Bellevue meet observations

[Barney Eaton]

As expected, we saw Buick that had never appeared at other shows. I never counted but there were lots of '59's but no '60's. Several 1941's and only a handfull of 1940's

How about three 1931 roadsters... 2 model 50's and a model 90.

You know those cars that look good from 20 feet, but are a dissapointment when you get close... there was a 1954 Skylark, black/red that got BETTER as you got closer. The car was outstanding, flawless, unbelievable!

Look at the pictures posted by Roberta and you can probably pick out cars you have never seen at a national.

The local clubs did a great job, especially for their first attempt. They took a risk and put Modifieds in with the 400 class and there were rewards along with the drawbacks.

It is interesting to see a stock 1940 next to a modified 1940 etc. It does creat a problem for the judges and will probably never happen again, but it did in Bellevue.

There were no know problems until the awards banquet... as others will probably comment, the coordination between the slides and the presenter was flawed. The presenter should have had a list of the cars as they appeared on the screen, but his list was in numeric sequence and he was shuffling pages to find the car and its award... several cars appeared on the screen but their award was not announced.

In addition, none of the Modified or Archival cars were shown on the screen.

This could be improved if we were to have our show on Friday and give the judging team more time to prepare for the Saturday banquet.

I never expect much from a awards banquet dinner, but at $50 a head, I had expected my beef dinner to have less gristle. Don't take this as a negative comment about the local clubs or their members. Finding a hotel that has all the requirements we need for a national meet is difficult, unfortunately, the hotels that meet our needs are not always good at everything.

[Guest Reatta1]

Well said Barney. The show was awesome and the cars brought back wonderful memories for me. I also think the chapter did a great job. I agree with your comment on the cost of the dinner. For $50 I would have expected a better meal. But then, it is a Hilton hotel and Paris needs the money to continue her lifestyle (in or out of jail).

[Centurion]

Thanks for your comments, Barney. Early on during planning for the 2007 National Meet, the idea of scheduling the judging for Friday and keeping the awards banquet for Saturday was floated past a few members of the National Board. We had heard that the Olds Club schedules its meets in this manner. The host chapter was advised by at least one Board member (or past Board member) that the existing schedule could not be changed.

Nonetheless, I think that this is something that we should look carefully at for future National meets. This was certainly not the first time that we've had a problem with the awards announcement and slide show at a National Meet, and the current schedule places a huge burden on the judging administration people. Some have expressed previously that they are so busy with tallying the results that they never have opportunity to get out and enjoy the cars before they're loaded up or driven off the show field.

[Guest imported_Thriller]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Centurion</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Nonetheless, I think that this is something that we should look carefully at for future National meets. This was certainly not the first time that we've had a problem with the awards announcement and slide show at a National Meet, and the current schedule places a huge burden on the judging administration people. Some have expressed previously that they are so busy with tallying the results that they never have opportunity to get out and enjoy the cars before they're loaded up or driven off the show field. </div></div>

Brian - it isn't just the judging administration folks who don't see the cars...there always (OK, experience of a total of 2 judged meets for me) seems to be a number of cars that show up for judging and leave shortly after they are able. I understand that not everyone can get time away and such, but there has to be an alternative to cramming everything into 12 hours (perhaps even just have tech inspection done by Friday say). The thing that surprised, and somewhat disappointed me, is that we were there from Tuesday afternoon, when the show field was covered with a mix of cars and trucks / trailers, and then at the banquet, I saw photos of cars I hadn't seen.

[Guest BJM]

I think this is the reason we can't be too critical of a national meet in terms of the event however, we can take from it some ideas. Barney that's a great idea regarding having judging on Friday. How about even a compromise of that idea by having judging both on Friday and Saturday morning. Split it up.

This is the National Meet after all, and there has been much discussion about the stress it places on the host chapter/region.

