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Feedback on Chartered Club Group Camp area.

hankb

I am here to serve you.
Hi Folks,
I hope you all had a great time at the rally. Since I organized the Chartered Club Group Camping, I'd like to get your feedback on how things went.

First of all I'd like to extend thanks to all who helped to pull up the flags, tape and signs Saturday evening and Sunday morning. You rock!

I also want to thank all who helped to get the sites laid out Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. That help was invaluable.

I also want to apologize to anyone I did not personally welcome to the club camping area. Early on I stopped to say hi to everyone I saw arriving. I enjoyed those visits a lot but as the rally got rolling, there were so many other things to do.

And finally... This was my first year doing this. I'm sure there are things that could have been done better. I'd like to hear your suggestions on:
  • Problem areas.
  • Suggestions for improvement.
  • Anything you particularly liked and don't want changed.
  • Anything else that comes to mind.

Thanks!
Hank
 
Hank,
I thought you did a great job setting up the area.
I am one of the early arriving folks that you personally welcomed. Thanks!

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I noticed that our club area (KC) was in close proximity to other clubs close to our region. (Springfield and St Louis). Maybe you try to keep club's areas together regionally.

That was nice and made for some nice evening time visits with friends.

I for one, would not have changed a thing.

Brian
 
I could not find my local club. It would have been nice to of had a map locating different clubs. I walked around for 1/2 hour before the heat got to me. Maybe next year.
Thanks for all the work you put into this. Well appreciated.
 
Who did you ask?

I could not find my local club. It would have been nice to of had a map locating different clubs. I walked around for 1/2 hour before the heat got to me. Maybe next year.
Thanks for all the work you put into this. Well appreciated.

Sorry you could not find your club? What club is it? We helped quite a few; but found some who were looking for a club that had NO spot.
 
I could not find my local club. It would have been nice to of had a map locating different clubs. I walked around for 1/2 hour before the heat got to me. Maybe next year.
Thanks for all the work you put into this. Well appreciated.

Looking at your message below your avitar you are in western NY, I don't think I saw any clubs from that area that had a tent set up.
 
Thanks for the comments.

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I noticed that our club area (KC) was in close proximity to other clubs close to our region. (Springfield and St Louis). Maybe you try to keep club's areas together regionally.

Some clubs did ask to be close to each other and that probably led me down that path with other clubs.

I could not find my local club. It would have been nice to of had a map locating different clubs. I walked around for 1/2 hour before the heat got to me. Maybe next year.
Thanks for all the work you put into this. Well appreciated.
I'm sorry to hear that you could not find your club.

I had circulated rather crudely drawn maps to the club coordinators and I know some shared them with their members. When I arrived on site and found out what the site boundaries really were, a number of clubs were relocated which made the maps a little less useful. I had a redrawn map on site but knew of no easy way to circulate it. (And it was even more crudely drawn than the one I drew on my dining room table.)

A couple clubs had reserved space which they wound up not using. I'm pretty sure that some members bailed due to the heat while others sought camping spots with more shade. I didn't bother to note which ones did this but it is possible the Western NY club did not actually have anyone in the club camping area after all.

20:20 hindsight - it would probably be useful to share cell phone numbers with other members before arriving to make it easier to find them.

best,
hank
 
A couple clubs had reserved space which they wound up not using. I'm pretty sure that some members bailed due to the heat while others sought camping spots with more shade.

My wife and I were late arriving Tuesday due to a malfunction with her bike. We got there after 10PM and it appeared that everything had shut down for the night.

We were first timers so we weren't sure of where our group camping area location was and didn't want to disturb anyone cruising around looking for the spot. We came across a gentleman at one of the eating places that said to just pick a spot and set up so that is just what we did.

We found a unoccupied tree and set up. When morning came I swore that that tree had more leaves on it the night before.:doh It was a hackberry on it's last legs but it provided a little welcome shade. That is where we stayed for the duration.

Next rally we'll be more savvy and try to arrive during daylight hours. Wouldn't change a thing about the experience. Thanks for the time spent setting up the group camp area!:bow
 
Thanks Hank for organizing the group camping. All of our attending members from the Springfield Missouri BMW Roadriders Club appreciate all of the hard work that you and your volunteers did so that we could have a nice place for everyone to camp together.
 
The WNY club was in attendance. We arrived late Thursday. Our site was in a different area than where it appeared on the map, but the new spot put us closer to the bathrooms so no worries.

Our banner mounting system proved problematic, so we took it down after a day. We found the Sedalia site to be superior to Bloomsberg in every regard.

My only suggestion would be to place a couple of maps of the Chartered Club Camping assignments around the perimeter of the designated area. This would allow people to find a club if they want to stop by. I would think two to three maps of about poster board size would do the trick - of course, I have no idea how much those would cost to print.

Thank you Hank for setting everything up!

Mark
 
The club camping area is a great idea.
We even recruited a new member for the Indianapolis BMW Club when a guy from Columbus, Ind. showed up and wanted to camp with us.
 
Great idea club areas! Really a nice way of welcoming new riders to the fold. Don't the club people see enough of each other ther rest of the year? Seems the Chicago club does not like "outsiders" walking into their tent and asking about membership. Nobody should be able to reserve an area for camping be it a club or individual. But I guess some riders prefer to hang with the people they see all year round and don't really care if they meet any new rally people.
 
Great idea club areas! Really a nice way of welcoming new riders to the fold. Don't the club people see enough of each other ther rest of the year? Seems the Chicago club does not like "outsiders" walking into their tent and asking about membership. Nobody should be able to reserve an area for camping be it a club or individual. But I guess some riders prefer to hang with the people they see all year round and don't really care if they meet any new rally people.

I guess that's one way of looking at it.

Until the Secretary changed the way the awards are tallied my club used to always be in the top three for attendance if the rally was east of the Rockies or win the most member miles if not. I've got photos of us and our banner from almost every rally in the last 15 years including those far from home.

While we wouldn't all ride to the rally together we'd look for spot to camp together. As time went on we purchased a trailer which we bring to the rally to support our club and what we volunteer to do. In Trenton we use the trailer and our equipment for the first Camp Gears and in Lima we used it to haul out all or coffee equipment which enabled us to serve over 15,000 cups of Joe at the rally.

I really appreciate what the board did by offering club camping. It gives us an place where we know we can camp together and removes the whole "save space for a buddy" issue. Not everyone in the club camps there but it is nice to have a central gathering spot at the National.
 
Fiordman:
Why are you so antagonistic??
Two threads...club camping, and rally attendance/Bod activity.

Go take your meds.
 
Great idea club areas! Really a nice way of welcoming new riders to the fold. Don't the club people see enough of each other ther rest of the year? Seems the Chicago club does not like "outsiders" walking into their tent and asking about membership. Nobody should be able to reserve an area for camping be it a club or individual. But I guess some riders prefer to hang with the people they see all year round and don't really care if they meet any new rally people.

Were you at the rally?
 
thank you hank

Our club used the space, was able to find each other and enjoyed interacting with the clubs around us/ meeting new friends. It was also a pleasure meeting you when i arrived (hot and sweat as you may have been).

Only complaint would be the distance to a shower. Im sure that was just a challenge of the layout but we were closer in PA. Maybe a club area shower trailer would be nice.

tom
MidAtlantic Riders
 
Thanks!

Hank,

Thanks again for all you and Rob did setting this up. I know that our club (KC BMW MC) much appreciated being able to camp together. :thumb

Don Hamblin
Hospitality Chair, 40th Annual "Howlin' at the Moon" BMW MOA International Rally
President, Kansas City BMW Motorcycle Club
 
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