36654
New member
The triangle graphic from the Midland, MI rally is still my favorite. Whenever the graphic is large and continuous, you have a large area of the shirt that breathes poorly in warm weather.
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Quick thoughts on Billings rally
- Thread starter sagerat
- Start date
The triangle graphic from the Midland, MI rally is still my favorite. Whenever the graphic is large and continuous, you have a large area of the shirt that breathes poorly in warm weather.
glenfiddich
TravelsWithBarley.com
Such as the number of hotel rooms available in the immediate area. I've never understood the insistence on having hotels within a handful of miles from the rally when most of us think nothing of riding long distances to get there. At Sedalia, once I realized the heat was too much for Barley, I found a room 45 minutes south and made the daily commute to the family reunion. And we both had a blast!
I think the inclusion criteria have become so restrictive that we've excluded some potentially terrific options.
Pete
Visian
look out!!!
Rally sites have been turned down even when this requirement has been met.
The real reason we have such a limited selection of venues is our requirement to sell our own beer. The really nice places have a concession contract and the concessionaire sells crappy beer at premium prices.
The MOA's position is that we want to control the price of beer so that we can serve better beer at a lower price. The logic holds that this is a safety issue... riders will come to the rally with some decent beer, and when they run out they choose to ride and buy more good beer from the local liquor/grocery store instead of paying $5-7 for a cup of Bud Light. Drinking + riding = risk.
Not saying whether I agree or disagree with this, just outlining the current position on a key requirement.
Ian
ps => I actually have no idea why the Evergreen State Fair site I linked was turned down. We instead held our rally for this region in Salem.
Visian
look out!!!
Rally sites have been turned down even when this requirement has been met.
The real reason we have such a limited selection of venues is our requirement to sell our own beer. The really nice places have a concession contract and the concessionaire sells crappy beer at premium prices.
The MOA's position is that we want to control the price of beer so that we can serve better beer at a lower price. The logic holds that this is a safety issue... riders will come to the rally with some decent beer, and when they run out they choose to ride and buy more good beer from the local liquor/grocery store instead of paying $5-7 for a cup of Bud Light. Drinking + riding = risk.
Not saying whether I agree or disagree with this, just outlining the current position on a key requirement.
Ian
ps => I actually have no idea why the Evergreen State Fair site I linked was turned down. We instead held our rally for this region in Salem.
maybe a site?
greenwald
New member
We could have virtual rallies. We could all sit at home in our skivvies and create a virtual rally environment... that way we could invent things to complain about. Sorta like we do now, but without the effort of actually riding a motorcycle.
Geeeezz Kevin - be careful what you suggest.
First of all, we actually have that venue - it's called The Forum.
Secondly, the world is in such a mad rush to eliminate physical activity and live out your whole life experience electronically, your suggestion might actually gain traction (or is it pixels and data lines?!).
We already have children being born now with pre-curved c-spines to assume the 'Cell Phone Zombie' posture upon puberty - we're coming full circle in our evolution and resuming a Neanderthal anatomy.
greenwald
New member
Visian
look out!!!
maybe a site?
I don't know why not, but we didn't choose it for our rally in 2013.
Sue
Friend of the Marque
This was designed by a high school student in a Midland HS graphic arts class. I hope
Back to lurking.
flyhi2cfar
#102452 Sometimes Hangared... But Always Aimed Out
... He's correct. Only about half of our Members are "players". At this moment I send this there's only 99 MOA members on OUR Forum; but 333 guests "reading" stuff. Also, it has come to some of our members attention, especially those at the Billings Rally... that there sure may NOT have been some 5,800+ in total attendance! Seems the door prize drawing numbers, a couple each rally day, of multiple winners; NEVER did show ANY number below 1,000 as a winning participant? Popular Airhead theory is that the 1st 1,000 numbers for registrations are "held" by the MOA office for various purposes (VIP's/guests, vendors, ect). Not saying some number of those people were not there physically; but the actual result does seem "odd".
I personally have attended 12 consecutive Nationals, and in my opinion, if I subtract those with the Saturday day pass, the RV'ers, the off site lodgings of any type... I'm betting there were approximately 3,750 - 3,999 that rode in on a bike & camped on-site.
"travel'n" john
One of not so many in MOA these days.
I personally have attended 12 consecutive Nationals, and in my opinion, if I subtract those with the Saturday day pass, the RV'ers, the off site lodgings of any type... I'm betting there were approximately 3,750 - 3,999 that rode in on a bike & camped on-site.
"travel'n" john
One of not so many in MOA these days.
greenwald
New member
Only reason I was scratching my head at your quoted number was that, while page 1 of 'forum members' holds 30 entries, others hold less (24).
At an average of 27 per page X 556 pages on the roll, that would equal around 15,000.
Yet I learned from my frequent communications with MOA HQ during my "Touring Tips" years that many listed 'members' are indeed, no longer members - lapsed dues, quit, died, etc.
In recent years, 'forum patronage' averaged about 1,700 to 2,000, or about 6+% of the total club membership is active in this venue.
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greenwald
New member
Having been to five Nationals, I'd like to think the numbers are a bit higher than 3,750 - 3,999, John, but I think you're barking up the right tree, for sure.
For whatever reasons, the 'official' attendance gets fluffed up with non-MOA attendees (vendors not associated with the MOA other than purchasing a wristband to be legitimately on the property, children, day-passes for locals and visiting VIP's, etc.), which dilutes the accuracy of the final tally.
As a club, we don't seem too interested in how many members actually attend such an event.
Just trying to point out the impact of just a few members has on the entire organization. Don't know how many members are active, but I am sure there are more than what are commenting on the rally this year. Following the announcement of the rally locations, there are positive and negative comments by just a few members, and following the rally there are again positive and negative comments on how the rally functioned. Negative comments always seem to make an issue bigger than reality. While some comments offer constructive criticism, the noise made by a few overwhelms the good and that is sad. While there have been 450 or so of this thread, that is a pretty small number of those who attended the event. And that the number of posts is even less.
Just sayn
Just sayn
That may have been the case 2-3 years ago, but about 1.5-2 years ago, I worked with Ted to drop the number of "forum members" you see at the bottom of the screen to represent the active MOA members who happen to have forum credentials. With the new member management system, when people no longer renew for whatever reason, Ted deletes them from the active forum registrations. Of course, many, many of those 16000+ registered members have never posted once.
Since June 1 through yesterday, an average of 850 members (that is unique members, not just 100 people visiting 8 or 9 times a day) has visited the forum each day. Of course that goes up and down due to days of the week, National rallys, etc.
2bikers1collie
I ride with DOG
You cannot use the Door prize ticket numbers as a reliable attendance number. At the back tables in registration we were not paying attention to any numbers on door prize tickets when handing them out, just that participants had their arm bands showing they were checked in. The attendance numbers likely came from the folks who were at the first set of tables checking in actual people on laptop/PCs.
Visian
look out!!!
As a club, we don't seem too interested in how many members actually attend such an event.
Of even greater interest is how many non-members we can get to attend convert to members.
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