Rally Wrapup.

[waterman]

Well, it has been over a month since the National Rally at Estes Park. I believe fun was had by all (except Rod and I) as there was great weather and fabulous roads to be had by all. The only person to be heard complaining was BD but hangovers will do that to you. Total attendance was approximately 70 people with many makes and models of Vulcan’s as well as many other brands of motorcycles. We almost had the four corners of the United States covered with people from California, Florida, Washington and New York as the furthest most from the corners.

The banquet was an enjoyable time with a special guest appearance of Dr. Gregory Frazier (http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/gregfrazier/) who gave a great impromptu speech on his experiences. Time was well spent on the event.

I would like to give a few thank you out to some people who helped with the event. To Rod (Pronghorn) who helped with the rides as well as registration and supplied everyone in a lifetime supply of chap stick and sun screen. To Teri Conrad who helped with some fabulous prizes and getting Dr. Frazier up to the event. To Brian Gibson from ROK for supplying an abundance of prizes for the raffle and support for the rally. I would also like to thank one of ROK’s newest vendors, Big Ear (www.bigearinc.com) who was on site fitting people with custom ear plugs at a great discount.

To those of you who attended I give a big thank you for your attendance. It was a joy to talk with everyone and build some new friendships. A really big thank you goes out to the crew who left earlier than planned but paid for their banquet meal as they had planned to attend. There were a number that left early or didn’t even reply back that they weren’t attending the rally. Without your payment I would have really been up the creek without a paddle.

To those who left early or didn’t have the courtesy to reply that they were not planning on attending I will give you the other end of the thank you. Planning and putting on an event of this size with the banquet is a major task along with a full time job +. When realizing that many people were not attending for a variety of reasons and may have left notice in a thread (not the national thread), here is a tip for you in the future. Contact the event coordinator!!! It is not the person’s job to search the forum for everyone’s commitment to the rally on whether they are attending or not. They have to make a financial commitment as to your meal for the banquet. You made the commitment by contacting the event coordinator by email or PM you surely could have done the same for when you weren’t planning on attending. Because of this, changes need to happen in the future regarding a registration for these events or people such as I will no longer be thrilled about helping with events in this magnitude for members.