MODIFIED NATIONALS 19th-21st APRIL 2019 COVENTRY, STONELIEGH PARK

[jensen360]

This weekend was Modified Nationals.
After closing the event due to lack of interest I felt a bit disappointed with myself, and it made me question if im the right person for the role of events within the club.

This was the first new event organised for GTOUK members since i took on the role.
I spoke to members, listened to ideas and put mine across as well.
Most of the events we do are Jap meets with the same cars. We never wanted to leave these events but thought opening a few new mixed car meets would be a great idea.
Some new things for us to see but also to show our cars off to people that don’t see them.

There has been a lot of talk about another big weekend event we attend not meeting members expectations.

Because of this Mod Nationals looked like a winner, we had members showing an interest so we booked tickets and camping.

Usually we would book 10 tickets for an event like this to get early bird prices to save members money plus camping and electric, i put this forward and luckily we decided to be a bit more cautious and only booked half of that and held off on the electric.

What did get booked cost the club £300.
It could have been closer to £700.
I want to apologise for the waste of these club funds.
I am passionate about this club, its members and our cars.

We don’t know why members didn’t attend this event. Was it price, date, location?
Let us know guys.
Its your club.
Its your club funds being used for these events.

I am genuinely worried about meets/events for the future. These organisers are starting to push for earlier bookings and larger numbers of tickets to secure club stands.

I went to Mod Nationals for the weekend to enjoy the show and see how it was.
This is 2 shows in one. Modified Nationals and Hot Rod Customs.
Tickets are cheaper than JAE and there is so much more for your money.
Camping is separate from the show and car displays which i think gives it a more show feeling, this is probably why they get more general public visiting the event.

There is indoor and outdoor club/car displays. indoor is the show cars with club displays outside.
DJ stage, Live Bands, Kids magic shows, Kids party games, kids balloon modelling, fairground rides, bmx stunt displays, dance lessons, drift rides, superbike stunt shows, drift displays, lowrider displays and loads more.
They even have a tattoo and art convention on.
They had 65 trade/exhibitors stands.
160 clubs on the modified section alone, how many American clubs i don’t know.
the amount of people there was great, with people actually looking at the cars.

The usual rules apply with camping area noise curfews, BUT they actually provide night time entertainment!!!
Bars, Club, live bands, 80s retro room, 50s music room, fairground rides, night market All going on until 2AM!!!

All in this is a great show.
I Think it also covers a lot that has gone from other shows we attend.
Possibly and Hopefully we might be there as a club next year.
I will add a few pics later.
Jensen

[James3000GT]

Hi Jenson,

I do like the sound of this event and think it could be one for the future. The reason for not registering for this was timing- Easter is a difficult one for Helen to get off work so I had to have the children. I guess it won’t always be over the Easter break so hopefully next year.

James

[stevie]

I really would not question your role, as yes I have been involved with GTOUK a long time and TBH I have never worked with anyone with such passion and interest in getting these meets sorted.

Yes I was interested to go but with NEC and AGM I soon found out that I couldn’t attend this for the weekend. I did say I was going for the day but the Hulk decided to throw a wobbly on the way back from the NEC and to no avail I couldn’t get it sorted.

What you haven’t said mate is what you did to save the club money. That is to personally pay for some of the clubs tickets and using your family to bring along yours and their vehicles to save face with the event. That shows the type of person you are.

If you guys could give some feed back regarding meets that would be great.

Jensen don’t get yourself down on this buddy, you do a great job.

Steve

[jensen360]

Cheers for the feedback mate.
Yes this was a new venue for the show, the only date available to the organisers for this year was this weekend.
It’s usually held around June-July.

[CDMH]

Keep it up mate and don’t get disheartened, Easter tbh can be so unpredictable weather wise and be frightingly cold, but this year we have had a huge curveball in the weather its been glorious but nobody could have predicted that,

for me there are a lot of meets on the calendar this year, which gives people a great choice but it also brings numbers down at meets too, historically the club had 4 big meets agm, japfest, jae and Xmas bash, the jap scene as a whole had 2 big meets japfest and jae, we can see how jae has been affected by more meets nationwide, people will tend to stay localish.

That said there have been some great meets suggested for this year Silverstone for example,

If you the members want to see a great variety of meets then you need to support the guys arranging them and the club as we can’t afford to be out of pocket on these events as they require funding upfront

Keep going jensen

[robbiewarriner]

Unfortunately Easter was always gonna come first this year hence why I didn’t commit to going (turns out with my runner dying I’d have had to pull out last minute anyway), a lot of our friends in other car clubs have said how good it was so we’ll definitely look into it next year, the AGM&japfest again falls on the weekend before we go away so can’t make that and then again in July we’ll miss the last 2 weekends shows being away.
Coventry, Birmingham, Santa pod and Norfolk are too far away without having to organise a dog/ house sitter (mother in law) which depends on her schedule so I can’t commit until close to the time.
My wife and I go to a lot of mixed meets as she has a purple 350z and doesn’t have to be a jap car meet for us, will be going to sports cars in the park on the 5th May as it’s right next to us and doesn’t require a sitter day. Will try to hit at least one club meet this year with both GTO’s as long as they keep chugging on lol

[davesoper64]

Hi would just like to all committee members do a great job and as mod nats the only thing that stopped me from booking was the change of weekend easter busy for me .
Keep plugging away mate

[Tracie]

I know the last thing you’d want is for this to turn into a ‘Jensen Appreciation’ thread, but whilst this may sound like it, I just want to say, sometimes the jobs on the Committee are a thankless task and every now and then you think ‘why do I bother’, me and @stevie have been there many times, as I’d imagine has Simon who does a LOT of work mainly behind the scene so rarely gets any recognition.

But… we’re not looking for recognition of what is done, only input and seeing people enjoy what the Club does.

So why do you do it… you already know the answer Jensen, because you love the Club, and want it to grow and succeed, as do Steve and I, and are prepared to give up your spare time to help it do so, simple as that.

As it’s your first year on the Committee, I do feel it’s important that you know that Mod Nationals not being well attended was certainly nothing of your doing, if I had to guess I’d say because it was Easter, family time, holidays etc. again the date was out of your control, but if that was the only date available when the organizers booked it, there must have been a reason WHY it was still available.

And forgetting all that Mr. Richardson, you aren’t just Committee for Events, you contribute to the whole running of the Club daily on a large scale.

Feedback from others though would be really helpful regarding this event and also the AGM, the same of which attendance is low this year but thank you to those whom have already done so.

Tracie

[just_cool]

I want to say @jensen360, don’t get disheartened, I think you do a great job, but for me 4 hours to Norwich is quite a trek, I have the AGM, Silverstone, the B/Bash and Xmas do all in hand, any other meet like JAE I will work around. I have already told 'er indoors that I’m attending more meets this year but just couldn’t make this one. Also I’ve got a new tent so am going to have to attend more to get use out of it

Yes, I am on here because I’ve been rained off.

Terry