Looking at ideas for WSCB 2006

[decooney]

While its still fresh in the mind, I'm looking closely at all the great feedback about WSCB from Charter Member attendees, making pages of notes to be used for WSCB 2006. The WSCB helper crew also forwarded much of your verbal feedback too. We made a list and met on it this week to close out the event. Here are the "Top-5" most suggested topics from attendees if you are interested -

Top-5
1) Keep it as-is: A fun, open, and low-key gathering like 1st year
2) More track time on a separate day. Driver school & lic. group
3) Combine dinner/hospitality suite/bar together; A bit earlier.
4) Add a group lunch or park lunch to the Saturday Drive
5) Keep it at the same location, if possible (as TBD)


Lastly, as some of you may be aware, putting something like this together and covereing all the costs and contractual room-occupancy terms and obligations was a bit of a risk on my part. The goal was to keep it non-commercialized, with no sponsors helping to pay for it, and we did it with no sponsors. To do this, I took the risk and liability personally to get it started, and fortunately the weather and all of you came through and actually showed up even with a little rain driving there Wednesday/Thursday; Wheeeeewwwww. Gulp. Thank You for that. I was sweating it Wednesday in pouring down Rain, and we got lucky with clear skies on Friday, Saturday, Sunday!

Results:
After tallying up the kitty results, and looking at the feedback and who wants what for next year at the same location, the update is we won't be able to do the registration near as cheap as we did the first year. Many of you were correct, registration was way too cheap. We are still selling some remaining hats, posters, and shirts to help pick up some more of the slack. They are almost gone now. For 2006, we are working on a plan for early registration with an unavoildable increase currently under evaluation. We may have to end up bundling the banquet dinner type costs into the hotel registration or something. We may do a special early registration for Charter members, before Dec 31st, and regular registration from Jan1 to April 15th. The best payback we believe we can do for Charter Members is going to be to offer a special embroidered Charter Member shirt before the event, at cost; per individual request. These will potentially be very similar to the shirts the WSCB Crew had on, but light blue Demin long sleeve as selected by the first member and registered attendee (we let him pick). These will only be for sale to first year registered attendees as a special thank you for attending the 1st year, and for helping to make it such a success.

Thanks Again. Planning for next year is already in progress...

[SCOBRAC]

Or have it in California...

[decooney]

- Or then it would cost even more, and not be central US West.

California lost the vote, and maybe for good reasons. Think DMV

[cindrrrr]

Raising the rate is no surprise to me, that was a great price! It'll still be worth it even with a rate increase.
I LOVE the denim long sleeve shirt idea, thanks JAMO, make mine a small! One question....is it also for co pilots (I know I know just had to ask) either way a charter member shirt is a great idea. Thank you!!!
We'll already planning on WSCB'06 and I am working on getting the Cobra dudes here in town to get it in their plans also.

Hey, how about a contest with those that bring the most NEW recruits to WSCB'06??? Winner gets $500 in blackjack money???????

My daughter Cheyenne took a great picture of the couple (really nice people) that had the bright blue CSX Cobra down by the Shelby trailer. I dont remember their names, but we have a terrific picture of you two in your car, and dont know how to find you.
If anyone knows who I am talking about let me know and I'll sned the picture. I also am lame at posting pics online here, cant do that either.
Keep it simple like this year, the suggestions are also good, count us in for next year.
cindy and crew

[Jamo]

kiss

[jmarsey]

Duane,

Thanks for coming out today to check on my progress. I'm glad you like the color. Wished we could have bs'd more. Do you see how Marc looks at my car? like out of the corner of one eye? Like, man.......maybe that's what I need. I see him looking. It's funny. Wait till he sees it painted. There may be trouble.

Like I was saying, I am looking into options for track day(s), Friday and maybe smaller venue Saturday for those that didn't get enough, prefer to track rather than Saturday drive, just want to hang at the track, or some combination thereof. I definitely like the idea of a tech element. Tech guy (and/or gal, you know ET is pretty sharp), tech talk, car set up, driving techniques, or something like this. I'll try to get a hold of her again this week and possibly a few others I've been thinking about. Thanks for involving me. I'm very excited about 'o6!!!

Cindy,

I love that idea. And you already won the prize this year for prettiest and smartest co-pilot!!!! Say, Did you ever find your coat?


John

[decooney]

John,
You are Track-Man for 2006, most definitely. Thanks for taking charge on it. You Da Man! BTW: cindrrr is driver.

