Next Year's RNG

Matthew 10:16

Matthew 10:16

Member # 003
Location
Bethalto, IL.
First Name
David
Last Name
Virgin
Hey Clois, Dean & others: Is it too soon to begin discussing our club's involvement in next year's RNG? How do you see this evolving? What was good/positive about our club's involvment? What conversly was bad in that respect? Be honest. Constructive criticism is good if delivered & handled properly. What about the car show? Tom Keiser was not optomistic going in due to the time of year. His opinion appears, at this time, to be dead on. Agree or disagree & why? If it is determined that a GCC car show at RNG is a no go next year, how do you see us helping next year?
 
My reservations about the car show were not because of the time of year but rather the nature of the event. These guys come to race not show and after a hard week those that were not already headed for home were busy drag racing or just plain winding down and enjoying the time to talk with fellow competitors. I didn't feel that any Run N Gun participants would be interested and that it would be tough to draw entrants from the outside to Gateway because of the east side location and the fact that there are always plenty of shows elsewhere this time of year. I think that all of our efforts would be better directed towards helping Dean & Clois with whatever they need. Now that everyone has been there and seen what it's all about I hope you understand why I couldn't see the car show being a hit. On the other hand, free coffee every morning was a big hit. Some guys were so thrilled with it that they wanted to pay anyway so I told them to just buy a 50/50 ticket :). Next year should be even better.

Tom
 
A follow up meeting within the club will soon follow. Mark will organize, just give us a bit to digest what we've taken in this past week. Tom, I agree, but the event's advertising was basically word of mouth across three or four forums. I think with a little advertising it would be better. The event location is notorious for lack of advertising (not with just this event), or maybe it's money. I better shut up now. :rolleyes:
 
TOM KEISER said:
My reservations about the car show were not because of the time of year but rather the nature of the event. These guys come to race not show and after a hard week those that were not already headed for home were busy drag racing or just plain winding down and enjoying the time to talk with fellow competitors. I didn't feel that any Run N Gun participants would be interested and that it would be tough to draw entrants from the outside to Gateway because of the east side location and the fact that there are always plenty of shows elsewhere this time of year. I think that all of our efforts would be better directed towards helping Dean & Clois with whatever they need. Now that everyone has been there and seen what it's all about I hope you understand why I couldn't see the car show being a hit. On the other hand, free coffee every morning was a big hit. Some guys were so thrilled with it that they wanted to pay anyway so I told them to just buy a 50/50 ticket :). Next year should be even better.

Tom
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This was exactly my concern as well...as I expressed at the first RNG meeting. These are racers...not show and shine people. Hopefully now that the club officers have first hand knowledge of the flavor of the event...the focus will shift away from car shows and focus more on the racers and race related activities.

Please keep in mind...this is NOT London and should not be treated as such. This is a very different crowd as many have now acknowledged.

As Tom stated...the coffee and hot chocolate was an excellent move in retrospect and should continue.

The Chili idea was also excellent...but several people showed up at 5PM asking where the Chili was...? Unfortunately there wasn't any at 5PM... Two guys in particular left visibly disappointed.

For the very same reason the coffee and hot chocolate were popular throughout the day...a quick bowl of hot food would also be a big hit. Perhaps next year the Chili (or soup) could be continued, but from lunch on. There is no need to address breakfast as the racers will have just come from their rooms and would have had breakfast each morning. But by mid day and late afternoon...they will be getting hungry. The hours the track refreshment stands are open were VERY limited. Each time Kathy and I went by on Thursday...they were closed. Some people were leaving the track to get food at the truck stop. For many racers...they don't want to leave the facility to eat. They want to remain at the track. Having a quick bowl of Chili or soup at lunch or early dinner would suffice for most of them. Again, the idea was EXCELLENT...and should be expanded. The issue this year was that those who were looking for Chili at 5pm as advertised...could't get any.

I personally was VERY impressed with the photo service and quality of photos taken. I was surprised that there was not more participation by racers. However, racers tend to spend more of their funds on performance improvements leaving little left for other enhancements. As good as the quality was for the large photos...they might have been a little too pricey at over $300 for 85% of the competitors present.

In any event, the first RNG participation by the club was an unquestionable success and a great starting point for next year.

Although all the volunteers contributed to this success... a special thanks needs to go out to Mark and Tim in particular who put in so much time and effort to make this event successful.

K&K
 
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Good thoughts all. A follow up meeting will be forthcoming, and any additional ideas would be appreciated.

Kerry - there was a reason for the Chilli not being there exactly at 5 as well as why food/drinks weren't being served from 10:30 - 2.

I know the old saying, everyone wants a radio until they have one, but, in order for us to be more involved and help, I think one radio for our group would help us help them. There were many questions asked at the booth that I didn't know, but I found Clois or Dean and asked them. A radio would have saved many footsteps. For those that didn't come, this is what we did this year to help (Mark add on if I missed anything)

- Bruce and I assisted in parking manufacturer's trailers - I managed to screw the first one up so Bruce wouldn't :D
- Assisted Sharon in Registration - stuffing goody bags, folding shirts etc....
- Served Chilli Thursday
- Paul volunteered to assist on the grid with the cars
- Mark/Ben - took care of multiple action shots of ALL the cars that made it to the track and then some.
- Tony/Mike W./Dean/Bill - Provided some fresh eyes on a problem with the White GT/40 parked next to our booth.
- We served Hot Chocolate/Coffee/Regular and Diet Soda's and water throughout the week

Now that Dean/Clois/Jay/James know how active this group is, they can better use our manpower/group next year. Stay tuned!
 
