Future National meets

[Guest]

The BCA Board has been discussing some ideas about hosting future National Meets.

At this time, no chapter has submitted a bid to host the 2005 National. Under our present policy any chapter in the country can bid to host a National meet. National Meets can be large and complex so it can be tough on chapter members to make sure that all bases are covered. With 400-500 cars and over a thousand people, meets are becoming so large that smaller chapters are reluctant to bid to host a meet.

In recent years, most of our National meets have been held in the mid-west-east, mainly because most of the bids have come from chapters in that area.

A proposal has been suggested that we have the meet each year in a fixed location and not move all over the country. We could select two cities, one in the west and one in the east for a National Meet. In the even years we meet in the west and the odd number years in the east. At this time we do not have the manpower or dollars to do two meets a year.

One suggestion is to meet in Columbus Ohio for the eastern meets and Denver for the western meets. We need to have some meets in the west since there are a large number of members in the west who cannot afford the 2 weeks vacation to travel to the midwest/east every year. Western chapters often have smaller numbers of members and must cover large geographic areas.

All the meets would then be at the same locations, hotels and facilities from year to year in each city. The meets might be organized by the National Office or a National meet coordinator and National Meet computer coordinator with help from National officers and those members from all over the country that usually end up lending a hand at many meets anyway. Or?? This would follow that same idea as one of the largest car meets in the world, The AACA meet at Hershey every October, which is put on by the Hershey Region each year with the help of the AACA National Office.

Nearly all the meets for the past few years have been in Midwest/east/great lakes area. As far as different chapters doing a meet each year, the only 2 chapters that have even indicated an interest in 2005 would be chapters hosting a meet for the second or third time. This is happening because they have the members and experience to set up and run a National Meet.

As always, the Board of Directors wants to be responsive to the wishes of the membership and therefore we would like your comments concerning these ideas. Some board members have indicated that they like the idea of moving the National around the country but in order to do that, we need chapters from new areas to step forward and volunteer to host a National.

If the meet is pretty much always going to be within a few hundred miles of Central Ohio every year, maybe it would be easier to go back to the same hotel every year and be able to work with the same hotel facilities, city and other staff members each year. The GS Club has a huge meet every year in Bowling Green. What are your thoughts?

Bill

[Guest]

sorry,

the best part of the nationals are the location. I think of it as a Buick tour.

You should read the current post under the AACA general forum on the topic Hershey. How it lost it's mission, and is nothing but a big Wall-mart.

I was involved in the Gateway National in St. Louis in '97, and I know it's a lot of work, but it's also a money maker for the club. Similar, AACA, and CLC show have netted the sponsoring club upwards of $18,000 in profits. (here on the east coast)

frankly, Ohio is not that exciting of a place to visiting repeatedly. I know the area well. If you are involved it other club, they are trending to more tours then static shows.

I look forward to driving to Flint this summer. I've been prepping the Buick for a year. (like the Africa queen) Plus the fresh crop on cars from a different area.

I know the free labor issue is a problem, and the lack of new chapter stepping up to the plate, but the only way to encourage smaller chapter to put on a national is with seed money.

Meaning, the BCA needs to collect a percentage of money from the national, to give to the next national to encourage, or pay the next chapter to get it moving. not just a token sum of $3,000, but some real money.

Maybe a paid coordinator position or "national starter kit" would help get more chapter involved. (plus the money!)

I think the grass roots participation is what set this club apart.

[Guest brh]

Bill,

Above all I want my car in a secure location, it has a lot of sentimental value besides what it has cost to maintain. I felt very comfortable driving the car to Rockford IL for a regional and I have a goal of getting the car ready for Texas in 2004. However, I will not be attending Flint and if sites are fixed then I will probably not be attending a lot of these either. Moving sites around I feel is fair to everyone, making them stationary will probably discourage some of our membership. The only reason I will be going to Texas is to see what the car will do once completed. After that I will not be traveling long distances every year. The car was made to be driven not beat up from road damage. Just me.

