Hi,

 

I would like to say thanks to everyone, the people that helped, contributed and turned up to Billing, I really enjoyed it!

 

I think it is the first time we have tried to have a combined effort to give ourselves a club "Presence" at Billing, and the overall impression I got was that everyone enjoyed the event and all of the main considerations ran well.

 

But for the club to move forward we have to look at where we can improve things and I would welcome any constructive criticism to try and make it a bigger better event next year!

 

There are some shortfalls, as myself and I believe all of the other main contributors have never organised something like this before and the learning curve for us was steep. The good thing is, I think we underestimated the popularity of the occassion and we should make everything bigger for next year, an indication of the clubs growth!

 

The first thing is we have to make our area bigger, one of the things I am proud of is that we are one the rarer cars at JAE and we had a great number of cars/members there. So I think increasing our area by at least 30-40% next year would be advisable!

 

Some of the things I noticed was that quite a few 300's were driving past the stand as the main entrance was not marked/obvious so maybe large notice next year would be benficial?

 

Also on the theme of parking the area for parking needed some tape and stakes to mark it out and someone to keep an eye on it and adjust accordingly.

 

A noticeboard with the timetable of events and alterations, outside of the marquee would be advisable!

 

Maybe a sheet of A4 on the day, with username and real name in plain view of your car windscreen would let people know you are there, and have the templates in the marquee for people to fill out?

 

A message board in the marquee in alphabetical order of username, so that people can make contact with each other!

 

Also it might be an idea if we have a few people set up a 300zx camping area, a bit more sociable for the evenings!

 

Have a few more T-shirts printed up for people to buy ad hoc as I am sure quite a few non members/joe bloggs wanted some, and maybe some other items, maybe mugs, tax disc holders etc, top work BTW Mac at short notice!

 

I am sure there were a few other things at the back of my mind, but at least this is a start while it is all fresh in our minds, to hopefully make it better next year.

Yes, what a turnout, it was fantastic!

Impressed with the marquee/banner etc...looked good.

Could do with more space next yr as you say, some guys

were having to park across the road.

Maybe not park next to the 350z guys, some of 'em weren't

too friendly to say the least!

Mark, excellent post mate, like the forward thinking.

I was well impressed with this, my 1st time at Billing. Definately had a good presence with the marquee and the amount of Z's.

Somewhere to "sign in" would be good, as you say so you know who's actually turned up if you want to make any contact/ask questions. Clearer directions to stands too for sure! A definate time set aside for a bbq maybe to definately get a chance to talk and meet members.....and stuff your face of course.

I was quite proud to be parked up on our stand!

Yeah, good ideas Mark.

 

Not sure about Sunday, but I think we fell down on the general parking arrangements on Saturday, caursing problems for people leaving. The Tax Disc with you name on it, was a fantastic idea (still got mine on my screen :D) Will defo be there again next year, hopefully with a rear spoiler attached this time ;) lol, sorry for letting the side down :(

 

Apart from that a very good effort by all this year.

Were you the one with the duct tape on the boot lid

then Dave?

Maybe some sort of PA system to announce when things are starting (AGM, PeterR's talks etc..) Once we'd strayed from the schedule, it was difficult for people to keep up with what was going on... I was parked and hung around next to the marquee most of the time but not everyone was so lucky...

 

Otherwise, excellent all round!

 

CheerZ

 

Steve :)

Were you the one with the duct tape on the boot lid

then Dave?

 

 

ahh i wondered who that was - nice looking zed dave :D

 

Regards,

 

alex

Were you the one with the duct tape on the boot lid

then Dave?

 

Yes mate :D

 

ahh i wondered who that was - nice looking zed dave :D

 

Regards,

 

alex

 

Thanks Alex, it'll look nicer when it's finished :D, one day...... Even got the leather drivers seat in today as well.

I came over twice to meet a few of you and on both occasions there was a lecture going on. That'll teach me to read the your agenda before I go to the event.. :o

 

See you in 2005! - If not before ;)

I didnt manage to turn up til late on Sunday but was impressed with the set up. Didnt have time to meet anyone either.

Some stunning zeds there guys!

Nice ideas Mark,

 

The evening would have been loads better if we were all in the same area, as we all kinda drifted off after a bit of chatting near the Z's as we were all camping a fair bit away as I could see.

