What's The Future of Good Sam?

Whenever I had an RV of some sort (folding camping trailer, micro-mini motorhome or Class C), I have been a member of the Good Sam Club.

The organization's member campgrounds and RV parks provide members with discounts, which makes membership worthwhile. Along with that, members get five cents per gallon discounts at Pilot/Flying J travel centers. Five cents per gallon may not sound like much, but when one has an RV with a 55 gallon gas tank, the savings add up.

But since the organization (now called just "Good Sam") was acquired by Camping World mogul Marcus Lemonis, some are wondering if its days are numbered. Good Sam members get discounts at Camping World as well.

An article in RV Travel has been posted on this and it begins with:

In early 2021 we wrote questioning the future of Good Sam club members. At that time, Good Sam Enterprises, the parent group, basically suspended all membership social gatherings, including chapter meetings and larger rallies. It also “put on hold” the responsibilities of state and provincial directors, oversight posts held voluntarily by men and women in the organization. All this was said to be related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But at the time we wondered if this was the final straw for a social group that had been active since founded by Art Rouse back in 1966.

‘AND SO IT WAS, THE SOCIAL-MINDED GROUPS OF RVERS UNDER THE GOOD SAM UMBRELLA SIMPLY BECAME GOOD SAMS. NOT MEMBERS OF THE GOOD SAM CLUB.’

“The Club” ceases to be

Following the slowdown of the COVID pandemic, things got “back to normal” for the group. Rallies and chapter meetings went ahead, bringing a sense of normalcy to folks who’d been isolated for a long time. Still, there was a quiet undertone going on, particularly for the “club’s” directors. We put club in quotes, as while the Good Sam organization was begun as a club with a heavy social aspect, after company boss Marcus Lemonis came on board the “club” ceased to be.

Lemonis explained the drop of the word “club” to state directors this way. The newer generation, he said, was not interested in joining clubs. If the Good Sam organization was to grow with the help of younger ones, the “club” would have to go. And so it was, the social-minded groups of RVers under the Good Sam umbrella simply became Good Sams. Not members of the Good Sam Club.

While the psychology of all this might have sounded good at the time, in practice, dropping the term “club” did nothing to arrest the problem. Colorado Good Sam state director Rick Smith told us clearly that Lemonis’ approach flopped. Club or no club, Colorado’s membership is “aging out,” in his words. As older ones hang up the keys, new blood simply isn’t there to replace these older ones.

I remember when the Good Sam Club had its headquarters in Agoura, California. I would occasionally stop in to pick up literature on different things. But that was 40 years ago, before it was gobbled up by Lemonis.

The article ends with a section where Good Sam members can comment. 

To read the full article, go here.