New to Workkamping

[Toole'n Along]

We, my wife, Joyce, and I are wanting to do Workkamping beginning in 2007. However, we have not done any Workkamping previously.

We would appreciate any info that you may care to share about the dos and don'ts of this lifestyle.

We live in Naples, FL and will soon be moving to the Leesburg area. We think that we would like to try a location fairly close (within 300 miles or so), if you have any experiences -- good or not so good we would appreciate hearing about them.

Thanks, in advance, for sharing!

[Fulltimer]

If you have a KOA value card you can sign up for the Work@KOA workamper site free of charge. Then you can do a search of KOAs in your area to find workamper openings. I just checked the KOA site for you. There are no openings near you. (Leesburg) Workamper News does the same thing but on a much larger scale. www.workamper.com

[Greyhound]

First and foremost, find something you really want to do. There are many different opportunities, ranging from RV Parks, to Amusment Parks.
My wife and I are finishing up at Adventureland Land in Iowa. Prior to this we have done: General Stores in Yellowstone, Animal Refuge in New Mexico, RV Park in St. Louis and we haven't even scratched the surface of the fun and adventure waiting.
I do recommend you get in writing what the job entails, expectations, wages (if any), number of hours and most of all, what is the length of the commitment. We had a bad experience with a park in the Northeast. Lasted one week. Another experience in the Northwest, which I take the blame, as I failed to get a full understanding of the job.
We enjoy it. Our goal is to try something different each year.
There are a number of resources available, we use the Workampers Magazine. As mentioned by Fulltimer, if you belong to any camping clubs, they too hire workampers.
Enjoy and have fun.
Bob

[Gary RVRoamer]

Hi,
You will be close to us if you move - we live just east of Ocala in the Ocala Nat'l Forest.

We have workamped for 6 of the last 7 summer seasons and enjoy it immensely. We meet many interesting people and have made some close friends among our coworkers and the campground owners.

I recommend that you try to short term stint if you can for your first outing. That way, if you don't like it, you aren't committed for 3-4 months. State parks often offer 4-8 week commitments and so do some volunteer organizations such as Cradle of Forestry in America.

There are basically two types of workaming - those which give only a free site and those that pay. Free site (volunteer camp hosts) usually don't require much actual work, but those that pay something usually do. Make sure you understand what tasks you will be expecetd to do, what you will receive in exchange, and how many hours of work you are commited to provide each week. And whether you can decline to work extra hours if you choose. These are the most common sources of misunderstandings among campgrounds and workers.