So as not to mix the reality of the "what went right, what went wrong in 2009" discussion with the "Blue Sky" possibility of 2010, I am creating a separate thread for your ideas in making next year as much an "off-the-hook" experience as I feel this year's was.

363 days (8712 hours) to go before the Site Supporter Breakfast kicks it all off in 2010.

Best,

M

Don't know if it's possible or not, but you need more space.

I just mentioned this in your other thread but I might as well start some discussion in this thread too lol.

The banquet...I really like slideshows with commentary from the guest speaker. Especially slideshows with a good mix of famous photos (the Stu/Porsche pic is a good example of this) and pictures that not many people have seen before. Presenting photos in a slideshow not only loosens up a nervous guest speaker, but gives us a bit of insight into a world we dreamed about while staring at bmx magazines for hours. In addition to all that, it breeds some pretty interesting questions and comments from the attendees.

2 cents

I would have liked to have seen that people who entered bikes in the show were allowed to vote. I understand your reasons why you did it the way you did, but also see it as something that can be fine tuned and allowed for next year.

more room is and has always been a hope. I just hope to go next year LOL

The only 2 suggestions would be
1: Try to have the bikes for show grouped together. I know this is a tough one, but it would make voting easier, and make it easier for to identify mis-classed entries. This would also be tough on bike owners, as they would have to be away from their space if they wished to be with their bike entry.

2: Have the "structured" portion of the banquet start earlier, and the un-structured portion close ou the evening. Eating at 8:30-9:00 is tough after that long day.

Again, Mike THANX for ALL your hard work!

Maybe a Dean Martin roast format for the special banquet guest next year?

but you might have a hard time finding a guest for the year after that though

I really like this idea. I agree that it is tough to find all the various entries in each category among the sea of bikes. Security presents a problem in having all the 80s in one section, all the freestyle in another, etc (or would radically reduce the number of bikes people bring, if they had to keep track of bikes in four or five different sections.

One possibility, if we can get the entries in early enough, is to make a "directory" which has all the 80s grouped together, all the freestyle grouped together, etc. The listing would have the owner name, their space number and the title of the build, or brand.

The success of that hinges on a couple factors: Organization and finance. Organizationally, we'd have to get entries in earlier, and make sure the listing info was correct. To print a couple hundred of these directories would probably run $1000 or so. The hope would be that we could raise the money from advertisers to cover the cost.

But, I agree that there can be a better way to make sure all bikes are seen. The hang tags helped this year, but it's always about "taking it to the next level," so we'll get on that!

Best,

M

Have the event in March, on a Tuesday.

I'd be so there.

I like the idea of having all the bikes grouped together in each catagory as well. How many people marked their ballot w/o even seeing all the entrys in a given group? Sometimes the first one they get to gets the vote, or the guy with the huge flashy display. If all the bikes of a given category were together it put them all on a more level playing field. I'm sure Mike would see that the area is controled so that people with uber dollars in their builds would not have to worry about them. If they were that worried they could just sit in a lawn chair across from the area. The bikes could be arranged to able to be seen clearly and roped off to prevent people from walking in amoungst them and possibly knocking one or all of them over.


Eat immediately after the cocktail hour

With that new huge and stoke skatepark nearby.. I think there could be something a freestyle chill session there. If Blyther would bring his bike... Maybe incorporate the skatepark somehow.....

I've never been to Rockford ( yet!) but as far as grouping all show bikes together:

I showed my bike at a motorcycle show where all were grouped in rows..british, custom,jap etc...each had a seperate row and you had to have your bike there for a set time ( 8am-3pm for example) an there was one show emplyee there with a looooong plasic coated cable and a lock run through all the back wheels..and each bike got like a coat check ticket..kept all the bikes secure so you can enjoy the show and come back and get your bike at a set time..

Just an idea for you!

Break up the retros into cruisers and 20s?

We set up at the Buick GS Nationals by class, in rows. Works good with the car shows. They have to be parked there from 9 am to 1 pm.

Each class "in rows" is an great idea, and one that needs some consideration as to "how" we could acheive.....(security issues, stands, etc.) Maybe we could have them in rows for a specific time frame 12-3pm? That way the morning could still be for those with cool displays/props that go with their bikes. It would be pretty cool seeing them all in line against each other!

