{"id":193,"date":"2015-11-25T02:08:20","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T02:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silveridge.com\/sun\/?p=193"},"modified":"2015-11-25T02:08:20","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T02:08:20","slug":"what-makes-a-great-rv-park-or-good-enough-isnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Great RV Park? or, ‘GOOD ENOUGH’ ISN’T"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nWe need your thoughts on a change in the park, but before I pass along a question about that change, I want to introduce you to the man asking it, Al LaCanne, a partner in the group that owns both Silveridge and The Resort.\n<\/div>\n


\n\u201cPreserve your memories, they\u2019re all that\u2019s left you.\u201d<\/i>
\nPaul Simon<\/p>\n


\n\u201cStop fixating on stuff you can touch
\nand start caring about stuff that touches you.\u201d<\/i>
\nMartha Beck<\/p>\n

When you grow up on a farm in Minnesota, one of eleven kids, and the nearest towns are Fairbault and Morristown, you learn to make do. As Al LaCanne puts
\nit,<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother\u2019s favorite words were, \u2018It\u2019s good enough<\/i>.\u2019\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_2490\"<\/a><\/center><\/td>\n

\n\"IMG_2505\"<\/a><\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
An aerial view of the LaCanne farm<\/center><\/td>\n
Al (far left) with three of his ten siblings<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Grow up in that environment and you either set the bar at \u201cmake do,\u201d or you figure out a way to find something better. Al went to Arizona in search of his\u00a0something better and found it in a successful management career with a strategy that comes down to \u201cBetter than it has to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al says this about Silveridge and The Resort:
\n\u201cEveryone who works at the parks CARES. That\u2019s easy to say, but our management philosophy is, Your job is to help the residents have fun. You either\u00a0want to do that or you\u2019re gone.\u201d
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

He adds,
\n
\n\u201cMost RV parks are run by big corporations, so you have some MBA in Chicago or New York deciding how to squeeze every dime out of residents. They do\u00a0that by having endless extra charges while squeezing every nickel on staff and amenities. And so residents end up feeling nickel-and-dimed. At our\u00a0parks, we want to give the residents more than they expect. The people who come here are happy, successful people who deserve to get an experience that\u2019s more than good-enough.\u201d
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Reminiscing about the history of Silveridge and The Resort, Al says, \u201cWhen we took over the parks they needed a lot of work and we began to bring them up\u00a0to a higher standard. We got to that standard, and then we raised it. For instance, a lot of places show movies in a ballroom or meeting room, but for me,\u00a0seeing a movie while sitting on a folding chair isn\u2019t going to the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlLaCanne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So what about the future? What\u2019s next for Al and the parks? He says, \u201cWe keep trying to make the parks better. I think of it the way Walt Disney talked of\u00a0Disneyland — it will never be finished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al is now imagining RV parks that are more than lively and cheerful. He turns philosophical when he talks about his vision:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who come here have mostly stopped worrying about careers. So what matters then? Relationships. And memories. I think our parks do a good
\njob of helping people have great relationships, and now I want to help our residents save and share memories.\u201d
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

And that brings us to the question Al wants to ask residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a vision of helping people create and share memories. I\u2019d like to do this two ways…<\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u201cOne, we would have quality video cameras available for residents to use, and start a group that would volunteer to film events at the parks. The\u00a0volunteers would be educated in videography and in editing. For instance, when the quilting group has a show, someone would make a video of the quilts\u00a0and interview the people who made them. Then, after editing, the members of the club would have something to put on YouTube and to send to their kids
\nor relatives or friends.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u201cSecond, I want to experiment with mounted cameras in places like our pickleball courts or softball field. We\u2019d record the games and anyone who wanted\u00a0highlights could request them. When you hit a home run, you can get a clip of it and share it.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI get excited about these ideas, but I don\u2019t want to press ahead unless our residents could share the excitement. Here\u2019s what I want to know: <\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Would you like to have these video options available? <\/i><\/p>\n

Would you volunteer to be one of our parks\u2019 videographers?<\/i><\/p>\n

Please send your answers and your thoughts.<\/p>\n


\nCLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER OR TO SHARE YOUR IDEAS<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We need your thoughts on a change in the park, but before I pass along a question about that change, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}