 

Perhaps we should have a bit of a party in the eve next year too. The hiring of a sound system would be pretty useful hehe. We could all contribute a bit of cash if needed and have a massive BBQ in the eve too.

 

I think we could probably do with a few more events taking place in the day as it would help to mix a bit better with ppl and get to know more of the Z owners.

 

I was kinda confused on tha day wondering who was a Z owner and who joe public was, as it was just random faces chatting to me about the Z. A lot of people said they were looking at buying a Z to me tho so we must have impressed a fair few ppl.

 

I think from looking around though we had the best presence there by far, I was seriously impressed with the turn out!

Brill ideas mark, especially the notice board listing the what's what and when it's happening. Running a trade stand at billing can be quite busy and i popped over at least 6 times to see certain things happening and they seemed to be running late, would have been nice to be around whilst my donated cash prizes of 175 quid were being dished out and so i could see who was winning them :(

for a 1st attempt it was very good though and ALL of your ideas are worth looking into for 2005.

Is now a good time to arrange the Trax meet and get it all sorted ? only 5-6 weeks away :)

smithy

Brill ideas mark, especially the notice board listing the what's what and when it's happening. Running a trade stand at billing can be quite busy and i popped over at least 6 times to see certain things happening and they seemed to be running late, would have been nice to be around whilst my donated cash prizes of 175 quid were being dished out and so i could see who was winning them :(

for a 1st attempt it was very good though and ALL of your ideas are worth looking into for 2005.

Is now a good time to arrange the Trax meet and get it all sorted ? only 5-6 weeks away :)

smithy

 

 

Thanks Smithy,

 

Unfortunately the timetable went a but haywire due to circumstances beyond our control, but we shall endeavour to keep it under tabs next year

 

The national events sec AKA Kirbz is looking into Trax asap, so hopefully it will be full steam ahead with that event!

Didnt see you smithy? I had your silicone in me boot all day to give you.

 

Never mind mate i've posted it off to you today now should get it back soon.

 

Cheers

Didnt see you smithy? I had your silicone in me boot all day to give you.

 

Never mind mate i've posted it off to you today now should get it back soon.

 

Cheers

 

No probs mate, i posted up before billing where i was located with my stand, but got to billing and was told i was going to be somewhere else, away from where i suggested :eek: there were a few who didn't find me !

cheers

smithy

Mark

it was my first time and i was very impressed

I took 3 of the kids with me and they all want to go next year

a big party.BBQ on the Sat. night sounds good

and a 300zx camping area would be great (this year i pitched the tent between PaulG and Chris C, the very loud passing of gasses between the two was funny. who needs a flamer kit)

looking forward to next year

advice - dont pitch your tent next to me unless you want a sword fight with a 4 year old at 7.00am LOL

Nice to meet ya and the family Paul!

 

I think next year a BBQ might be in order but will Cos the official club BBQer maestro be in attendance?

I totally agree with all of your points mentioned above Mark.

 

It was very hectic and I really don’t think we had enough hands on deck to cope with it all to be honest.

 

I think we will need to have a rota not only for the Marquee but also for the entrance.

It would be a good idea to be handed the voting forms for trophies and any other important information like the timetable of events when you first enter the 300zx.co.uk stand.

This way we can just highlight any changes we need to make on the notice board outside the marquee.

 

I think we will need to invest in a megaphone for next year, this way we can round people up for lectures and presentations etc.

Alternatively we can just wait until it rains as this seemed to attract quite a few people (not sure all of them were 300zx.co.uk members but never the less :eek: ).

 

The trophies presentation was excellent, however I think we need to give a little more consideration to the voting itself.

It was the first time we did it this year and although there were some nice trophies with great prizes from some of the traders.

However people who were there for the whole weekend had more chance of getting votes than people that just turned up on one of the days.

Any ideas on how to improve this would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think the front line was the prime spot as it seems that most of the trophies were won by people on the front line.

I'd like to thank Chris C for blocking the entrance on the Saturday ;) and then after changing the entrance to a different location, blocking it again on the Sunday LMAO :rofl:.

I'd like to thank Chris C for blocking the entrance on the Saturday ;) and then after changing the entrance to a different location, blocking it again on the Sunday LMAO :rofl:.

