[dutchmensport]

In Indiana and North Carolina, you have to fill out a state form and then the state form is submitted to each state park you are interested in hosting. There is NOT a central repository for all the state parks to draw from. You send the paper work to each one you volunteer for. You name goes on a list. They call your references, some do background checks (Indiana does), and with the Covid "thing", some states require negative Covid test results or fully immunized vaccines (North Carolina).

I have a host position in North Carolina I was approved for, for the month of August this year (2022), so looking forward to it (provided I can pay for the fuel to get there now, from Indiana).

I've talked to a lot of hosts and a lot of state park managers. The managers are the final approval person, so some state park managers kind of have their favorites the use multiple times, and over multiple years. So, breaking-in is difficult. I'm from Indiana and haven't been able to get a position yet. North Carolina was needed help real bad earlier this year, scheduling for the remainder of the year. I think that's how I got in on this one.

As far as the actual "work" required from the host, each position at each campground is different what is required. At State Parks, the host does not clean bathrooms as usually a volunteer DNR person does that. They also have volunteers for mowing grass, helping around the park grounds, and a bunch of other positions. Again, each one is determined and filled by the campground manager.

In North Carolina, my responsibilities will be to sell fire wood, post reservation stickers at the campsites, clean up fire pits and make sure fires are out when folks leave, pick up trash around the campsites when people leave, and report any riff-raff going on. I no way is there any requirement to confront disputes, arguments, or fights. Those type of things get reported to the office and the DNR will come out and handle it. In other words, the host is a friend to everyone and there to pass on information and answer questions about the park and surrounding area (for example, where are the grocery stores and propane fill ups).

The one I'm doing in August is my first gig. They wanted me for all of July and August, but I had too many other commitments going on in July, so just doing August only. I'm hoping it goes well, and they'll want me back next year.

What you need to do is get a list of where you would like to host, then get on their web site and find out who the contact is, fill out the application, and send it to them. See what happens. Good luck!

Edit: I've not looked into private campground positions very much. The few I checked into had too many responsibility requirements and most of them were a paid position, in addition to the no-cost campsite. It was more work involved than I wanted to do. KOA makes you pay to get on their list (no thanks).