BCA#10386

[Terry29-26]

Hi Bill:

Part of the fun in attending a National Meet is the planing and preparing for a trip. I know that a lot of members don't drive their cars but I do. If the club desides to make a perment home for the national then I for one will not be going to very many more. I have driven my 29 to Ill.,Texas,Boston,and Ohio. I plan to drive to Flint this year and look forward to going to Texas 1n 04 (Iwould like to see a meet on the west coast soon so I could have driven my 29 from coast to coast and Canada to Texas). The one thing that will happen if the BCA holds the meet in the same place every year will be the absence of the old cars. Every show that I have attended has at least one local car that would not have been there if it would have had to be hauled or driven any distance. Most owners of the older cars will not take their cars very far from home. The Archival Award was established to get the older unrestored cars out where club members could see them.

If the BCA turns the regional meets into a 400 point judged event then there would not be any reason to take a car across the country to have it judged at the national.

Terry29-26

[Centurion]

Part of the appeal in attending a BCA National is the opportunity to see and enjoy different areas of the country. Every region has certain unique attractions (and Buicks!) that would encourage my wife and I to attend. I fear that a fixed location for the Nationals would discourage attendance over time. Further, I believe that the health of our club depends a great deal on the active involvement of a large number of individuals. The energy required to host a BCA National demands active involvement. If the same few people shoulder most of the responsibility for the National Meet each year, how would that impact the vitality of our organization?

I understand that hosting a National Meet is an intimidating prospect, and I regret to say that my chapter is among those who lack the resources and leadership to tackle the task. For this reason, I have been supportive of the concept of a National Meet Coordinator to assist the host chapter. I am aware that the concept has stirred up some controversy and that there are issues to resolve regarding the coordinator's role, but believe that the idea has merit.

[Guest]

Here's ONE Board member who is against the idea of a fixed location for all future National Meets.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338

Ector, Texas

[GSTURBO]

The Buicktown chapter has hosted many Nat. meets,including the first two or three.Would this mean no one chapter would be allowed to host one? I,too, enjoy going to different areas even I dont go to the far south or west.I loved Richmond,Boston,Buffalo,Cinn,Oh, Kings Island & all the rest.A different trip each time.If you get no offers in time,then the board could decide at that time to have the meet at a pretermined location,either east or west.You still have a year or more to make plans. Norb Burwell

[Guest COMPACTBC]

BAD IDEA BILL! So far all of your responses have been along the ideas that I would express, so I won't repeat them here. The trip and site seeing is a great part of the fun. The ROA has moved their meets around this beautiful country for years with great success and they don't even have chapters per se. Besides meeting with great BCA members and enjoying the "Buick Eye Candy" touring different parts of our country is one of the main reasons I drive to a National Meet. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

[The Old Guy]

The People of Flint helped with the first national in 1971, and we formed the Buicktown chapter the next spring. The chapter then hosted the 72 and 73 meets. There was no 74 meet because the work load on our chapter was too much. I have been to every national meet ,and have enjoyed them all, because they have given us a reason to drive our Buicks all over the country. The host chapters have done an outstanding job of showcasing their respective areas, and we have seen things the average tourist does not even know exists! I believe that making the meet in a permanent place would cause a drastic reduction in the car count. You would see the high quality cars only because the rest of the people that like to drive their cars will be touring with the BDE in a different place every year. You would also need to hire people to run the meet, because you can only use a volunteer so long ,and they will say" ENOUGH" <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

[NTX5467]

Greetings --

The proposal to have some alternating, consistent venues for the National Meet does have some merit as other clubs or business entities that put on national level car meets have been doing this for years. But, these events' draw isn't the locale specifically but the cars, massive swap meet, and racing action. It has also been observed that these shows typically draw from the surrounding 4 or 5 state area with very little truly national attendance of people who bring their cars (trailered or not).

Consistently attending yearly meets in these same locactions does provide a higher degree of service as the hotel people have worked with their guests very well to keep them coming back. This eases things a whole lot once you find where you want to stay as the hotel people recognize their role in helping their customers have a good time and being willing to make their reservations a year in advance for the next year. A definite plus situation.

