I have been to every NW Fest. And this one was VERY different than any of the others that I remember. I think that the biggest reason is the shear number of people. When I pulled in to camp (early Friday morning). I was shocked at the number of people who I didn't know (and there are VERY few people that I do not know by name or face on our board and I have wheeled with the vast majority of them). Here are my thoughts, concerns, recommendations.
1. Organization before hand. I have always said that this should not be put on the BOD (they have enough other issues to deal with). I think we should put a few people together to help with Food, Raffle, Trail Runs (organized before hand), Other.
It was a huge group to be left on the shoulders of Ryan and I. Yes, it is our own faults for not seeking out voulenteers. Next years will have such.
2. Camp. I have always believed that it should be held at a location that is family friendly (toilets, running water at the minimum!). I believe we need to look and reserve NOW for next year a location that will be big enough for all of us to be centrally located (with campers, trailers, tents, motor homes, etc) and with a "shelter" or campfire centrally located for the festivities, eating, raffle, etc. so that we can all (as 1 group, not 3) participate together as best as possible.
I think Long Meadow was a good place to hold the event. There were toilets(better than last years find a bush/nasty self made hole in the ground outhouse), but no running water. I think that was said before hand though. A location to reserve would be nice, but most places are first come, first serve. I dont think it would have been a good idea to bunch everyone together. Having a place as large as we did was good, gave people to spread out farther and have their space. The dinner/raffle was centrally located this year. As far as having 3 different campfires, it would be difficult to fit 50+ people around one. I think it was the choice of each individual to choose what campfire they sat around. Not knocking anyone for doing that, it was their own choice.
3. Tech inspection, Sign in. I agree that we need this for several reasons and we need to have it at a specified time set before hand (in this case we could have done it Friday evening or Sat morning). We should have a record of the vehicles that were pressent and the condition they were in. This also helps introduce people to each other (particularly those who are relatively new to the group).
See above comments.
4. Dinner. I think that a Pot Luck is asking for a disaster with a group this large. I think it needs to be a formal dinner (John did a wonderful job and always has but it should not be on his shoulders to provide this). Someone other than the BOD could organize this or we could have someone like Costco put everthing together for us for a small fee. John, I take full responsibility for my group coming back WAY too late off the trail, we did expect to be back in time for dinner but obviously in retrospect with the length of trails and size of the group we had it took much longer than I anticipated and we missed out on a wonderful meal, the commoradity of the group, and the raffle. Again, I appologize and it was not the intention at all but I agree with you, this was not appropriate and should have been avoided.
It was not your fault your group got back late on Saturday. It was nobodys fault. Shit happens, and sometimes cannot be avoided. As far as John providing dinner, he voulenteered to do so. Yes, the chapter could of helped out, and still can, with the costs of it. As far as having Costco or a catering company provide dinner, would be a bad idea. Cost would be too great, and I dont think they would want to drive out to the sticks to set it up. John did a wonderful job.
5. Raffle. Again, should be done before hand, with assistance from others not on the BOD and it should be a great way for the chapter to raise money. This is not easy for people who have not done this in the past or don't have connections. This group has a pretty long list of connections and we should "learn" how to do this so that it is not such a burden for any of us.
You've said it best. We do not have any connections. I tried a few vendors here, but got no responses back from them. We'll be asking a few people to help out with that next year.
6. Invitation. It has always been in the past that you had to be a MEMBER or invited by a Member to attend (a member could invite 1 friend). This year seemed to be "out of hand" with the number of non
members in attendance. And I belive this had a LOT to do with the disfunction of the entire group. I am not picking on particular people (I wheeled with a bunch of non members and enjoyed all of them) but as a whole I think that it created a lot more disfunction of the group.
I dont want our club, the NW Chapter part, to seem like a circlejerk of just members. Inviting non members, or non Jeepers to the event is a good way to get them to know what we are about. I dont think it was out of hand that we had a few non guys there.
7. Trail Runs. I agree that these should be planned in advance with trail leaders and a max number of people in each group. I was very disapointed in the time it took to get on the trail each morning. Or at least a drivers Meeting each morning at a set time to organize the people.
See above comments.
8. On the trail. CB's are helpful (way too many issues with them this year) and I agree with it being said above, I tried to make it clear to each of my groups that you always keep the person in front and behind in your rear view mirror. We didn't have much of an issue with this in any of my groups but it doesn't seem to be as common knowledge than I thought. I think we might need a REAL noobfest to go through some more of this stuff.
See above comments.
9. Drinking. I love a beer (I know some of you don't believe me) but I am absolutely SICK of seeing people drinking on the trails!!!!!!! I can't say this enough, I am DONE with it and I believe that as a group we need to decide up front how we are going to deal with this. This is not a single person issue, this is a list of people and I think it needs to be delt with NOW.
I may be blind, but I didnt see anyone drinking and wheeling on the trails. Yes, I had ONE beer when we were at the rock for 2 hours. I dont see it as an issue at all. If someone cannot be adult or mature enough to keep it to a safe minimum, then they need to be asked to leave. It is policy to not drink while wheeling, but we cannot police every vehicle and see what the driver is up to. If they keep it to themselves, we wont know about it.
10. Late night festivities. I am with Rod. I was kept up from 1:30 till after 4:00am listening to the crap, swearing, WAY TOO loud music blaring inapropriate music, hooting, and who knows what else. Luckily for me, my son slept through it, but this is supposed to be a family event and this was far from that! In the past we have had late night (2:00am) drinking and I don't have an issue with that, it is part of the fun of it (even I enjoy it, believe it or not). But I believe there needs to be some sort of understanding in advance. Personaly I was seriously concerned about the safetly of people in attendance (rape, alcohol poisening, etc) maybe I am way out of line (I didn't see anything first hand), but it didn't sound like it from the distance I was hearing it from. This is NOT the kind of activities I think we want to condone in the future. It doesn not represent
or anyone else well.
See above comments.
I did enjoy the weekend. I really enjoyed the time I spent with my son, a handful of others I wheeled with and talked with at camp. However, I really feel like I missed out on what I have grown to love about NW Fest in the past. If there is anything that I can do in the future I would be more than happy to support.
Michael