BG 2008 - Pics and Discussion

[guinnessdood]

Guys...post your BG 08 pics in this thread. I personally had a great time. I arrived on Friday afternoon at 4:00 at the museum. I paid my $25 and was promptly told that the BBQ and Banquet were "sold out". Hmmmm. Oh well. Not sure what I even got for my $25? Was great hangin out with you guys again and think that we should do as someone suggested...move the Gathering around the counrty...like Atlanta, Las Vegas, Missouri, New Orleans....move it artound so it isn't so far for people to come. A rotation of sorts. I think we all love the drag racing, visiting with each other, mixed emotions about Auto-X (generally speaking), fun driving tours, poker runs, parking lot parties...that kinda stuff.

We would like to hear all of your positive and negative comments on the Gathering and any ideas you have. No holds barred...

[Aurora40]

I thought it was great. The seminars were excellent, and drag racing on Saturday resulted in much better turn-out than last year.

Drag racing at the NCM in the future should be awesome!

[QB93Z]

2008 was my first Gathering so I don't have any prior info to compare to. I had a great time. I think that the having the Gathering at the NCM has advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages include:
Built-in staff to do a lot of the planning and organizing.
Built-in access to GM support for lectures and seminars
Nice setting
Nice facilities for lectures and meetings
UPlaza seems to be tolerant of us drinking in the parking lot


Disadvantages include:
Same thing every year
Built-in overhead cost
Long travel time for many members
Scheduling constraints

Can anyone add to these lists?

If we deciced to have a get-together as large as the Bowling Green Gathering in another city, would it have to be at a location where there is a large number of members to do all the scheduling and leg work?

I know that when a local Corvette club runs an event that lasts several days and has a lot of things to do, it takes a large number of people a lot of man-hours to make it happen.

The ZR-1 NetRegistry activities at Corvettes at Carlisle (I attended 2007) drew a good crowd of ZR-1's. That venue offers some of the advantages of BG; "overhead" work like scheduling and registration are handled by Carlisle, speakers like Gordon are scheduled by Carlisle, etc.

Are there other big Corvette events in other parts of the Country that we could piggyback on?

I think that a successful "gathering" has to have a mix of formal events (like the banquet and the touring) and informal events like parking lot parties, and spur of the moment get togethers like the cookout at Jim Van Dorn's shop (thanks Jim).

I remember that at Corvettes on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, MD last fall, there were groups/clubs that got together in a specific hotel and had their own mini-gathering as a part of the bigger event that Free State Corvette Club put on. Would that work for us?

Can we find some vendor sponsors in different regions that would "host" a get together if the NetRegistry covered most of the expenses? I know that Adams Polishes does that locally here in the Baltimore area.

My bottom line:

I agree that we should have gatherings around the country so that all members can reasonably attend. But it is not an either/or decision. I think that it does not have to exclude the annual BG Gathering. Especially after the NCM builds a drag strip at the Museum.

What say you?

Jim

[guinnessdood]

Some pics from my cell phone...
The Keith Salute!!!

FU2 showing us his finer side!

Frank's Haibeck 440 LT5...only one on the planet!

$442.00 for two days? NAH!!!!

[djpatrick35]

As a first-timer, I really had a great time. I thought the presentation about the ill-fated 1995 LT5 was really cool, I enjoyed the speech about the new ZR1 (even in a room full of know-it-alls like myself) and it was just a good time to put some faces to the names (even if I earned some new names like "Crash" thanks to my unfortunate accident). The drag racing even made a newbie like me want to go out and get a helmet and try it, so I'd definitely say that was one of the highlights of the show.

I liked the more personal feel of the show as opposed to the huge shows like VetteFest or Bloomington Gold and I didn't even feel out of place despite driving the wife's C6.

One thing that I would add is more scheduled cruises. IMHO one of the best moments of the weekend was driving out for the dinner at that house even though that took all of 10 minutes because you had all of us out there goosing the throttles like teenagers and really enjoying our cars by doing what they're made to do - drive.

I've been to a lot of Corvette shows over the years, and I can say that that was easily one of the best I've ever been to. So I'll be back next year and hopefully by that time, I'll be back in a ZR-1.

[djpatrick35]

Pics:

Cruising to dinner!


Country Dinner:


New 440:


Planned '95 LT5


NCM Parking Lot (Silver C6 is my wife's car)

[95ZR1]

I like to see multiple events all over the country, but the "Gathering" should be at the NCM. I just wish it wasn't always on mother's day weekend because we have other things going on. I was always disappointed there aren't more things going on in Florida, espcially during the winter season. Maybe we can get some more Z's at the Olde Towne or Eckler's shows next season.