This is one example of a solution to this particular stress. S-T-R-E-T-C-H the show judging and administration out to two days. It becomes much less of a burden for judging administration to try and process the results over two days, rather then a few hours before the banquet.

I have been involved in a Sunday morning/afternoon show with as many as 300 plus entrants. By 3pm, everyone there wants to leave. The masses get real restless, and we are up in the war room figuring things out as fast as possible.

Great idea Barney. The BOD ought to look into it, and allow 2009 National folks to decide if that is an option - and convey it to the general membership as such as soon as possible - reiterate it during 2008 (National meet in Flint and the Bugle) so everyone possible knows.

[jscheib]

Lots of good ideas about future shows and I like the idea of judging on two days, as some people perhaps can only make Saturday and we would not want to rule them out.

Of course the referenece to the 2009 National begs the question (especially for those not atending the mettings) - where will it be? Was there any decision at the BOD metting?

John

[Guest imported_Thriller]

I was surprised no mention was made at the banquet, but my understanding is Colorado Springs, CO. We're really looking forward to it as coming from our direction, the Black Hills, Rushmore, Yellowstone are not far out of the way and once there, the Grand Canyon isn't out of the question. That should be an amazing trip. By then, we might consider being able to drive two cars again, although I haven't checked distance or anything yet.

[Guest BJM]

Hey Derek,

The discussion this winter was southern Ohio. Don't you remember that thread? Jeffrey Brashares (sp) stepped up and said they would have a bid, down by Columbus Ohio.

I'm sure there are a lot of folks who would like to know. I thought about the subject of Nationals and some of the need to reassess how they are done. Maybe having a break, so to speak, from the rigors of judging, is good after all for 2008 in Flint.

Maybe we as an organization can spend more time in Flint 2008 taking a deep breath and looking at the club for 2009 and beyond.

[imported_buick5563]

I'm just happy for you guys that you had nice weather instead of (stereotypical) northwest weather. We have been flooding here in Texas. We actually just passed our yearly average rainfall in mid July. I didn't want to bring this up til after the Meet was over. I'm sorry I missed it. It sounds like it was fun.

Mike

BTW, I love the pics Roberta. The Skylark Barney mentioned and the 54 Special convertible had me drooooooling.

[Guest imported_Thriller]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 3Jakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hey Derek,

The discussion this winter was southern Ohio. Don't you remember that thread? Jeffrey Brashares (sp) stepped up and said they would have a bid, down by Columbus Ohio.

</div></div>

Well, my memory is poor...I think it was Mike Book that had mentioned Columbus - however, I seem to recall hearing that they would take it on if nobody else stepped up. I didn't attend the BOD meeting, so I don't know for certain. That's what I heard in Bellevue.

Shortest distance for me would be just over 1100 miles, quickest would be by Interstates at about 1250 miles, 18 hours on the road. I'd think about a combination of the two.

[Guest BJM]

Derek,

Don't get me wrong, Colorado Springs sounds great for a meet. I am sure we have a few older retired members in Arizona and New Mexico that could make it. Southern Cal folks could do it. For me it's two comfortable days. Kansas or Nebraska is boring, so you go 75 mph.

But low humidity, nice surroundings when you get there. Hope to hear more...

[Bill Stoneberg]

Colorodo Spring stepped up to host the 2009 meet. They made a nice presentation and have made some good progress on securing a site and host hotel. The BOD approved them for the 2009 meet.

It will be held in Mid July, so mark it on your calenders.

[TxBuicks]

The 2009 BCA National Meet will definately be in Colorado Springs. The announcement was made at the board meeting in Seattle.

[JohnD1956]

Wouldn't it be great to have judging throughout the meet, on the participants schedule? Some people arrive early and can have their cars judged at any point over the several days of the meet. This might be fitted in when the safety inspection is done.

