Why did you leave WBCCI

[Castaway]

With the membership in WBCCI dropping I am curious as to how many forum readers are former members and why they left the club and how long you were members.


Gary

[xrvr]

Left because sold AS. Would still be a member otherwise.

[xrvr]

Also remember thst members in the seventies may be too old to tow now.

[DanB]

Membership is not dropping.

[m.hony]

I am still in and may well be for life.
We have so many good people in our unit.
The rallies are great.

[susgru]

Why did we leave WBCCI? We've left twice. We've tried to enjoy it, but it's just too irrelevant. An International meeting in July in 90 degree weather, camping in a concrete parking lot. A teen pageant? Flag parade? Really? That just doesn't appeal to us. I could go on and discuss our local unit, but let's just say that they are nice people, but we find them to be incredibly rigid and unwilling to make changes that might make the unit more appealing to new members. I wish the WBCCI luck, but we won't try it a 3rd time.

[eubank]

We didn't leave. And I kind of think that even the international rally is looking more and more interesting!
http://wbcci.org/component/jdownload...ngton-schedule


Lynn

[AirEgger]

Originally Posted by avionstream

Also remember thst members in the seventies may be too old to tow now.

Glad the word "may" was used. I've been a member for three years. Haven't been very active in club activities but have attended a few functions. We are primarily solo campers, but we have met many great people across the country, some with Airstreams and some with SOBs. We joined WBCCI as a way to learn about more Airstreams and to support RVing in general.

[hhendrix]

I haven't left yet but I posted this on the other thread about membership poll:

We have been a member since 2009. When I first got the "promo" packet from WBCCI, the dvd was like something from the 60's and every picture in the Blue Beret was really very old people. Lots of them. All of them.
When we went to our first rally, I told my wife "If we can get thru this first weekend without having to do CPR, maybe we'll hang in there for a while." We even thought about bringing a defibrillator from her office. Seriously. As it turned out, we had a great time and have made a lot of good friends of all ages that we often see outside the rallies.
My wife is on the local board and we have hosted several rallies. We DO NOT wear berets or ties. In fact, I've never seen a tie at any rally and beret maybe once or twice. We go to great locations, have great food, have fun and interesting events, and happy hour starts promptly at 5 every time.
That being said, the governing board is bloated, bureaucratic, somewhat autocratic with entrenched leadership, way out of date and out of touch, has ancient and silly rules like dress codes, and sometimes acts more like a Christian organization than a camping club.
For example, at the last international rally, one of our board members towed her trailer all the way there by herself only to discover that no one would help her park her trailer of even show her the way because it was the "Lord's day." That didn't stop them from smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, so I guess that's approved by the Lord but not parking. Many locals start the meeting, meals, or events with prayers honoring Jesus. That gets right in your face if you're Jewish or another faith that doesn't recognize Jesus. It's a CAMPING CLUB!!!!
The international organization election of board members is really a coronation as a "nominating committee" selects one person to run for each office. So why bother voting.
Our unit is very open, progressive, inviting, tolerant, and full of fun people of all ages and convictions. While some other units are shrinking we are one of the fastest growing units. You almost never hear any discussion of religion or politics except that religion plays way too big a role in the organization. I can't even figure out how religion became so entwined in the club. Nothing I've ever read about Wally Byam indicated any religion was a major part of his life or had anything to do with Airstreams. In fact, when asked, he said "His religion was camping."
If it wasn't for the clubs insurance coverage for rallies and caravans, many of our members don't see a huge benefit to the larger organization. Probably the single biggest and best benefit is meeting the members of other local units. Very few of our members go the the international. There's just not much interest in except for a few who are trying to inject new blood into the leadership. Kind of a Don Quixote thing maybe. I wish them the best but frankly, I find many other ways to beat by head against a wall with better results.
I read all the comments so far and only a couple know what they are writing about. The rest are uniformed, too cheap to even being a contributing member here, clearly don't like people, or people don't like them so they don't see any reason to socialize beyond Facebook, the narcissists playground. Sorry, my rant drifted a little off course.
None the less, I stay in the organization because of all the wonderful and generous people we have met traveling the US. For example, the organizers of the Mardi Gras and Albuquerque Balloon Festival have worked so hard to put on a premiere event, that I feel both obligated and privileged to support their efforts.

[wulfraat]

We have not joined yet, and I don't think we will.

We hit up the international rally here a few days ago in Farmington but cut our visit short from a planned 3 nights to just 1 night. Camping in a parking lot was not appealing. We have a young family (2 kids 7 and 10) and there really wasn't anything appealing at the event for young ones.

