POG 9 Buckhorn Lake Kerrville

[Darrell and Linda]

I get to run the wheels off...... 3,838 km...... see everyone there......

[Jerry Winchester]

In the "You can't please all the people all the time" vein, the rally time was changed last year to accomodate folks who could only be off on or around the weekend and possibly tack a day before or a day after onto the trip.

When it was on the weekdays, there were the same kind of comments going the other way, so the first 7 times were during the week and the last time was over a weekend.

[sticks]

I agree with Jon's input this AM. I'm a newbee and want to learn all I can about my coach. It would be great to have the the specific converters give seminars about their coaches. Hope Liberty would be receptive to this .

[garyde]

If the economy doe'snt improve, I will have lots of free time! Ray is correct, it does mean two weeks for us on the west coast. About three days travel each direction.
The dates and place are set now so we will look forward to our time at the Rally.
The West Coasters are having a Rally in Feb. in LV so we will be having a rally of 20 or so Coaches. I suggest more of these rallly's to supplement the annual rally for those who can not make Texas.

[parksincpp]

A couple of thoughts for future rallies, as I assume this has been pretty much cast in stone already.

For those of us that still work full time there are a couple of things with the current type of scheduling which cause problems. I for example would like to minimize the days, while maximizing content.

For me, it would be best to travel on a weekend, and let the rallies start on Monday. I can generally take off in the afternoon on Friday, and by Sunday I can generally be anywhere in the middle of the country.

Starting on Friday means that I travel using vacation time, rather than weekend time. Or, I travel on previous weekend, and again use vacation sitting in rally location, prior to the rally.

Don't put free days IN the rally. Keep the rally itself compact, and activities every day. For those that want free time, they can come before, or after, and do the the free-time things.

By scheduling 1 or 2 days off in the middle of the rally, again I am using vacation time for that.


I know my situation may be unique, but the current mode of scheduling on Friday through the following Thursday, with free time inside causes me to have to take two weeks of vacation to attend. (I only get three per year)

If rallies started on Monday, ended Friday night (and didn't have dead space in the middle), I could use weekends to travel to and from the rally, and would only end up taking a single week of vacation.


Just food for thought.

Ray

Your situation is the same as mine. I still work full time and have limited vacation days also. I agree with all of your suggestions.

[grantracy]

We will plan to be there.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I just checked and I did not see anything in the rule book that says a rally has to have rigid start and end dates or a specific structure to the agenda.

Obviously certain rally activities are cast in stone. Auction night for example is a tradition that I think we can all agree is a must.

But is it possible or practical to split a rally into two distinct segments? What if the first half were intense instuctions? Perhaps two days of seminars from sun up to sun down. No half days, no open time, just non-stop learning sessions. Work. But at the end the attendees would know systems, and how what appears to be a complex product is really an assemblage of relatively simple independent systems and devices.

The remaining half could be entertainment. That half could have time set aside to visit the area points of interest, it could have opportunities for meet and greet, it could have time for socializing and fun.

In this way any member with a schedule conflict could arrive at the rally to take advantage of the part of the rally that suits their needs or meets their work schedule. Each succeeding rally would stay within the same days of the week, but the work portion and the fun portions would be flipped.

We will never be able to satisfy everyone's schedule or desires with respect to a rally, but at least 50% of the time the scheduling will work for those that still have jobs or businesses to run.

Just thinking out loud here.

[jello_jeep]

Well, we still both work for a living as well, hopefully that will change someday to retired status and then it won't matter much where the rally is, it will be an excuse to turn some money into noise!

The timing is an issue for us though as it is impossible for us though for two reasons, one being (as others have mentioned) that it would be a two week run that would be hard to accommodate at the moment... The second is we have our yearly run into the High Sierras with a group we have been going with for years in the Sept/Oct span after school begins and the critters have vacated the mtns.

So at some point a springtime rally would be cool, especially if it were a bit closer.

Clearly we don't expect the schedule to revolve around us, as I am sure there are some really cool places on the right coast to visit.. And when retirement looms its head we will be in.. But for now And I am sure the non-retired Easterners are not exactly enthralled about driving clear out West where us normal people live, its a long way and I don't blame them!

Kind of like the idea of the Colorado run. I understand that some folks don't want to go because of the altitude, but in the same spirit there are a bunch of people who do want to go and at some point I think we should do it. We can always make skiffster truk in some O2

So much for my ramblings, I will stop now b4 someone starts calling me Jeff B (Just kidding Jeff, miss your whacky posts like parking on the lawn at the whitehouse and stealing Jet-A from Marine One while at flight idle on the lawn.... Priceless !

[Ray Davis]

I hope that no-one misinterpreted my previous post as a complaint. It was intended to be merely food-for-thought. It was born out of my experience with the last rally. Indeed I went the rally, fully knowing it would take two weeks at a minimum. I had a great time, and I don't regret it at all. The rally was really fun.

But, as years move forward I certainly want to attend all the rallies, however I do have to weigh using 2/3 of my vacation time for that one event, when it would be possible to use less. One of the possibilities, as I think Jon mentioned, is that I could arrive late, or leave early? I'm still working on the possibilities.

I too (as with Jello) look forward to the time I am retired and can attend as much and as long as I want.

Ray

[sticks]

Once again, I think Jon's solution to " academic" and social activities is very sound and workable.