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This Year's Attendance

you don't want the date changed because your a vendor and plan your rally schedule around set, know dates. by moving the national to a different date it might mean you will have to miss another rally (or the MOA rally) you attend as a vendor, which cuts into your profit margin. the more rallies you can attend, as a vendor, the more money you make.

i have said it before and i will say it again, do not let the vendors decide when the rally should be held, let the membership make that decision.

PS: love those coconut socks you sell. i have tried lots of socks over the years and these are absolutely the best i have ever used.

I'm also a member and a very good observer. One of the reasons people attend is because of the vendors. Don't care about the vendors? Simply have a MOA in Canada and see how many vendors and attendees participate. Don't care if many come? See how quick the MOA ether raises your membership fees or simple stops national rallies altogether. Simple put these rallies including the local ones need to make money, if they don't they go the way of the Honda Hoot. It's really as simple as that.
Glad you like the socks, we sold out on Saturday.
 
One of the highlights of a National Rally is the vendor building. In this case, FOUR of them! Sure would hate to miss seeing and touching and trying all that stuff we drool over in the magazine!

Not to mention the great deals!

Another point to consider . . .

Voni
sMiling
 
I did not make it this year, and the only other MOA rally i ever attended was a long time ago. I waited until the last minute to cancel my hotel in Warsaw hoping the "weather would fall within the parameters I choose to be out doors in".:wow
It didn't and i didn't.

I belong to a group of New Bonneville riders ( yes they allow me to ride with them on a BMW) we hold a rally every spring in the same location.
We started in another spot 9 or 10 years ago, but the ability to get food and drink was limited so we made a collective decision to move.

Every year we have the stalwarts who always show, and every year we get new riders.
We hold no seminars, no scheduled rides, and the vendors who do come are taking a vacation with us and don't bring anything to sell.
Thus far I have never heard anyone complain that they were tired of riding the same roads. Maybe that's because there are so many great ones to explore in the area. We fill up an entire motel and spill over in to one or two more, yes we do have some campers.

We decided to have a fall "Gathering" as we call it and by design we move it around every couple of years to a different location. This is driven by the fact that some folks have difficulty getting as far away at that time of the year. The first guy who speaks about the next location for the "Gathering" is "it "so to speak and then steps up and finds the next location.

I would tell you the locations, but since we do not have seminars, hold scheduled events, or have vendors you all would not be interested in the old fashioned comaraderie we enjoy.:dance
Oh yea, we probably would not be comfortable with 5000+ riders around:thumb

Did i mention that I truly prefer a smaller rally than the bigger ones, but if the weather were right for me I would love to attend another MOA event.:):):)
Smaller rallies are great. They are some to the best ones I've been to, but the large rallies have their place too. At the nationals like we just had, I do not do any riding. I have my bike parked for the whole weekend, as there's just so much to do at these rallies. If I do any riding in connection with the rally, it's going to be before or after the event and being that it's been so hot the last couple of rallies, I just head straight home instead. Which brings up the issue of where we have these rallies. Since the weather lately is not conducive to enjoyable riding, why don't we put the rally in a setting more amenable to what most people do at a rally, which is shop with vendors, go to seminars, visit the beer tent, and listen to music. It seems to me a university would be a good place to have one, as they are usually not busy in the summer, and have the facilities that we need. Rally goers could stay in air conditioned dorms and be able to walk to do shopping, seminars, or music events. I myself liked having the event in Charleston WV because I could stay in a comfortable hotel room and walk to the vendor area and take a shuttle to the beer garden and not have to worry about getting back on the bike after doing so. The way most rallies are now, at lot of people who in hotels are far away from the rally and must leave early to return to their hotels and don't participate in the evening's activities.
 
Market research??? I have been a member for many years and have never had anyone form the MOA ever ask how I feel about the July dates. I have also asked most of my fellow BMW riding friends and no one ever asked them either....

I know I wasn't involved in any market research either, but it is often referred to. Why not just pose the question on the next MOA ballot? Or a controlled on line survey?