But the way the BCA does things is not necessarily the same as other clubs and we should not try to mold the BCA into the image of these other clubs from what it has been in the past. Each club is different and this isn't going to change any time soon. Therefore, we might look at what other clubs are doing and see how those ideas might be adapted into the BCA culture for the betterment of all as we evolve into the future.

While I attend a yearly national meet that is consistently in one location for about 5 years at a time, I fully understand how the consistency of locale can be an asset to the event. But, as I mentioned, the main draw is not the tours or such but the car-specific aspects of the event and the fact that it is a recognized prestigeoud event in all respects.

It's obvious from the responses that a good deal of BCA members look at driving to a BCA National Meet as "Vacation with Buicks". In this orientation, going to consistent locales each year might get a little "old". Having the meets in different areas each year is a reason to "go somewhere different out of town" each year. New adventures, so to speak, each year.

As the BCA has grown, so have the meets in number and quality of vehicles judged, number of attendees with or without cars, and the resultant strain to find sufficient space for lodging of the attendees plus the other activities related to the meet itself (i.e., banquet space, show field space). The trappings of success for the BCA or any other club can cause problems at several different levels that must be overcome to maintain the growth cycle.

I know that one of the lures of hosting a BCA (or similar) national level meet is the financial rewards of such, but it might be pointed out that in our planning of the 1996 BCA National Meet in Plano, TX, we looked at how other chapters had "gone in the hole" financially on their prior national meets and set things up so we would not repeat those same deals. I mention this to point out that it takes some good planning to just break even on a national meet, yet if things are planned and orchestrated well, profits can happen (even significantly). Similarly, losses can result if the planning function is deficient or a break even analysis is not done in the planning stages. End result, profits are not something that just automatically happen at these events.

I sense we all concur that some sort of BCA meet planning individual(s)/group might be beneficial--a mentoring group, possibly, if nothing else. The points of contention seem to revolve around the degree of active/inactive involvement of the BCA meet planners with respect to the host chapter's involvement--or if there even was a host chapter. I know there have been some efforts to have a standardized meet planning computer program for some time now, but I'm not sure if that program is proven to be really sufficient for all cases just yet.

What has been observed in the past is that when a host chapter offers their assistance/expertise to the next year's host chapter, the "We know what we're doing" orientation tends to come through and any help is typically shunned. Therefore, each year's host chapter can have a really steep learning curve for a "one time deal" and problems in facilities layout/use and other problems usually crop up somewhere during the meet. It might be debateable whether or not a Planning Function document would be beneficial in that situation.

With the bulk of the USA population being east of I-35, it's not surprising that more meets have been held on that side of the country as that's where the people are and also the greater number of Buicks. Yet we DO NOT need to neglect those members/chapters west of the I-35 boundary line either! Even so, there are some really big population centers in that part of the country with many BCA chapters there too.

Yes, the BCA National Meets are a significant undertaking to research, bid for, and make happen, but it's not rocket science either. It doesn't necessarily take a "cast of thousands" to make it happen either, nor massive amounts of seed money. It does take people who are dedicated to working to make the meet an enjoyable experience for everyone that attends, though. I don't recall any specific rule that would prevent a BCA region from hosting a BCA National Meet, either (which would help with manpower providing that all could attend the planning sessions before and after the bid is made). Some regional shows already contain many aspects of the BCA National Meet so expanding those shows to National Meet status would not be that hard to do, it seems.

In planning a BCA National Meet, the first thing to consider is where it could be adequately held. Hotel space, parking space, banquet facility, swap meet spaces, and moderately expensive room rates are some key issues that need to be decided on early on in the process. Once these things are nailed down, the rest of the planning can proceed--whether it's by the host chapter or the National Meet Planners, or combinations thereof.

I can understand how some chapters might not decide to be a host chapter or put together a proposal to host a BCA National Meet. This is where other local resources (Convention and Visitors Bureaus, for example) can be put into play and even let them submit bids to the prospective host chapter for the best one to be voted on by the chapter membership (what we did in our planning for the '96 meet). An energetic Convention/Visitors Bureau can be an invaluable asset to the host chapter.

