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.
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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
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