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Thanks to all on the Planning Committee and Volunteers

swessels

New member
I'm enjoying some wind down time after this year's National Rally and want to thank all who planned and worked the event in Salem. Great facility, helpful info people and in general a very enjoyable 3 days with motorcycle people. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve W
Holland, MI
 
In spite of the fact that I didn't come home with the Grand Prize, the rally was a lot of fun and the staff and volunteers need to be commended - Well Done !

I do have a couple suggestion that I think would improve the Rally. There are literally dozens and dozens of lectures, how-to's, travel stories etc. that are presented during the Rally. You can learn a lot about almost any aspect of owning, riding or traveling with a BMW. Unfortunately the scheduling had lots and lots of time overlaps. I'm not referring to multiple lectures occurring at the same time; that is inevitable. I'm referring to a presentation starting 15 minutes before another group of lectures ended. So if you wanted to attended both, you had to slip out of one and miss the end of it or stay till the end and miss the start of the next.

The suggestion would be to have uniform time blocks (maybe an hour or hour and a half) and all the parallel lectures started at the same time. Shorter lectures would have a longer gap until the next started. This way no overlaps would occur and you wouldn't miss anything. Yeah, just like colleges and high schools schedule :)

The other suggestion would be to have tracts. A mechanical tract, a travel tract etc. so that if you were interested in travel, there would not be multiple travel presentation going on at the same time or multiple mechanical lectures at the same time and you could go from one to the next without missing much about what you were interested in.

That said, all in all, it was a great time. Lots of good food, all the right vendors, a friendly place! Just walking around and seeing how people had put there bikes together was a days activity.

Thanks to all.

Phil

PS Watching the mud hole at the GS competition was worth the price of admission all by itself!
 
... and want to thank all who planned and worked the event in Salem. Great facility, helpful info people and in general a very enjoyable 3 days with motorcycle people. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Same. Also think Salem is a good repeat location in the future. I may have just missed it, but was anyone there selling the BMW clothing line?
 
Thanks!!

To all the directors,leaders and volunteers who made this a GREAT rally. THANK YOU!!!!
 
I have been to a number of rallies over the past 20 years and I thought that this one was particularly well organized. I was surprised by the lack of participation by the "local" BMW dealers (there must be at least 4 dealers within a 4 hour drive). The facility was great, secure and there was lots of food options both on and off the grounds. The closing ceremonies were very streamlined and (I thought) moved about as quickly as you could go and still meet the needs of all concerned. However, I know at least one person will complain about how long the closing ceremony was because just about the time I was thinking what a great job someone had done to eliminate all the "dead time" of the past and make the prizes and awards really flow the guy sitting behind me said "They really know how to drag these things out, don't they.". I know that the length of the ceremony has been an issue in the past and I thought this one was very well done.
Overall,a first rate job by the people who made it happen.
:clap
 
I was surprised by the lack of participation by the "local" BMW dealers (there must be at least 4 dealers within a 4 hour drive). . . .
:clap

This was our first rally and I was also surprised by the lack of factory participation. Maybe this is normal, but it seems like a good opportunity to have a full display of all the companies offerings. I guess preaching to the choir may not be considered cost effective.

As for the local dealer, Salem Honda-BMW, we did visit them. We had a flat on the road and had called ahead to order a tire and get an appointment to have it put on. (It turned out no one at the Rally had the right tire so it was a good call). Anyway, according to their website, they are in the process of going out of business. It is a small, old school shop by big city standards, but it is sad to see another small business go down. To their credit they bent over backwards to accommodate us and were quite busy sorting out problems for rally attendees. If your looking for old BMW, Honda or Ducati parts, give them a call - they have a lot of stock they are trying to sell before closing for good.

Phil
 
I was also surprised by the lack of factory participation.
The "factory" was there with a semi load of new bikes to test ride but no dealers. I had asked one of the bigger dealers in Oregon if they were attending when I passed through six weeks earlier and the response was "No, we don't have enough staff." I would have thought that the opportunity to sell product to people that are not normally part of your customer base would have made attending worthwhile. Preaching to the choir is one thing but selling to the choir would be, I would think, a very desirable situation.
Again, I thought it was a well organized rally with great facilities in a very nice part of the country.
 
This was my first rally ever and wish to thank all the volunteers and the planning committee.

I would like to make a suggestion for the futur rallies, please plan a few minutes (5-10) between presentations/seminars so that people have the time to get to the next seminar before it start.

Thank you from Montreal, Canada

frenchnew
 
In Springfield last year the local dealers got together to plan how they could add the most to the rally goers. They decided that most important was good service and that could be provided at their dealerships. They did have transportation for thosee who needed to have a bike hauled.

I expect the same theme just continued this year.

Voni
sMiling
 
Dealers 2014

In Springfield last year the local dealers got together to plan how they could add the most to the rally goers. They decided that most important was good service and that could be provided at their dealerships. They did have transportation for thosee who needed to have a bike hauled.

I expect the same theme just continued this year.

Voni
sMiling


There are 3 BMW/multi-brand dealers within 50 mile radius of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. I know Leo's South will have a big presence at the rally, and I'm sure the other 2 dealers will also participate.
 
Missed that! Lots going on for sure.

Phil

I know that BMW likes their own entrance/exit for the test rides and they want to be where people passing the rally can see them but I think they screwed up setting up away from the main stream of the event. But that's where they wanted to be.
 
Missed that! Lots going on for sure.

Phil

Clearly noted on the schedule and on the Rally grounds map.:dunno


But there was so much to do and see, I missed out on several things that I would have wanted to do if there was another day.


:dance:dance:dance
 
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Just Asking...

Presently the rally officially begins at 8:00 am Thursday ending Saturday night. Should the rally start at noon on Wednesday and end on Saturday night? What would be the benefit of beginning the rally Wed at noon? Thoughts appreciated...
 
Clearly noted on the schedule and on the Rally grounds map.:dunno


But there was so much to do and see, I missed out on several things that I would have wanted to do if there was another day.


:dance:dance:dance

You'll have another chance.....July 24-27 2014 in St. Paul:laugh
 
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