How We Got Started

NAM began in late 1996 when about 200 members of Thousand Adventures, Inc., met in Florida to discuss the apparent fraudulent and abusive practices of that company. Several meetings were held in 8 churches, various lodges, etc. to talk about what needed to be done to force TAI to stop their abusive practices. More than 500 TAI members attended a meeting held in 1997. Leaders were selected and a decision was made to follow the company from bankruptcy to bankruptcy, lawsuit to lawsuit, and make sure that testimony given by company officials in one venue were made available to all others. It appeared that testimony was sometimes customized to suit the situation in such a way that it didn’t always contain the same alleged facts. We still have many meetings, but our primary communication with member/volunteers is via newsletters, our web site, and telephone calls.

Attorneys for TAI threatened to sue us if we didn’t leave the company alone. We incorporated in Ohio as a 501(c)(3) corporation. The next time they threatened to sue us – we told them to give it their best (darn) shot.

We were initially called the “TAI Members’ Committee”. People from other camping “systems” (American Adventures, All Seasons, Presidents Travel Club, and others) learned of our efforts and asked us if we could help them too. We do what we can.

We now have more than 3,000 members across the US. These volunteers research court records, distribute our literature, and sometimes donate $5 or more whenever they can to help us do our job.

Problems we have identified include, but are not limited to:

• Fraudulent and deceptive sales/marketing tactics of some membership camping systems.

• Hollow ‘Reloading Schemes’.

• Contract violations.

• Improper and probably illegal efforts to ‘Force’ members of bankrupt or financially distressed campgrounds to pay money to companies not entitled to it.

• Threats from alleged ‘Collection Agencies’ in efforts to collect money from former members of defunct companies for services no longer provided.

• Misleading and fraudulent ‘Resale Schemes’ 32

• And more…

These are the schemes of what we call the “Marketeers”. The FBI, IRS and state Attorneys General will decide if there is fraud or any improper collusion between certain of these Marketeers and particular “Finance Companies”. We are not qualified to participate in that issue. We want to help honest campground operators and people who want to enjoy RV camping to step away from that ugly brawl. We think it can be done if honest people work together.

GOALS OF NAM

It is not sufficient that we expose the antics of the Bad Guys, the “Marketeers” – people who say or do anything to make the sale, even if it is fraudulent, deceptive, or illegal – people who simply want the money and are NOT concerned with keeping a camping system viable.

We expect to cooperate with campground developer associations, individual campground owners, reciprocal use systems, government officials, educational institutions, campers, and others to develop a meaningful way for the “good guys” to stand out from the crowd; to be recognized as honest business people who offer a legitimate value for the fees they need to run their businesses. There are two parts of 46 this plan: Education and Action.

Education:

We need to develop and distribute educational materials that will help people know when the “Marketeers” are after them - before they become committed to endless payments, demands for more money, and broken promises. We need to help develop and publicize “Standards of Integrity” that campers can use to recognize the honest people in the industry. These materials need to be prepared and distributed in a manner and in a forum that will be most effective.

Action:

We have been aggressively cooperating with government officials, private attorneys, legitimate creditors, and others, by pointing the finger at the Marketeers wherever we find them.

We have done this through face-to-face contact with the victims, telephone calls, a “Hot Line” for people who are frightened and feel that they are alone with their dilemma, many newsletters, and a web site. We have held meetings with victims in Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and other states across the country to help them deal with the Marketeers. We have discussed these problems at length with attorneys general across the country and with other government officials.

We have helped people write letters to state consumer protection offices, and other state and federal offices that have the authority to intervene.

There is more that we have done - and more that we need to do.

It is time now to reach out to the industry,.

We want to encourage industry leadaers to work with us and with other fair-minded members to solve the problems in a pro-active way.

People we have helped, and people who believe in what we are doing, have given us the courage and the strength to continue. They have also given us donations ranging from 50¢ to $25 and occasionally more.

We want campground members and potential members to know that we care, we are trying hard, and we haven’t given up. We want campground owners/operators to know that we prefer to work with them – but that is not our only option.

Most importantly - we want you to know that what YOU do – matters. The most important thing that you can give to us are your ideas , your encouragement, and your cooperation.

Dan Hopper, National Association for Members (NAM)