I apologize profusely to Tom if..................

I miss spoke or did not correctly state everything he said when I attempted convey what he said. Thank You for clarifying what you said for every one's benefit Tom. I thought our target audience for the car show was not RNG participants per se but people who did not ordinarily attend RNG. We handed out numerous flyer's at car shows throughout the summer trying to attract car show types to our show. It didn't work for whatever reason(s). I just thought a discussion on why might be beneficial. It could be a myriad of reasons. Perhaps poor time of year, poor location, etc.
 
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Clois and/or Dean,

Is there any sort of follow up with participants after each years RNG? I know when I go to work related events, I usually am asked to complete a survey or questionaire about the events, what I liked, or what could be improved.

Car show no work. No need to figure out why. Let's focus on making ourselves more useful for these guys next year and maybe get some feedback from racers on what could be done to make RNG that much better.

And we need to attract Factory Five back as a manufacturers rep. There has been a lot of feedback about them not showing in a long time on ffcobra.com.

Maybe a little bit more than my $0.02 worth...

Scott
 
I did mention to Clois and Dean about not having a car show, and they both said at the track that we should keep it. I just think better advertising/promotion would help. It was a beautiful day, people haven't put their cars away yet, people with classic cars live on the east side too.....which......we didn't hand out ANY fliers on the East side, did we.?! Hmmm. Maybe canvasing East side car shows instead of Chuck a Burger and McNair Park would serve us better. I think we need to be careful when thinking about serving food. Just think this will be asking a lot more of this club than it is/can give.

So, we've beat the car show to death. Where else could we get involved?
 
Don't mean to beat.................

the Car Show "issue" to death nor make it a "sore" issue. I did pass out quite a few of our fliers at east side cruises & car shows that I went to besides McNair Park & CAB in Mo.
 
Car Show

I agree with Tom on the car show issue. It may not have shown it, but there was a great deal of work (and money) that went into the car show. Issues such as location, competition with other established shows and time of the year worked against us. I would rather donate my time and money to something more beneficial.

Clyde
 
Clyde, I know I haven't told you, but thanks for all the work and effort you and Tom spent on this. Sorry it didn't work out better. You've been a part of your other club and seen it grow I'm sure. How did their first car show go? If nothing else, your tent setup and preparation were awesome. Thanks again. :D
rocker.png
 
Thanks

for your input Clyde. You are a wise & experienced car show master & guru. Tom's experience, expertise & comments are also very helpful. I admire & respect both of you immensely.
 
My $.02.

I like all the ideas above, I would suggest if we do a car show that is Friday afternoon by the track. I know the turn out would be lower, but it would be more contained and the racers would have people there maybe to watch. It also would allow people to see the manufacturers as well.

Personally I would have like to see a better layout for the manufacturers. Personally I think all racers should be back by the garage(east side) and the manufacturers off to the north or south. I didn't get a garage space, but I would have liked to be closer to everything than I was.

Dean and Clois will now give us a wealth of info as to how they want us to be involved next year.

I am also in complete agreement that $300 was too much for the photos. One, I at first thought we were to buy one of the photos with Mark's or Tim's mug on it. Keep in mind the photo is nearly as much as the race, not to mention the hotel and food for the weekend. Food for thought, I myself spent over $2,000 for the weekend. I would have loved to get a photo of me racing, but $300 was just too much at that point.
 
Good Commentary & food for thought Carpe'

Others??????? Chime in. No opinion is a bad one. Some just better than others. :D
 
M164285 said:
I agree with Tom on the car show issue. It may not have shown it, but there was a great deal of work (and money) that went into the car show. Issues such as location, competition with other established shows and time of the year worked against us. I would rather donate my time and money to something more beneficial.

Clyde
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I agree with Clyde 110%. We did the car show because Clois and Dean envisioned it as being part of the new and improved RNG week and asked us to help. We were up to giving it a shot and our best efforts and we did the best we could. The result wasn't what we wanted even though it was marketed well through our efforts and that of Wier Auto.

Having all the club cars parked inside the fence looked really cool and I think that we should do the same setup next year....club booth and all of our cars in our own little "show and shine" of our club pride. Heck, in a couple of years we'll be able have 30 of our own rides there...now that would be a great annual (car) show of pride.
 
6stringcobra said:
Having all the club cars parked inside the fence looked really cool and I think that we should do the same setup next year....club booth and all of our cars in our own little "show and shine" of our club pride. Heck, in a couple of years we'll be able have 30 of our own rides there...now that would be a great annual (car) show of pride.
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Here Here!
 
Sorry I am just checking in. I would love to have a follow up meeting to go over the event. I would call it a huge success. Lets pick a time in the next couple of weeks for a meeting to get some thoughts on paper before the memory gets to fuzzy. Everyone is welcome.
 
Review

I think this is an excellent idea. Capture thoughts onto paper while they are still fresh. Then next spring/summer they can be reviewed and implemented or tweaked as necessary

Let me know a date, I've put some thoughts down. I think we were a hit to the drivers, may need to adjust some of the spectator items.

Paul
 
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