Claude

Name tags/badges for all. I was glad to get to put names/nicks to faces for the banquet attendees that wore their badges at the show, but my own excuse for not going going was a) I had both my boys there racing and a buddy who came to help and couldn't "bail" on them and my budget was smoked by race entry fees, food, etc. for the 4 day weekend.
I'm sure there were others from here that were in a similar situation, and having some type of different badge with our nicks/names and maybe even avatars (although some change those weekly ) would be cool for "socializing".
Thank you so much again Mike, others. Honestly, when Dale Earnhardt Sr. died, I though my last hero was gone. But this weekend reminded about a previous hero of mine. And seeing how gracious/humble/real he was this weekend, and not minding a bit when some random person asked him to touch the grip on an old MXII, makes me smile right now, knowing that I still have a hero in Stu! Poor guy must have to leave for everywhere he is trying to get 2 hours early! I even saw a 14 (?) year old on his new Avent race bike with a fresh Stu autograph on the top tube !! Good stuff!
Thanks also for getting the rules "bent" for swapping. I ended going home with more stuff than I showed up with ?!? Mostly small stuff, all the big stuff I was eyeing up, waiting until I sold something to fund it, ended up in someone elses hand walking by. Oh well, I'm sure it found a good home.
Probably better try to get some work done now...
Thanks again,
Wade T/PlusP

I honestly believe that forcing the category grouping would make the organization of the event even harder (Not to mention, I would freak out knowing that the bike I had worked so hard for a long time is just lined up somewhere in the lot out of my sight); But I sincerely think that if we can obtain a bigger space within the park that allows us to spread a bit more the tent lines we might be able to accomplish a better display. I saw people with up to 4 different classes in their lots (I just can't figure out how they could get the attention to the public being separated from each other)... I also saw people with more than 5 bikes in a 10x10 space and this limits not only the people that is walking around enjoying watching everyone of them, but I guess also their chances of making a better impression for each one of the entrees.... But Again, If we can line up the Category display for a limited time only where the owner of each build gets to be next to it.. it might work.

My two cents are not in the form of suggestion, but mostly as an invitation, to all the people who attended and the ones that for some reason couldn't make it, to keep bringing their bikes to the event and help Vintage BMX (Mike) To keep being the TOP Rated event in the Nation... I know some of us have great ideas for future events and we can only grow from there to make it better.

Perhaps instead of letting registrants pick their tent space, group them by the category that they registered their bike / s. Wouldn't be perfect, but maybe better?

Vintage nick names on BOTH SIDES of the badge as well as a larger font if possible, ya know...kinda like the cell phones for old people. I also like PlusP's idea of having the option of placing their avatar on their badge as well.

Having each bike grouped by class is an excellent idea for making the judging more competitve. Undoubtably more space will be needed as many guys will have several bikes in several classes, in addition to wanting their own space for non-entry bikes, parts and chillin.
Each class could be lined up with security stakes driven into the ground at each end and coated cable strung thru the rims and locked to the stakes. Simple and easy.
This allows groups of us to plan ahead and get spaces adjoining one another. Thus allowing someone to leave their space while another keeps watch.
Having more classes or restricting entry into a certain class is a must. Such as CUSTOM, MODIFIED, OPEN, SURVIVOR, and possibly defineing what exactly is a BIKE! Is it something that has wheels and can be riden or is a BIKE- a collection of parts in a box.

We did have a definition of a "bike" in the rules. It stated:



That was the point of creating the OPEN class. In that class, you can enter a bike, or any fraction thereof (so if you had a kick ass Redline stem you wanted to enter, go for it). We wanted people to enter their oddities, and LTaBs (Less Than a Bike). Car shows often have a "work In Progress" class.


Best,

M

I'll toss out a crazy idea...

How about skipping the dinner? It's the most expensive aspect, and I stopped for food on the way back from the track anyways. Blow the budget on free cocktails...and maybe we can coerce somebody into riding their show bike into the outdoor pool later on. Not downing the main event at all, but the chill session atmosphere was more to my personal liking. More tables/chairs and waitresses in St. Pauli Girl outfits wouldn't hurt either.

I second the no dinner idea, beer and awards is cool. Put vendors in one area like car meets too. I think setting up areas for each class is feasible. Maybe use the middle of the space for it and allow each entry a certain amount of space.

