Hi all,

 

First of all let me say how disappointed I am to find that that following 1 post from someone who didn't make it to the meet, so many of you, who were previously so happy about the entire event, are now complaining about the cost of it all.

 

I refuse to be drawn into a tit-for-tat battle on this forum but will, in my own defense, state the following:

 

1. Given the fact that the preparation for this meet has taken well over 2 months to complete, the process of which is well documented on this forum, you had plenty of time and opportunity to voice your opinions with regards to the location and costs.

 

2. Having put together a diverse menu to suit all tastes and culinary persuasions, ie., meat lovers and vegetarians a like, plus trying to keep the cost down to a minimum, has not been easy at all. At the end of the day, no-one paid more for the buffet than they would have paid for a regular pub main course, PLUS there was pudding included. The bare cost of the meal per person was £8.00. Add to that VAT and you're talking a very reasonable £9.40 for a main course + pudding. For those of you who thought the quality & quantity of the food was not up to scratch, I apolgize. With a group of our size it was just not possible to let everyone order an a la carte meal - firstly it would have cost you more and secondly you would have had to wait till 10 o'clock that evening to be served. Based on the responses on my thread of meet attendance and the e-mails, it was clear that 40 of you were going to show up. Making allowances for no-shows (as is always the case at events arranged for our dear forum members) I passed a figure of 38 on to the caterers and they prepared enough food for that. In the end we had 48 people enjoying a meal - no wonder it turned up short. Furthermore, it is impossible to charge everyone differently depending on the amount of food they "plan" on eating. Therefore a fixed figure per person was charged.

 

3. As the pub's carpark is private property, I have had to negotiate hard to persuade the manager to allocate us the ENTIRE rear section of the carpark (to fit 38 or so ZX's). As Saturday is a busy day for any pub, I think we were very lucky to have the space that we had. You all saw that the remainder of the pub's carpark was full and some people were even turned away. The charge for the carpark space we were given worked out to £0.60 per person.

 

4. When it was time to settle the bill, when all of you had left, it came to a couple of pennies below £430. In my pocket I had £420 from your contributions - I must have missed a couple of people when making my collections. So, I was left £10 short on the food/parking bill AND still needed to leave a tip for the caterers and staff who have been very good to us. At the end of the day I paid £460 (food, parking, tip) which means I am £30 out of pocket - so nobody F'ing tell me that any money was made off this event.

 

Judging from the comments I received/overheard at the meet and posts on this forum immediately following the meet, ALL of you were very enthusiatic and happy about it all. It saddens me a great deal to find that for some the efforts were not appreciated. We had an absolute record attendance in terms of cars (32), 48 people had a great time in the sun, you were all fed (obviously to varying degrees of satisfaction) and a great day was had by all. Having left the meet on a high I am now very wary of going through the trouble of doing it again.

 

Tooley - impressed as I was with your dougnuts, I did specifically ask everyone NOT to do it, as per the request of the pub's management. I have had to apolgize to them and they have, luckily, accepted that apology. No harm done in the end so lets all stop the finger-pointing routine, please.

 

Everyone else - I hope that I have made myself very clear in the points above. I believe everyone has had a great day out and ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY WAS MADE ON THE EVENT - quite the contrary as I have pointed out.

 

Thank you Warren and everyone else who made videos and pics of the event - I shall be adding my own tomorrow.

 

Disappointingly Yours,

 

Danny

 

 

Dan, even though I didn't attend, (unfortunately previous commitments) I think you have summed EVERYTHING up perfectly.

 

I have organised group things myself and it is very difficult to please everybody. I have found the best way is to make things clear from the start, which from your posts you did.

 

Come on guys give the man some credit!!

 

I look forward to going to the next meet you arrange. Don't be put off from doing another one.

 

Grant

Originally posted by Danny:

The charge for the carpark space we were given worked out to £0.60 per person.

 

Still leaves me wondering why it cost me £10 to park my Z?

 

Should it have not cost me 60p?

 

Other's parked their Z's and were not charged.