JD

[Guest imported_MrEarl]

Ahhhh what a Buick National. Although it is hard to pull one or two high points from the event, I must say that the Harbor Cruise was one of mine. This was my and Rita's 25th anniversary trip and the cruise could not have been any more romantic. Cruising around the islands with Mt Rainier straight ahead of us. Then as if that wasn't enough, up pops a full moon coming to rest just over the peak of the snow covered mountain. And here's me and the joy of my life standing in the front of the boat, with the wind blowing in our faces headed full speed toward the mountain. Definitley put Leanoardo Dicrappo and Kate Winslut of the movie Titanic to shame!!! And then as is it starts to get darker, they turn on the lights of the city of Seattle just for us. And all that amongst all our newly met frineds, Brian and LynnD, David and Sheila, Al and his lovely wife and Steve and his mom and dad. Life just don't get no better than that folks.

My next "high" was during the awards banquet. I had listened to all the awards being given out and just kept thinking "man did no one see that Beautiful green 54 Roadmaster sitting out there"?. Then our president Paul Meyers was given the honor of deciding on and presenting the "Best Porthole Buick" Award. He said something about haveing had somewhat of a difficult time deciding which of the many deserving cars to give it to until he came to a certain one that some fella from Georgia had done drooled all over and it was obvious to him which to pick. His comment was something to the affect that these cars are not only prestigious and beautiful but they literally shout "high society". He was of course speaking of the Beautiful green 1954 72R 4 door Roadmaster "Green Giant" owned by Tad Leach. I have never heard the 4 door Roadmaster described as such but these cars do, indeed, say “high society”.

And a BEAUTIFUL set of Portholes they are

(I want to thank Jerry who owns the 55 that is reflected in the porthole picture for sending me the picture of the "Green Giant" with the hood and deck down. I had not been able to acquire one as such.)

NOW for my LOWWWW point. Thursday and Friday Rita and I had walked by the signs pointing to the Prestige Cars,(Y-Job, the LeSabre, the Silver Arrow etc etc) and commented that we need to wait until we have a couple of hours to google over these so we plan it for Saturday morning. Just try and imagine our feelings Saturday morning when we walk past the signs, get to the room and there in front of us are four walls and an empty floor. I thought Wow perhaps they moved them out side somewhere. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!! They were GONE as in loaded up and on there way back to Flint. My heart was broken. I had tlod Rita all about Mr Earls Y-Job and the LeSabre. that should not have happened. The explanation was that they had to make room for the banquet. I guess I can accept that but someone should have posted that the cars would be leaving after Friday. and perhaps they did but I dind' see it. Oh well, as Mom always says, the good always outweigh the bad.

[Guest imported_Thriller]

Bummer Lamar...it's a good thing Joseph and I saw them some time on either Thursday or Friday then. I have photos of these as well, if you would like (not sure if they were with the batch that went to Roberta...I don't think so). Again, you'll have to wait a few days until I spend some time on the laptop.

It was indeed a great meet...I shared a few comments and such with Brian. It would have been nice to do a bit more, but the cost with the kids would have made life a bit tougher. Then again, we would have spent less time cleaning the car, and met fewer people looking cars over as we did so.

I guess one other minor suggestion (or at least something to think about)...try to arrange the tech inspection and photography on level ground. Until the Dynaflow came around, all Buicks had manual transmissions, which to get started on an uphill is slightly tricky - I'm just getting used to it myself, but I was quite worried when the mid-60s Special / Skylark got a bit too close for comfort behind me - I was worried about rolling backwards into him before I got a chance to get the car moving forward. Also, if it is possible, photographing cars in the shade helps to make for more uniform photos and less glare. This year, it could have been done just across from the doors to the hotel perhaps, which would have alleviated both of those issues.

Anyway, I definitely had a good time and will cherish many of the memories. We've started to look at maps to see what sights we'll try to see en route to Colorado Springs. Perhaps a group from MN would like to join and see the Badlands on the way down. Of course, our planning won't be completed until we know what tours the meet will have and the plans for after tours.

