Announcing BMW MOA 2021 Grand Coddiwomple!

[HSVPhil]

Thanks Greg & your enthusiastic collection of volunteer Judges!

We just sent in our hyper-links via email on this Halloween; hope they're all correctly corelated inside our new Flickr accounts! We/I uploaded a big bunch of Pix for all the many states we visited this year. We/I enjoyed this MOA challenge (and we're still not finished with our Iron Butt National Parks Tour [Apr to Mar])! We enjoyed the variety of 2021's possible targets - most especially when compared to 2020's meager outings!

Kudos to the MOA Headshed for even trying to grow the Enthusiasm Level during this fargin global pandemic.

Be safe & be seen, y'all.
Ciao!
HSV-Karen & HSV-Phil
USN-Ret'd --&- USAF-Ret'd
'09 650GS-twin — '14 K-GT
'82 R100CS ——— '75 R90S
'16 R1200RS —— ’05 Vespa 200L

 

[60aviator]

Sorry for original post just frustrated and not riding enough

 

[gregfeeler]

Boy has this turned into a disappointing cluster ****. Great idea but in the future have the resources to carry out what you say you will do or ask for help before it gets critical.

Could you expand a bit on this? What's your concern?

 

[60aviator]

Could you expand a bit on this? What's your concern?

How about a schedule of when there will be postings of all things that are said will happen? Maybe a NLT date? Just a little frustrated as I am use to scoring at the end of 24hr & 48hr rallies not months later. I keep coming back here and nothing new.

 

[gsinnc]

Well based on the participation and what is involved to actually score and considering it's done by VOLUNTEERS I would cut them a bit of slack here. There were 1000 participants! Just saying.

 

[gregfeeler]

How about a schedule of when there will be postings of all things that are said will happen? Maybe a NLT date? Just a little frustrated as I am use to scoring at the end of 24hr & 48hr rallies not months later. I keep coming back here and nothing new.

I understand your concerns and they are valid, but I don’t think that calling this "a disappointing cluster ****" is the best way to get a productive conversation going. Again, I get your frustration, but the Rules do clearly say to email "coddiwomple@bmwmoa.org" if you have any questions. How many emails did you send with your questions which weren't answered? I know that answer.

Unfortunately, this forum thread is not the information source about the Coddiwomple because most of the Coddiwomple participants don't appear here. The only way we can contact all the participants is through email, which we have used in the past, and will again shortly.

But, since you asked, and I'm sure others want to know as well, all the entries have been processed, the database purged and cleaned, the results tallied, an email to the participants is in final draft, and the recap article for the February Owners News will be submitted before Christmas. Summary results will also be posted on the web site. Also, there will be a random drawing for about 15 some small prizes which will be mailed to the drawing winners. These things will wrap up the 2021 Grand Coddiwomple.

Work has started on the 2022 Coddiwomple planning. The volunteer team has learned MUCH from this year, and there will be a number of changes to the Rules, the Challenges, and the back-end processing. The changes affecting the participants will be seen when the Registration for the 2022 Coddiwomple opens on February 2nd, 2022.




But, for those who want to know more, here is the back story - not as any kind of excuse - but as an informational peak into how this event came to be and what it was like behind the curtain this year.

The idea for this stated with a very good friend of mine - Brian Burdette, who was also one of my Rally Co-Chairs for the Salt Lake MOA Rally in 2017. After much discussion over a couple of year, he convinced me this was something we should do to make being an MOA member more fun. Actually, I was convinced much sooner, but didn’t have the time to devote. We believe that if you have more fun with your motorcycle being a part of a group, it won’t be hard to get people to join.

After a year of planning with two others staring in February of 2020, we approached the MOA about a year ago and got approval and a small amount of funding to go ahead. Everything was built from the ground up: the concept, the Rules, the Challenges, the logo, and the software to do the scoring, which as it turned out was no small thing.

