Camp Host Jobs at Risk?

Supply and demand have powerfully affected your chance of getting a job you will enjoy.    How so?  Just while you read this page, hundreds from the ranks of aging America will hit the road in an RV.  Many have given up their sticks and bricks location and must have a place to park. 

A telephone interview with Warren Meyer, President and CFO of Recreation Resource Management (RRM) confirms the flood of retirees and disaffected workers who want to camp host.  Mr. Meyer stated he could not find enough help to run the 175+ sites his company manages in 12 different states.....before 2009, that is.  Now he is swamped with applicants.  He had set up several web pages to entice people to apply, but now he does not even acknowledge the countless online applications from camp-host.com, www.camphost.org, or work-camping.com.  To read Warren's well-written description of this trend away from home ownership to RV wanderings just click here. 

Crazy Camp Hosts ready-2-volunteer at Wekiwa Springs

Bob asked Warren if he had anything open right now...and he didn't waste a second saying he didn't.  Warren is an incredibly adept businessman, but still many can't understand how his company can take over failing parks and make them profitable.  I know one HUGE reason:  A greatly reduced payroll.  There's a limitless supply right now of retirees with a premium work ethic, low interest in pay, and a strong desire to make positive change (some just call it their pride in performance).  To get the job done "right" this group will work double or triple the required hours...even more!  And the pay is no more than minimum wage to start with. 
Then there's the VOLUNTEERS.  They happily do all of the above, but with no pay...other than to wear some type of shirt with a badge on it or maybe just a cheap trucker hat with a flimsy vest.  Here in Florida the volunteers get a plastic-y hat with an ill-fitting gray T-shirt (pictured on Bob) and a cheap plastic name tag, and for that they risk being ordered around like a lackey. 

Today I met a camp host (quite a bit older than me) who was trying to enjoy her grandchildren.  But she had firepits and toilets to clean and (this I couldn't believe) sites to rake.  Each site is a huge area, but the hosts must rake it back to front leaving perfectly parallel rake marks. 

Michael Duffey the Wekiva Gator Hunter

The volunteer in the Nature Center was a surprise...because they let him wear a nice shirt with badges.  That was his only pay for countless hours keeping the center open.  He kept telling me his wife was out of patience because he was averaging 7 hours a day...every day!  I visited on a Monday, a day when they should have been closed, but Michael said he'd already seen over a hundred visitors.  Wow!  He kept asking me to volunteer to give him some help.  He said I would be great at it, especially since I'd been a science teacher. 

I later found out Mikey had been giving out volunteer applications to even kids, in hope someone would spell him off and "save" his marriage.  I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd been writing and calling for months trying to get a volunteer position at his park...because it's the closest one to our son in Orlando.  They "couldn't" take me on because of the cost of providing a camp site.  There you have that persistent problem of everyone who does RVing full time:  Where do you park the rig?

Now...if you don't need a camp site, you can volunteer at Wekiwa Nature Center.  The only unusual requirement is shown in these pictures.  You need to have no qualms about handling snakes and gators so your visitors won't freak when you hand them a corn snake or a cute gator.

BOTTOM LINE:  Too many people chasing too few positions has lowered or eliminated pay and increased job responsibilities.  Abuses are becoming more common....by the day!  You'd better be able to afford your RV site for most or all of the year, because "free" sites for "light duties" are quickly becoming the stuff of dreams.   Sorry.

Bob strips on the spot and jumps in Wekiva Springs

Bob says of his swim:  "It was great!"

15 miles of beautifully maintained trails radiate from our camp site at Wekiwa Sandhill Campground