Ok, Phil and I have been going over ideas for 2008 and he said it would be ok to post them up and discuss them....so here is goes. Keep in mind that this does NOT mean anything is in stone, this is just how the event will need to be IF it happens....which it "probably" will happen and be very similar to what I am going to describe in this thread.

First off, lets go over and point out a few inefficiencies with the event and areas that need improving so that we can have more event with less headache for the organizing team. Logistics is a primary problem. We have our even spread across the lodge, the bbq place, the dam, and The Dragon. It take a ton of time, effort, planning, talking to people, everyone wondering where to go and how to get somewhere, figuring out parking at each place. As you can imagine this is VERY difficult to organize with NOOOO cell phones. Speaking of communication that is the next concern we have identified and want to fix. The new way we want to organize the event will really help out a lot with communication and people being able to find eachother and not having to worry about where everyone is. The third thing we need to address with the 2008 event is the food. We have grown to the point that we no longer have the ability to let everyone pay for food when they show up. The bbq place as well as the lodge can NOT support over 200 people walking in thier door at once and not being prepaid far in advance where the food alotments can be identified and fullfilled months ahead of time. They dont know if they should cook for 100 people or 300 people because we cant tell them a number. We are going to have to change this in 2008 so that everyone is prepaid and we can give the food venders at least 2 months notice with a very accurate number. Fourth we want to address the lack of night time activities. Fith (but probably most important) is the liability concerns that we would like to minimize.

Here is how we plan on achieving this. The Fontana Village has a big banquet center. Most of you probably noticed it. The center is a large long building in front of a field. They can serve 400 people in that center. We have discussed with the manager of the Village and he needs us to be in that center next year because we have grown too large for him to support in the lodge. What we want to do is get the center the second half of Friday and all day Saturday. Friday we want to serve dinner there as well as have the Tshirt orders pre packeged by person with a name tag on it so we can just hand them out to people at dinner on Friday night and remaining ones on Saturday. Saturday we will have the center all day and all night long. The Show and Shine on Saturday would basically allow for everyone to get there park and hang out all day in the field area and inside the center. It will be MUCH easier to prep for lunch since the kitchen is there and the lodge would be providing lunch. We would have a much better ability to have cold drinks for purchase. If it rains there is enough room inside the building for everyone to comfortably be inside out of the rain. We would have room inside and outside for any vendors that might want to set up tents and give something for you guys to look at besides the same cars. We could MAYBE find a engine vendor to do a demo of building a engine or something along those lines. We couldnt really do these things in teh past for fear that it might get rained out or something similar. People can come and go but we will have the event there all day and then also have the Sat night dinner and drawing there. The other BIG plus with the center is that we will have it late at night. This means that we can have some type of night time activies there. We have MAYBE have something like movie night, or the mini cooper guys have casino night, who knows. We also can sell alcohol there during our night time activity which would start at say 10:30 or so and end around 1-2. Basically this center would be command central and we would run the event there all weekend and people can come and go as they please. This solves MANY of our problems with logistics, food prep, communication, ect. If you wanted to walk to your cabin and take a nap you could.

As for the Gap runs we have 2 options. We are no longer going to organize fast group runs. What we are going to do is all of us will be at this central location all day long. People can come and go from it, there is pleanty of parking so no one will be blocked in. If you and your buddies want to get together every hour or all day or whatever....you just get together and go. We dont want a group of people hauling *** and potentially getting killed in a group run that the EVENT organized. Doesnt mean you cant do it, just means the EVENT is not organizing or approving it. If we do any organized Gap drives they will be slower, maybe a little spirited but they will most likely be within the scope of the law and mostly for the people that dont want to go fast but just feel more comfortable following behind someone experienced on thier first run thru. Most of you didnt care about being behind a group leader anyway, i know when I announced it at the gravel area over half the people took off. I think this new set up will allow you guys much more flexability of coming and going without missing anything, you can still get in your own groups with buddies if you want, and it will remove any potential liability from the event because we didnt organize people to be doing something illegal. It will also provide for the people that would like to follow behind someone experienced if they want too. We will also still have our Gap speakers just as we always have.