Ron,
You were about due for posting one of those, keeping me grounded. Good eye and perfect timing, thx.

cindrrrr,
That was Slither and his wife, in the CSX / Newport Shelby Rig.

[Larry N Johnson]

Duane,

Thanks again for hosting a fantastic event! Made some new friends, but ran out of time to meet more people. Here are my comments:

1. Scheduling: What I liked was the excellent balance...time to visit AND time to enjoy our rides! Excellent; not over-scheduled. We need to keep that feature next year.

2. Track Time: Almost to a person, the high point seemed to be the track time at Fernley. What a treat to rip around there. Maybe an additional Thursday separate event for those who want a HPDE? Keep the Saturday Parade lap. Keep the 118 mile cruise; same places, etc.

3. Attracting More People: There was room for another 50 roadsters, GT40's and Daytona Coupes. I believe the success of the first year will get around verbally and more will show next year. Plus you are already planning for 06; that will help more people schedule for WSCB for 06. Plan it: people will come.

4. Location: Reno was a great host and the Pepermill facility and people were excellent. No hassles, good room rates, excellent overall.

5. Awards:
Just an idea, but maybe each club (For example NorCal, Bay Area, LA, Reno, Portland, Seattle, etc) gives out an award to cars from clubs other than their own. For example, the Red SPF with Webers and chrome pin drive rims owned by Terry Brown was an absolute knockout!
Also, the long distance rules maybe we should look at. The "High Plains Drifter" couple who drove from Surrey BC is pouring down rain...wow! Whatever you decide is fine; not to take anything away from John in Tucson who drove perhaps further, top down in the sun. Also, the car with Maine license plates: what was the deal on that one? Maybe long distance should be just that? (trailer or no trailer...long distance counts!)
I liked the overall idea that the cars were not "competing" for show awards; made it a very friendly afair. "What works and what does not" was a good enough reason to get together. For example, the Lobak mufflers on my car attracted Ray Shepherd with the green original CSX 427 street car who wants to quiet his ride this year so he can go long distance without deafening himself and Cathy. We had extended conversations on that and his very interesting car.

6. Attendance List: Normally at a "convention" people have name tags (excellent by the way) and there is an attendance list so people can stay in contact. I exchanged business cards with several people, but several others I forgot to write down email addresses, so it might be hard to stay in contact. While I realize most people may wish to retain their privacy, perhaps those who wish to share their contact info could be put on a list and the list handed out with registration. Then on-site registrants would have a separate list as an addendum. Not a big deal, but if feasible, would be nice.

7. Cars of Interest How did you get that "Dragonsnake" and other very interesting cars there? That added greatly to the event; please try to repeat if possible.

8. Barbeque vs Banquet I rather liked the Barbeque setup; informal, low key, people can come and go as they liked. Several of us got together and made a run up Mt. Rose Highway to Lake Tahoe afterwards, so the timing worked out great. Whereas a "banquet" would have to be sit down, one room, one time, a pain for the sponsors and a hassle for the suppliers to have 180 hot meals served at one time.

9. Calendar: No one time is perfect for everyone. The 3rd weekend in May worked this year (close call with Mother Nature) so why not retain that?

10. Funding: Whatever you decide seems good. If you keep the schedule simple and let the "chemistry" do it's part, a similar event next year is fine with most of us. Bumping the cost or hitting up a few select sponsors for a few hundred seems ok too, although we realize you can not "make money" here as it is primarily a "friends" event, rather than a commercial event.
I bet the Hotel and Casino saw more traffic as a result of the attraction on Virginia Avenue of nearly 100 "exotic cars" in their parking lot. Maybe they advertise next year and increase their revenues and give us a break...???

11. Security: perfect, change nothing.

12. Music: Can we take over the parking lot sound system and play all the old car tunes? Little Duece Coupe, 409, Hey Little Cobra, Little 40 Ford, Deadman's Curve, Hot Rod Lincoln, etc? Just a thought, as we were competing with those parking lot speakers and the way they have it set up is perfect as the volume is not too loud and one can still maintain a conversation; whereas with the giant speakers at the North end, the volume was way up, so if you were parked up there, no talking. Not a big deal, just a tweak maybe.

13. Shirts: I like the idea above that denim shirts would be available. I have too many T-shirts now and seldom wear them all. Prefer golf shirts, but the collared shirts the host team wore were very attractive!

Duane, everyone I spoke to was very pleased. I heard no grumbling what-so-ever. Keep it up.. maybe a tweak here or there but overall, it worked great!

Congrats, and thank you again!!