 

:rofl:

I decided to move my Z out of the entrance on saturday to the clear spot at the other end.

Nobody told me you'd decided to move the entrance there! :rolleyes: LOL

Topless then filled the "old" entrance I'd left so we were back to square one! :rofl:

We need some proper signs next time instead of just "300ZX.co.uk" pinned to a tree as the entrance.

 

Still doesn't get round the problem of us all being so jammed in and not being able to move cars because people are away looking round the show.

We need a bigger plot with rows like in a car park so people can leave when they want without having to move others.

Yeah the parking problem was a bit of a logistics nightmare!

 

There was a sort of method to our madness, we tried to have a central channel, with a sort of clear area around the Marquee, to effectively split the parking area into two.

This way if someone in the middle had to leave it would mean less cars would have to be moved/owners found, communicating this to everyone was difficult and I think that is why we need some tape or parking person to help with this.

As has been said, if we could have a proper entrance, be told where to park and be handed a timetable of events then everyone would know whats happening.

 

You guys had a good plan, but nodody who turned up knew what the plan was!

 

It was still a fantastic weekend though and so much better and more organised than the 3 i've been to before.

Yeah the parking problem was a bit of a logistics nightmare!

 

There was a sort of method to our madness, we tried to have a central channel, with a sort of clear area around the Marquee, to effectively split the parking area into two.

This way if someone in the middle had to leave it would mean less cars would have to be moved/owners found, communicating this to everyone was difficult and I think that is why we need some tape or parking person to help with this.

 

Anyone that parks up should have a number on there car and then add their mobile number to a list next to their car number. It should help a bit.

No probs mate, i posted up before billing where i was located with my stand, but got to billing and was told i was going to be somewhere else, away from where i suggested :eek: there were a few who didn't find me !

cheers

smithy

 

Where were you then. I wanted to introduce myself and say thanks for the prompt way you dispatched stuff of for me.

 

This was my first Billing and Though I had a very good time I thought not enough atmosphere in the evening by the club tent and only "Hermy" Mike, Adam R and myself ventured to the bar. So how about a few lights a sound system and not loud just background amd maybe a rew more tables.

 

The rest of the Ideas Mark has put forward are sound. Especially the notice and meeting boards. Name badges for people as well as cars, because we all have different tastes and that way we can be diplomatic to owners of cars we think are crap. I'm sure I told someone that I thought a certain car was hideous (and it is sorry mate) only to find out later that it was his car. :mac1: :nelson:

 

Hey a really good weekend so if its even better next year you'd better be careful or we'll expect a laser show as well the year after.

I think it was very well handled guys considering the number of people organising and the shear number of cars, what a great turn out !!!

 

If the cars next year could be parked

 

\\\\\\\\ TENT /////////

 

\\\\\\\\\ space //////////

 

\\\\\\\\\ space //////////

 

\\\\\\\\\ space ////////// (I had to use the word space cos it deleted the blanks i'd put there ?)

 

Then all cars could move at will and theres great down all the bonnets photo's to be had.

 

Cheers for finding me a space on sunday and I aim to be there more than one day next year and happy to help as much as possible.

I too had a great weekend. Thanks to Mac for sorting me a space out at such short notice. Though I was at the back, it suited me fine as I was right next to our marquee. For some reason no one else used this space, so I was able to park here time after time. I think club tee shirts also with are names on is a great idea. I too was forever asking who people where. Thanks for all you guys who helped me out, diagnosing several faults with the motor. The amount of knowledge present was overwhelming :shock: . The Zs there where out of this world. I never thought I would see the day, when my Z looks out of place. That’s Another good reason for parking it round the back. I have captured a lot of new ideas and hopefully I will come back next year with a beast worthy of parking at the front.

 

Over all You all felt like one big family, The force was strong :). Iam looking forward to TRAX

 

I believe there was a meeting discussing the clubs future, and trader policies. Deciding to go to Billing last minute, I overlooked any post which may have mentioned this. :( . What was the outcome with the trader policy, is there a post anywhere discussing this.

There seems to be a big problem with a lot of you, I spent over £60 of my own money so we could have named badges on our car, and only one or two of you said thanks wont be doing it next year someone else can foot the bill.