At this point you are probably wondering what all of this would cost. Well the good news is that it wont really cost you anything that you wouldnt pay already. The only thing it would require is that everyone that is going to step foot into our event area be prepaid at least 2 months a head of time. This would include paying for 2 dinners, lunch, and Tshirt. We do not have the hard figures on cost yet but as an estimate you can expect it to be about $48 initially...but remember its not really a *fee* you are just prepaying your food and Tshirt so that we can have a MUCH better event. We will however put it on a time schedule that the price will go up as the event gets closer in a effort to entice everyone to pay as early as possible. All of the hard dollar amounts will be announced at a later date after we negotiate food prices, ect. We also need to consider things like if we do movie night how much will it be to rent a projector, ect. So this is just a estimate of what you should expect....it might be a little more and it might be a little less. Also the hotel wants us to give them a list of attendees a head of time for room discounts that way they dont just give it to anyone that comes up there and "says" they are with us. They need to control the room discount, this means that you will have to be on the paid up list to get the discount on yoru room (which in 2 nights the discount is close to enough to pay your prepaid event cost).

I think if you enjoyed the 2007 DGRR you are REALLLLY going to like what is in mind for the 2008 event.

I would like to hear suggestions, comments, and feelings on what is in mind for 2008. You guys need to blow up this thread telling me you would love this and have no problem paying up front at least a coupld months a head of time.

Thanks for the support!
Stephen

 

Sounds GREAT!!

The only issues I see are here:

My concerns are with requiring two months advance registration to attend and the $48 dollar amount for dinner/lunch/shirts. I feel like these could have an adverse effect on attendance. If you could bring the registration down to 1 month or 6 weeks and get the registration price to $40 or below. I think that would be ideal. I know it doesn't sound like a big difference but a lot of people will automatically round 48 off to $50 in thier head and that may sound like a bit much to some.

Overall I like it! Keep up the great work and let me know if you need any help!

-Jason

 

There will be a price structure depend on how early people register.. Currently its just an idea and we need to work out the details later on.

 

Something the 8 organizers do for their event is give out 'registration numbers' that allows people who register to get the discount at the village. If you don't register for the event, you don't get a number and therefore you don't get a room at the discounted rate. This way, you and fontana get your head count. Something to think about.

 

I'm trying to contact the person at Fontana regarding to this.. and also trying to see if I could get deeper discounts for those reserves earlier! and less discount for those reserves at the last moment.. We will post this info later..

Remember, we are doing this kind of price structure because it helps us greatly in organizing the event.. Earlier we know who's coming, easier it is for us.

 

the price is already close to what you pay. This year it was buy 2 shirts for lunch, Dinner at sweetwater then dinner at Fontana. was around 48 bucks anyway

 

That is basically what we are having to do. That is why its now so imporatant for everyone to register early, if you dont the village wont give you the discount and you wont be able to be included in the event. I know some people might not like that idea....but its just to big to keep up with on the fly and no venders will support a group this size that way.

Stephen

 

Yea, I know 2 months seems pretty early....we dont have the exact cut off time yet and we still dont have the exact costs. We have to negotiate with the village and work out all of the arrangments first. The "set in stone" pricing and time frame will be some time from now. This is just a close ball park to get feed back from everyone.

Glad you like the ideas,
Stephen

 

I those are great ideas. And yes prepaying may hurt the numbers for a year or so, but gives it more room for growth later on IMO.

If you break say $50 down into this years event standards you get:
$10=shirt/meal, $15=meal, which leaves $25 for dinner and gas Friday night.
Gas was probably at least $10-15 for the drive to robinsville so that gives you $10-15 you get to eat BBQ for dinner which I'm sure most spent. So in reality $50 isn't any more than you spend this year on dinner/shirt.

 

Very concise, clear and well thought out plan. As always, I will be available to help out.

Holly

 

I'm on board.

 

I'm still awaiting to hear back.. but as soon as we do, we will let you know.

But as stated before, signing up early will benefit you the most... Most likely the initial registration cost will be around $50-$60.. Then gratually more expensive as people wait to register. Also, reserving the lodge or cabin will increase as you wait longer.

Also, eventually we will hit a point when we can't accept any more registration...I don't think we'll get to that point, but we shall see...

 

From the ban thread...

 

Yea we have discussed doing something with pictures, maybe even setting up a real good place to take pics with a cool background and having someone that knows what they are doing take nice pics of people and thier car (or just thier car). Something photography related is on our list of ideas.

