Fall Trials what worked and didn't work

[Rob P]

I know this might be a bit touchey but I want to find out from those attending (including myself) what worked and didn't work for them. What you liked and didn't like about the Trails event in Robesonia. As a club I don't think we really talk about this stuff much and if we do, I don't know about it.

So how about it folks?

What didn't work for me:
I was confused about no prizes for novice class and also no 50-50 raffle on day one. We had some first time people at that event and they walked away with memories but nothing else. The hill where most of the novice class got stuck was a bit overwelming in my opinion. The pot-luck supper was a wash literally. Over half the folk in camp went to town to eat. Day two after the prizes got handed out for placing in the event I found out some of the prizes on the prize table were not to be picked from for the fall event and were being saved for spring. I had been there for two days and only found this out at 5pm on Sunday. I don't think most people knew that.

What worked for me:
The people were great. This is the one major constant of all my dealings with the club. Helpful, friendly, easy going. The trails were great. I drove the advanced class on sunday and I must admit they were tough. I was scared a few times and shakey after a few of the sections but I still drove home with little to no damage. The noon meals provided by the club were good. Anybody who went hungry must have been a vegatarian.

So how 'bout it people? Anybody smouldering about anything that happened or overjoyed about their day?

[rvrsrvc]

I overheard that the lack of 50-50 was an oversight-two parties thought each other had tickets.
The swap meet needs to be closer to the action, like near the flat part of the driveway near the port-a-pottie.

As a side note, I've made friends with a local hunter who has leases on several properties for hunting. He thinks a path could be made through some of the properties that we may be able to use once or twice a year.

And, a customer strongly suggested a Meet-and-Greet sometime at my place. I have a little off road course, but it could easily become a parking lot due to the lack of room to turn around!

[Disco96JSWB]

And, a customer strongly suggested a Meet-and-Greet sometime at my place. I have a little off road course, but it could easily become a parking lot due to the lack of room to turn around!

I've been stuck in that off-road course before . . . A Meet-and-Greet sounds like a good idea. Maybe include a trip to the AACA museum in Hershey too for anybody interested?

As far as Robesonia goes, with apologies to Kenneth Grahame, "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in [Land Rovers]."

[Frank84]

I certainly enjoyed this years' courses. There were some completely new ones (for me at least) and some old ones with a twist. It's tough to describe to someone how 3 dimensional that terrain is, you really have to experience it. I wish I had made it out for the camping but I couldn't motivate myself to leave home to go camping when it was pouring rain outside - next year.

Suggestions? Hmmmm... The only thing that comes to mind is what I was talking to Jeremy about during the event. There used to be so many trucks that we'd have to split into two groups. I recall there being times with 25 vehicles competing. This time we had 8 I think for sunday. Weather was good (sunday), prizes were plentiful, people were awesome as always, courses are ever changing and challenging, and Bill even cooked up a decent burger. Why the decrease in numbers lately?

[Rob P]

I didn't make it to the swap meet at all because of time. I could have walked across the road and looked at the tables but couldn't seem to do it. I'd love to do some meet and greets but having said so they'd all fall on days I couldn't make it which would make me sound like I didn't want to go. I have trouble keeping board names VS. actual names and faces lined up. I know the Jersey guys used to do a dinner out like once a month. Could the whole club get together once a month at a reasonably priced establishment and hang out?

Believe me, I am in no way bashing the event and I don't want to bring about the wrath of anybody. I just felt some things were kinda odd and wanted to voice my opinion.

[Lyle4LClover]

This kind of feedback is good. I felt a little off without Tom. He has been a big part of the events every year. I could tell he wasn't feeling well Saturday and simply had to go home on Sunday. He is a great coordinator of events. I agree maybe the planning of the prizes for two days could have been better. I think the Atlantic British prizes could and should have been for the novice day. The weather did play a factor and really spoiled some of the fun. Believe it or not, we didn't plan the rain on Saturday. The sort out does need to be "sorted out" as it did seem too far away, the way it was raining it felt an ocean away! We had camping on top of the mountain for the first time, a monsoon of 3" of rain, a little confusion on the 50/50 tickets Saturday, and the lack of our club president Sunday. I really think the rain did hamper many efforts. The dinner and attendance being two big ones. As for planning and trail building, all I can say is, it's your club, at $28 dollars it's still quite a bargain, try taking the family to the movies and add popcorn and soda, or try the MAR! ($110 without food!) Everyone is invited to the planning events and maybe we should do better advertizing but the people are the ones who make the event. If everyone who attends would help out on a work day, or to aquire prizes from vendors, just once, a whole lot of really good ideas and organization would come of it. Remember, the guys who slave away at the meetings, trail building, and timing for the event are not paid. As Tom often says, "many hands make light work". We do it for love of the marque and the satisfaction of giving people the oppurtunity to do something they can't do in their own back yard with one of the most capable vehicles on the planet.
Lyle

[galen211]

As far as numbers I think everyone in the group needs to help with promotion. Get on dweb, d-90.com, guns-n-rovers and every other LR board out there and post the event. Don't be afraid to be an ambassador for the club. This no critism of Tom or anyone high up in the club but they are not on the forums like many of us are. That is not a bad thing b/c Tom is usually busy doing the things we dream of doing but everyone can help.

I used to post the trials every where I could but haven't been as active as in the past. The club used to have a large core membership and as the trucks age this has eroded somewhat. But there is a whole new crop of folks out there. Rob being a good example, he has been to almost every Robesonia is the past year or two and a great addition.

So in short, be an ambassador for the club and the sport in general.