There was no software system we could find that would do what we needed, so we had to build our own. That took a good two months past the April 1st start to get completed, tested, and working - much longer than expected. It was a more manual process than we wanted, but it did work. Unfortunately, we now had a backlog of submissions. To further add to the fun, many participants were not familiar with setting up a photo sharing site with public viewing, so we did a lot of hands-on help and instruction. A very big problem was that many people shot pictures with their cell phone cameras set at the default wide angle "selfie" setting so the "thing" behind their bike - often a sign - was too small to read or identify. That generated a lot of back and forth to messages to resolve. Much discussion was had on marginal photos and we tried to error in favor of the participants whenever we could.

And, as if we weren't having enough fun already, several of the Rules we thought were so iron clad turned out to hold about as much water as a fish net. The prime example is the Military Falls. You all were far more cleaver than we in showing how the only real limit was the maximum of 100 submissions! As a result of that "loophole" and a couple of others, the approximately 170 who Completed the Coddiwomple generated well almost 6,000 photos!

In August, one of two of our key people got COVID and one was hospitalized for three weeks and took over six weeks after discharge to get functional again.

We expected there would be issues and accepted that you must do the first one to ever do a better second one. We did get hit with things we didn't expect which slowed us down, but the team just dealt with it. One person sent in over 500 photo links on the last day. I spent six 8-hour days after the event ended chasing down submissions with links that didn't work and giving those folks a chance to resubmit good links. Most of that was caused by Evil Google who changed their photo sharing site hosting sit in August breaking all links created before that change. So, I contacted affected participants and worked with them to get new ones that could be scored. Once all the submissions had been scored and resolved, then the database had to be scrubbed for duplicate submissions and other possible problems. We knew when we set up the Coddiwomple schedule that we had no way of knowing then how long it would take to wrap this up after the end of October, which is why we didn't include any kind of post-event schedule.

We had two volunteer teams: the Judging Team who accepted or rejected photos, and the Scoring Team who did the initial processing and chased down problematic submissions, searched to verify locations, communicated with the riders, managed the software and anything else needing done. I can’t say too much in praising their dedication, patience, and can-do attitude! They made it happen!

As I implied above, we got a PhD in running this kind of event since February, and the 2022 team will be making many improvements which will make the next Coddiwomple better for everyone. I won’t be a part, nor will Rally Chair Brian (at least not until after June) because, along with the other Co-Chair Pat Carol, we have the 2022 Wander Farther Rally to run in Springfield, MO.

Honestly, if I had known what we were getting into, I might have not gone ahead. However, sometimes it really is better that you don’t know, otherwise something that can become great over time would have never been given a chance. Was it a "a disappointing cluster ****"? Perhaps a touch. I’ll leave that for you all to decide, but we made a start, and we think a lot of people did have fun.

 

[skibum69]

I had fun but I think one of my crucial photos didn't pass muster and I never got a chance to get another photo to count. I had a bit of fun as one of the volunteers and I put in a fair number of hours judging. I look forward to see what they come up with for 2022.

 

[gsinnc]

Greg ... if the goal of Coddiwomple was to "make being a MOA member more fun", get us to have more reason to ride, get us to ride to places we never anticipated and have some fun and friendly competition while doing all of that ... for me you succeeded Although I lost some of my energy this summer with planning my 8000 mile cross country trip and trying to do the Iron Butt NP Challenge all while trying to do Coddiwomple. But I am up for the 2022 challenge. Thanks for all the work on this and making it fun.

 

[mikegalbicka]

Thanks Greg and to everyone else involved for their hard work. I did not participate but it sounded like a good idea and the first time for anything is always problematic due to the learning curve involved. I suggest 60aviator volunteer next year to help make it better to get a better understanding of what is happening behind the scenes. You provided a pretty good synopsis but being one of the boots on the ground always improves the perspective.