I am an airstream enthusiast for sure, don't get me wrong, we spend 30-40 nights a year camping in our trailer in different parts of the country, and I am always planning the next "modification" but the demographic and focus of the club doesn't seem to be in line with young families. Nothing wrong with that, just doesn't appeal to us.

That being said I have not engaged with the denver unit close to were we live near boulder, but for now, we'll keep boondocking and hanging out on our own.

[m.hony]

All rallies are not in s parking lot. That doesn't appeal to us, either.
Most unit rallies are in beautiful campgrounds.


Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums

[John Millner]

What is WBCCI?

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by John Millner

What is WBCCI?

WBCCI is the Wally Byam Caravan Club International, the official Airstream RV owner's association. Named after Wally Byam, the designer of the first Airstream trailers and a noted world traveler who led caravans of RVs (not all of them were Airstreams) just about anyplace an RV could go, and a few places they couldn't.

There are over 100 local Units, the lowest level of club organization; 12 Regions; and one International level. The largest unit has over 300 members; the smallest has seven, but one "member" is one Airstream, so a couple, or the adult members of one family, are just one member.

If you join, you don't have to belong to the unit closest to you, and you can belong to more than one unit if you like. Each unit is a bit different, some are a lot different, and if you don't like the first one you join, you can switch to a different unit the next year. You could also join as a member-at-large and not belong to any unit, but many units have annual dues lower than the $15 member-at-large surcharge (WBCCI did that on purpose to keep everyone from joining as a member-at-large and killing off the units).

WBCCI is different from a lot of RV clubs in that it's a member-owned non-profit organization, meaning that the club members get to vote on issues that affect the way the club is administered, and any member can submit a motion (through channels) to be voted on by the membership. International dues are high compared to some clubs ($65 per year), but those dues provide the club's annual operating budget; there is no corporate sponsorship, and thus no sponsor who expects to make a profit off the club.

[hhendrix]

Originally Posted by John Millner

What is WBCCI?

Wally Byam was the founder of Airstreams and conducted caravans that went all over the world. The WBCCI is the club "or cult" depending on your point of view that all members own Airstreams. It stands for Wally Byam Caravan Club International. There are 12 regions within the US and Canada and many units of various sizes within the region. See this link for more info:
Blue Beret Online Magazine-Home

[xrvr]

My comment meant those who were members in the seventys, not those seventy years old now., although they may be the same.

[Nuvite-F]

Originally Posted by Castaway

With the membership in WBCCI dropping I am curious as to how many forum readers are former members and why they left the club and how long you were members.

WBCCI membership is not dropping. It dropped more or less steadily from the all-time high year of 1978 through a few years ago, but for the last two or three years it has been increasing. I have been a member for 12 years now and new members are joining my own unit (Wisconsin) faster than I have ever seen before.

[n2916s]

Left when the "any motor home by Thor" proposal was resurrected immediately after being shot down for the second time. And the proposal started in my Region.

The leadership at the time did not give a flying rat's patootie about the wishes of the membership.

Maybe different now but I am no longer interested.

Mike

[Kokomogoggy]

We joined earlier this year and have been sorely disappointed. We joined to take advantage of the various caravan trips. I checked into four of them and they'd been booked for some time. We don't have the luxury of planning more than a year from now...not knowing if any similar trips will materialize. We're not interested in the local rallies. Many of the Canadian and California chapters have great trips and rallies. We'll take a look at it again in a couple of years.

[xrvr]

Some of the units have shorter caravans. Check with Nova.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Kokomogoggy

We joined to take advantage of the various caravan trips.

I have been informed by the leader of the Cajun Caravan that it's common for people to sign up for multiple caravans, and then decide at the last minute which one to go on, thus leaving a space for someone on the waiting list— if they can take advantage of a last-minute opening. Of course, people who still work for a living usually don't own their own schedules and can't take advantage of last-minute openings, and people who live close to where the caravan starts have an advantage since it doesn't take them as long to mobilize. But if you can, then being on the waiting list is no hindrance.

In one of the seminars here at Farmington, I made the suggestion that caravans reserve a couple of spaces specifically for first-timers who haven't been on that caravan before, with a separate waiting list, so they're not constrained to wait until the repeat customers have decided which caravan they want to go on, of the many they signed up for. It remains to be seen if that suggestion will bear fruit.

But in the meantime, take advantage of the system. Sign up for every caravan you might want to go on, and if you move up the waiting list for one, then cancel the others, same way the old-timers do it.