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Who did not attend because of the heat?

Who did not attend because of the heat?


  • Total voters
    100
  • Poll closed .
I agree completely, I can't believe school age children are the driving force/reason for Rally scheduling! Where does this come from? Is it another survey where less than 3% of the membership responded?



Ride Safe,
As to young members going to a the rally-We raised three sons at our house & going to a M/C rally in July wasn't a priority to child rearing. How many of those that you want to attract to the rally have kids & thats the reason they don't go, no matter the month held? I didn't choose to leave my wife & kids @ home so I could ride around a lot in the summer. You cannot talk about attracting younger set w/o looking at ALL the reasons they don't join/attend. While I don't fault anyone with kids for taking some "family time off" for a rally, I do fail to see the connection with younger members raising children getting to a rally because schools out. For working age adults the summer is mandated vacation time for many, heat or no heat.
It's a fact, people vote with their "feet", so lower attendance is a reality for various reasons. I/we go to FB games & attendance is down these days at places that were automatic sellouts in recent years.
Is the rally a "cash cow" that has to answer to the most attendance or a date variable activity that can try for pleasing a majority of members over time?
The best riding time in my E KY location is spring & fall, hands down. Not so hot & humid and the scenery is at it's prime time. Many of the smaller rallies revolve around these seasons. As an e.g., craft shows are also frequently held at these same times-some for many decades on the same dates each year, in fact. They revolve around attendance, period. Not a criticisim, but time for a fresh approach to date selection, I think.
 
What's more important, the future of the MOA or having the party when it suits the retirees?

I don't see it quite that way, if there are no retiree's or non-school needy attendees there is no future MOA, they'd go bankrupt. Simply look at the numbers, 7xx responded to a survey of an organization that has 3x,xxx members, and the survey only allowed response periods of mid-June thru July (completely biased IMHO). I don't see any effort to 'suit the retirees' in the survey question, all I see is keeping the Rally dates the same. However, the reality is 3% of the membership tells the other 97%, and we go along with the 3% as gospel, does that about sum up the keystone pathway of entire future of the MOA?
Ride Safe,
Robert
 
Seriously folks, want a great summer?

Come on back to New England, we'd love to have you. I'd step up to do it again in a heartbeat. For a change of pace come on out to our Damn Yankees rally for a taste of New England in the summer. Nights cool enough for a sweater and days warm enough to enjoy a swimming hole.

Fist weekend in August.

hmm, you managed to forget "and humid enough to drown a fish."
 
Never been to an RA Rally, BUT this looks like a good deal to me! I'm in!

June 20-23, 2013 for a return trip to the Biltmore!




Ride Safe,
Robert

I was at the last rally and I will be at this one. I live semi-nearby and that year it was the hottest and dryest summer we had ever had to that point. It was warm and uncomfortable to us mountain folks but probably cooler than the vast majority of the membership were accustomed to.

The problem with the last rally was that there were far more attendees than they anticipatated and the showers and other things were not adequate. I hope they anticipate the turnout better this time. That is one good reason to pre-register.
 
I don't see it quite that way, if there are no retiree's or non-school needy attendees there is no future MOA, they'd go bankrupt. Simply look at the numbers, 7xx responded to a survey of an organization that has 3x,xxx members, and the survey only allowed response periods of mid-June thru July (completely biased IMHO). I don't see any effort to 'suit the retirees' in the survey question, all I see is keeping the Rally dates the same. However, the reality is 3% of the membership tells the other 97%, and we go along with the 3% as gospel, does that about sum up the keystone pathway of entire future of the MOA?
Ride Safe,
Robert

Robert,

The forum is a great place for members to discuss things with each other. You can tell from my post count that I discuss a lot of things. With the post count over 200 on this thread, and with 88 different posters, there certainly has been a lot of discussion on this topic. However, BOD members don't monitor the forum. It is not an effective way to provide them with your concerns and ideas.

Have you sent an e-mail to the BOD expressing your concerns? If not, why not? It is easy to do: Board@moa.org . If so, have you received a response? I would suggest that you will get a much quicker response than posting here on this issue. During the several years of membership ,I've been told by several BOD members that very few folks bother to communicate with them directly.

The future of MOA is dependent on may different things, the Rally being one of them. I'm not sure that we can continue to exist for the next 20 years without attracting younger people who have multiple activities competing for their time and resources. What suits me, a retired old phart who can go to a Rally any time during they year, may not be the best criteria to make decisions on how we continue to exist and grow as an organization.

