Annual General Meeting

Rocky, add "sink in" to the list, please🙂

In our case, if we had been using all C&CC sites it would have amounted to 39 x £25 (£975) in a couple of batches some few months apart, for May / June and September / October tours. I would have though with a bit of careful budgeting achievable. After all if finances were that tight they wouldn’t be using CAMC sites in the first place, 

The deposits will only be a control mechanism if a) they are of adequate size, b) non-refundable (but possibly transferable for the same date).

At this stage, no one knows what the deposit amount will be, or if it will be refundable/transferable. But once paid at time of booking, the amount simply comes off the rest of the fees. 

I used to book our favourite CL for 28 days, (sometimes a year in advance because it was so popular,) secure the booking with a deposit, and would then periodically pay off a certain amount so that by the time we got down there, we had the whole holiday paid for, and just enjoyed our holiday. Always found it better than paying out a large amount as we arrived on holiday.

You'll find, as per the deposit system with the "other club" that popular places and pitches get booked well ahead. However the C&CC also put some extra brakes on their system, no one night stays on some sites, minimum night stays such as five nights etc etc this all adds up to quite a controlled system and it's still popular with users. What CAMC is proposing is yet to be revealed but I sincerely hope there are some "controls" as it could be cumbersome without them. If the weekend deposits are too cheap, for instance, many problems will remain.

If the weekend deposits are too cheap, for instance, many problems will remain

Yes +1

The simple fact is that the Club currently has a record number of Members, but hasn’t got enough Club Site pitches to accommodate them adequately at times. Exacerbated at the moment with some Sites closing early, and they lost two more Sites this year with Fakenham and Market Rasen now off the list. The staff at Marazion told us that that particular Site had been given a reprieve due to the amount of folks wanting to stay, which was well above the norm for that quiet little Site. 
Even with deposits, I think there will still be quite a scramble to get some places at particular times of the year. It might need some forward thinking and getting organised to get exactly what one might want to avoid disappointment. 

But they say that no shows are a very minor problem and that they decreased when deposits were dropped previously,  so why the change back to deposits now?

No idea Nellie🤷‍♀️ I’ve never seen any actual factual references around no show figures, cannot recall Club ever hinting they were an issue, so not sure at all why the Club have now decided to consider deposits. You do see quite a few Member posts wanting them, so perhaps HQ get a lot of requests, and have decided to act? DG’s report did say that the rate of bookings this year has been unlike anything experienced before, I think a figure of 50,000 booking requests in one day was mentioned, but Minutes would clarify if this is case. 

Personally, it’s not an issue for us. We don’t tend to visit Club Sites outside of Winter months usually, unless we are going to a particular event, and then I book as soon as I have the event date. Any other Club Site visits are usually very short notice.

It would be good if Club could give Members some feedback on why changes are made, as well as what is changing and how. Maybe it will happen next year, once things are finalised.

Totally non-refundable deposits, paid 12 months ahead and bye bye CMC