How Do We Start Workcamping


(a prospective work camper asks...)





How do we start workcamping? How do we get our first workamper job?

Coleen, the RVing editor comments:

First of all, "workcamping" and "workamper job" -- what do you mean by those terms? Some folks define them as working in a campground or RV park in exchange for an RV site and some perks. Others define them as "volunteer" jobs at state parks or some other government run park or charitable facility that has RV parking, where you are required to work an agreed upon number of hours for your site. The difference between these two is that if you are working in an exchange for an RV site at a privately owned park, you are bartering, whereas if you are doing it at a non-profit place, then it is called volunteering -- and there can be major tax differences. And finally, for some, workcamping means any work, whether a job or a home based business, that you do while living in your RV camper.

How you get started depends on how you define workcamping. If you want to trade a few hours a week cleaning toilets at a campground, you go about finding the job differently than if you are a registered nurse and want to work six-week stints in hospital emergency rooms across the country. I don't mean to be crass here, but a lot of RVers get into situations they





don't want to be in because they assumed terms to mean one thing and the other party involved assumed them to mean something else.

Another example of this is the term "camp host." For some, that means greeting campers as they come to the park, visiting with them about what there is to do in the community, answering their questions about where to buy firewood, and generally just being friendly. Others are just as likely to define "camp host" as the person who is responsible for cleaning the bathrooms and showers twice a day, emptying garbage, picking up trash, pulling weeds, and doing various other non-skilled physical labor.

So, the first thing you need to do to get started is to figure out what the terms mean to you. Just what is it that you want? What is it that you need?

We have an entire section on our website dedicated to getting started as a work camper. Here's the description I've given it:

Working RV Basics: Getting Started and Keeping On

The working RV basics. How to get started. How to keep going. Articles about making a living while RVing and about volunteer workamping that don't fit in elsewhere on Work For RVers And Campers.

You'll find those articles give you more immediate suggestions. To find that section, just click here.

Go to the Workers On Wheels Work for RVers and Campers blog.

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