Myspace profile and maintain it for you. I’m willing to bet you have someone on staff (probably several) who’s been managing their own Myspace profile for a long time. You may also be surprised to find that this employee is over 40!!!

Now I am not recommending that you just turn someone loose in creating and maintaining your profile. It is your responsibility to follow up regularly. Check the site. Have your employee keep you up to date with statistics and anything they’ve posted each week. You just won’t have to do the posting and friending and all that jazz. I know you’re busy. I also know that pre and post season can see some lag time for your staff. This is a great job to assign to that one employee who knows how and will help you get there.

Note: Myspace has a reputation for being a little spammy and can be a little vulgar. You have control over what shows up in your profile though and can hit “delete” without a second thought.

One more great reason to create a Myspace profile is that you’ll get a super-huge, fat and sassy backlink to your website. That just means that Google will notice that a high authority site *Myspace* is pointing to your website and Google will give you some love in return. You’ll show up in more places online. That can only be good. ***unless, of course, the police were involved ;-)

Here are a few links to some campground Myspace pages.

Myspace: Middle Creek Campground, Buchanan, VA

Myspace: Two Lakes Campground, Drummond, WI

Myspace: Cabin Creek Campground, Jacksonville, NC

Now. The next thing you need to do is put a link to your Myspace profile on your website. If you don’t know how to do it, let your webmaster do it for you. It’s a two minute job.

If you have any questions feel free to email me at tate@tatefishermarketing.com .  I’d love to help.

Next time we’ll talk about Youtube, having your own account and putting videos of your park on it. It’s a whole lot easier than it sounds. I’ll be writing again in a few days. Thanks for reading.

Tate

Written on 16 May 2008 by Tate Fisher under Employees, Internet Marketing, Myspace with No Comments
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Buy, Sell or Trade with the ARVC Michigan Messenger

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Wayne Purchase is compiling the ARVC Michigan Messenger for June. If any of you members have something you’d like to list in the “classifieds” section of the newsletter, let him know by May 18, 2008.

The listing is free of charge and it’s a great way to clean out your closets while helping other members get something they’ve needed for their park.

You can email Wayne at info@michcampgrounds.com or call him at 989-619-2608.  Watch for the Messenger, this edition has some great information for you and your business.

Written on 14 May 2008 by Tate Fisher under Free Classifieds with No Comments
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ARVC Members Invited to Host Blood Drives

As an ARVC Michigan Campground, here is your opportunity to make the difference in someone’s life as well as promote your park during the 2008 camping season and beyond.
ARVC Michigan is teaming with Michigan Community Blood Centers — www.miblood.org — this season with blood drives at member campgrounds.

Blood needs don’t go away in the summer and at the same time many donors are away from home, so keeping the blood supply pumped up is a big seasonal challenge. To help meet it, Michigan Community Blood Centers can take blood donation on the road with their Blood Bus, a self-contained donation station, or by bringing equipment and drawing blood in a community room or clubhouse.

Kona Kenny, mobile recruiter from the Grand Valley region of Michigan Community Blood Centers met with lots of campground owners at the Spring ARVC Michigan Campground Owner’s Convention and Trade Show in Midland the end of March. She was able to explain the program and sign up parks who were interested in holding blood drives this summer. Several parks already have taken advantage of this promotion including the Grand Rogue and Lincoln Pines Resort.

Michigan Community Blood Centers supplies hospitals in several regions throughout the state; however not every campground is in in a coverage area so you will have to make a contact to find out if your campground is within a Blood Centers region.

Please try to take advantage of this opportunity and give consideration toward a wonderfully unselfish act during your camping season. Michigan Community Blood Centers as well as ARVC Michigan through its public relations company, Promote Michigan, will be helping you support this chance to give your guests the opportunity to become a compassionate donor.

Here are several contacts to try so that you may be able to put this on your campground events schedule.

Kona Kenny
Mobile Recruiter Grand Valley region of Michigan Blood Centers
616-774-2300 / 1-866-MIBLOOD

Dianna Stampfler
Promote Michigan Public Relations for ARVC Michigan
269-330-4228 / Dianna@promotemichigan.com

Wayne Purchase
Executive Director ARVC Michigan
888-406-2726 / info@michcampgrounds.com

Deb Nagel
President ARVC Michigan / Lincoln Pines Resort
616-984-2100

Tom Briggs
Grand Rogue Campgrounds
616-361-1053 / grandrogue@yahoo.com

Written on 11 May 2008 by Dianna Stampfler under Marketing Commitee, Public Relations with No Comments
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