A Little Background Info
A Little Background Info
Mo and Dick Kingswell bought their first 36 foot long American Recreational Vehicle in October 2003 with the intention of travelling around the country wherever and whenever the desire took them. For their own benefit they decided to make a photographic record of the sites that they had visited -especially the entrance routes into those particular sites - with a view to making life easier if they returned to those sites.
Other people saw the 'photograph' album and asked for copies of it - and soon the demand for copies of what had become known as 'MO and Dick's BIG PITCH GUIDE', both from RV'ers and from RV Dealers pointed to the fact that a proper printed compilation was required. Not only that, but quite quickly, people who had obtained copies of the original Guide started to send photographs of their own RV's on the sites in the Guide as well as informing Mo and Dick of other RV-friendly sites that could be added to the Guide.
The need for the 'Guide' had been established but the fact that so many people now wanted a copy of the Guide meant that Mo and Dick could no longer afford to give it away free - and this combined with the fact that many people had contributed photographs and reports to the Guide made it impossible to produce a copyright-free version. So many people 'owned' a piece of the Guide that it was decided to form a Club to which members would pay a bi-annual subscription that would entitle them to one free copy of the Guide plus all the updates to that Guide produced within the period of their subscription - thus was formed 'The Friends of the Big Pitch Guide Society'.
Within a year so many Friends had submitted RV-friendly sites based in Europe that Mo and Dick produced a second Guide known as The European Big Pitch Guide and the Friends Society had been divided into two separate sections - each section with its own subscription entitling subscribers to one free copy of that section's Guide plus all the updates produced within the period of their membership of the Friends.
A web site was set up to assist the 'Friends Society' with RV related information and links - together with an inner sanctum which is only available to fully paid-up Friends. Within this inner sanctum, Friends can get access to downloadable new Guide pages; there is a direct link to the website of every campsite within their Guide and a forum where anything and everything to do with RVs can be discussed. The forum has also provided a 'reading room' where Friends personal items might be advertised for sale, items wanted notices can be displayed, where information on sites visited can be reported and, most especially, where constructive criticism and suggested improvements to the Guides and the Society can be discussed in complete privacy.
The website also offers a means whereby RV'ers can join the Friends Society and pay their subscriptions on-line via a secure Internet banking system known as PayPal. Late in 2008 this payment method was extended to include a facility whereby prospective Friends could pay their subscriptions, or existing Friends can renew their old subscriptions, using a credit or debit card over the telephone, by letter or by fax.
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