[NTX5467]

I believe that having "the show" and judging on Friday could be a doable situation (knowing that OCA does that), but I seem to recall a conversation about something along those lines back when we were doing the planning for the 1996 meet we hosted. Seems like that when that possibility (of a Friday judged show) was raised, the reaction was "We CAN'T do that! People will complain that they can't have their cars there on Friday".

With all due respect, it seemed that (at that time) there were a group of avid BCA meet attendees who liked to only take Friday off (vacation day) and have the car at the meet on Saturday, in time for "the check" and the judged show. It was the perception that many were doing that, so it might be interesting to (if possible) check registration records and see when people with cars actually arrived at the meet. Seems like there are always more "room-nights" booked for days closer to and for the weekend of the BCA National Meets.

Having the judged show on Friday might lessen the public attendance at the meet, though, unless the cars were still displayed on Saturday for public viewing. To me, the meets are as much about marketing the club to the general (and not knowing about it) public as they are about being the capstone meet of the club's year. Be that as it may.

Still, having the judging as a Friday event and the banquet on Saturday pm (rather than a Sunday brunch as OCA tends to do) would spread things out nicely AND allow for a fully de-bugged video presentation AND getting the awards built in an orderly fashion (the part that I know about, personally). But procrastination will have more time to creep into the mix with the show on one day and the awards on the following day, I suspect.

Yet, there would need to be a good deal of security over the award results! In the present situation, with everybody hurrying back to the hotel to get ready for the banquet, there's not a whole lot of time for "snooping" to see who won what or how much.

I suspect that judging admin will always be somewhat hectic during the judging times. Roy Faries' software program has seemed to take much of the anxiety out of that situation, though, but it's still a certain volume of data to be procesed before a particular time deadline.

To me, having the judging split over two days could cause more problems than it would solve--unless there were just no judges available, period. I feel it would be better to get it completed and get on to other aspects of the event.

As Barney mentioned, there are few places that can get everything "right" these days--it seems--regardless of price. Not to mention the orientation to have EVERYTHING at one location!

I feel it might be advantageous to consider how other groups do their national events (as in when what happens during the meet timeframe) and then consider how some of those things would interact with a typical BCA National Meet AND how these changes would affect meet attendees and how they scheduled their lives around being at the meet each year. There will be "+" and "-" things with any change, but with an orientation of making things truly better and easier to deal with (for the meet attendees AND the host chapter) rather than just doing something because another club/group does it that way. Just as no two BCA chapters are "the same", neither are all marque car clubs/groups all generic. Looking around and then customizing any enhancements/upgrades to better fit the clientel which is the BCA Member Unit will be the most optimum way to look at things.

It's always a difficult situation to schedule all of the meetings and seminars and such at a BCA National Meet. Just getting those things spaced out during the meet is a real chore! Then figure in the various tours, too. It seems to have gotten where you either go to the meetings and such, being interested in how the club is run and maybe look at the cars and swap meet, and then miss the tours . . . or variations thereof. Adding more days onto the front end of the meet time is an option, but one that might increase lodging expenses to levels which many can't afford (plus venue rental expenses for the host chapter!). LOTS of things to think about!

I'm glad everybody had a good time and got to see some great Buicks that are seldom seen out of their native area up there. I'm also glad to hear that Colorado Springs is where things will be in 2009.

A big "THANKS" to everybody that made things happen as great as they did in WA! Now . . . you can rest up and see when you want to do it again! 2016?

Willis Bell 20811

[Mark Shaw]

My compliments to all involved in the planning and excecution of this year's BCA meet. The host club and other NW chapters worked hard and it showed. Great venue, great weather, great tours, more great weather, great (and seldom seen) Buicks, and finally, more great weather.....

Everyone agrees that there is too much to do just before the banquet. This is the primary reason this year's presentation was a bit confused. I agree that the BCA board should address timing issues for judging and tabulations before the next judged meet.