pauljmcnulty
Active member
Me? If I had something else to do that weekend I'd probably be thinking twice, personally. I'm sorry we can't do more, but you all know we've effectively had two changes of board since this event was booked, so it's not been organised as well as it should have. [&o]
I'll be there from late Friday in the bar. Saturday will be all about the 944s for me; it's my role, I guess, to at least hang around the area we'll be in and meet people. Same on Sunday, as it's a two day event and lots of people will come for only one day. Staying over Saturday night does mean you get the evening with your friends.
I suppose the National event is more about the people than the cars, in many ways. It was always the only time the whole membership had the chance to come together each year (although that has been diluted by other big events, which is why I have long asked for one National event only). We've always tried to put things like anniversary displays, the big red/white/blue display, that sort of thing, but it's not really a "register" event as such. We have Frontrunner for that, although that's been struggling to find a format recently.
It's nice to have another chance to meet the other 944 owners, but we do have plenty of smaller events where we can do this. The national is, to me at least, somewhere you park your car and then go off and do things, meet people from all different parts of the country with different cars, look at the other models, that sort of thing. It's less about grouping around the 944s and opening bonnets. It's nice to have one focussed area for the cars, to park up and have a meeting-point, but it's not the main reason for going to what is really a social and family event.
The other thing is whether we lay anything on for the Register within our area? Again, with the lack of suggestions it's hard to know what to do; some will remember the technical demos we layed on at Brands Hatch, where less people, literally, came to watch, than had put there cars in for the demo! It was a lot of work, and expense, for nothing, hence me always wanting feedback about ideas before we carry them forward. I suppose we could all, say, bring a picnic and have lunch together on one of the days? If anyone wants to do some sort of talk, presentation or whatever that could be arranged. I don't know, but there's plenty of time to think about it.
I can only apologise, but when so many people walk away in the middle of preparations it's not easy to pick up the pieces. This year is more about consolidating, and then moving forward. That's why I need more ideas for future events; I have Frontrunner to plan for next year and it could incorporate ideas that you guys want, not just us imposing another format you don't really want. We know we'll get the usual active members who turn up to nearly everything, but I want to get the rest of you out to things. We've got access to a lot of resources, just going through a list of Geoff's rally routes around the Cotswolds would take a year! But, if we organised Frontrunner to start with something like technical talks at Cornbury House, followed by a rally to somewhere like Gaydon (or any other venue), would that be a day out that people would want to attend?
C'mon, let's get some of the passion and energy focussed in to doing things, rather than arguing on bloody forums! [
][][]
