Discuss: Interest in Overnight Events

[WestCoastSVX]

I've brought this topic up about once a year for 5 or 6 years now, but since the active members in the NW region seem to rotate and change, it's always good to check in again.

In light of the best Dabob meet yet, What are your thoughts on other overnight/weekend-long events?

One of the many highlights of Dabob is the atmosphere of "no schedule" - just relaxing and doing what you want when you want for the entire weekend. Checking out the cars, catching up with old friends, meeting new friends, eating, drinking, staying up late talking and drinking, etc. Coming and going as you please, taking each others' cars for test drives, little groups going off on drives, etc. Of course there are many other benefits of Dabob that are uniquely Dabob, the location, the seafood, etc, but a big part is still just the concept of 3 days of doing what you want.

The famous Reading meet in Pennsylvania is very similar. But rather being based on a scenic waterfront location, Reading is held at a hotel that is fairly centrally located to the SVX population in the region. Because of it's reputation, SVX owners flock from hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away to attend and there are usually around 50 cars there.

We're a long way off from 50 SVXes, but even if it was a small group it would be fun to get together for an overnighter/weekend event more than once a year. In my opinion. What do you think? I've used anonymous polls in the past, but figured this could be a good discussion and reason out together.

If you don't have any interest in a weekend long hotel type meet, be honest and let us know your preferences. If you do have interest, chime in and help encourage the idea.

Earl, you've been to Reading (and plan to go back next year), post why you think a similar meet "would" or "would not" work somewhere in the Northwest.

Everyone, let's have open discussion!

[WestCoastSVX]

Some more of my personal thoughts...

I would love to see the Awards Banquet turn into a weekend long event. I've tried it a couple of times in the past, but it's never really got interest. I envision a Reading-type event with a decent hotel for everyone to stay at, with either a banquet room or nearby restaurant to host the awards banquet Saturday evening. The rest of the time would be free time to do as individuals please, with several optional events like groups drives and parking lot demos scattered throughout. This would also work out well for scheduling as the January banquet date is exactly half a year away from the Dabob date - the 2 "social" events being bookends with the several "driving" events in between. It would especially be cool to start this tradition this year with the banquet being the big 5 year anniversary celebration!

[ensteele]

I don't see any reason that this would not work the way Reading does. You have to start somewhere, and that would be this year.

We first have to find a place that is in a good location, has a big parking lot that we can put all of the cars (both of them) lol, in a group. We could do demos on maintenance, a rally drive, and of course the Awards Banquet. If any member can find a good location, we can check it out. We would want to go back to the same place year after year, so that everyone would know where and when it will be. I am up for trying to do this.

[Alycone]

I'd be interested in a weekend in Canada or a (summertime) camping trip. I'm not nuts about paying to stay at a hotel in the king/pierce/sno co, unless there's something special about it.

There's this dog shaped B&B in Idaho, it's only about 100 per night for the whole dog.

[WestCoastSVX]

Well the special thing about this hotel would be the fact it is playing host to a weekend of SVX socializing, with the hope of it eventually becoming something very big. Think Reading - nothing specifically special about the location, definitely nothing special about the Holiday Inn it is held at. The idea was just get somewhere somewhat central to the "major players" they knew would attend, and from there more and more came to be part of the tradition.

I hear your point though. Others might be thinking the same thing.

I agree with Earl's suggestion that it should be a large hotel with a big parking lot we can do our activities in, centrally located to our NW members (and in the future, if it becomes a big enough deal with a reputation, the others will just make the trip, much like some do for Reading from hundreds and hundreds of miles away - but no concern for that right now). Our active population right now consists of the Seattle to Burlington area, a few in BC, and several in the Portland area with some "occasional interest" from Eastern WA and ID. Counting the BC folks that puts us about Tacoma. Not counting them would put us somewhere in the no-man's land between Seattle and Portland. Any ideas? As mentioned, this type of meet lends itself more to large, inexpensive hotel/motel rather than a smaller inn type situation. 5 years from now we'll be needing 40 rooms and a parking lot that can hold 50 cars!

[KVRXS]

Hi guys,
I think a hotel would be great. Even better would be one with a covered parking garage to minimize the threat of inclement weather: especially, as we will be meeting in January.
This rules out a meet in "no mans land", as I don't think there are any large hotels outside the Seattle/Tacoma area.
The only other suggestion is to possibly meet at a Fair building. However, a hotel sounds better as a place for both us and our cars.

Mark

[WestCoastSVX]

What, you don't want to spend the night in a fair building?

