August events: attendance booster ideas

[thad]

So If I remember correctly SCCA has the fairgrounds for two weekends in august
and I think I heard they were back to back. The first thing i think when i hear this is low attendance. four days over the span of two weeks will have most people burnt out, especially when they are not so long after the last event, and it will be HOT. I think it will be important to plan a special event for at least one of these days, something to draw in more that the regular membership. I haven't had any really obvious winning ideas to suggest so far, Maybe a Gymkhana. Help me brainstorm.

[psychostang]

I agree with you,Thad, but in order to get people to come from outside of the area, they need to know about our events in August. Are we listing our events on calendars and forums outside the area?:confused:
Corky

[thad]

^to an extent. It's going to have to fall upon the members to get the word out for the most part since there's not a whole lot of time before the events. but we can definately get something posted on other forums that have a large enough california membership.
What do you think Corky, what would you do with the space if you had you choice?

[50Cobra]

Ive got the August event posted on several other forums to include Wickedstangs and Corvette forums. Alot of the people I have talked to are drawn away by our current small sites and pavement quality. To each his own I guess

[dbratten]

Events should first appear on our schedule correctly. The schedule is now current through May 10th for Event #1. Our site pages should be updated in a timely fashion. This will reach those that closely follow our club events.

Our calender needs to be sent in to be a part of the SFR calendar to include locations of our events. This needs to be posted well in advance and not only in the last week prior to an event.

Many entrants follow certain series point chases and plan accordingly. Part of that plan is to also know (as best as possible) the total number of events a club will hold to then meet that club's attendance requirements to trophy.

Posting to specific forums has value but mainly as a reminder. I know that I have the events that I wish to attend planned months in advance as do many others.

Event chairs should have already been secured. Those that have volunteered need to be listed on the site schedule to alert others to openings needing to be filled. Again, locations need to be listed as well as they are a factor in chairing an event.

I'm not too concerned with having burnout with two weekends back to back for our club as there is an event (or several) almost every weekend within two hours drive. It is a strain on key workers but not so much on entrants. I don't feel we need enticement to attend our events as much as people simply need to be aware that we are having them and have enough notice to plan to attend. We have not had this this year and attendance (or lack of) reflects this omission.

--Dan

[JFine]

As President of the club I feel as though I must address some of your comments as they both reflect on me as the club leader and as a person.
We are doing our best to update the website. AS you know this is a new version for this year of the website and we are trying to work some layout issues along with keeping it updated.

I agree that events that are for points should be posted before the season started. At one of the meetings the club discussed this issue of adding events to the calendar as the season progressed and it was decided to adjust the schedule as soon as events came available. In our defense none of the event dates listed on our current calendar have changed and are all confirmed but could change location and not date. Therefore plan on an event those weekends but check the website to confirm where they are located.

As far as I know SFR is aware of our calendar and has been posting our events in the WHEEL.

I disagree with the posting of events in other forums as only being a reminder. I have posted in other places and have actually got people to attend our events that otherwise did not even know we existed.

In all of my years of being part of the club I have never seen a year that we were scrounging for Event Chairs as bad as this year and I must say it seems every year it gets worse. I remember when I first got involved with the club the night we set the calendar everyone seemed to attend because they all wanted dibs on particular times of the year. I know that our current sites are not the best but that is not an excuse to not support the club and volunteer to Chair an event. In response to your statement Dan we can not secure Event Chair if we do not have any.

I disagree with you about entries getting burned out as we only had 29 entries for this last Sunday event and the course was AWESOME. I don't think we even broke even, so in my opinion whatever we can do that will not cost the club money or very little to try and boost event attendance should be done. I don not event want to think about the attendance for the back to back weekends in August. This topic of attendance booster ideas will be discussed at this meeting.

Remember this is a volunteer organization and we need you help so we all can have fun driving!

[RustyChops41]

Since my start in 1993, lower attendence in July/August is just normal, and most likely heat related. We are at the mercy of the weather here, and planning the schedule early or late won't make much of a difference, since no one knows weeks or months in advance if it will be one of those "lucky" August weekends in the high 80's or a blazing 112 degree nightmare. It's just the odds, and you win some, you lose some. My two cents

[JFine]

I want know if the experience club members(10 years plus) have ever done an attendance booster?:confused: I know I have never seen one in the 6 years I have been part of the club. Did you guys just never worry about declining numbers or was it never an issue? James I to know June, July, and August have always had lower attendance but :eek:29:eek: I think that is a record low since I have been with the club.

[RustyChops41]

James I to know June, July, and August have always had lower attendance but :eek:29:eek: I think that is a record low since I have been with the club.[/QUOTE]

It's definitely among the worst, maybe indeed a record, but I can recall many in the very low 30's.

