Boondockers United

[cyndi]

I can't say exactly what they do, except for the $20 annual membership fee you get a bumper sticker.
Has anyone shelled out the $20?

http://www.boondockersunited.com/index.html[/SIZE]

"... [font=Dosis, sans-serif]We want to educate people about proper camping methods and promote clean campsites ready for the next camper. We need more people to know the rules and how to personally care for our public lands so they are not restricted or closed. Setting a good example is extremely important to us. We are not enforcement oriented, we prefer to help educate others. [/font]
[font=Dosis, sans-serif]We are dedicated to bridging the gap between Boondockers and area law enforcement or rangers. We want to be a part of the solution and we urge enforcement personnel to reach out to us to help us understand how to do this in the most efficient manner. We invite them into our camp as visitors so they can see first hand who we are and have open discussions on both sides.[/font]
[font=Dosis, sans-serif]It is important to us that law enforcement know that when they see one of our bumper stickers, they have just met a friend..."[/font]

 

[MrNoodly]

"We are dedicated to bridging the gap between Boondockers and area law enforcement or rangers. We want to be a part of the solution and we urge enforcement personnel to reach out to us to help us understand how to do this in the most efficient manner."

I'm in favor of this, in theory. But there's no indication HOW this will be done.

 

[cyndi]

With the bumper sticker!

 

[rm.w/aview]

So for $20 you get a bumper sticker, help pay for marketing/advertisement, and I'm guessing that the funds may help produce educational material as in try-fold flyers and such. The bumper sticker might be a public ID of sorts not unlike some others like FMCA, Escapees, etc. The sticker could be the ice breaker that starts dialog. The distribution of the flyers may be difficult beyond a manned booth at The Big Tent in Quartzite but perhaps other organized gatherings will have distributors too, and maybe retailers that have those tourist info areas could have space for some there. Boondockers United is in the infancy stage now, much like the Mentoring Program that Bob & Friends are discussing, and is a nice idea. Pack it in / pack it out is not a new concept and it's a good bet that most folks adhere to this, but some prolly don't care and trash where ever they go anyway. The organized Clean-Up that will be a part of this Club will help with this I suppose. There was mention of a voice in congress so among the emails will be a prompt to Write Your Congressman, maybe using a predetermined letter to which you add your personal info to validate & send, that pertains to a current issue. I'm just using my imagination here as I'm just as vague about this as you. If done properly it certainly couldn't hurt, and perhaps a good rapport will grow between the Rangers & Boondockers United as it has with the RTR. Individually we try to keep the place clean. But corporately a significant & visible impact could be made, and there might be one or two areas that you're aware of that could benefit from a Clean-Up, which seems to be a major element in forming this Club.

 

[SoulRaven]

I watched Bob's video interviewing the woman who started it: What I gathered was that it would be involved in advocating for boondockers, setting up a "watch" and letting members know when there was an issue to be addressed, and attempting to build a positive relationship between officials and boondockers, part of that being volunteering to do cleanups, and hopefully growing the number of spots available for boondocking. I was surprised it was a $20 membership fee thinking that a lesser fee might allow more people to participate, "power in numbers".

 

[Annie W]

After watching Bob's video with Kathy who started this endeavor,
would someone please explain... why Examplifying how to live as an environmental friend, & educating others to do likewise, plus interacting with congress - Why does this good sense, need an extra $20 a year? Please explain.

 

[RVTravel]

It's a small business so their lifestyle can be written off, if possible.

 

[Annie W]

It's a small business so their lifestyle can be written off, if possible.

Whose lifestyle ?
&
Bob wants to have "mentors"... that help the potential millions...
of others who will need to also be boondocking... because the cost of camping on OUR/public land, obviously costs too much.
You know where this is going:
when the # of vehicles will exceed the # of acres Horizontally, we will need to modify vehicles higher/Vertically. oh goody, that will keep us off the freeways. Financially we should be better off then.

