Escapees Lifetime Membership Being Offered

[Jack Mayer]

Just got an email to that effect. There will be 250 memberships offered. $850 US members / $905 Canadian members. Call the Club office 1-800-757-2582.

[pugsly]

Just got an email to that effect. There will be 250 memberships offered. $850 US members / $905 Canadian members. Call the Club office 1-800-757-2582.

 

Says "New Members only" on the website?

 

https://escapees.com/store/join

[Kirk W]

Says "New Members only" on the website?

Reading the announcement, it says that if you are a current member you need to call the office because you will be credited the unused current year's dues. So if you just renewed, you only need to pay $850 - $39.95 = $810.05.

 

A common question we hear from Escapees members is, “When are you going to offer lifetime memberships?” We are excited to announce that as a celebration of Escapees 38^th birthday, we will be offering a maximum of 250 lifetime memberships. U.S. memberships will cost $850, and Canadian memberships, $905.

If you have already paid your dues, you can still take advantage of this offer. Those years will be prorated towards your lifetime membership. Please keep in mind that prepaid dues are nontransferable and nonrefundable.

 

To take advantage of this special offer, call 1-800-757-2582.

[stevekk]

$850 divided by 40 = 21 years to break even.

[skp51443]

Lifetime memberships are not about saving money, if that is your reason for getting one please consider not taking one of these and leaving it available for someone that wants it for other reasons.

[Kirk W]

Anyone guessing how long it will take for them to all be sold? If I remember correctly, the last time they were offered was a little more than a year ago and there were 500 of them available and they were gone in about 3 weeks. My guess is that if you want one you need to move fairly quickly. I'll be surprised if they last for a month.

[skp51443]

I'll guess two days after the magazine announcement starts being delivered. Only 250 memberships is not a lot to have on offer.

 

The office's waiting list, the forum mention and the e-mail list will sell some but once the membership at large gets notification they are available they will be gone quickly.

 

I think a lot of folks that thought they'd get around to it for the last offer and were told that memberships were sold out when they finally got to it will be off the fence early this time.

[remoandiris]

Lifetime memberships are not about saving money,

 

What is it about then? Are there added benefits the annual memberships do not provide?

[skp51443]

 

What is it about then? Are there added benefits the annual memberships do not provide?

 

The lifetime memberships have a long history and are about supporting the club and what they are trying to accomplish as an organization. Not so much financially as the lifetime memberships aren't a money-maker, but more in time, work and other support. The initial lifetime offering was more financial in nature as they needed the cash to expand the park system.

 

No extra benefits aside from an invite to a lifetime members social at Escapades, a decal and a pretty membership card.

 

Kirk had a good post on it: http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=118181

[remoandiris]

 

The lifetime memberships have a long history and are about supporting the club and what they are trying to accomplish as an organization. Not so much financially as the lifetime memberships aren't a money-maker, but more in time, work and other support.

 

Please do not take this as an argument on your perspective. It is absolutely not meant to be.

 

I hold a few life memberships in various orgs. They are available to any member at any time. There is one org I was fairly active in until an officer sent out a note about how she would never get a life membership and why. Her reasoning was that they cost the org money...annual and 3-yr memberships brought in more cash more often. After that, I swore off life memberships and active membership in that org. IMO, she looked down her nose at life members, despite the time value of money in life memberships working in favor of that org.

[Toddleti]

I remember that conversation with Kirk, Mr.Miller and today I am a life time member. Thanks Escapees

[Kirk W]

Please do not take this as an argument on your perspective. It is absolutely not meant to be.

I would hope that nobody will take offense at your remarks. It is actually quite in line with the Escapee thinking that Life Memberships should be as nearly revenue neutral as possible. I just dug back through my records and on 9/27/06 I wrote them a check for $705.24, which was my life membership fee, less the prorated amount remaining from my annual dues. I suspect that the full price of the membership then was probably $750. At that time we were paying dues in 3 year increments at the rate of $165 for 3 year. That would make it 13.6 years to break even, at the previous rate of dues.

 

I suspect that a factor which must be considered today is the current push to attract younger members who are likely to be an active part of the club for much longer than Stanley or myself so that factor somewhat is mitigated by the maintaining of the cost trends in life member costs, versus the lowered rate for annual dues.

 

I have discussed the issue of life memberships with more than one member of Escapee management and I know that it is their intention that all members should be equals and equally treated, whether annual, multi-year, or life members. Most of the life members that I know have chosen to get their life membership partly for the convenience of never having to remember to renew, and partly as a sense of loyalty. While I do take some degree of pride in being a life member, I really see no reason that it should lend any status beyond my own personal satisfaction. Mathematically, it will be another 2 or 3 years before it becomes financially advantageous because of the lowered annual dues. But since I expect to be around for a while yet, I still expect that my life membership will save me money someday!

[k4rs]

We purchased our lifetime membership for two reasons. First, to support the club. Second, we had the funds available and who knows what the future will bring. Knowing that we wanted to remain SKP's, it sure is nice to know we will not have to drop our membership if the budget gets tight.

 

Safe Travels...

[skp51443]

remoandiris, The cost of lifetime memberships and how they impact the club compared to annual memberships has been discussed at many levels. I was part of the discussion at Escapade meetings, the Advisory Council, RV show staff and as a VCR as well as some personal communications with the club officers. It was often a topic at Advisory Council meetings and the council members were usually quite insistent that the lifetime program be revenue neutral compared to regular memberships. Similar concerns were raised in every venue I'm aware of. That consideration placed the price a bit higher than the club management was comfortable with but they agreed that the lifetime program should not be a drain on the club as a whole and certainly not need to draw from regular members dues to support it. I have been off the council for many years but I believe the management is sticking to that principal in setting the cost.

 

I agree that some lifetime programs are not good, our Good Sam one for example cost us about $100 and is in no way funding the costs associated with it. As I understand how it came to be offered it was a bit of a shady deal that got the original owners of Good Sam a nice cash infusion while dumping the actual costs on the new owners. I wouldn't have taken it if I had understood just what was going on and have had Good Sam change my status to inactive to reduce the costs to them.

 

Bottom line one needs to understand each offering and make decisions based on just what is being offered, the impact on the organization and personal desires.

[SWharton]

We have 3 lifetime memberships: Escapees, Good Sam and Passport America. We bought them mainly for convenience so we wouldn't have to renew each year. We had the money available when they were offered so we went ahead. Good Sam and Passport cannot be a breakeven. The cost for each of these memberships was very low. Escapees is more financially responsible and tried to make the pricing revenue neutral.

[Chris-n-Dennis]

Just got an email to that effect. There will be 250 memberships offered. $850 US members / $905 Canadian members. Call the Club office 1-800-757-2582.

Hey Jack, you giving out your cigar company phone number???

 

Slight correction to the office number: 888 757 2582 unless, of course, you want to order some Thompson cigars.