[JFine]

Now I am going to put you on the spot James. How many years ago was it in the low 30's?

[RustyChops41]

I'd say near the end of our using the Fairgrounds as our regular site. The very late 1990's or so. I know in 1998 I was co-driving with Chris McKinney and Brett Norgaard in his CRX and we were using the Fairgrounds and Castle about 50/50. I don't think Atwater was ever that low. It's possible that running in Atwater all these years has resulted in more regulars coming from Merced/Modesto, so now Fresno is the place that's "out of town" for some entrants.

[David Silveira]

I was on the SFR web site about a week ago and no Fresno events were listed. Having the events listed on their site might be the best place to start.

[miatacrosser]

I was on the SFR web site about a week ago and no Fresno events were listed. Having the events listed on their site might be the best place to start.

That and getting a premium site to draw people too.

Got all my fingers and toes crossed.:)

[pikerttrash]

I was on the SFR web site about a week ago and no Fresno events were listed. Having the events listed on their site might be the best place to start.

:eek:This is a major issue that needs to be address with Regional before our August events.:eek:

[solo2_z06]

I've been keeping records since about '99. Some of those events had attendance below 20. At that time the entry fee was $20 and the site rental was $300. We moved to a very small site at the airport and controlled by the Air National Guard. No rental fee and we typically were excited to have 25 entries. We did do a couple of events at Millerton Lake before that was shut down and still had 25-30 entries. In 2000 we started running at the Castle parking lot we are currently using. Our entry numbers started to climb and averaged about 45 entries. Rental fee there was $300.
My photos and results show we started gaining access to the Winton ramp in late 2002. Entries then were over 50 and rental was $500. This average would eventually climb to just over 80. As mentioned, even with Winton Ramp, attendance alway dropped in July and August. Suggestions were always made not to do two events in each of these months.

[black_em2]

well we definitely need more advertisement. Ive only started running this season and the only reason I came across the site was because I was bored on google after seeing an autocross vid on youtube. If we can have a solid schedule next season, we can make fliers with the set dates and locations or at least a time frame from season start to end and direct them to the site for more info. basically like the fliers for the drift event and school. If we can pass them out to tire shops, parts stores, and near by colleges I think we can definitely get some new recruits.

RustyChops said, running in Atwater there were Modesto/Merced regulars, but if we run @ the fairgrounds I think we need to start getting some of the southern Central Valley cities involved, such as Visalia/Hanford

[psychostang]

In tight economic times, a new set of tires or a trip to Atwater is a low priority decision. Other things do take a precedent to racing.

Thad asked me what I would do to increase our participation. American Auto-X people don't often attend Fresno events, but they come to Atwater. When Dan and I chair our event in Atwater, I plan on contacting some of those folks and invite them to a Corvette/Mustang friendly course, not unlike the one we just had last Sunday at the fair grounds.;)

[RustyChops41]

Wow, I had forgotten about the ANG site. Good memory Gary.

[JFine]

To comment on course design. I have found that medium radius long sweepers seem to even out high power cars vs low power cars. The high power guys cant go real fast and the slow guys are at max speed, but both of the cars have approx the same max lateral G limit.

[pikerttrash]

Josh, you are right on the money with that statement.

[50Cobra]

In tight economic times, a new set of tires or a trip to Atwater is a low priority decision. Other things do take a precedent to racing.

Thad asked me what I would do to increase our participation. American Auto-X people don't often attend Fresno events, but they come to Atwater. When Dan and I chair our event in Atwater, I plan on contacting some of those folks and invite them to a Corvette/Mustang friendly course, not unlike the one we just had last Sunday at the fair grounds.;)

Looking forward to that!!

[miatacrosser]

In tight economic times, a new set of tires or a trip to Atwater is a low priority decision. Other things do take a precedent to racing.

Thad asked me what I would do to increase our participation. American Auto-X people don't often attend Fresno events, but they come to Atwater. When Dan and I chair our event in Atwater, I plan on contacting some of those folks and invite them to a Corvette/Mustang friendly course, not unlike the one we just had last Sunday at the fair grounds.;)

In my opinion the only way we're going to get AAS competitors to come out is get the Winton ramp back. AAS had pretty good luck with our present site in Atwater, but even their attendance fell way off when they lost the WR.

August 30 is a good date, however. We would be the only show in Northern Calif. unless you count the Lotus Club at Marina. So, we could probably do good if we get the word out. I'll be at their event next weekend and tell them of your plans for the course, Corky. But a lot of people will have already left for Nationals on the weekend of the thirtieth, so we may not get as many as we could otherwise.