 

[Motrukdriver]

Freecampsites.net organized a clean up in Ehrenburg last year and as far as I know this is going to be an ongoing thing. Don't have to buy anything, just show up willing to pick up trash. This video has some information at the end of it on how to be involved. Note, it is a 17:07 minute long video so forward to 14:18 if all you want to see is how and where. The actual picking up trash is cool but probably not something everyone wants to watch.

 

[JD GUMBEE]

The idea is great if it gets taken to the next level.

As in:
Make it a legal non-profit.
(If it is not a non-profit, why have anything to do with it?)
Open the books for all the members. Full financial disclosure.
Get a yearly plan out there. A spreadsheet with real goals and plans with actual dates beside them.
Get a person with some polish, comfy in a suit, to go schmooze town fathers/mayors/chambers of commerce...etc.
Then they can offer: "With a membership, you can stay at XXXXX place for XXXXX days free" kind of thing.

As for the dues, make an option for those who would find the dues a stumbling block.
Like...show up at a clean-up event and work for the day...and you get your membership for free that year. Just pay cost on the stickers/brochures. (Let the "keyboard commandos" pay the money to feel good about themselves. PLATINUM level members, with a sticker that says so, are the ones who busted their tookus and raked the garbage.)

Negotiate with the BLM folks so the members get a few privileges for their efforts.
(Like free sewer dumps and water in the LTVA sites...even if people are camped in a 14 day area. This stuff can happen. Co-operative efforts are PR gold to administrators.)
Get clean-ups happening once a month in different areas and the organization would quickly gain a load of clout.

Media relations. That is the best free advertising in the world.
The RV shows should donate a small spot, since it will be non-profit, volunteer, peer-staffed organization.
Like "AAA" or "Good Sam" special rates, getting benefits/discounts for members would be a good thing.
Presented as the group that goes out and pro-actively cares for BLM land, some fringe benefits would be easy to negotiate.
(Click here to buy your amazon stuff and xxx amount goes to Boondockers Unlimited...and working members get 3% off purchases.)

One more thing, when people get involved in a group like this, inevitably, there is always a segment advocating some form of rule enforcement or whistle blowing.
("We could help the rangers keep an eye on things and act as liaisons...blah blah") WRONG! Regular campers have the phone numbers and know where the ranger stations are to report the idiots.
Even leaning a little bit in the direction of making this organization "hall monitors" of ANY type would be a big fat, hairy mistake. Resentment would follow almost instantly.

If this is done right, with the correct PR employed, it could be a huge force to keep the BLM spots open and fight closures.
I am very curious what the next steps will be.
Board of directors?
Meeting minutes/scope of first-year plans?
Non-profit status?

etc, etc

 

[rm.w/aview]

JD, you would have been a most welcome addition to Bob's interview with Kathy!

 

[DesertRose]

Why does this good sense, need an extra $20 a year? Please explain.

When you join, you receive an email with very detailed explanations of the various projects and the methods to achieve them. I found it extremely intelligent, well thought out and thorough. It truly is phenomenal, and will be when many people get involved and become a united voice, as well as doing in person projects like site cleanups, etc.

I don't feel comfortable posting it here, but I believe it would be helpful for the organization to share that information with people who are considering joining. $20 is a small amount to contribute in support of such a great project in its infant stages. For starters, I believe the $20 goes into a fund that will continually build to support the administrative work and other expenses in connection with dealing with bureaucrats, etc.

 

[DesertRose]

"We are dedicated to bridging the gap between Boondockers and area law enforcement or rangers. We want to be a part of the solution and we urge enforcement personnel to reach out to us to help us understand how to do this in the most efficient manner."

I'm in favor of this, in theory. But there's no indication HOW this will be done.

As mentioned above, the email you receive after joining details all this. Have trust lovely people!!

I am encouraging the founding administrators to make this info more readily available. I didn't doubt it after watching the video, but I can see why others would.

