I have been a member of the Good Sam Club since 1980 when my RV was a then new Skyline Nomad Special Edition Light Weight 17 foot trailer. In the early days (the club was founded in 1966), there were many similarities to WBCCI in terms of the fundamental organization of the club. The similarities could probably be traced, in part, to founder Art Rouse's preference of Airstream travel trailers (Art Rouse was the publisher of
Trailer Life Magazine).
I suspect that there are a number of reasons that the Rally fees are less for
The Great North American RV Rally that would include:
- Membership Base. The Good Sam membership base is reported to be in excess of one million families.
- Corporate Sponsorhip. Unless things have changes substantially, Good Sam is still spnsored by Trailer Life Publishing/Rouse Enterprises.
- Wider Cross-Section of RV Owners. Vendors and component manufactures are likely more willing to contribute to a rally of this type since there are multiple RV manufacturers represented along with a much wider customer/potential customer base.
- Purpose of Rally. Unlike the WBCCI, the purpose of this rally is camp and learn about RVing while the WBCCI has the co-purpose for its International Rally of conducting its annual business meetings.
Despite having been a member of the Good Sam Club for more than twenty years (getting closer to thirty years every day), I have never been to one of its local, regional or national rallys -- my reason for membership has been for the various discount programs offered for members. On the other hand, since purchasing my Airstream and joining WBCCI in 1995 I have missed very few International Rallys and managed to attend a number of unit and regional rallys as well. I suspect that there are huge numbers of Good Sam Club members who have never attended one of their rallys.
Had this year's
Great North American RV Rally not conflicted with the
WBCCI International Rally, I would have been in attendance as Hutchinson is one of my all-time favorite small cities -- of course the rally would have been of even greater interest had it been held during the Kansas State Fair which is held in Hutchinson during the week following Labor Day.
Kevin
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