All things considered, what might need to happen is the BCA Board would solicit bids from various locales where there is a significant Buick population and then put together a proposal for a yearly meet in one of those locations. This, plus some local investigations might test the waters to see what's out there. From the proposals, the membership could then vote on where they wanted to go in a particular year and then let things take their course after that. It would be up to the appointed BCA operatives to make sure that each meet at least broke even as the chapter would not be in the mix any more. If there was a local chapter in the area that wanted to be involved, that could happen too but it would not be a foregone conclusion that a local chapter would be involved at all.

At the very least, I would propose that any chapter considering doing a bid for a BCA National Event would be put with some mentors in the organization to assist and guide them through the planning stages to see if it would be a good idea for a national meet in that particular location. I would also suspect the BCA National Office would be actively involved in this activity too. When all "ducks" are lined up, then a proposal could be made. At this point, BCA operatives' involvement would be minimal, except for things related to the basic minimum specs for the meet location, etc.

Having someone that is used to seeing the many contracts that would need to be signed for each year's national meet could be beneficial. It could also result in more "value-driven" room rates each year too.

There are credible discussions on the many asspects of having BCA operatives get the various proposals together for each year's national meet. There are many credible discussions about how a BCA chapter should be the only ones to present proposals to host a BCA National Meet. There are also several credible discussions as to how deeply involved the BCA National Office would be involved in putting the meet on by themselves.

Unfortunately, there seems to be about as many "plus" discussions as there are "minus" discussions on the National Meet Planner issue. Hopefully, careful deliberation and compromise between the extremes on the decision continuum will result in a proposal that fits the BCA well and also can increase the quality of life at the BCA National Meets for all involved.

At this time, it might be difficult to speculate as to why no bid proposals for 2005 have been received or inquired about. I know that some would have a ready answer that no one is bidding due to the meet coordinator proposal and that others feel they lack various aspects to adequately orchestrate the meet activities. I suspect this is a situation where there are no simple answers to complex questons. What we need is definite input for chapters west of I-35 (or other areas too!) as to why they might not be consideing hosting a BCA National Meet event. Once that credible input has been received, then these things can be considered by the BCA Board to possibly make some changes or enhancements to the existing event specifications or "culture" to have an improved National Meet situation.

Thanks for your time and consideration,

W. Bell 20811

NTX5467

[Guest]

I joined the BCA in 1995. I have only been able to attend the 97 National meet in St Louis Missouri. I have not had a completed car nor the financial situation to attend a National since. I am 39 years old and I am "setting myself" up to attend Nationals for the next several years. By this I mean I am restoring a couple of Buicks and making sure I have vacation time when the National is set. I also got married since the 97 meet. I tell my spouse how neat it would be to attend a National meet in a different part of the country each year. For instance, I would have loved to go to the Massachusetts National (1998?) because I have never been to New England and the chapter had some great events planned that any tourist would like to attend.

Now you are suggesting I tell her we are going to Ohio every other year? Yawn!

Denver is OK but it's not crammed with great event possibilties either. Yes the mountains are close by but Denver itself is no more palpable then Dallas or any other large metro area.

I was hoping to get my Buicks restored and go all over the US in the next 20+ years, then I close in on retirement, maybe take trips abroad. But overall a Buick National is a fairly inexpensive vacation but it has to be a different place each year. I look forward to a trip to Seattle (from greater Des Moines Iowa) and California, Denver, Dallas, St Louis, how about Miami? Or Georgia? And on and on.

Rather then more complaints and negative reaction to the Columbus/Denver idea - here is a suggestion -

Be PROACTIVE (meaning the board members) in seeking out National meets chapter sponsorship. Pick a list of four or five chapters that have never had a meet or it's been awhile and solicit their bid. Don't sit back and wait for bids - go get them.

Thanks,

My vote is for rotation, not fixed sites.

