Looking forward to 2025
Out for a Geocaching Run (Sonoma County, CA) It’s that time of year to look at our next year as a Club and reflect on some of the new opportunities created from last year.
But first, we are celebrating our 70th year as a club! Founded in 1955, our Club is the largest and oldest single-brand RV club known. As we enter 2025, our membership level is at a 25-year high, and our Club camping options and benefits continue to grow. You’ll hear more as the months progress.
Successes from 2024
Courtesy Parking Powered by Harvest Hosts Launch of an exciting partnership with Harvest Hosts that greatly simplified our “Courtesy Parking” benefit, providing roughly 300 free, overnight camping locations across the country. Thank you to your fellow Club members for opening their properties for the benefit of fellow Club members.
Is it being used? Yes: since launch in the fall of 2024 (less than six months ago), our Courtesy Parking Hosts had 216 Courtesy Parking stay requests from our members. This is remarkable given the low utilization of our prior Courtesy Parking application. From a pure benefit standpoint, this equates to a total member saving of between $8,500 and $16,000, assuming a typical average of $40-$75/night in RV park fees. I encourage all members to make Courtesy Parking a part of your trip planning, not just for financial reasons, but that it’s a great, relaxing way to avoid crowded campgrounds and enjoy our ACI community.
More Discounts and Benefits. From travel insurance, tires, and partner membership programs to gear from Airstream Supply Company, our focus has been identifying desirable opportunities for Club members.
New Streaming Musicians Intra-Club
Adding to our existing Intra and Interest Clubs, we added another way for you to connect with members who share your specific interests:
“You expand your circle of friends to include fellow musicians and music lovers from coast to coast. We embrace ALL types of music, share our favorites, and get to re-live the awesomeness of LIVE music, whether as a performer or a fan”.
Rallies, Rallies, Rallies: The backbone of our Club; in 2024, our Club hosted 792 Caravans, National Event Rallies, and Local/Region rallies. Each is an opportunity to use your Airstream and get to know fellow members. These would have been impossible without the time and effort of our rally hosts.
Membership Growth and Retention Remains High: It’s a partial measure of the value our members see in our Club and tells us we continue to deliver the experiences and community our members expect. In 2024, we saw a 3.7% net membership growth, with a 91% retention (renewal) rate. This compares favorably to our recent historical retention (renewal) rate of 87% to 93%.
Financial Stability and Oversight: A key strategy over the last two years was improving our financial insights and ensuring our Club has sufficient (and reasonable) reserves for the inevitable infrastructure, software, operational, and unexpected expenses. Thanks to all the effort by our new Finance Team, Executive Director / HQ, and International Board of Trustees to ensure our Club remains a sustainable entity. Sure, we’re a “Camping Club,” but only through good business discipline and oversight will we stay that way.
New Club Headquarters: 2024 was a remarkable example of the power of Club donations, member volunteering, and the vision of the International Board of Trustees to finally secure a new HQ location adjacent to our 30-year-old prior office building that was in desperate need of renovation and updating. The new location provides the space for our growing Club and the HQ support needed to support upwards of 10,000 members. In addition, we are now able to offer “Courtesy Parking” for our members visiting the Jackson Center area for service, tours of the Airstream factory, and the Airstream Heritage Center (focusing on the 100 years of Airstream production).
Discover Airstream Club International: Your Airstream Community: As part of our marketing efforts to introduce our Club to new (or prospective) Airstream owners, our HQ team just released this great new video. Check it out and see if you see yourself or friends. This video will be distributed to Airstream dealers and shown on their multimedia displays. It is also located on our Club YouTube account.
Coming in 2025
A successful organization or Club tries to proactively anticipate our members’ growing and changing needs. Here’s some of what you can expect in the next year:
Rallies with Harvest Hosts: Expanding our strong partnership with Harvest Hosts into a new program where Harvest Hosts will work with Local Clubs and Regions to identify ranches, wineries, and breweries enrolled in Harvest Hosts who are willing to host a 2-5 day Club event rally at their property. Exclusive to our Club, this new program will open up some neat areas at destination areas. The new program is in development, with a broad rollout in mid-2025.
Showcasing and Preserving our History: Fundraising to launch a new Historical Center at our Club headquarters in Jackson Center, OH, will start in 2025. As a 70-year-old Club, our historical artifacts and collections tell the story of our early founders, our members, and our adventures in a way no other Club can. Unfortunately, today, we have no way to ensure preservation and display. We hope to raise enough funds from interested members, as well as grants and partnerships, to create a space to honor the founders and history of WBCCI.
Club Executive Council Elections: In the spring, members will vote for our second slate of Executive Council members, continuing what we started in 2023 with our first election of our nine Executive Council members. I hope that any of you interested in contributing to the leadership and governance of our Club will apply. The term of office is two years, with no mandate or expectation of multiple terms.
Upcoming International Rallies
- Rally2025: York, PA (August 23-28, 2025)
- Rally2026: Minot, ND (August 22-27, 2026)
- Rally2027: Due to popular demand, “Back to Rock Springs,” WY (June 2027)
- Rally2028: Tentatively east of the Mississippi
That’s it for now!
Looking forward to seeing you all down the road, and let me know if you have ideas for our Club.
Eric McHenry
International President / BRN 153 // Amateur Radio callsign AA6EM
