The Caravan Club garden needs your vote!

""Alan Titchmarsh came over to tell us how much he loved our garden. Other fans of 'The Celebration of Caravanning' Garden include Johnny Ball, Imelda Staunton and Twiggy!""

All going to buy caravans now are they?? What on earth does this do to promote to ordinary people caravanning?? Would you like to tell us how many Staff are at Chelsea over the period and how much it has all cost the Club including the sponsorship. If it is good value for money I would be delighted to vote for the garden.

Dave

Hello Dave,

Sorry to hear you are unhappy. The Chelsea Flower Show has its own dedicated programme each day on the BBC, which goes out to ordinary people - such as myself! : ) We are also getting considerable press coverage and I will update you on where we have been featured soon. The press coverage and exposure is one of the reasons we decided to do The Chelsea Flower Show for the Queens Jubilee year, which coincides with our Celebration of Touring year. The costs are more than balanced out by the exposure caravanning and The Club have already and will receive, which is the same reason why some of the other organisations also decide to sponsor gardens.

Sadly (well for me as I don’t get to go!) there are very few of staff at the RHS show. We have used one of the few tickets we have available for a members competition but please note if you wish to enter the closing date is tomorrow. More information can be found here: Chelsea Flower Show Competition

Please be advised that we have noted your displeasure about The Chelsea Flower Show and your feedback has been passed onto the relevant department.

I certainly don't disagree with the Clubs decision to get involved with a garden at Chelsea, Rowena, but I do think we have been unfortunate in choice of designer, as Jo has admitted to not being a caravanner and initially seeing Doris as a possible "home office" for her garden design. I feel that this was a missed opportunity to really promote not just caravanning but keeping a caravan at home, which so many non-caravanners object to as they see them as eyesores !

Sadly, Doris does nothing to help our image in that way, much as I personally would love an old caravan as a room in my garden (preferable a small airstream please !!)

Alison

Glad to see that the CC garden has got a silver gilt award.

Like the 'caravaner from Norfolk', I'm pleased that the club got a silver gilt medal in the chelsea flower show but I just don't think that advertising the club is really necessary. The club equals caravaning and has done so for years,so why the need?  Actually, Rowena you haven't  answered Daves question..what has been the cost of this extravanganza? It's no good saying the exposure to the club balances out the cost..that really isn't what we want to know,afterall it is the members club and it might be appropriate to give that information to us, at least then we could evaluate for ourselves whether it has been the best way to advertise the club and touring.

My only other concern is that this will now be an 'on going' project in an aim to win a gold medal.I think caution is needed as not all members are gardeners and may not appreciate their club funds going this way. However, if it is agreed that the club should enter these gardening shows,perhaps the design [as i've said before in previous correspondence about the garden] should be given to young up and coming designers from a local horticultural college.They would love the challenge and some will be future caravaners.Anyway, great result CC.thankyou

i've no doubt that

Please be advised that we have noted your displeasure about The Chelsea Flower Show and your feedback has been passed onto the relevant department.

AS long as it's not the Marketing Department you are feeding back to. It's not 'displeasure' or anything close, I just dislike seeing such a waste of money when there are other things the Club could be spending on, like getting this Forum working properly. I spent years with Marketing people 'proving' to me the worth of 'column inches' etc justifying the cost, but I can bet that we won't see an increase in Membership as a result of the Garden. Having worked there a few times during the Show for the BBC, I'm aware of the impact the Gardens and publicity can bring and not bring.

Dave

I completely agree with "Dave" from South Glamorgan. Marketing Departments often attempt to justify and "prove" that money spent on their schemes will achieve amazing results and here is a classic example. 

Step one;  Declare 2012 "A Celebration of Touring" (Isn't every year a celebration of touring? Otherwise why are we caravanning?).

Step two: On the back of this spurious idea, allocate a large sum of money to achieve "publicity and exposure".

Why do we need publicity and exposure when we are the largest caravan/motorhome organisation in the UK?

For Rowena to say that the costs "will be more than balanced out by the exposure" is untrue (literally), insulting to members and disgraceful. The whole affair simply shows how out of touch The Club is with "ordinary" members and how easy it is for an organisation with a multi-million pound income to forget what good housekeeping means at a time of severe financial stress. The many thousands of pounds wasted on this vanity project should have been used directly for member's benefit.

There have been a few incorrect speculations made in discussions about the cost of the garden at Chelsea Flower Show. The Club cannot publish the exact nature of the commercial agreement with Jo Thompson, however I can tell you that the cost to The Caravan Club was not a six figure number as stated elsewhere.

For many years The Club has invested, not just in improving the facilities for today’s caravanners and motorhomers, but in ensuring that the products and services that it offers will be around for many years to come. For example, this is why we continually invest in upgrading the sites on the network so that members of the future can enjoy them as much as the current membership.

For a similar reason we need to make sure we continually attract new members to offset those members who leave The Club when they are unable to tour and take advantage of what The Club offers; if we don’t recruit new members it is fair to say that The Caravan Club won’t be around in the future.

As I’ve said before thank you for your feedback. It has been noted.

Yet more Marketing Department-speak.

You don't get a Chelsea Garden for peanuts. It may not have been a six-figure sum, but it will certainly have been a high five-figure one. That's OUR money you're throwing around.

I wouldn't have your job Ro for love or money! No matter what you say here, you can't win.