British V8 2014

[Moderator]

It's not that the polling booths are in the east, it just seems that those willing to volunteer are mostly in the east.

If you chart out where participants are from, meet after meet, I expect you'll see that the biggest number are from the midwest (not the east) and there's usually a strong contingent from southern Ontario.

This year, Calvin's drive time from the Sacramento area must have been about 27 hours. The two cars that came from Canada had to drive about 23 hours each. (Although I think Ken and Katie made big detours...)  

FWIW, if we WERE voting I'd be pulling for Canada or New England.  A longer road trip means I get to enjoy my car more.

However, I don't see how I can possibly make it to two meets in one summer. I doubt many people could.

My intuition is that Colorado won't be far enough west to draw more than a handful of participants from the west coast. (I guess we'll find out.) On the other hand, it will be our third meet in a row west of the Mississippi.

[Bill Young]

I'm fairly new to the group, this year was only my 5th meet to attend but I have learned a bit from the others that have hosted events in the past. I'm not ashamed to admit that I have asked Rick a lot of questions about hosting the meet in Omaha next year. Art and Larry should know that part of the questions about their hosting an event may well come because we haven't had the chance to meet them in person. There is a pretty good fund that the group has put together from our yearly auctions and such to help defray expenses for a meet and some of us are just being careful that our reserves are truely going to be used in an appropriate manner, trusting the persons involved is a big part of that and having the chance to meet someone and talk to them goes a long way in helping form that bond of trust. I have no doubt that both Larry and Art are very sincere guys and will do us proud if they host an event, but at the same time posting on the forum or the MGE isn't the same as meeting a guy in person and sharing a few stories over a beer. I doubt if either of them wouldn't be a bit careful if someone that they didn't know personally said hey, I"ll host an event please send me $6000 to pay for the initial expenses. Please understand the reluctance of many of our group from that perspective.
The actual location of the meet isn't that big a deal to most of us, so Colorado or Califorinia would be fine with me, I could have the Jag  towed back from either location I guess!

[mowog1]

Seems to me that we're trying to fix something that is not broken.

If you want to host a meet, step up to the table and make the offer.

If there are two meets in the same year, separated by thousands of miles, so be it.

Just don't plan them so close together that someone who may want to attend both cannot attend both. (We all have lives outside of our cars, right?!)

But I fear that this may precipitate a "division" of the group that even a "five year meet" could not fix.

These meets are like homecomings/reunions to me.

Let's not make them too difficult to plan or attend.

[danmas]

If you divide the contiguous US into two parts, east and west, the dividing line would be the longitude running through Lebanon, KS. By that criterion, every V8 meet, including the next two, were held in the east. Not every one is willing (nor has the spare time) to drive 1500-2500 miles for one of our meets, as wonderful as these meets are. Splitting into two meets might divide us a bit, but no more than geography already does. It would, however, give more people a chance to participate.

No matter where we hold the meets, how many we have, they will still be out of reach for some. The U.S. of A. is a BIG country!

[roverman]

Someone mentioned maybe 1 year near/in the west, 1 near/in the east and 3 rd in MW ?  In this way, folks might get to see special events, not directly associated with LBC's. Events like "Hot August Nights"-Reno or Vintage Auto Races(perhaps a British featured marque), at Laguna Seca with Concour de Elegance, Pebble Beach all the same weekend,all close to Carmel and 17 mile drive. These are big events that could coincide with our function.   Cheers, roverman.

[mowog1]

Personally, I do not want to coinicide with a big event.

These events are like a homecoming.

We don't need other distractions.

As for alternating locations...it takes volunteers willing to work on these events two to three years in advance. They don't happen overnight.

[kstevusa]

The work load is tremendous and time frame seems to be 2 Years +.  Bill Y. has been involved for over 2 years on the 2013 event.  
I have not helped in a V8 event , but just getting the Shreveport La. Rendevous set up and price agreed on the 1 night hotel took quite a bit of time and effort.  The job done in the past by our volunteers has been great and all are to congratulated, especially Emily Fulton and maybe Max:).  Having our event with another could be OK if not running concurrently.  The meet Dan had in Townsend began after the Blount Co. Club had their show.  Usually there are adequate events to keep us busy and not having another venue to split us up is a plus.   Thanks to anyone that is willing to devote enough time and effort to host any futre events!

[Moderator]

Sometimes it works out to schedule our meets back-to-back with other events, and I actually think it's a very good idea. Vintage races particularly appeal to me.

By happy coincidence, the 2009 meet in Durham NC started one day after the "Gold Cup" race weekend at Virginia International Raceway (about an hour away) - and it was especially worthwhile for BritishV8 fans to be there because that weekend four MGB GT V8 racecars gathered to race.

BritishV8s at VIR


MGB GT V8 racecars at VIR


Actually, I was stunned the previous year when we met in Wisconsin that no one stayed over for Brian Redman's (Kohler) International Challenge weekend at Road America... huge vintage race weekend! A chance to see Can-Am and Formula 5000 cars at speed on one of America's finest and fastest road courses. Go figure.

Our 2006 meet in Townsend TN was back to back with MG2006 in Gatlinburg (less than an hour away) - and I'm sure that was one of the reasons why turnout was especially high and also why folks like the Milners and the Guzmans were willing to drive from California to participate.

[danmas]

I'm afraid we're going to scare off any potential volunteers. Having 2-3 years to plan and lots of help is nice, but not required. Both the '03 and the '06 meets here in Townsend were planned and cordinated entirely by my self in less than one year. If I can do it, it ain't all that difficult. Perhaps they would have been better if I had more help, but they were adequate as they were, and adequate is better than no meet at all.

Once the meet begins, you will need help, but that is readlily available from the participants, family members, and/or a few locals, not necessarily club members. In the case of the Townsend meets, that help involved such things as picking up fried chicken, setting up tables, refilling ice chests, frying burgers, brewing coffee, etc.

As for tying in with other events, I'm ambivelant. All three of the Townsend events have been in conjuction with other events, either at the same time, or before or after. In '03, we had the local British car gathering at the motel next door and the Street Rod show in Knoxville at the same time. In '06, we had MG 2006 in Gatlinburg right after. In '11, we had the Local British car gathering right before. I think the other events helped us in all three cases, but not significantly. I don't think they hurt us at all. At each, some of the participants at our meet attended the other events so we helped them as well.

I concur whole-heartily with Rick on the homecoming/reunion aspect of these meets. For that reason, I would not like to see them get too big. That may sound a bit cliquish, but we certainly don't act like a clique. I don't know of any newcomer to one of our meets that didn't feel like part of the family within a few minutes. The problem for me with getting too big is that you can't know and talk to every one if there's too many. It would lose the family feel. I'm happy to see people coming to the meet as a stranger, but I hate to see them leave that way.

[lars49]

Well the wildfire has just consumed one of the venues I had planned and another two are threatened.  The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is scheduled for the end of next week and that may have to be canceled.  

To allay any "fears", anyone  in the Denver area is welcome at our ad-hoc bi-weekly LBC breakfast meetings at the Patty Jewett Golf club at 9:00am.  The next one is scheduled for the July 6th.  That's assuming we are all still here of course.  http://www.pikespeaklbcgroup.com/