Larry & Shirley Johnson
Milwaukie, Oregon

[ALLEN ENGLISH]

Looks like you guys had a great time. Sounds like you will have another successful gathering next year. I plan on making it to the 2006 event. I think event design clothing is a great idea for helping defer some of the cost.

See you folks next year.

[Slither]

cindrrr, that was my wife and I that you took the picture of. Ironically, we have a picture that we took of you guys too. Check your PM for my address. See you guys again at Snakes To The Lake this year?

Bill & Nancy

[jmarsey]

[quote]Originally posted by decooney


John,
You are Track-Man for 2006, most definitely. Thanks for taking charge on it. You Da Man! BTW: cindrrr is driver.


Duane,

Let's get one thing straight,......I'm not da man......You Da Man!!! My first order of business: I think we should get Cindy hooked up with ET for some instruction time in that Fac5!

John

[cindrrrr]

Thank you Slither for the picture back! and thats a yes on the Snakes to the Lake.

I found my coat, it was rescued off the fence! Thanks John. Now I have 5 again!! Good to go another one.

The oil is changed and the Cobra is clean again. damn bugs.

[Edley Rondinone]

Here is a couple of ideas to ponder:

1. Have a "backdrop", or the Peppermill Hotel as the backdrop, and have a positioned camera take pics of every car at the same spot in the parking lot. Rotate the cars through, with driver/passengers, and a small WSCB '06 logo. Ideally, after the sun sets behind the hotel. Sell the pics!
This way, everyone gets a "memento" pic of their car at the event.

2. Have close-ups of the people that are at the event, so others here at ClubCobra can match faces with names of people that post here. This COULD be done with a second "close-up" camera the same time the "backdrop" photo is taken.

3. Possibly clean up the oil stains in the parking stalls, from where the "normal" cars park during the year.

4. Have the Friday nite or Saturday nite "BBQ/buffet" be a "bring over the take-out" food from the many local restaurants, pizza places, KFC, etc. Sell sodas and beers if you desire.

[decooney]

Hi Edley,
All good ideas. I like the photo shot with the backdrop. The only one we can't do is the selling of our own sodas/beers per the hotel agreement.

One thing to definitely do-over is for you to wear that snake head gear you had on, but all three days and nights and including near the outdoor pool, hot-tub, and especially during your workout on the stairmasters in the gym. That would be worth filming the reactions and the price of admission alone.

[jmarsey]

LOL

[ERA 626]

How about a prize for the 1st person to sign up for 2006? That would be me.

[Slither]

Stains in the parking lot? Come on Edley, just throw down a huge red carpet!!! (LOL)

[decooney]

Actually some of those "stains" were not there before we all arrived with Cobra. I saw it fresh. There were some cars leaking radiator fluids and oil at the Bash, but no suprise after the haul some of these cars made to be there. We sort of anticipated that.

As noted before, now that we left anti-freeze, oil, and some healthy burnouts on their nice new (freshly paved) parking lot, it will be interesting if they have us back again. Still waiting on that response... Oh well, it wouldn't be a Bash otherwise. Regardless, we were a cakewalk to deal with in comparison to Street Vibrations.

[Slither]

Duane, they would be fools not to let us back next year. I, for one, spent a small fortune in their casino. I would expect next years Bash to double in size and your dream come true the following year. Have you entertained the thought of a few vendors for next year? I can just picture that big, huge, black, gold and orange Meguiar's semi there. Maybe they sell garage floor cleaner!

[decooney]

Hey Mike,
As soon as I get a closing report from the PM, we are going to start looking at opening registration for 2006 sooner than later. Don't know if it will be at the PM yet. FYi: I'm getting periodic questions about what you just asked... unbelievably, already. I guess some people really did like it. Several at the NorCal / RCSC Shelby meeting today said they won't miss it next year. So, how many others are thinking the same thing now...

As Slither said to me at the Bash, we may in fact get a lot more people than we expect on the 2nd year. Ugh, sort of wondering now..., how big is too big for year two?. And, wondering about setting a comfortable limit, expectation about '06, and firm registration dealine for 2006? All 1st year Charter Members will definitely get 1st right of refusal though...

Slither,
Yes - wondering about your question too. There are vendors asking even more now after the bash, and people asking about advertising on the WSCB website too. The question is this. How to do the Corral in the North lot and where to put any vendors. They do not allow rigs in the North lot. They would unfortunately have to be in the South lot, which is not nearly as nice. I don't know... the whole vendor things is sort of a touchy one and there is a big fee / permits / insurance for each vendor... Complicated.