Future Rally Date Survey. Please check one.


1) Always hold the MOA rally in mid July.


2) Expand the Rally date option to allow the months of May through September, with the traditional July date to be chosen at least every other year.
 
I know I wasn't involved in any market research either, but it is often referred to. Why not just pose the question on the next MOA ballot? Or a controlled on line survey?


Future Rally Date Survey. Please check one.


1) Always hold the MOA rally in mid July.


2) Expand the Rally date option to allow the months of May through September, with the traditional July date to be chosen at least every other year.


if the board did this they might not get the results they want, which is to hold the rally in July. it seems to me there are underlying reasons they don't want to move the rally dates as there are a myriad of excuses/reasons why the dates can't be changed. never once i have heard the board encourage an open discussion on the pro's & con's of changing the rally dates. why is that?
 
What about the worker bees?

I guess as a member I got 2 pence....

My son and I did not make Sedalia due to work commitments. We did spend an entire week in Bloomsburg last year.
(We did attend Johnson City, West Bend, Burlington prior; MOA Nationals are the bees knees)

He was in Camp Gears last year, finally old enough to ride (If you have a youngin' hankering to ride, CG is a must), and me, I became a lugger for Mon, Tues, Wed...

I, along with new friends, did whatever was asked. We set up a dozens of tables in the vendor buildings, set up the stage equipment (and not a groupie to be found, roadies are so full of bull), and I spent a some shifts at the registration tent, and was on hand for whoever raced up in a golf cart with that "our deadline is coming fast" look on their face.

One thing I have noticed after 8 year of MOA membership the long list of repeating names in the Rally Chair pages of my Owner's News.
These are the people that are giving up a lot to make the rally happen. They are not getting paid either. I have no idea what it takes to build a fully functioning city for 6-10,000 people for 4 days, and then take it apart in 36 hours like it was never there. Put me in that job, and the complaint dept would need it's own rally chairperson and dozens of volunteers.

I do have enough respect for the job itself to help out and understand that it's not possible to make thousands of people happy all at once.
To vote a new month for the rally and not have the buy-in of the people that actually make the rally happen year after year is rally suicide.
There is no rally without these volunteers.

I would like to see some posts of all the work that went into the rally, (all the way down to the sanitation smells) and then we can see who is going to step up and take over these jobs when a date change puts our existing volunteers out of action due to commitments that they clear out for 2 weeks in July each year. Let's see who puts on a jersey and gets in the game.

I suspect it's possible the weather could be 10 degress cooler, but the logistical details that we never notice, and take for granted at the MOA National, will get noticed. And then we would have an entire new set of complaints from those who did attend as the law of unintended consequences takes over.

IMHO, I would suffer the complaints of those who never attend rather than create compaints of those that do attend. I agree if Spring and Fall are the rally dates most treasured then regional events should be overflowing. As a committee person for a east coast rally in the fall, I can testify that this is not the case.
Attendance is struggling all over regardless of dates.
 
Well said

I guess as a member I got 2 pence....

My son and I did not make Sedalia due to work commitments. We did spend an entire week in Bloomsburg last year.
(We did attend Johnson City, West Bend, Burlington prior; MOA Nationals are the bees knees)

He was in Camp Gears last year, finally old enough to ride (If you have a youngin' hankering to ride, CG is a must), and me, I became a lugger for Mon, Tues, Wed...

I, along with new friends, did whatever was asked. We set up a dozens of tables in the vendor buildings, set up the stage equipment (and not a groupie to be found, roadies are so full of bull), and I spent a some shifts at the registration tent, and was on hand for whoever raced up in a golf cart with that "our deadline is coming fast" look on their face.

One thing I have noticed after 8 year of MOA membership the long list of repeating names in the Rally Chair pages of my Owner's News.
These are the people that are giving up a lot to make the rally happen. They are not getting paid either. I have no idea what it takes to build a fully functioning city for 6-10,000 people for 4 days, and then take it apart in 36 hours like it was never there. Put me in that job, and the complaint dept would need it's own rally chairperson and dozens of volunteers.

