Sure I would have enjoyed myself even in the heat though.
Had another MOA member from MEM, TN with me here in Mt. View, AR.
We were ready to head up but both of us were of the same opinion...just too damn hot.
Hope to see midwest rally dates moved to the fall.
Cheers
If I remember correctly Paul.. You also said that you were going to pull out your sub-zero sleeping bag one night too..
This was my 1st to go to and to all that put it on and volunteered... Congrats!!!!
I had fun, met a whole bunch of people and volunteered as well. As mentioned AC was a plenty, days were warm with a breeze and nights were good. Vendors in 3 buildings and out front of them too. Unless you wanted to leave the grounds for feed there was enough diversity that you did not have too.
Been a member here now going on 6 years, buy my lotto tickets every year and I have to say that every year it is the same ole BS that crops up after the rally. Sheesh folks..
When I was in a club doing 4x4'ing we did 2 rally's a year. Always at the same time. Why you ask??? We had established those dates and that is when the people, vendors and town knew we were coming. We had everything from blistering hot, torrential downpours, tornado's, fog and good weather. No one ever said on the forums "Lets move the date"
If you can make then make it. If it is too hot for you then stay home. If it is too far to go then go to a different rally. It only took me 5 years to get to one.
Originally Posted by Paul_F
Mack McDonald
Garland, Tx.
04 1150 GSA
As far as I know a questioner was sent at last year, I along with a few others I know ( who are not vendors by the way) received them. Among the questions were changing the rally date.
I learn a bit from every experience. I knew that the weather in Sedalia would likely not be the same as it is in Vermont, so planned accordingly. The desert warfare training I had in the Marines helped with this. I knew as long as we were moving and the humidity was reasonable I could get relief with evaporative cooling. I wasn't sure if it would work for a dog, and on this trip I discovered that it did work remarkably well. For those times when we could not move (at the rally, stuck in a construction zone, etc) I carried a small cooler in my topcase. First thing every morning I filled it with ice. By the time the heat kicked in enough had melted so we had chilled drinking water, water for evaporative cooling, and cold water for Barley's belly in case we had to go into urgent cool down mode. (We had to on the return trip when stuck in traffic at an accident scene.) We found out that 1500 miles is about our limit in that kind of heat. It's easier to cool myself than to cool my dog, and in high heat with all the hydration and soak breaks my max daily mileage is about 350 miles a day.
In the end all these commonsense precautions helped us stay safe and have a great time. We learned something about our limits, we saw some old friends, met several new friends, enjoyed the volunteer thing, and have utterly nothing to complain about.
Well, except that in all the excitement I forgot about the bottle of 15 year old Scotch in the sidecase...
'07 R1200GS for solo rides
'10 R1200GSA with Hannigan dual sport sidecar for rides with Barley
Can anyone give an example of an annual gathering of any club or organization that has changed the traditional date of their meeting and what the results were?
One very serious logistics problem in changing the date includes the first year when you may not have a full year to prepare. We like things to be convenient, but having a set date makes planning for the volunteers and attendees much easier. July works.
If you don't want to go, don't. If you do, then go. If you do, you will have a weekend filled with information, entertainment, and camaraderie. As far as the weather, you can expect nothing no matter what month you choose.
i don't doubt that questioners were sent out at some point in time. what i am questioning is were they only sent to the people who attended the rally, if so that would seem to me that it would produce biased results.As far as I know a questioner was sent at last year, I along with a few others I know ( who are not vendors by the way) received them. Among the questions were changing the rally date.
i think to get fair, unbiased results you need to poll not only those who attended the rally but those who choose not to attend.
look at it this way. lets say there are 30,000 total members and 6000 attend the rally. that leaves 24,000 members that choose not to attend. what caused such a large percentage of the total membership not to attend? if you really want to know you don't poll the 6000 members that went to the rally, you poll the 24,000 that did not attend. if out of those 24,000 that those chose not to go the majority said they didn't attend because of the time/dates then it is obvious that the majority of the total membership would like the rally dates changed.
I was sorry to read that attendance was only 50% or so of two years ago.
It is understandable that the extraordinary heat this year and last is likely a major reason why the attendance suffered so. That is one reason among several others why I was not able to attend this year or last.
The weather in Salem, Oregon, is much better at this time of the year.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...2=-123.034&e=1
Perhaps next year's attendance will recover and surge back toward 10K. I hope so.
Jeff Dean -- BMW MOA Ambassador
Friend of the Marque (1999) -- Prof. Gerhard Kn?Âchlein BMW Classic Award (2013)
BMW MOA #115, VBMWMO #2 (1972) -- MSF Chief Instructor (1994)
Motorr?ñder web site: http://www.bmwdean.com/
What drives my wife and I to go to the rally?
