Spring 2008 Mid-Atlantic Rally....When and Where?

[Jestme13]

Relax John, there's no finger pointing going on here. I just can't believe that out of an entire region that only 2 units can/will attend. Believe me I understand conflicts. I have one right now regarding the fall rally dates.

I wonder what it will take to get this group motivated ?

[rebelsbeach]

Steve, I truly believe as we watch manufacturer after manufacturer fold up their tent that the economy is having more and more of an effect on even the "weekend" RV'er.

Like or not, understand it or not, our regions will have to do a better job at finding locations which are more centrally located for all involved.... There will ALWAYS be those with scheduling issues, and there will always be a percentage of folks who won't travel outside of a certain distance. I'm in no way saying this is what is happening here in the Mid-Atlantic scenario, but in planning our 2009 and 2010 Nationals for instance, we're going back to the drawing board entirely.
2009 will be in Ohio, which won't work for those in the extreme south, and we're still working on the 2010...
We had planned originally to have the 2010 in Myrtle Beach, but it being extreme east, as well as our desire to hold it in June has squashed that.

I truly don't think the issue is motivation at all, more so it's more geographic than anything....

[FLYTYER]

These posts are disturbing to me.

Maybe I do things differently, but when I invested big $$ in our motor home, I did so with the idea we would use it, otherwise why buy it?

Each year we plan our motor home trips for the entire season and wintering in Florida for 3 months or more. We do this so we can secure locations we enjoy and join friends and family on many annual camp-outs.

As I do our planning, we always consider rallies and specific locations we enjoy and want to go back to.

As I learned when I was doing rally planning for a regional PA WIT club, the planning and details had to be worked out many, many months if not a year in advance. Otherwise if I waited too long, our members would have planned other things and not participate.

We do not like the gas prices anymore than anyone else. I decided gas prices will not deter us from enjoying the motor home. So for this year, we re-arranged some plans, but kept the important family related outings as planned.

Because there was such a delay in learning the where and when of the Spring Mid-Atlantic Rally, I could not alter any plans and duck out of prior family commitments.

As for the future, maybe the regional rallies need to cover smaller areas like states.

I would be happy to handle a PA state rally in the future. It would always be located in a somewhat central spot and always on the same weekend to make planning easy for interested members.

I now step down from the soap box and end my rant.

[Toterman (David)]

I understand completely why people are guarding their travel budgets these days. I have changed my travel plans this year and plan on staying very close to home until this fall when we take the rig back down to TX.

As far as having the plans in place sooner, most who live in the North East know our campgrounds don't open until mid April so it makes it a little difficult to plan over the winter. I have no problem with canceling out this year. We will be at the campground that weekend and if anyone wants to join us just give them a call and let me know. We will still have a great time as I will be there anyway.Looking forward to hearing from anyone who is interested, it will just not be and official irv2 event but a nice get together for us.
I had made arrangements to offset the rate out of my pocket to accommodate the rally, but as of this posting the rate will go back to the campgrounds normal rate of $40.00 per night.

Thanks David

[Jestme13]

All i can say is, "Oh Well".

If it's not motivation, what must it be?

I have never seen much of a response in the 3 yrs I have been attending the Mid Atlantic Rallies, as compared to other regions. I hope I can inject some interest to boost attendance at the fall outing. Dates to be announced soon.

[rebelsbeach]

Ted, with all due respect I don't think those folks who purchased an RV in the past several years had any idea that our economy would be in a recession and that fuel prices would be close to $4 a gallon... Diesel fuel in a lot of places is more than that.

You are indeed very fortunate to be in a financial position to not alter your travel plans, but I'm afraid that's simply not the norm for what I've been reading both on these forums and in the local print media.
Many families are being forced to reassess their travel plans and make some very hard decisions with respect to spending their ever decreasing discretionary entertainment dollars.

[rebelsbeach]

I have never seen much of a response in the 3 yrs I have been attending the Mid Atlantic Rallies, as compared to other regions. I hope I can inject some interest to boost attendance at the fall outing. Dates to be announced soon.