I do have enough respect for the job itself to help out and understand that it's not possible to make thousands of people happy all at once.
To vote a new month for the rally and not have the buy-in of the people that actually make the rally happen year after year is rally suicide.
There is no rally without these volunteers.

I would like to see some posts of all the work that went into the rally, (all the way down to the sanitation smells) and then we can see who is going to step up and take over these jobs when a date change puts our existing volunteers out of action due to commitments that they clear out for 2 weeks in July each year. Let's see who puts on a jersey and gets in the game.

I suspect it's possible the weather could be 10 degress cooler, but the logistical details that we never notice, and take for granted at the MOA National, will get noticed. And then we would have an entire new set of complaints from those who did attend as the law of unintended consequences takes over.

IMHO, I would suffer the complaints of those who never attend rather than create compaints of those that do attend. I agree if Spring and Fall are the rally dates most treasured then regional events should be overflowing. As a committee person for a east coast rally in the fall, I can testify that this is not the case.
Attendance is struggling all over regardless of dates.

Thanks for outlining your participation in past rallies; it makes it clear that you are NOT one of the constant whiners on the forum.

I agree with your points and I too would like to know how many of these internet posters have met more than a couple of the other MOA members at a rally, or if they have ever attended a MOA National/International.

I rode over 1200 miles within a 24 hour time span and I have no complaints about the people I met, the people I worked with or the jobs done by any of the volunteers. It was a great rally and was run by great hard-working folks.

If the board does a survey, I hope they weight the responses so that the opinion of a regular rally attendee gets more attention that these no-show couch queens.
 
And the minority of the members? Or the roughly 33,000 members that chose not to attend this year? What about them?*snip*
Why do you hate Democracy?

:lol
Kidding.
Those who go and have fun every year (or almost every year, in my case), know when the date is and what to expect. We also bring our fun from home.
We then get 10k people attending.
The weather may keep some folks home. Having it in September will keep people who work at schools from attending, or those want to bring their kids. It may also keep away Yankees because of weather, and having it in Spring could mean the same for us Northerners.
I may not be able to get enough time of to go to Oregon next year, so I will plan something else. That is just the way it is from my perspective.
 
If the board does a survey, I hope they weight the responses so that the opinion of a regular rally attendee gets more attention that these no-show couch queens.

IMO 1 vote per member. Giving more weight to July rally attendees would just sway the results.

Over the years I've attended many national rallies including the rally last year in Bloomsburg. This year I guess I was a couch queen :huh . We chose to avoid the heat and have our own rally riding the BRP and camping where it was comfortable.
 
If the board does a survey, I hope they weight the responses so that the opinion of a regular rally attendee gets more attention that these no-show couch queens.

what constitutes a regular rally goer? is it someone who goes to 3 out of 4 rallies? is it someone who goes to every rally? is it someone who goes to every rally east of the rockies? wether i go to the rally or not does not matter, i pay the same amount in dues as the guy or gal that goes to every single rally, so my opinion should matter equally, if not then please reduce my membership dues accordingly.

if you ask only the die hards who go to damn near every rally come hell or high water (or in this case high temps) or poll just the people who are at the rally itself you are excluding the people who stayed home for various reasons. this will give you biased results and result in getting the results you want, which is to keep the rally in July. if you poll as many members as you can, the ones who are at the rally as well as the members who stayed home you will get a much more accurate results as to what the majority of the membership wants.

