[MidOHasp]

Zippy:

I disagree, but not vehemently or anything, so no worries, right?

OK, look... the part of all of this you are not addressing is that this is NOT Ed's event. It is OUR event. By the way, if you haven't followed the fling for long or if you are jumping into this thread with any assumptions, "our" does not mean "Gashole" even if that group has been expressive here in this thread. "OUR" means everyone here. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E!

Unless, unbeknownst to us, this IS an event Ed is running as a business, or as a means of income for himself, then I don't think it's "Ed's event". To be sure, I think the man deserves to be a big part of it, and as I will say until I am blue in the face, I don't think anyone should ever take anything away from him on what he's done for the event in the past.

But, to a point made earlier by I don't even remember who, it became "Ed's event" when the ideas of the general population were excluded, ignored, or sloughed off. No matter what anyone wants to say, you can't reasonably argue against that point. This event sure takes a lot of organizing and planning, but I can't think of anything where excluding the participants from planning altogether is a good course of action. And I'm not talking about telling the Club and local chapter presidents a couple of weeks prior that it is up to them to figure something out for Friday.

Keeping it all to yourself until April or May and then saying to some of your closer allies and partners, "Hey guys, I NEED you to make something happen" does not constitute, to me, getting everyone involved from the get-go.

So, Zip Zip, I disagree with you. Especially on your point of the charity being Ed's choice. Last I checked, the idea behind a charity was that it is at the sole discretion of the donor. That's the beauty of a charity. Nobody has to feel obligated.

My other thread will evolve if and when this one reaches sufficient levels of closure. That requires input from Ed Combs as well as continued input from people like you, me, Rick, Turk, Godzila, Mike, etc......

If we reach a consensus here in THIS thread on some of the basic logistics, then the other one can develop into party planning central, charity choices, etc...