Bryan Moran

[Guest]

First, I want to thank all of you who have taken time to respond to these suggestions. The whole purpose of these suggestions was to make members think about the National Meets and the future. What I have been looking for in these discussions is what can we do to improve things so chapters will bid? All of you are members of chapters, if you ask your members would they bid for a National Meet, what are the reasons they feel they cannot do it? Find out and let us know. Perhaps we can address these concerns and help them to submit a bid. Most of you have expressed why you want the meets to move around, but we have to have a chapter to bid to have a meet. So no bid no meet. Let see if we can come up with good ideas to help solve this problem.

At the next Board meeting we will be discussing the possible positions of National Meet Coordinator and National Meet Computer Coordinator. These positions may help to support chapters that might bid. More on this after the May BOD meeting.

As far as the meets going to different parts of the country, next year we will be in Texas where we were several years ago. We have two possible bids for 05, and these are in the east. Both of these locations we have been to at least once and one twice. So we are not going to different locations from the past. If we do select either of the bids in the east, it will be a 3 to 4 day trip for anyone in the far west. We need to find a way to get meets in the Midwest and west every so often.

One mention was made that the Board needs to be more active in pushing chapters to bid. Some of us have been active and have not had any success.

So based on all of this lets have your ideas, suggestions, and any reasons why a chapter will not take on the National. Many of you have good thoughts about how things can be improved so hear from you.

Bill

[NTX5467]

Bill --

Unfortunately, I seem to be getting signals that we are going to end up with a National Meet Coordinator whether we like it or not. I've yet to see the existence of a valid business case for this whole situation, although there has been much talk on the subject.

The BCA appears to like to delegate lots of things for others to do, so let's just delegate the whole realm of National Meet Coordinator functions to the BCA Board of Directors themselves, all of them. That would solve the problem. When a bid for a national meet is not received by a certain date, the default mode would kick in and the BOD would take over and make it happen. Pretty simple. If the By-Laws don't currently empower the BOD to do that, then they can be changed as needed. I don't perceive we need another layer of organization in the BCA or put more work on the National Office just to make national meets happen.

As far as "ideas" go, I would be very interested in hearing specifically from those chapters west of the Central Time Zone. I fear that if we neglect those members of this fine organization we could functionally end up with an East and a West BCA. It's my orientation that we need to make a more active effort as an organization to make sure our western USA members are not neglected or have any reason to feel that way. If those people have some information as to why no bids have been forthcoming from those groups, then addressing that information should receive high priority when it comes to discussing things. If some changes need to be made in the way things happen, then the BOD can consider those themselves and initiate changes in the way things happen in the future.

I still concur with the orientation that the National Meet Computer Coordinator only be concerned with areas that affect the BCA National Office (i.e., judging activities, award activities, record keeping of awards). I DO feel that this computer coordinator function is needed and will be beneficial for the organizaiton when implemented. I feel that the computer coordinator position should be considered separately from any National Meet Coordinator functions, although the meet planning and all things computerized could compliment each other.

I am of the orientation that the BOD might need to be more "hands on" in seeking out bids from chapters (especially the western USA chapters in the near future). From my observation, just sending out letters to solicit bids is not enough.

Just some thoughts,

W. Bell 20811

NTX5467

[Guest]

Bill,

I would be more then happy to approach chapter groups both in writing and personally to host National meets on behalf of the BCA.

First of all, however, I have to beleive that the BOD represents the "Best of the Best", as any corporate BOD's does. In other words, the directors are the guys most motivated and skilled in getting the business of any organization done (except maybe Enron).

A football coach who is a great X's and O's guy must still give a great pre-game motivational speech for his team to accomplish the most that they can on the field. Same with a National meet pitch to a chapter. Go to a regional meet or arrange a teleconference with core group members.

Maybe find a location where more then one chapter can pitch in.

Also if worse comes to worse, then announce that there will be no National meet in 200(5) and maybe then chapters will step forward to volunteer.

Finally, if the burden of a National Meet is seen as too time consuming by chapters now then scale back the expectations of the National meets to a more realistic level. As a member of the Walter P Chrysler Club I can attest that the National meet for that organization "feels" more like a large Buick regional. Cars were contestant judged (which I didn't care for) and the location was the Wisconsin Dells - a nice tourist location that was not in the middle of a greater Metropolitan area.

Bryan Moran

BCA 28571