Yeah I was thinking about the weather too, we've been lucky so far with the Awards Banquet and no rain (but sometimes a bit of drizzle right up until). And it is always a bit cold. But I do like the idea of having the Awards Banquet near the beginning of the new year (not just for the "end of year" thing, but also because that is really a "dead zone" in our events schedule). And if we had another weekend-long event I like the idea of January/February as well to keep it 6 months away from Dabob. (I'm all about spacing things out fairly evenly)

So the parking garage idea is appealing, but I can't think of any hotels like that other than downtown Seattle where the garages are shared (so very crowded), expensive (even when I've stayed at the Westin I've had to pay for parking), and I doubt much activity in them other than parking would be accepted. Not to mention any hotels in that area would be overpriced.


If anyone can think of one with covered parking though, research it.

There is a nice hotel on the Mukilteo waterfront (right by the ferry terminal) where we had a block of rooms for our wedding guests years ago. 75% of its parking is under the building and out of the weather, while not being totally enclosed in a garage. Certainly most of the cars would be able to park there, definitely ones for maintenance demos and the like. And there is a huge park 'n' ride/waterfront park next door for parking all the cars together if it is a nice day. Great location with some cool scenery, park, restaurants (not sure about banquet ones though), things to do. Downfalls are if this meet explodes and we have a huge turnout, there may not be enough rooms/parking (maybe we don't have to worry about that, LOL). It also may be on the expensive side, it's fairly nice and on the waterfront. If I'm remembering right they cut us a great deal on a room block (I think we had 6 or 7 rooms) and they were less than $80/night, but that was 2001. The last downfall is location as it is a little bit more north (15 miles or so north of Seattle). Might detract some OR folks who would otherwise come if it was further south like Tacoma. On the plus side, it might attract more Seattle area folks who are not interested in an overnight event as they could just come each day and go home to sleep at night.

I have some other ideas, but I'm saying too much. Keep it going!

[ensteele]

I thnk it would help to have it at a good location like you just mentioned. It would be worth it to go a little farther for a good location. I like the sound of the parking as well. Reading has a block of rooms and gets a pretty good break in price. It is around $80 per night as well. If it is a good location, it may be higher in price, but once a year would make it a great event.

[FUDDMAN]

For a location, how about Ocean Shores, Olympia, or Chehailis? Plenty of sights to see. How many days/ nights are you thinking of?

[ensteele]

I would think for that meet, Fri through Sun.

[WestCoastSVX]

Yeah, what Earl said.

It would be similar to Dabob and Reading, with Friday being the time the die-hards start to show up throughout the day/evening, Saturday being "the main meet" (and in this case Saturday evening being the Awards Banquet), and then Sunday afternoon being the "official" end. Pretty standard schedule for these types of meets.

[WestCoastSVX]

As mentioned in the other Awards Weekend thread, I would like to get a few "proposals" together for potential locations to hold this event. In a couple of weeks I will put together a list to choose from (if we decide to do an Awards Weekend that is).

So now is the time to throw your idea into the hat. If you know of an interesting NW location that would be good for a January/February event, do a little research and post it here or email me.

Some things to consider:

Host hotel - to submit your idea it would be best if you already have a host hotel in mind, even better if you have contacted them to determine if there is a discount for a block of rooms (how many?) and prices. Cost will be a factor folks consider when choosing from these I'm sure so we'll need to post that. Other things to look for are of course a nice parking lot for our cars (and possible activities like maintenance demos), a meeting room, restaurant, etc.

Banquet - this even centers around the Awards Banquet so it goes without saying that somewhere in your proposal a good banquet location is detailed. Either at the hotel, or within walking distance (preferably). Good food, alcohol served, and most importantly our own private room to hold the awards ceremony in. Like the hotel, as much detail as you can provide, price, capacity, etc, probably best to contact this facility before your proposal as well.

Central location - probably somewhat central to the "active" NW members is best. Right now we have heavy concentrations of activity in the Puget Sound area and Portland area. All are welcome and encouraged to attend, but we want to make it easy for those we KNOW will show up to do so. It could be right in between Seattle and Portland to make a "fair" and equal distance between the two, or maybe close to Seattle with the thought that it is "close enough" to the die-hard Portland folks, and right there for the Seattle folks that want to go home each night to not pay for a hotel.

Interesting location - bonus points if the location is considered "interesting" or "scenic". If we are going to spend a whole weekend somewhere, it might be nice if there are some other things besides SVX to see or do in the area. The reality is most of our group would be happy to spend the whole weekend in a parking lot with the cars, but there may be some spouses/sig others who would appreciate it. The more interesting a place is, the farther away from being "central" it may be allowed to be. There's a balance there somewhere.

Deadline to have this information in by is September 14th. After that I will compile all the information together on a web page and ask everyone for input. Hopefully by the end of September we will know whether or not we will do this event at all, and if so, where it will be hosted and people can start making reservations.