 

[Annie W]

JD, Agreed with the various points you suggested.

Belonged to many organizations, just 1 atm teaching people how to grow their own food where I'm involved with the class agendas, etc; - and what you say makes good  sense. At every meeting the treasurer updates our membership on the financial status. Tonight we elected our Board which remains as is, once again, because it works pretty good.

 

[cyndi]

Many of us here already know and practice leave no trace principals. Paying $20 for an annual membership to a stranger on the internet with no accountability goes beyond trust.

Maybe (and that's a big maybe) it's a good deal for someone with no experience.

I don't get it.

 

[SoulRaven]

I'm with "cyndi" all the way on this one. I have read and reread the website after watching the video yet it is still a blur to me. It appears to be an emerging small business, but without a structure, JD had many valid comments/concerns in his longer post.

 

[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

As a full-time RVer who does a lot of dispersed camping, I have seen the negative trends of camping get worse every year.

The creation of Boondockers United is the most positive and hopeful thing that has happened in those 20 years. Either we learn to form an organized and effective lobby, or be content to watch boondocking disappear completely from public lands.

As somebody said above, the organization is in its infancy, so a lot of the questions in this thread can not really be answered precisely. Rather than being suspicious of a small membership fee, why not join the organization and actively work to make it the way you want it to be?

The $20 is a non-issue -- no organization runs for free. That is one night's camping fee at a noisy forest service campground these days, which is the only place you will be allowed to camp not so many years from now, if past trends are allowed to keep going the way they have been.

I joined as soon as I learned about it. And took part in a cleanup at Quartzsite. I encourage people to jump on board and help Boondockers United to meet its potential.

 

[John61CT]

Is it transparently managed by a board elected by members?

Otherwise what assurance do we have it isn't just a money-making scam?

 

[DesertRose]

I do not feel comfortable hijacking the essay that was sent out after I joined, which contains a deeper discussion and INITIALLY PROPOSED solutions to various issues. That is for the administrators of Boondockers United to decide. I joined as soon as I saw the video.

 

[Boondocker16]

Hello everyone! This is Kathy with Boondockers United. Let me start by saying that there will be those who do not want us to unite and they will say and do anything they can to be sure that we do not have a voice.

Having said that, Let me address some concerns: Boondockers United was started on October 30, 2017 as a sole proprietor company based out of Colorado. My intention has always been to make this into a Non Profit 501c(3) organization. In order to do that, it needs members and money in the bank. I don't know how you think I will get that without having a membership fee and membership drives. $20 a YEAR is a very small amount to help this organization grow.  I am not aware of any other organization doing specifically what we are doing - representing Boondockers. We aren't typically the ones who go to RV Parks and wear designer clothing or anything like that. We're mostly the workers who have been working and paying taxes and never took the time nor had the time to go see our country and experience the feel of being out in nature, watching the sun set in all of her beauty (which is a whole different feeling when you're free and out in the boonies), and so many other positive things that I could write on forever.

There are those of us who still work, either online or as camp hosts or other jobs just so we CAN live this lifestyle. The majority of us do this because we WANT to, not because we HAVE to. This is what sets us apart from many others. Unfortunately, like a wilted rose, the non-boondockers stand out in the mind of the Rangers. They need to know who WE are, what OUR ethics are - that we are the ones who, one-by-one go out and clean up the area around us. Selflessly, doing our part. What is so wrong with letting the rangers know that we exist? We are not ghosts in the night, we are here and we make up a much larger percentage of the public land users than many even realize. We need a voice because all of those wilted roses are causing Rangers to make decisions that affect US. Why not invite a ranger to our camp? I think it's a GREAT idea! Why not encourage mutual respect? Why not let them know that we are FRIENDS of public lands.

We are a growing organization and I welcome all of you to join us, be a part of something positive. We are already in the process of formulating the material we need to present to towns to encourage them to invite us to camp with them and spend our hard earned money supporting their growth. It's all good. 

Thank you!!