 

That's all I'm complaining about, everything else was pukka....don't know about the food as I never ate anything (I think that's well documented now!)

 

Matty.

Danny - IMHO and just speaking for myself - you have nothing to feel defensive about. £10 for the day was good value for me. For food alone, most caterers don't get out of bed for less than that. I just got back off a business roadshow where the per-heads were more than that and the Boat's buffet was average / above average so no complaints at all.

 

I went to the Bolney meet - which was fine but the queues for food were impossible so didn't bother. Your meet at least got us fed and being able to cope with 26% EXTRA people was good work by the caterers especially since they didn't charge 26% over the agreed price.

 

Danny, sorry you were out of pocket - if Leigh's Slough meet ever gets off the ground (altho I can understand potential event organisers being put off by this sort of reaction) it will be my pleasure to buy you at least 1 (one) low-cal low-cost fizzy drink and 1 (one) inexpensive sandwich

 

If the missus still loves me and my brownie point account is in credit (a rare and unusual thing) I will have even more pleasure in supporting your next event.

 

Thanks for organising this one - top chap.

 

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Guys & gals,

Apart from matty everybody had a great day & i speak for most of us who attended.May be if we all 31z owners, matty being 32 each give him 30 pence each to make up for his £9.40 loss on the food he never eat,and in return he pays Danny the £30.00 he is now short plus all the heart breaking organising & we'll say no more about it.....

 

Ken

 

[This message has been edited by SHREK/ZX (edited 01-04-2002).]

Looks like someone has had you over Dan. 38 @ £9.40 = £357.20 plus 48 cars @ 60p = £28.80 making a total of £386.00. Someone has made a drink somewhere. The caterers can`t charge for 48 when they provided enough for 38 surely.

Originally posted by SHREK/ZX:

Guys & gals,

Apart from matty everybody had a great day & i speak for most of us who attended.May be if we all 31z owners, matty being 32 each give him 30 pence each to make up for his £9.40 loss on the food he never eat,and in return he pays Danny the £30.00 he is now short plus all the heart breaking organising & we'll say no more about it.....

 

Ken

 

p.s Great day Dan

Originally posted by SHREK/ZX:

Guys & gals,

Apart from matty everybody had a great day & i speak for most of us who attended.May be if we all 31z owners, matty being 32 each give him 30 pence each to make up for his £9.40 loss on the food he never eat,and in return he pays Danny the £30.00 he is now short plus all the heart breaking organising & we'll say no more about it.....

 

Ken

 

[This message has been edited by SHREK/ZX (edited 01-04-2002).]

 

Ken,

 

At no point have I said this was a badly organised meet, a crap meet or anything like that, if you read my previous post's I said it was a good day, infac a pukka day!

 

The ONLY thing I am moaning about is that I had to pay £10 to park my car, I told Danny I would not be eating (due to footy commitments) and he told me it was for parking and after reading the above 60p for the use of the car park, I am £9.40p out of pocket, fair comment I think.

 

I mean would you buy a 60p loaf of bread and pay £10........nope, didn't think so.

 

I don't want the money back, I'm just annoyed to find that others who didn't eat didn't pay anything.....now where is the fairness in that?

 

If there is any money to come back make sure it goes into the upkeep of this forum.

 

Matty.

 

P.S. Was a great meet, only one gripe (read above!)

Guys,

 

Thanks for your support in this matter. I don't want to make this any bigger issue than it already is so lets call it a day.

 

Matty - lets take this issue off-line and deal with it.

 

As far as I'm concerned, it was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves. That to me is a job well done and I'll happily do it all again but perhaps I'd change a few things in the process. The fact that I didn't get to everyone for payment is probably my own fault and hence I was out of pocket. Oh well, lesson learned - lets move on.

 

Discussion closed - okay guys?!

 

Cheers!

 

Danny

Actualy no discussion not closed.

First off it was a great day and i payed my money i have no problem with that.

But why is it that no one is allowed to say anything other than what how great something is.