Thanks for the feed back!

 

The problem will be that many of us lowly 2nd gen and 1st gen owners and I'm sure even some 3rd gen and Rx8 guys are strapped for cash. So, this year you were only required to spend $10 for a shirt/lunch and you were in the door and that's really only if you wanted to eat. you could have bought nothing and just signed a waver, not eaten lunch and driven with the group.

So, While most of us did by shirts and lunch and dinner. Some of us could have showed up with our own food, split a hotel room and gotten away pretty cheaply for the weekend. Requiring a paid registration will take that option away if you want to participate at all except for driving and hanging out at a cabin/ lodge room at night. This is perfectly understandable and I even suggested it myself. A price hike is also understandable as I'm sure the banquet hall costs money to rent. I just don't want the price to climb too high or I'm sure there may be several people who can't make it.

At any rate... I'm sure Phil and Steven will do everything they can to keep the price as low as possible. I'm interested in seeing what the final prices are.

LOL... only three days after DGRR '07 and here we are going over plans for '08!

 

Does that mean we should take caviar off the dinner list??? Dang my plans are going to fall apart hahaha

Yea we are going to try to negotiate to keep it as reasonable as possible so everyone can attend. Its just got so big that vendors cant support us having a group walk in for food and not know how many it is going to be months ahead of time.

We understand this might keep some people from coming but there isnt really anything we can do about it. That is why we are laying this all out in the open and telling everyone 9 months a head of sign up time....so people can start saving if they need to.

We hope everyone understands this. Anyone thats ever been involved in purchasing any kind of catering understands. Food at weddings ect are always prepaid. We are simply too big to do it any other way.

Thanks guys!
Stephen

 

Jason has a point. If at all possible do not include the price of the room within the registration as there were and I'm sure will continue to be several people crashing on someone's couch or even floor...

-Gianny

 

Rooms will not be included in the registration as there are way too many choices from Fontana village.

 

We had a great DGRR 07, but this event is getting too large to keep doing it the same way we have. The registration amount will increase, but it is going to give us the opportunity to make DGRR 08 something to remember! It will also be much less hassle for the organizers and attendees once we arrive. Everything will be paid for and all we have to do is sit back and enjoy it! This will also help the organizers be able to enjoy themselves and not have to run around like crazy to handle all the last minute details and moving the event from one location to another.

 

I can't believe we're planning a year in advance hah! Good idea though. Now... if we could only make it a 4 day event....

 

I personally can't take off too many days from work.. and making it 4 day event will require even more planning for us organizers... and more money you guys need to spend for lodging and such.

We need some of you to understand that we are setting it this way so that its easier on us and also easier on you. Like anything I or others might post here, there will be those who are oppose to it. Unfortunately, we can't make everyone happy.. including me! Please understand that the organizer such as myself have gave up quite a bit at the event and away from the event so others could enjoy.. If you dislike some of the ideas we come up with, remember that there are others that differ with you.. So, Please understand where we are coming from and support us!

Thanks!

PHIL

 

Phil, I didn't and never have said I disliked anything, other than Sweetwater's service. In fact I was a volunteer last year so I know what goes on. If you recall I got us the permission and forms to use the lower area at the dam and was the one who was completely accountable for it. I was down there at 8am to set up and had it ready to go and then you guys changed it to the upper area due to the weather. Had to take it all back down (thanks to those who helped!) and then sat down there telling everyone to go the the upper area till close to noon. I never once asked for a thanks or complained about it. This year I offered to be a "leader".... lot of good that did us but that's another subject but we tried!!!

As far as the four day thingy.... see the wink. I was making a joke. I'll be up there for 4 days no matter what. I couldn't imagine the hassle of trying to make it more than a weekend event for you guys.

I'm all behind you guys and appreciate what you do and go though for us.

Greg

 

Not to speak for Phil but...i dont think his comment asking for people to support the changes was directed at you or anyone specific. He just happened to include it in his post along with the 4 day comment to you.

Thanks for your help Greg, and to all of the other volunteers that helped in 07 and past events. Non of them would be possible without people wanting to contribute.

Thanks for the good comments and suggestions everyone!

Stephen

 

Greg,

I didn't actually meant the last comment towards you... its just a general comment.

 

I guess Stephen beat me to it..