Location, location, location. If it is too far we don't go because we don't want to spend too much time traveling back and forth. Good riding once there for me and interesting place to go without riding for us (like to have interesting off the bike time). The more vendors the merrier, we enjoy seeing as many companies that make stuff for our bikes and our needs as possible. We are motel/hotel folks and we don't use the beer tent but I support the need for camping space and beer sales.
Summer is essential as my wife is a college counselor and that is the easiest time to get significant time off. If we attend a rally it is part of a longer MC vacation, so being in proximity to other interesting destinations/rides makes it more desirable. I have truly enjoyed the rallies I have been to, I usually volunteer in registration on the first day and have had a blast every time.
I think our elected leaders want to put on a great rally and I believe they have largely succeeded. I also believe this topic or something very similar will never go away regardless of what time of year or location is chosen.
FYI - no "survey" went out last year - just a minute sampling of a 34,000 member club, and some vendors.
In the 6 years I've been a member, to my recollection, there has NEVER been a true survey (that's ALL members asked) - just samplings, for which the politically correct term is "market research." I too did not get contacted for my opinion.
I'll go to rallies whenever they schedule them, but sure wish late May or early September had been presented to the membership (Yup - all 34k) - curious what they would have said?!
Last edited by Greenwald; 07-26-2012 at 12:34 AM.
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I would like to comment on the vendor issue;
Having been a vendor at rallies ( not the MOA) in the past.
I think we should all take a moment and try to walk in their shoes;
A vendor for the most part has to pay for the space at the location, provide an exorbitant cost insurance policy to whom ever is putting on the rally , if they have a brick and mortar store they need to have someone to man it while they are away,then they need to be at their booth for hours prescribed by the rally masters, pay to either haul or ship their goods to the location and back home again. Plus a miriad of other niggling things that do not come to mind at the moment.
Then the vendors out of their own pocket provide daily door prizes , plus free give away items at their respective booths.
Is it a cost of doing business ?
Yes it is, but they really go the extra mile to make big rallies a hit with their target audiences.
They also need a bunch of time to plan for these events.
So my suggestion is to have a major rally every year in the same location at the same time . Those that can make it will , and those that cannot probably would not go anyway no matter the dates or the location.
The Americade/Daytona/Sturgis/ what ever you like rally has been held in the same location for a long time now and as far as I know it is a sell out every year.
MAD DOG here:
Just got back to Ct.
First/ Thank You!!! All volunteers in the Beer Tent. We kept the suds flowing.
Second/ Yes, we Rally Chairs are doing it year in and year out. We need new blood!! Talk to me.
Third/ How hot was it? Lindsey Lohan was one of the rally-goers. It was so hot she came into the beer tent and bought WATER!!!!!
MAD DOG
aka Jim Faucher Beer Chair
No! No one here can give an example that a floating date is profitable which is why it's simple ignored. I brought this up last year, and the year before. Many here haven't a clue as to the dollars it cost to stage an event like this, yet they wish to gamble the dollars of the club on something like a floating date.
Some years ago when I was on the executive board of a large German auto club I heard the same thing. We had a traditional date in July for our largest attending drivers ed event at Watkins Glen. Yep, their were a few who bitched and moan about that time of the year being too hot, yea they had their reasons, easier on the car, the driver, instructors, etc. So one year we moved that date to June. It was a complete disaster. Attendance was way off, the weather was completely unpredictable as it tends to be that time of the year at the Glen, and the club lost so much money that it impacted future events for sometime.
No one here will ever give you an example that a floating date works for any large annual gathering of anything.
Actually attendance was not off 50% what it was two years ago in Redmond as I think attendance was in the mid 6K in Oregon. Johnson City TN and Burlington Vermont were the biggest attending rallies at over 9K. Don't look for record braking crowds in Salem as the west coast rallies doesn't produce them and with the MOA just having a rally in pretty much the same location just two years ago many from the east and many I talked to in the mid west are not planing on attending.
Random sampling is essential to accuracy in market research.
I think you really hit the nail on the head. Even though the fairgrounds were great this year and the people in the area charming if I wasn't a vendor I simple would have stayed home. There was nothing of real interest that this area held for me. Usually my wife comes wife me and we try to have a vacation before or after the MOA. That didn't happen this year for us as there wasn't anything that we were interested in spending time at. I think that also hurt attendance along with the unusual hot weather we had last year in Bloomsburg.
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