 

[60aviator]

Thanks Greg that was very helpful and considerate. I was obviously confused as I thought this forum was the source of information. I will go back into standby mode and keep my posts to myself.

 

[omega man]

Thanks Greg that was very helpful and considerate. I was obviously confused as I thought this forum was the source of information. I will go back into standby mode and keep my posts to myself.

No need to run off. You handled your frustration graciously. Don’t worry about the snipers.
Enjoy the forum!
being a member since ‘17 and still remembering your password for your forum arrival-
OM

 

[gregfeeler]

Thanks Greg that was very helpful and considerate. I was obviously confused as I thought this forum was the source of information. I will go back into standby mode and keep my posts to myself.

Absolutely do not do those things! Yeah, you started off a bit strong, but you caused me to reply which I hope was helpful to you and everyone else here, so in the end it was a good thing. Besides, it seems everyone is on edge anymore and sometimes that causes us to be a bit snarky.

Pluss, this lets me point our Rule 10, b. We do have room for you starting now!

10. Code of Conduct

a. This is a PG13 rated event, and all submissions must meet that standard.
b. You are expected to follow all applicable laws and regulations while participating in this activity.
c. Discrimination, hatred, and violence have no place here. Any submissions containing such depictions, or behavior which reflects negatively on the BMW MOA, are grounds for immediate disqualification from the event.
d. Any pointless complaining will be considered an offer to volunteer for the next Coddiwomple.​

 

[60aviator]

Absolutely do not do those things! Yeah, you started off a bit strong, but you caused me to reply which I hope was helpful to you and everyone else here, so in the end it was a good thing. Besides, it seems everyone is on edge anymore and sometimes that causes us to be a bit snarky.

Pluss, this lets me point our Rule 10, b. We do have room for you starting now!

10. Code of Conduct

a. This is a PG13 rated event, and all submissions must meet that standard.
b. You are expected to follow all applicable laws and regulations while participating in this activity.
c. Discrimination, hatred, and violence have no place here. Any submissions containing such depictions, or behavior which reflects negatively on the BMW MOA, are grounds for immediate disqualification from the event.
d. Any pointless complaining will be considered an offer to volunteer for the next Coddiwomple.​

Greg, I may regret this latter but I am recently fully retired now and do have time to help if you need it.

 

[gregfeeler]

Greg, I may regret this latter but I am recently fully retired now and do have time to help if you need it.

The first rule of success as a volunteer is to never thing about how you might regret it later. Actually, the first rule of working with volunteers it to make sure they have so much fun that they can't wait to do it again.

Send me a PM and we'll get connected. Thank you!!!

 

[skibum69]

Help will definitely be needed.

 

[JenniferOtt]

I had an absolute blast and rode to places I never thought I would! I got to go through multiple states, especially after realizing 12 of my 15 SUAR Platinum did not have City and State! Back out I went, with a big smile on my face!

Thanks to all the volunteers that did such a great job and held our hand through re-submitting lol.

Jennifer

 

[akbeemer]

I'm wondering when our checks will arrive........

 

[PGlaves]

I'm wondering when our checks will arrive........

I think I heard from somebody, maybe on Facebook or maybe on the interweb of stuff, that checks were in the mail, or going to be in the mail, of were scheduled to be in the mail sometime. Carry on, but stay tuned for more definitive information at some point in the near or not so near future.

 

[gregfeeler]

I think I heard from somebody, maybe on Facebook or maybe on the interweb of stuff, that checks were in the mail, or going to be in the mail, of were scheduled to be in the mail sometime. Carry on, but stay tuned for more definitive information at some point in the near or not so near future.

The big delay now is that the MOA check machine can't handle as many zero's as needed for your check, Paul! Actually, the posting of the "leader board" to the Coddiwomple web site is in process and when that's up emails will go to all the finishers with their results. Certificates will be printed January, and the drawing for small door prizes should also be mid-January.

 

[akbeemer]

Please forward my check(s) to my Monte Carlo address.