Rallied......
Why a Rally Lives and Dies

Editoral by Robert Carr

 
   

This article was initially submitted to GWRRA for an article in their magazine.

I was never informed the article was to be printed, so it is now being submitted to our readers here. Apparently it brought to light too many problems they didn't want to take a stance on.

While some readers will get offended, the vast majority will agree completely with the information, of that I am sure. If you are of the offended group, then you are most likely one of the problems. Take heed and do something about it, see if you can save the once exploding world of rally attendees.

Rallied……..

Groups and associations are formed to bring people together and spread the values the particular group is working for. One would expect the rallies put on by these groups to be done on some sort of a standardized format. But, apparently, such is not the case for GWRRA. For that reason I felt the need to bring to light some of the problems we have encountered with various rallies and their coordinators. This is not an article simply picking on the way rallies are run. On the contrary, it’s a how-to list based on those events which are friendly to the attendees and vendors alike. The reasons people attend motorcycle rallies are as varied as the people themselves. Some will partake in games usually associated with a rally, others will be satisfied to mingle with the crowd, and others use it as a time to stock up on chrome. In trying to meet these needs the groups have apparently taken on the idea, though, that we must pay just for having the privilege of being there, whether we attend any of the chapter events or not. The idea of paying is not unreasonable, as long as you get something of value in return. Personally, I attend for the company and to pick up that special piece of chrome I missed last time, never for the games, meetings or events.

Location, Location, Location
Not every rally is blessed with areas such as the Smokey Mountains or the Northwest Coastline, but each areas has it’s highpoints. Why not make use of them? We attended a rally where the area was sparse for riding interest, but offered much in local historical attractions. The organizers had parking lot games and costume contests but nothing in the way of an organized tour of the area. We were told this was normal for that district’s event, so we marked it off our return list. Probably the most enjoyable of all are the campsite rallies where the vendors are located in or near the camping area, such as the Davis Rally in Iowa. This allows for a very casual event where you can leave your bike to get work done, and also allows vendor shopping during the evening. It also tends to keep attendees together making for a much more enjoyable event. Speaking of evening vendor shopping, why is it ‘motel rally’ vendors close shop just before dinner? After dinner, when everyone gets together, wouldn’t you think a good place to congregate would be the vendor area for free coffee & ice tea, while shopping?

Rally Values
In the rally world there’s one constant we’re told, and have experienced; you’ll never go away from a BMW rally hungry, that’s right, BMW. On opening evening there’s usually some sort of meal included for those who wander in. And there’s always fresh coffee, ice tea, and sometimes a potluck dinner for all. Why? Because they must believe in value, I guess. Most other rallies we’ve attended have been Goldwing based, and they vary greatly as to the value received. The better ones include at least one good meal and a chance to win a large door prize. The lower end ones charge for attending and give nothing in return, not even a meal. Then there are those which are just plain deceptive. For instance, a rally we attended was giving away several thousands of dollars for poker runs and door prizes. Sounded good, but the funds were in savings bonds, a small detail which wasn’t announced until the closing ceremonies. That rally no longer exists, no wonder as to why.

Who Attends a Rally
Rally organizers need to remember there are only two people who count for having the rally; the vendors and the attendees. There are widely varying ways in how organizers are treating vendors, which is leading to many vendors skipping certain rallies. Folks, without vendors you don’t have anything but another chapter meeting. Several recent rallies we have attended didn’t require any ‘admission’ to the vendor areas. Our group all spent money there. Another one required a day pass to enter the inside area but not to the outside vendors. We spent money only with the outside vendors there. There’s never a reason to spend a day-pass fee just to see if you want to spend money on something else. I’ve been told by vendors at some rallies they’ve had paying customers removed from their booths and been told not to deal with anyone who doesn’t have a paid entrance pass. Vendors pay to be there as part of their business. The vendor fees are to cover the expenses incurred by the coordinators in renting the areas for them.. Would you pay each time you went to the mall to ‘look around’? Most of us have a ‘rally budget’ for each trip, and if I have to spend an extra $10 just to see the vendors, that’s $10 less I’m going to spend with them. I understand rallies are one of the money making events for the chapters. Give us 'rally bucks' to spend with the vendors, equal to the gate fee. Then we are getting the value we require. We spend money with vendors and everyone is happy

For the most part the money collected by rally organizers is donated to charity. However, that’s not a reason for gouging outsiders to fund their causes, no matter how good their intentions are. When bringing up this issue the response from the organizers usually contains something about it being an all volunteer group. I can’t quite seem to understand how the term ‘volunteer’ equates to charging for everything. One chapter we know of uses the dues and event money to pay for dinner & drinks for the chapter officers when they have a meeting. Vendors we talked to said they are now asking the rally sponsors if their customers will be required to purchase a day-pass to enter the vendor area, and moving on to other rallies if they don’t like what they hear.