Challenges abound. Hopefully we will find ways to meet those challenges as we look to the future.

As an aside, while we were burning up in S. Illinois the last of July, my daughter-in-law and granddaughter were enjoying the cool temps of the Florida panhandle. Who would have picked Destin, FL for a summer motorcycle rally?:dunno
 
I was at the last rally and I will be at this one. I live semi-nearby and that year it was the hottest and dryest summer we had ever had to that point. It was warm and uncomfortable to us mountain folks but probably cooler than the vast majority of the membership were accustomed to.

The problem with the last rally was that there were far more attendees than they anticipatated and the showers and other things were not adequate. I hope they anticipate the turnout better this time. That is one good reason to pre-register.

From what I've been reading in the RA site, lessons were learned and they will be more prepared this time. :thumb
 
Boy this thread has legs.

It reminds me of town council meeting where I used to live (Little Compton, RI).

LC has the lowest taxes in the state and probably close to the oldest demographic. There are so few kids in town (or ones whose parents can't afford private school) that they send the kids to another town for high school.

Try to get anyone in town to approve another buck for the school, playground or community center and whoppie. In other words, kids, issues surround kids and supporting the parents of school age kids doesn't matter in LC or apparently the MOA.

For all the retired, semi-retired or folks with kids in college think back to the first 17 to 18 years of their lives.

Were you in a position to leave home for a week or two during their first month of school?

I've taken plenty of family vacations. In 1999 the family vacation involved renting an RV parking it Rhinebeck and taking the whole crew to the rally. In 2011 my family vacation was riding to the National with my middle son, me on a GS and him on his F650GS.

Camp Gears and the kids of current members are the closest thing the MOA has to building a future with the next generation.

Move the rally to September and it all goes away.

What's more important, the future of the MOA or having the party when it suits the retirees?

It's interesting, but I don't see any retirees in the following picture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Founders2.jpg#filelinks

In fact, those guys look like they might have some kids and limited vacation time. However, but likely more than we do today........
 
Only a few days until this poll closes. We have 5295 that attended the Rally and 25 who pre-registered but did not attend. That pretty well sums it up. The number attending far out paces the number of those who pre-registed but did not attend on account of the heat. Let's roll! :dance
 
Yet they set it up so the primary event of the organization (ergo the Rally) would take place during school vacation.

Game, set and match. ;) :thumb

Memphis City School dates: begin 8AUG, end 18MAY. Nothing to do with MOA mid-JUN thru JULY dates. Using summer vacation as a criteria the MOA should include mid-MAY thru AUG. Correct?
Ride Safe,
Robert
 
Can't someone/anyone put this thread out of its misery?

would love to:hungover

May has some serious storms in most locations...I guess then we can gripe about the floods,tornadoes and lightning tearing my tent down, destroying my bike and muddying up the fairgrounds. :violin

Some folks are just finding their garage under the snowpack in May.

And school here let's out the day AFTER Memorial Day weekend . Graduations are Memorial Day weekend.
 
Memphis City School dates: begin 8AUG, end 18MAY. Nothing to do with MOA mid-JUN thru JULY dates. Using summer vacation as a criteria the MOA should include mid-MAY thru AUG. Correct?
Ride Safe,
Robert

Right. School is out from Mid MAY through AUG. This means rally is during summer vacation yes?
 
Right. School is out from Mid MAY through AUG. This means rally is during summer vacation yes?

I'd like it in the spring or fall, but with the people who are now running the rally, that isn't an option, and they send out polls that have predetermined results. (I got one.) The point is that it doesn't matter what is said about it here or in the polls, the forum doesn't count when it comes to club bizznizz. We're windbags.

If you want the rally changed, you have to change the people who are running it. That may or may not be a good idea, I don't know, but to argue it here year after year is pointless and tiring.
 
Memphis City School dates: begin 8AUG, end 18MAY. Nothing to do with MOA mid-JUN thru JULY dates. Using summer vacation as a criteria the MOA should include mid-MAY thru AUG. Correct?
Ride Safe,
Robert
Just how many people do you see at a mc rally with small children? If you've got em they probably wont go & futhermore , if they're out of school & you attend that puts even more supervision of the kids on your wife-I don't get this school vacation idea?:dunno
I've done registration for several days @ TN & saw young adults,middle age adults & old guys like me & a very few couples-next to zero kids there or on the rally grounds-except Camp Gears and that's only a few people & rallies "are mostly on the weekend" after all!:dunno
 
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