President Of Association Discusses Evolution Of Businesses & Legislative Action Needed To Continue Growth
Finding solutions, bringing together like minds and encouraging legislation and change is all in a day’s work for Bobby Cornwell, CEO of the Florida Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds. Cornwell sat down with The Buzz at the 2016 FARVC Conference & Expo in Central Orlando to talk about the changing face of campgrounds, the evolution of the customer experience and the tools needed to consistently push the industry to new heights.
The Buzz: One of the key aspects of these kinds of conferences is the roundtable discussions where the different facets of the attendees including suppliers, administrators and owners problem solve.
Bobby Cornwell: That is probably the most valuable aspect [of this conference] is the feedback the park owners give. These people have been in the business for a long time…and especially with the new people, there is all kinds of questions that everybody has. As an association, we can get feedback all the time…but when they hear it from a park owner who has been in the business, it means a lot more because that is where the real answers come from…just from experience. That knowledge is invaluable. So these “cracker barrel” sessions are undeniably important.
The Buzz: One of the other interesting aspects seen at the conference is the examination of the amount of behind-the-scenes work done on policy and legislation.
BC: Behind-the-scenes is a perfect example. There is always a reason a campground owner may join an association such as ours. It may be advertising. It may be local problem they have. [Even] networking. Typically it is the tip of the iceberg. They all realize what goes on a daily basis in terms of what the association does for their benefit and the industry’s benefit. And how they benefit from it. And this gives us the opportunity to know what we are doing. The public affairs…and the legislative issues…yes they’re passed…everybody benefits whether they remember or not. It is extremely important to let them know what we are working towards. It is all about communication. We put out newsletters and materials all the time. But when they hear face-to-face as far as what we’re doing…it kind of sinks in so that is a very good aspect of the conference.
The Buzz: It is. Looking at the way the politics work, it becomes all about the legislation in which the wording needs to be finitely put.
BC: How legislation is formed and how our opinions are functioned. We have basically two entries going on here…we have the accommodations and tourism industry but then on the other token a lot of our parks are geared to more seasonal and not necessarily tourists so you have the two different industries, not necessarily completing against each other but you have to accommodate both with the legislation. What we are doing as far as policy is trying to be proactive in the regulations we are looking for. But more important than anything, we are trying to help form or counteract regulations that cause a burden on the small business owners, since most of our parks are small businesses. A lot of the rules and regulations we talked about here at the conference, whether it was the Department of Health, Chapter 513, the ADA law…it is regulations that a lot of times don’t make sense for our business operators. So we have to keep track of those regulations, whether they are causing a financial burden or just an operational burden as far as staffing and maintenance. That harms their business and doesn’t really serve a purpose either way for the camper or for the business owner. And the things that don’t make sense, we want to strike off the books.
The Buzz: RV Parks and Associations always have to be growing as new developments in technology, manufacturing and social interaction become more complex. What does it take to keep up?
BC: As a whole, the industry is strong. It is stronger than it’s ever been before…not only the professionalism in the industry, which is definitely increased. We are definitely seeing more of that. And a lot of that has to do with just length of time a lot of these owners have been in the business. They are attending more seminars. They are reaching out to other sources. They are learning best practices to operate their parks. And a lot of it has to do with growth…it has weeded out some of the ones that maybe were not up to standards. Many of the parks want to maintain their standards so they can produce a profit and be successful. So they have to evolve themselves. Because of this, parks are revamping their sites, putting in new technology…a lot of that was discussed here through wi-fi or whatever it may be…it’s always a changing issue. But they are making upgrades. And the parks that do that…and are continuing to evolve, they are pretty much the ones that are successful.
BC: It makes us stay on the cutting edge of what we are trying to provide…what we know…our knowledge… because we’re asked the same questions and if we don’t have solutions, they will go somewhere else to find them. We have to be on the cutting edge of what’s out there, education-wise, which we also cover here and how that is beneficial to the park owner, the operators and the staff. It’s all about continuing education…for us…and for our members so we all continue to grow as an industry