Getting the info out – the Cyber Way !
Submissions - Why do coordinators attempt to keep their events a secret? Just a couple of years back a small cycle-based paper published in the South went out of business. We called the folks who had it and inquired about taking over the operation, as it provided a very good source for upcoming events. They said their biggest problem was in getting information about the events, and most of their cost of operation was in calling long distance to get info from event coordinators. Apparently, nobody would send in the info in an effort to promote the events. I then proceeded to set up a free internet site for events, using postings from various publications to get started. We got a lot of traffic, several emails thanking us for such a needed service, and a few submissions. For the next year we sent a request to all GWRRA district contacts and a few others.. We received 4 submissions, and the typical response was “…we’ll pass this along and see if anyone is interested”…. Come on, this was a free listing of your event!

Absolutely, the easiest to use, and most overlooked way of getting the word out about an upcoming rally is the internet. The cyber-world is where your largest market share looks for their info. The more obscure the event, the more you need to use the internet. The GWRRA sites have become a good spot to find out about strictly gwrra events. However, it too needs some help from coordinators. If a chapter has a website about the event, make sure it appears in the listing, no matter who else you submit it to. By only listing an email address for more information you just made more work for yourself, and delayed getting the attendee their information for a rally which may be only days away. Posting your email as the only reference for information is just the same as using an answering machine for all telephone calls. If you had a business would you run a newspaper ad that read ‘Joe’s Business, call 555-5555 and leave a message, we’ll let you know later what we do.’?

Your event is a business, so it needs to be publicized as such.

Build the Site, They Will Come…
But only if you give them information in a practical manner. We have some talented web site creators out here who use many colorful graphics, neat features such as falling leaves and rippling water, and make sure all the required info is on the page. But have you creative folks ever set down and from a websurfer’s point of view and really looked at how long it takes to load your pages on a dial-up modem line? Even now, there are many areas which don’t have high-speed access, and folks who just don’t want to pay the high cost of that access, so your site needs an opt-out to get around the large graphics, if that’s what your site opens with. The most annoying thing on the net is waiting for a full page graphic to load when the text is what has the info you need. By optimizing your graphics, though, you can make a site load much quicker and make it very attractive & useful. It’s generally accepted that if the site doesn’t load in 20 seconds, most folks move on. We usually bypass these slow sites, send them email as to why, and wait for the info we need in response, which in many cases never comes.
The next worst thing you can do is use a file format known as .PDF for your only source of providing the important information. When I see a site with a .PDF file as the sole source of the event information I get this feeling that ranks right up there with having someone turn left across my lane. The .PDF format is very versatile, but creates a large image file from what would otherwise be a simple online text page, requires you to have another program (Adobe Acrobat Reader) on your system in order to read it, and forces you to download the .PDF file completely when you may only want to know the event date. This gets back to problems with how fast the site will load. We event attendees/web surfers want information fast. To solve this problem make a web page which has all the important info and have a link to the .PDF file for those who wish to read/print it. Remember, the person wanting info about your event may not be acquainted with the internet or downloading files, so keep it simple.

Keep the Site Up To Date…
Want to really make folks mad, leave your site up advertising the rally 3 months or 3 years after it happened. Or list only month and day of the event, without the year. Looking for events next spring I’ve already found over 10 listings for the ’06 spring season, so why is that information still out there !If the site admin doesn’t list the year you don’t know what season it’s for, unless you take time to look at a calendar.

As a rule, the GWRRA rallys are a pleasure to attend. But with all our other trip costs rising those event coordinators are going to need to get more creative and sensible if they want to keep their attendance up and their vendors coming back. However, if you don’t get the information out in a timely and proper manner for all, no amount of creativity will keep your event alive for the seasons to come.

Robert Carr
Centertown Mo.
GWRRA #131024