And a couple of them are in nearly every thread in the "Rally Forum". I have to ask; if you did not go to this rally, you did not go to last year's rally::::which rally did you attend? Have you ever been to one? Did you ever go to one that you enjoyed?


i volunteered in WY and again in TN. as much as i would like to be able to volunteer at every rally i attend that is not possible for various reasons. i have enjoyed all the rallies i have been to, some more then others. i stayed home last year and again this year as i get no joy riding or camping in 100 degree temps.

i voice my opinion because i care about this organization. i want to see it grow and thrive in the coming years and not become stagnant due to offering the same old same old. if i didn't' care and i didn't go to a rally for whatever reason i wouldn't be posting here trying to get the board to do an honest poll of all the members, not just the ones who are at the rally.

as i have said in a previous post i have never seen the board encourage an open & honest discussion on wether the rally dates should be changed. it seems to be such a hot button issue that i would think this would be something they would be interested in trying to resolve. a live webcast from the board addressing this issue, an online poll, a mail in poll in the owners news as well as polling the rally attendees should yield accurate results as to what the majority of the members want as far as when our national rally is held.
 
Weather keep me away this year.

Sure I would have enjoyed myself even in the heat though.

Had another MOA member from MEM, TN with me here in Mt. View, AR.

We were ready to head up but both of us were of the same opinion...just too damn hot.

Hope to see midwest rally dates moved to the fall.

Cheers
 
If I remember correctly Paul.. You also said that you were going to pull out your sub-zero sleeping bag one night too.. :brad

This was my 1st to go to and to all that put it on and volunteered... Congrats!!!!

I had fun, met a whole bunch of people and volunteered as well. As mentioned AC was a plenty, days were warm with a breeze and nights were good. Vendors in 3 buildings and out front of them too. Unless you wanted to leave the grounds for feed there was enough diversity that you did not have too.

Been a member here now going on 6 years, buy my lotto tickets every year and I have to say that every year it is the same ole BS that crops up after the rally. Sheesh folks..

When I was in a club doing 4x4'ing we did 2 rally's a year. Always at the same time. Why you ask??? We had established those dates and that is when the people, vendors and town knew we were coming. We had everything from blistering hot, torrential downpours, tornado's, fog and good weather. No one ever said on the forums "Lets move the date"

If you can make then make it. If it is too hot for you then stay home. If it is too far to go then go to a different rally. It only took me 5 years to get to one.


It was a great rally. Sure it was hot, but then it was hot back home. I had no problems sleeping in the tent. No waiting for showers or bathrooms. Good variety of food at reasonable prices. Great venue with a brisk, closing ceremony (Thanks Bob A.). Air conditioning in the buildings was a little on the cool side for me, but I assume most prefer it that way. If I could travel back in time, I'd go again in a heartbeat.
 
if the board did this they might not get the results they want, which is to hold the rally in July. it seems to me there are underlying reasons they don't want to move the rally dates as there are a myriad of excuses/reasons why the dates can't be changed. never once i have heard the board encourage an open discussion on the pro's & con's of changing the rally dates. why is that?

As far as I know a questioner was sent at last year, I along with a few others I know ( who are not vendors by the way) received them. Among the questions were changing the rally date.
 
I learn a bit from every experience. I knew that the weather in Sedalia would likely not be the same as it is in Vermont, so planned accordingly. The desert warfare training I had in the Marines helped with this. I knew as long as we were moving and the humidity was reasonable I could get relief with evaporative cooling. I wasn't sure if it would work for a dog, and on this trip I discovered that it did work remarkably well. For those times when we could not move (at the rally, stuck in a construction zone, etc) I carried a small cooler in my topcase. First thing every morning I filled it with ice. By the time the heat kicked in enough had melted so we had chilled drinking water, water for evaporative cooling, and cold water for Barley's belly in case we had to go into urgent cool down mode. (We had to on the return trip when stuck in traffic at an accident scene.) We found out that 1500 miles is about our limit in that kind of heat. It's easier to cool myself than to cool my dog, and in high heat with all the hydration and soak breaks my max daily mileage is about 350 miles a day.

In the end all these commonsense precautions helped us stay safe and have a great time. We learned something about our limits, we saw some old friends, met several new friends, enjoyed the volunteer thing, and have utterly nothing to complain about.

Well, except that in all the excitement I forgot about the bottle of 15 year old Scotch in the sidecase...:banghead
 
Give one example

Can anyone give an example of an annual gathering of any club or organization that has changed the traditional date of their meeting and what the results were?