[Ivar]

I have trouble keeping board names VS. actual names and faces lined up. I know the Jersey guys used to do a dinner out like once a month. Could the whole club get together once a month at a reasonably priced establishment and hang out?

I agree with Rob on the board names. When reading the boards, you tend to get an idea of personalities behind the avatars, but when we meet I have no idea who I am talking to. Yet I could have had 10 conversations with them over here. How about we 'occasionally' post our names when we comment on a thread.

On another note, I gave our club a plug in LRM in Oct issue ... OK, yes, just boasting because my car was in the magazine. Now I can get it muddy.

Ivar (or is that really my name :cool: )

[rvrsrvc]

Name tags. Maybe with the ROVERSclub logo above the blank spot on a self adhesive label. Ooh, I know, ROVERSclub t-shirts with a roll call on the back!

[galen211]

HELLO, MY NAME IS:
Rover Addict

[87xj95disco]

i like the input we are getting here.
getting sponsors in not easy. we are lucky that we can get them at all.
for the 2day event i have sent out 24 invites my mail,email, and phone call
trying to get them to help in anyway. i dont ask for money for the stamps of pay my phone bill. i have called companys in the us uk and more.anyone from the magz. lrm,lrl,offroad,ect. and different companys that sell rover parts,and anything that has to do with offroading. ok now for next 2 day event we have more ideas that we can use. potluck dinner will be worked out in more
detail. but now give it a month or 2 and then we can start working on the spring event.keep the ideas coming i will print out all the pages later.
thanks everyone for your inputs.

[Rob P]

I have seen other 4x4 events shown in Four Wheeler magazine where they do some special tasks during a club event. Years ago when ROVERS went to Assateague beach they did a tire change on the beach. Could we incorporate some kind of special segment? I have been thinking of calling it a P.I.T.A. (pain in the ass) section. Something like a tire change (take off a tire and just put it back on), battery jumping (simulated of course), we could even do a resue where we have to safely carry out a member of the club from a fall. To have a "recovery" of a stuck truck might be tough as not many of our trucks are winch equiped and yes I know there are other ways to get unstuck. Sometimes your life might depend on getting out of a stuck when alone.

I'd like to help better organize things for events. My time seems to dissappear too easily but if I say here at home I need "X" amount of time for something I can put it aside. Heck if Lyle can do the work days and the event days working 100 hours a week I can do something too. Every year at the picnics I want to bring name tags, you know the hello my name is tags but I only think of it on the way to the event. It seems kinda dumb but to be able to put a face to a name and to a board name it makes it way easier. I'll stand there and not talk to somebody because I have no idea who it is where if they have on their name tag the name "Galen" I know who that is and it breaks the ice. Some people are outgoing enough to bypass that part some aren't.

How many active (by active I mean paying) members do we have these days? If we had 8 trucks the first day and 6 the second day that is low. But on the other hand if we had 30 both days it would be a mad house.

[87xj95disco]

i will let you know when we start to meet for the spring.
give you times dates that way you can get off work and join in.
i have sent pics and a small write up to a **** load of mags.
i will try again.

[grnthng]

I want to say first, Thanks to everyone that makes these events happen. I had a great time and I had a few exciting moments to say the least. My first impression on this event was a good one, I agree with some others that its all about the wheeling, everything else eventually comes together.
I,m a newbee, so it was great meeting some more members and gaining some more needed experience.... and just trying to figure out what to modify for the next event is the fun part for me.
The one thing that comes to mind about turnouts, and I understand that I havn't been to enough of them so I'm not one to talk, but I'm going to guess between all the events I see going on ( and that's from only being on Roversclub and D-90source ) that I think people just can't make it to all of them.... between family,life,finances,etc.
I think the website decal on the back window gets a lot of attention.
I also think that property is awesome, just to have a good place to wheel is a sucsess in itself, thank you.
I definitly agree with the off-road related activity's intergrated into the trial like winching, working the hi-lift, etc. I think that would make us better off-roaders, and I would finally learn how to work my hi-lift!!

Luis,

[Frank84]

How many active (by active I mean paying) members do we have these days? If we had 8 trucks the first day and 6 the second day that is low. But on the other hand if we had 30 both days it would be a mad house.

The numbers seem to float just north of 100.

[solihull109]

If I may make a suggestion. I think Galen is right, and post it everywhere, but maybe have a small write up of what the Trials actually are. The reason I say this because I was telling my co- workers, who are wheelers, about this, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe this is irrelevant, dunno. There may have been numerous "curious" readers who didn't "get" the whole concept. Just my .02 I wish I lived closer, they sound like a blast...

[rvrsrvc]

I get that look everytime I bring up Trials in conversation and find as soon as I've given a brief description, the reaction is "That sounds like fun". For me, it's about the social side of it as well.
I greatly appreciate all of the work that Mike and Tom and Lyle and Donna and Dave and many many others put into these events, and always try my best to promote them.
I met Tucker at the MAR, saw he had Maryland plates, exchanged some contact info and exchanged e-mails with a link to the thread on the forum. I think he had a good time other than being dive-bombed by a wasp!

[estique09]

I got Final Fantasy 3 DS in the mail yesterday didnt get anything today, but then again, its hard to get mail on sunday lol. Ive never played ff3, and am quite excited to give it a go.

[crazyfish]

Well, that's enough. Here's the door.

[Disco96JSWB]

Well, that's enough. Here's the door.

Hoo-ray!!

[rvrsrvc]

I'd like to point out that I have never received a fantasy in the mail on any day of the week.

[Rob P]

off topic, off kilter, off center, irregular, irresponsible, incontinent, incoherent