Re: Where do YOU the members think the National rally should be
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:27 pm
theminorsite wrote:The sheer scale of a National means that many locations that we might think of simply don't turn out to be suitable, as it really is amazing how much room we need once everything is accounted for (putting this year's rally aside of course, since that was on a scale far above 'normal' years). Someone has already posted a rule-of-thumb estimate in this thread, and personally I'd say that was pretty optimistic, but it does give an indication about how much serviced land we need. When I say serviced, I'm talking about land with sufficient water points, with grass that isn't too deep, or covered in sheep doodoo, and is fairly flat, etc. That really counts out most places that aren't 'dedicated' show grounds, so for example your mate Fred's got a big field nice and central etc. isn't really up to it.
So, once you acknowledge that a show ground is what you're after, then you're starting to talk really serious money. And I mean proper serious - I did think that Newark showground might be a suitable place once, with it being right alongside the A1, easy to get to, middle of the country, etc etc. And then I found out they wanted something like seven thousand pounds for a weekend rally! Which brings me neatly on to costs. This is obviously a sensitive issue, and many negotiations take place to try and get the best value, and if you think about it for a moment you'll quickly realise that this isn't the sort of thing that you can have in the public domain.
yes yes LIGHT is being shed on the detail workings of our club
thats all we ask on here
crystal clarity clear
can you afford to go to these AGMs because i cant and loose wages
keep up the replies
I know that this can come across on the board that the organiser simply isn't interested in hearing from the membership but that genuinely isn't the case - its just that once you answer one point raised, another will come along and you think that if you've answered the first then you really should answer the second etc., and before you know it you've got a question up here on the club board that you might well know the answer to but that you really can't post publicly for whatever reason. Cue all the posts about 'meetings behind closed doors' and 'they won't answer us'! To be honest I did think before I posted this that I could be just opening the floodgates, but I was hoping that I could sort of stem the tide a bit.
When you put your own personal thoughts aside for a moment and think about it dispassionately, you can see why the club don't tend to reply too much in this sort of thread - they are hoping that that 'least said, soonest mended' will apply, and that if they did get involved with the thread then there would inevitably come a point when they couldn't answer anyway! Put it like this: the threads ARE read, the points ARE considered, but it isn't necessarily in the whole of the clubs best interests to get involved in a public and possibly 'lively' debate on the boards.
The posts about it being undemocratic are not really hitting the point. We LIVE in a democratic society, but you as an individual member of it don't get to run your own personal fiefdom. Well, I didn't anyway, when I wanted the local council to move a streetlamp outside my house! In our democratic society, and similarly in our club, we instead get to elect a person to represent our views and hopefully follow the path that we'd have followed had we been that person. Well, that's the theory anyway, and it has the same flaws at the level of the MMOC as it does when electing your MP.
Still, back to the real topic. Kelmarsh is somewhere we've visited several times, but there's a reason for that - it isn't (too) dear, it has everything we need, we've had good feedback from having rallies there, its in a good location, etc. Personally, it isn't a place that I'm overly enamoured with, but I concede that its in the greater good for all of us, and as above in a democracy I've got to go with the majority view. In regard to general location, again you've got to think outside your own personal view and realise that the club's job is to pick a location that gets the best attendance, and history dictates that the Midlands fits that bill. I take my hat off to the Scottish contingent who do huge mileages to National's, but expect them to understand that if you put the rally above Scotch Corner then you'd have only a small fraction of attenders compared to the other way round.
Finally, the club's own location is only one small part of the question, among all the other issues to resolve. The venue is most certainly not chosen to match the rally teams locations, which I'm pretty sure don't figure at all. The team come from literally all over the country, and some of them live up above Newcastle, so its certainly not the case that we minimise our own mileages!
Really, I'm not looking to add to the debate, just to say to those who are suggesting that the club isn't listening that that isn't the right answer, and that members are being heard but that this medium isn't necessarily the best one for answering the members feedback.
All that said, look forward to seeing you all next year!
Mike
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