Respectfully, there is a lot of work done by the other regions which has been done for a long time.... The Texas Boomers and Nor'easter regions have been "established" longer and there has been more work done over a longer time period to keep them up and runnning.
The Texas Boomers even have their own web site, which they use to keep the THREE separate regions of Boomers up to date with happenings and news.
Sandy has done a lot of work with this, even to the extent they've set up three geographical regions and have their own mini-rallies within each smaller region. Texas being such a large State geographically, it works better that way.

As Steve knows, the Nor'easters have also been around a while, such that they have their own hierarchy established and similar to the Texas Boomers their own forum and leader as well.

For many years the Mid-Atlantic group rode on the back of Rick Koelsch and his planning the annual events.... With planning anything it gets old and after several years Rick stepped down. We are grateful for Rick's efforts in the past, but need someone or several someone's to step up and take the initiative to keep the group going.
Even with Rick's planning, there were never more than ten or so rigs in attendance at any of these events.

It would seem to me that this group needs to "assess" it's active membership base and determine where the majority of the active members hail from... I know there at least a half dozen members from the PA region, but where is everyone else?
Rick always help his event in the PA area, but would it be more advantageous for the group to slide down into say the Meadows of Dan area off I-81 and plan something in that area?
While the calendar may have been the issue with Toterman's event this time, would the members of the group actually "support" an event in Delaware on the coast?

Again I am led to consider the cost of fuel in the equation..... Like or not, I feel it's a factor.

I think this group is in a "rebuilding" mode, with respect to Rick having stepped down and no one really having had success with an event under their belt.

I encourage each of you to continue this spirited discussion, with the hopes that by continuing to shake the tree it's possible some fruit would fall off.... (I can't resist mentioning the resident "fruit" Steve.....LOL!!)

What I'd hope would come of this discussion is that more and more Mid-Atlantic folks will see it and have the desire to become involved....

Now, I'm off MY soapbox.

[rebelsbeach]

By the way.... you have a "newly relocated" Mid-Atlantic member who recently returned to Delaware and he might be interested in getting involved in some of these events.

"Route 66" has returned from spending the winter in Florida and is currently camped out in Delaware, near Newark I believe....

[FLYTYER]

Bob is there a way to get an email list of folks who are in the Mid-Atlantic region?

If there is, maybe with some ideas from Rick, Steve, John and David we could contact everyone and get their input, ideas, and suggestions. From there we might be able to plan how to boost participation and activities.

I am willing to work on it.

[rebelsbeach]

Bob is there a way to get an email list of folks who are in the Mid-Atlantic region?

Unless someone mentions "Mid-Atlantic" in their profile there's really no "search" parameter I'm aware of, but I'll ask Bill.

Maybe a compilation of lists would be a start, from what Rick may have and so forth.

One idea would be even to search past Mid-A rally threads and pick up the names from folks who had posted...
That's pretty easy, just click on "find" in this area and don't uncheck the "search here only" box.

[Roam America]

just thinking out loud here.

We always had our campouts the same weekends. Rick can correct me if I'm wrong but it was the weekend after Mother's Day and Labor Day. That certainly helped me in my planning efforts for the year.

[Jestme13]

Well guys I hope it doesn't kill the Rally, but it will most likely be towards the end of Sept.
I will be forming up the final Dates soon with the CG. It may be the weekend after the Hershey RV show. I am planning some activity options and side trips. And the food will be something differant. A new rally benchmark will be established.
I sure hope this <span class="ev_code_PURPLE">FRUIT</span> can spread a few new seeds.

[RKamperRV]

John - you are correct. For many years the Rally dates have always been the weekend after Mother's Day and the weekend after Labor Day.

I have intentionally stayed out of this topic to see what new "fruit" would sprout.

Steve - we already have a rally scheduled with our church camping group for the weekend of Sept. 19 - 21. Please avoid that weekend if you want Deb and I to attend.

[Olive]

Toterman, I sent you a PM