Re: NATS 2011 needs your help!
My feelings about the SyTy Nationals is one of declining sadness...
Larry, did you come to NATS 11? I don't seem to recall seeing you and Claire there?? I remember you winning free registration to it at the 2nd Homecoming, but i can't remember if you made it to NATS or not....
-having witness yearly reduced participation/attendance of members (cruises, show-n-shine, racing, caravans)
umm...were you at NATS 11? It had that biggest turnout of people since 2002 i believe.
-having seen reduced yearly vendor attendance/booths with products (national companies like GM and others)
I personally went after every single vendor. I sent emails & pm's. Most replied, not all that said "yea, we'll contribute" followed through. There is only so much you can do aside from beg and plead to get vendors on board. That said, were you at NATS 11? There was a HUGE amount of freebie's, handout's, door prizes, raffle items. A lot of vendors DID come through. No, there weren't many vendor booth's...but some vendors were represented.
-having reduced sponsored race only vehicles (Mcoy, Howie, Bully, and other 10sec trucks)
JHacking had his 9sec sy there trying to dial it in, Gerber was doing test runs in his 8sec capable ty, Mark ran some 10s in his sy, Jeremy made some passes in his racing barbie car in the 9s i think, there were three v8 trucks there (1 was really slow - mine).
I personally communicated with all the big hitter trucks trying to get them to come out and play. For reasons that everyone knows since the topic has been beat to death...you'll never get them all out at once - logistics just don't make that possible. Plus for the true racers....we had what 120 degree track temps - not exactly best pass weather. But the guys that were there wanted to do their best passes for those conditions and didn't so much care about it being too hot for best possible slips.
-having seen reduced advertising (GMHTP, DVD/Recording, magazine/TV awareness )
are we doing NATS for our own benefits or becuase we want to see a picture/article in a magazine. Yes, its neat to be in a magazine....but our trucks don't get their 15seconds very often becuase we're the only ones that really care about them. Yes i probably could have gotten us into GMHTP but quite frankly i literally took 4 pictures at the event. And after a hellacious trip home the last thing i wanted to do was even think about syty. So i never got around to writing the article to attempt to get it into gmhtp. Yes....we have to write our own articles to get them into print. Aside from GMHTP sending out one of their people the one time in 2006.
-and less family oriented events many since adopted by the homecoming committee
(big wheel racing, ladies nite, children's events, sporting events, co-op parts repair, etc).
Were you at NATS 11? Special Ladies shirts, a bunch of kids activities including big wheels on the drag strip (which melted :lol: ) water balloons, scooter races.... We had a catered cookout, private group rental of the corvette museum (with our own trucks inside the museum, and complete takeover of their parking lot / roundabout). Went to a buffet restuarant as a group...we were really a large group the entire time and didn't break apart or get sick of each other the entire weekend.
I'm confused as to what family oriented events have been adopted by the homecoming committee that have disappeared from NATS? none. I think some people event went go kart racing but i'm not sure. The event was pretty busy and no one really had much energy left after to go driving around on their own. For the most part everyone stayed together as a group. Hell, i had problems with my truck and there was a swarm of wrenchers around it fixing it for me.
While the reasons may be many (in fighting, US location, member convenience, economy/$$$) the SyTy nationals have not always capitalized on its opportunities. Examples:
-partnering with larger events (such as cruises, or car show events) to promote attendance
this had been beat to death....we don't care about other cars. We're there for SyTy. If we want to see camaros, hondas, srt's....go to your local event. We want people that care about SyTy to be there....i know i don't feel like explaining to random strangers what makes a syty a syty.
-fostering "healthy" racing competition (between similar Ford or Chrysler Trucks) to pay for track fees
its been considered...and NATS 11 did open up its doors to some local racers to help pay for track fees...but they bailed on it.
-landing major dealership/sponsors with racing garage heritage for expanded coverage/benefits
maybe if we were a corvette or camaro group...or had vehicles that anyone gave a shit about. A couple of beat up blazers with body kits don't get that kind of love. You don't just land these kind of deals on a handshake and a nice smile. You need backing, financial or other. They need to get something in return...which they wouldn't from our group of vehicles.
-date selection (late enough to have cooler weather, but earlier than school commitments)
there is no such thing as late enough for cooler weather but earlier than school commitments. It's hot when school starts. I had a poll with some date options...and the one that we were going to go with just happened to win the poll. (yes you read that right) I purposely chose a late in the summer date, pre school but late to allow mods/fixes to be done to trucks. Away from holidays. I knew it'd be hot, but i wanted to prove a point with attendance. And it worked in my opinion.
-encouraging attendance of old vendor relationships (treated badly by past threads/feelings)
i did this. they didn't show up. I promised to personally make sure nothing bad would happen to them. they didn't show. nothing else i could do.
-and/or enforcing disciplinary action for bad behavior (which draws restaurant, hotel, or police action).
were you at NATS 11? this occurred. Late night in the parking lot the first or second night me and gerber rounded up all the troops after the hotel complained...had a very serious talk for 5-10minutes...and then went on our merry way and had a good time. I happened to be talking with gerber whenever the hotel came to complain about noise or something...so he helped me out with it. It was unfortunate that it had to be done, but didn't really hinder any fun, didn't take long...we made our point...and everyone acted properly from then on. No real harm. But, we didn't let things get out of hand, and responded promptly to anything bad occurring.
When we got to the corvette museum someone *cough adam cough* was driving around the circle faster than the museum appreciated and the museum reps came running to me saying someone was doing burnouts in the parking lot. I laughed saying that we can't do that...went to the museum office to sit down with the managers, we walked around to find the co-owner or someone high up who had witnessed it...and it turned out he was just driving fast and his wheels screeched, not a burnout. Anyway, i apologized to them on the spot and told them i'd take care of it immediately...i went and slapped adams hand and then made an announcement to the group. Again...not letting things escalate. Its just people having fun, not really thinking about what they may be affecting....and goofing off. No one did anything real bad....but i attribute that to 2 things: taking care of it immediately, and not being bored throughout the entire weekend. Boredom is primarily what causes bad things to happen.
confrontational arguments (simply displaying bad manners and/or bad advice by the same people), plus the
diminished participation by more experienced original members have caused this effect.
Were you at NATS 11? quite a few OG members were there. No confrontational arguments occurred.