One very serious logistics problem in changing the date includes the first year when you may not have a full year to prepare. We like things to be convenient, but having a set date makes planning for the volunteers and attendees much easier. July works.

If you don't want to go, don't. If you do, then go. If you do, you will have a weekend filled with information, entertainment, and camaraderie. As far as the weather, you can expect nothing no matter what month you choose.
 
As far as I know a questioner was sent at last year, I along with a few others I know ( who are not vendors by the way) received them. Among the questions were changing the rally date.

i don't doubt that questioners were sent out at some point in time. what i am questioning is were they only sent to the people who attended the rally, if so that would seem to me that it would produce biased results.

i think to get fair, unbiased results you need to poll not only those who attended the rally but those who choose not to attend.

look at it this way. lets say there are 30,000 total members and 6000 attend the rally. that leaves 24,000 members that choose not to attend. what caused such a large percentage of the total membership not to attend? if you really want to know you don't poll the 6000 members that went to the rally, you poll the 24,000 that did not attend. if out of those 24,000 that those chose not to go the majority said they didn't attend because of the time/dates then it is obvious that the majority of the total membership would like the rally dates changed.
 
I was sorry to read that attendance was only 50% or so of two years ago.

It is understandable that the extraordinary heat this year and last is likely a major reason why the attendance suffered so. That is one reason among several others why I was not able to attend this year or last.

The weather in Salem, Oregon, is much better at this time of the year.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClic...QR&textField1=44.9431&textField2=-123.034&e=1

Perhaps next year's attendance will recover and surge back toward 10K. I hope so.
 
What drives my wife and I to go to the rally?

Location, location, location. If it is too far we don't go because we don't want to spend too much time traveling back and forth. Good riding once there for me and interesting place to go without riding for us (like to have interesting off the bike time). The more vendors the merrier, we enjoy seeing as many companies that make stuff for our bikes and our needs as possible. We are motel/hotel folks and we don't use the beer tent but I support the need for camping space and beer sales.

Summer is essential as my wife is a college counselor and that is the easiest time to get significant time off. If we attend a rally it is part of a longer MC vacation, so being in proximity to other interesting destinations/rides makes it more desirable. I have truly enjoyed the rallies I have been to, I usually volunteer in registration on the first day and have had a blast every time.

I think our elected leaders want to put on a great rally and I believe they have largely succeeded. I also believe this topic or something very similar will never go away regardless of what time of year or location is chosen.
 
As far as I know a questioner was sent at last year, I along with a few others I know ( who are not vendors by the way) received them. Among the questions were changing the rally date.

FYI - no "survey" went out last year - just a minute sampling of a 34,000 member club, and some vendors.

In the 6 years I've been a member, to my recollection, there has NEVER been a true survey (that's ALL members asked) - just samplings, for which the politically correct term is "market research." I too did not get contacted for my opinion.

I'll go to rallies whenever they schedule them, but sure wish late May or early September had been presented to the membership (Yup - all 34k) - curious what they would have said?! :scratch
 
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I would like to comment on the vendor issue;

Having been a vendor at rallies ( not the MOA) in the past.
I think we should all take a moment and try to walk in their shoes;

A vendor for the most part has to pay for the space at the location, provide an exorbitant cost insurance policy to whom ever is putting on the rally , if they have a brick and mortar store they need to have someone to man it while they are away,then they need to be at their booth for hours prescribed by the rally masters, pay to either haul or ship their goods to the location and back home again. Plus a miriad of other niggling things that do not come to mind at the moment.

Then the vendors out of their own pocket provide daily door prizes , plus free give away items at their respective booths.
Is it a cost of doing business ?
Yes it is, but they really go the extra mile to make big rallies a hit with their target audiences.

They also need a bunch of time to plan for these events.

So my suggestion is to have a major rally every year in the same location at the same time . Those that can make it will , and those that cannot probably would not go anyway no matter the dates or the location.

The Americade/Daytona/Sturgis/ what ever you like rally has been held in the same location for a long time now and as far as I know it is a sell out every year.
 
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