International Rally 2007/2008

[Roger]

Traditionally the Riders Club International Rally has been held on the August bank holiday. The Last two years a lot of people have left on the Sunday - presumably to spend some of the bank holiday at home with the family. And of course, the bank holiday clashes with other events
Should we break with tradition and hold the Rally on a different date? Last weekend in July springs to mind. Not a bank holiday, no competing events....
What do we think?

[boogiefool]

Does the format and location remain the same?

[BaZa®]

Originally Posted by boogiefool

Does the format and location remain the same?

That depends on the steering committee and the way they will be led after the membership has had it's say through proposals at the AGM and your votes at the AGM.

That's the way things get changed and that will please some but not all as said before you can't please everyone all the time.

I reckon Oz is getting better and better each year if we start again somewhere else we are starting as newbies again and will have taken a step back.

We all know at the moment that we have a year to plan to go to OUR clubs International rally

The question was only about a date change and a 2 nighter or a 3 nighter.

I say stay put with a BH Rally.;)

[boogiefool]

Originally Posted by BaZa ®

That depends on the steering committee and the way they will be led after the membership has had it's say through proposals at the AGM and your votes at the AGM.

That's the way things get changed and that will please some but not all as said before you can't please everyone all the time.

I reckon Oz is getting better and better each year if we start again somewhere else we are starting as newbies again and will have taken a step back.

We all know at the moment that we have a year to plan to go to OUR clubs International rally

The question was only about a date change and a 2 nighter or a 3 nighter.

I say stay put with a BH Rally.;)

Well, thankyou, I think.

[MacHarry]

we can go back to SHIPLEY

Harry

[Simon_A]

Be a pity to have it clash with the TRIPLE

[mile high]

i think we should keep a 3 nighter but if numbers down because it 's on a bh then maybe a date change will be needed. My first inter with club and i thought venu very good been to a lot worse.

[Batman]

Tradition is the heart of this club, and slowly it is being eroded.
Leave the rally where it is on the Bank Holiday, more people are on holiday in July than in August.
Just give people what they want. and they will attend.
Stop finding excuses for the lack of attendance. the alternate Shiply rally has been going since the Club moved away, people have always gone home on Sundays.
As Harry says move it back to Baildon or Shipley or whatever you want to call it.
Start having fun again at the Rally, instead of being po faced and crying that people don't want to have games or fun. If it's not organised, it won't be joined in with.

If you can't organise Shipley then what about finding an alternative site to Oswestry. It can be done. The best rally we have held for a long time was at Hungerford, but i hear cry 'it costs too much'
Rubbish, the club is not on its knees, we have money, we will be getting taxed on the profits next.

Think on Committee, you WILL lose more members than you can afford if you don't listen.

STAY ON THE BANK HOLIDAY

Ray

[girlyglide]

Bank holiday rally attendance has been down at other club events too.

I would personally prefer the HDRCGB to move the rally to July.

I'm thinking more people stay away due to the August Bank Holiday being a more traditional "family holiday" and those that do go return early to enjoy the last day at home before the longest gap in the calendar between Bank Holidays.

Just my humble opinion.

[kevscrivener]

Originally Posted by Batman

Tradition is the heart of this club, and slowly it is being eroded.
Leave the rally where it is on the Bank Holiday, more people are on holiday in July than in August.
Just give people what they want. and they will attend.
Stop finding excuses for the lack of attendance. the alternate Shiply rally has been going since the Club moved away, people have always gone home on Sundays.
As Harry says move it back to Baildon or Shipley or whatever you want to call it.
Start having fun again at the Rally, instead of being po faced and crying that people don't want to have games or fun. If it's not organised, it won't be joined in with.

If you can't organise Shipley then what about finding an alternative site to Oswestry. It can be done. The best rally we have held for a long time was at Hungerford, but i hear cry 'it costs too much'
Rubbish, the club is not on its knees, we have money, we will be getting taxed on the profits next.

Think on Committee, you WILL lose more members than you can afford if you don't listen.

STAY ON THE BANK HOLIDAY

Ray

There's nowt wrong with remembering and cherishing our heritage (or our Fat Boy for that matter ;) ) but we should not be hidebound by our traditions. Furthermore, Roger's comments above indicate to me that any prediction of a mass exodus of members over the small matter of a changed rally date would be overly pessimistic.

As far as I'm aware, the tradition of this Club is that we ride Harleys and have a good time. That can be done at any venue on any weekend, not just in West Yorkshire over the busiest weekend for traffic of the year.

Littlecote was a one-off; the reason it's now too expensive is two-fold, firstly we had to import the WHOLE infrastructure, and secondly the hotel didn't want us back so they jacked the price up sky-high.

Interesting that you found Littlecote to be the best venue, when, as you're fully aware, we went there in response to a majority of Club members expressing a wish to get away from the same Shipley venue whose merits you now espouse.

The arguments for and against Shipley have been done to death, both on this site,in the Quin and at several AGM's, and I don't propose to enter into another debate over a venue which we last used (for a Club event) three years ago. Having said that, on a personal level yes, I DO miss the buzz we used to have there, it WAS a very special event but that was partly because it grew up during the period in the Club's history when the membership were (with the greatest of respect to more recent converts) a more rarified and hard-core breed. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, there were naturally a lot more Shovels , 45's and Ironheads than there were Evos, but then again Harleys were still rare enough to warrant a second look, and a gathering of several hundred in a small Yorkshire town was always going to be special.

I do not, however, see any good reason why the International Rally date for 2008 should not be moved. The reason I stress 2008 is that it is now too late to do it in 2007, since I feel that it is a matter which requires a vote at AGM level. I personally would vote for it, in fact I'm willing to stand up and propose it, and here are my reasons;

1) Bands, caterers, traders, and everything else which makes up the rally infrastructure would be far easier,and probably cheaper, to obtain outside the Bank Holiday window. Furthermore, since a 3-day event would be Thursday, Friday, Saturday (go home Sunday) we would not have the problem of sourcing anything which went wrong or ran out over a BH weekend; believe me, that's a nightmare.

2) Our ever-increasing Scottish membership would have a better opportunity to attend; schools go back BEFORE BH weekend in Scotland.

3) Less traffic. OK it would still be heavy, but nowhere near as bad. Rideout would be Saturday not Sunday, don't see that being a problem in this day and age.

4) The Bulldog, Rock and Blues, Farmyard, etc seem to get along very nicely without having to resort to Bank Holidays. How come we can't?

5) This is a personal one. As I said above, I used to enjoy Shipley, and for myself I'd positively welcome the chance to attend both events. I'm sure that a lot of our stalwart members (and friends) who currently attend the Shipley rally would also welcome the opportunity to support our event too. That, to me, is a win-win situation.

6) I want to know what the feck the rest of the world does on Bank Holiday Monday apart from collect rubbish bags strewn all over a field, pack up marquees, stack chairs, pick up litter and wave at people on Harleys who are feckin' off home after a weekend's partying! ;)