People have a gripe about something or suggest something else and they are all of a sudden twats , bastards, pricks ect (more than likely because they hit the nail on the head)

 

At the end of the day there is no smoke without fire.

Take constructive comments.

I enjoyed it and would do it again, but why must i not voice my opinion because i thought the food was shit ect.

Thats what opinions are about.

 

 

 

My whole point is that Matty was charged for parking his car! FFS!

 

Z meets aren't about this, last two meets I have been to have been meet up at a pub and that's it!

 

Danny, since when have people been charged for using a pub car park??? I used to stay at the Snake Pass Inn outside Sheffield, a real tripper pub and one night about 50 odd bikers pulled in and filled the car park! I don't remember my mate(who ran the pub) running out and charging them all???

 

Danny I admire you for organising this with food etc. but man this is not what meets are all about! IMHO

 

Someone somewhere(as Bob has pointed out) has made some money out of this!

 

FFS, it doesn't cost 10 squids to get into JAE for the day!

 

 

 

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lets face it nobody is going to agree on this the day was good and is not in question but if you are out of pocket what happened to the extra money from the extra people that turned up myself being one as i never confirmed with you i was going. when wazza and i payed ya werent you writing who had paid down in a book and if so it should be easy to check who did and who didnt pay.....did the guys in the bmw pay as they were parked with us or are we talking a tenner just for each car and not per person.....i'm sure next time we can avoid this pub if he has taken libertys with you when i say we i mean you guys as i wont be at another one apart from jae and stamford hall and of course the duffer and ginger soirees. i've not pointed any fingers by the way i said i was sorry to you and got shit off others which i will deal with in time

Yes, fine, fantastic, great! Opinions are just that - opinions, and everyone is entitled to their own. BUT, as Tooley has rightfully said, we are never going to agree on the issues at hand. It is simply impossible to please everyone all of the time and I'm absolutely sick of people getting arsy with eachother over something that wasn't their fault to begin with. I take full responsibility for being out of pocket, and actually yes Tooley, I did write everybody's name down who paid me, including you and Warren.

You all knew the cost for the day was £10 for food and access to the carpark. How this £10 is made up should actually be none of your concern really - you either agree to come and pay it or you don't come. As it went, I did specify early on that the charge would be for food and parking. All of you who came and paid me didn't seem to have any qualms about it at the time. Timmy - just leave it alone mate. The owner/manager of the pub wanted payment for the space as we were occupying a good two thirds of his total space. Saturday being a very busy day for them I think it is only fair that we pay for the privilege and for his cost of not having regular customers park there and enjoy a meal/drink. At the end of the day, parking was the minority component of the £10.

I am now so thoroughly fed up with people bitching about the day - I dont give a shit anymore. But what still really pisses me of is people attacking eachother personally on this public forum. Enough already! Get on with your life! Warren mate, I do take the critisisms and opinions for what they are. If you had a great day then I'm pleased for you mate, if not then I'm sorry and will try better next time. I think if you read back in none of my comments have I ever pointed fingers or called anyone anything.

That's it, no more from me on this issue. If you all want to continue bitching and moaning and alienating yourselves then that's fine with me. To me it's all over and done with - there's nothing I can do to change the way things went, only learn for the future. It was a bloody good day and I enjoyed it immensely. It was great meeting all of you and having 30 odd Zed's in one place. And for my last apology, I am sorry to all of you who think money was made on this event. I guarantee you it wasn't.

None the less, I hope we're still all friends and don't hold a grudge too long (it's not healthy )

 

Take it easy all!

 

D

Ahhhhh but the shows not over until the fat lady sings!!!

 

So let me get this straight - you paid for your food and drinks in the pub just like any other customer would? So do they charge their other customers to park for their food and drink??? No they don't - YOU WERE HAD - THEY SAW YOU COMING!!!!!

 

I can see it now - the bastard must have been rubbing his hands together - how long did you occupy his precious fuckin carpark anyway??? I'm off to a scrappy to get some old cars to dump on his carpark now Wonder how much he'll be charged for having them towed away

 

CheerZ,

 

Andy

 

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