April
24, 2001
It
is with great sadness that we write to tell you that we must wind down the
operations of iluvcamp. In short, this means that we will not be
able to provide either camparent
or campals this summer (though we
intend to continue to provide a Trading Post alternative for the remainder of
this season).
This has been the most painful decision of
our lives. We have committed our
lives to the camping industry, and we have poured the last two years of our
lives into producing wonderful services for you, our colleagues, and your
families. It breaks our hearts to
know that we will not be able to deliver these services and thus that we will
disappoint both you and them.
Hard
as this may be to comprehend at this time, this decision is the lesser of two
evils. In short, we concluded this
weekend that we could either make this decision now and give you six to ten
weeks forewarning or run the very real risk that we would have to discontinue
our services in the middle of your summer season. After much soul-searching, we concluded
that discontinuing now was the preferred and more noble course.
We
feel like a child with a dying pet.
The worst thing in the world is to say good-bye and put that pet to
sleep, yet, at some point, that is the right thing to do.
How
did this situation awful situation come about? The circumstances are complex. They involve a very hostile Internet
business environment and several unexpected business factors that only came into
clear focus last week. (Indeed,
only two months ago, we believed so strongly that iluvcamp would overcome this hostile
environment that we personally borrowed and then invested $500,000—a huge amount
given our family’s limited resources.)
The attached “What Happened To iluvcamp?” describes these circumstances
in detail. We strongly urge you to
read it.
We
know that replacing iluvcamp’s
services at this very late stage will be extremely difficult. As camp owners, we, too, will have to
scramble to find alternatives. In
several days we will email to you a simple “Resource Guide Page” and have asked
your Regional Director to call you.
A
little over a year ago, we held the first iluvcamp Advisory Board retreat. On the final night of our retreat, we
sat around a roaring fireplace and asked each member of the Advisory Board and
each member of our senior management team to talk about how they would like
iluvcamp to be remembered 20
twenty years from now. It was the
glory days of the Internet when almost every day you read about another young
person who had made a zillion dollars.
Not a single member of our team ever mentioned money. Rather, every one talked about doing
something great for camps and families.
I
am sorry to say that, in the last 15 fifteen months, we have lost a lot of
money, but that sorrow cannot compare with the sorrow that we feel in having
failed to do those great things for camping.
For the rest of our lives, we will be
grateful for the trust that you placed in us. Also for the rest of our lives, we will
deeply regret that we were unable to keep that trust. Please know that we began this challenge
with hopes of doing something great for camping. We relinquish it now with the deepest
regret, only because the alternative is worse.
Sincerely,
Bo
Baskin
Steve Baskin
P.S. We have attached a “Special Thank
You”. We hope that you will read
it, too.