Couple more ideas. First idea stolen from other OCD groups that like to show-off their stuff, and I enjoy looking at it :
Every year have a "Featured" make i.e. GT, SE, Schwinn, Tahoe, Raleigh, whatever. Guest speaker(s) could be tied to the featured brand? Even numbered years more race oriented, odd years more freestyle oriented, just cuz freestylers are a little...ummm...odder . It'll be the 50th Annual before it comes back around to the start. Reserve "milestone" years like 2024 for Redline (50th anniversary, right?) (maybe a little optimistic that some of us will make it that far !?!) At snowmobile shows I go to they do this and tractor shows too. Instead of every year having a best Redline/Hutch/SE have a best "Featured" brand. That frees up a couple of catagories, because idea number two is going to eat up at least one of them...
Judging from some of the posts here, I'm not alone in thinking that, while they were BEAUTIFUL, and complied with the rules, some of the top bikes just "felt" like they belonged in a seperate class. The purist in me wants to see "stock" bikes as their own class. I already get the vibe that a "mod" class may be in the works?
It will be interesting to see how this all evolves. My son's and I were talking about it on the way home. I'm not sure if "our" vintage stuff will have the same appeal to them (next generation). I'm sure it will still have some nostalgia to some of them (this was my dad's bike, and they had to put so many colors on it to make up for only having black and white TV I guess), but when they are 40-ish years old they will be trying to find the correct powder coat color codes and repop decals for their '08 Flight resto . I didn't do a search on it, so I may already be too late, but i wonder how long it will be, before it becomes a "vintage resto" question: "How do I fix a gauge in carbon fiber?"

Posted this by mistake in the "Post Mortem" Thread... Sorry

This might sound a bit "nuts".... But what about a "Winter" version of Rockford (Museum style).... Lets say 1st week of November???

The Clock Tower has adjacent and intercommunicated meeting rooms... We can make several rope lines with hallways with enough space to fit pretty much as many bikes as we had in the park and allow visitors to transit comfortably... Every entree will be provided a 5 x 5 space with a Pink Sheet for the description that will be placed next to the bike... We can even do Rooms By Class... A cool DJ... And a Food Station (Probably provided by the Hotel for the extra income).... What about renting a closed space in the parking lot and bring a few ramps for Woody, Mike, and Ron to do a Chill Vert Session...

Will this be "pushing" the envelope???... Is just that a year seems too long after having so much fun this weekend...

A bit much with Thanksgiving and Christmas close behind, once a year is enough

IMO

I'm in total agreement with skipping dinner.

Yeah, look how fun Wilkersons talk and slide show was...all with beer and pizza buffet style, lol. Considering the raffle went till midnight, skipping dinner would help keep the evening to a non-sleep inducing minimum.

Could have a cookout at the track Saturday afternoon in lieu of dinner at the hotel.

The only thing about dinner-skipping: Those of us who don't leave the track 'til late might hit the buffet and get stuck with nothing more than some wilted lettuce and cold fish. Teh suk. Or we'd wind up rush-scarfing some samich or something.

I like sitting at the table with friends and chatting.

I'd like to see hot sauce on the table...

I did feel the dinner clean up got in the way of Stu's interview, from my mid-rear table seat. I could go for a buffet style, with more of a grazing atmosphere so that the stragglers still could get some food (have the staff keep the buffet stocked till a point in time). Or just do another pizza type thing, or something similar. I imagine that this may or may not be cheaper (not that I thought it was too much $$ either) since the number of staff might not have to be on hand. Really, this is all nit picking. The banquet is supposed to be nice, we are supposed to be adults now and enjoy a nice meal served to us. I'll be there no matter what, even if I have to bring in my own sack of tacos.

What "budget" are we talking about here? Without a banquet, there are no banquet ticket sales. Without ticket sales, there is no budget. No budget = no Chill Session, no Commemorative T-Shirt, no goodie bag, no hospitality suite, no bike hang tags, no printed ballots, no awards, no guest speakers, etc, etc.

I guess if that's how we're doing it, why not just grill up a steak on your deck, grab your video camera and your laptop, and let's just dispense with the hassle of traveling to the location at all...do it as a virtual show. Cheap, easy, and you can eat when you want.

Do y'all REALLY want to go down that road?

M

P.S. A cookout at the track is a nonstarter for a few reasons: the track frowns on grilling due to lost concession revenue. The park rangers frown on it due to fire risk. Also, no alcohol in the park (for those of you who drink)...and it tends to rain unexpectedly, and in generous amounts, in Rockford in June (parts of my wadrobe are still drying from that Friday deluge).

To do it right, the "cheap" cookout route would cost at least triple what the banquet cost (once you get through renting refrigeration, tenting, seating for 150+ people, dinnerware, and getting enough grill space and buying enough food to accommodate 150 people). A simple cookout in place of that "expensive" banquet sounds good, but logistically, it is as pleasant as a week in beautiful Pelican Bay,.

Bring the hooters girls serving a keg of Leinies and set up a jump into the pool or a midnight ride..thought you guys did a great job at the track! I didnt make the rest of the events this year...

How bout' streaming video of the various events, including Sat. at the show.

Was thinking about that for this year, but I do not want people to say "I'll just watch the feed." We want them to show up. On the other hand, it would be a very cool thing to do for the Saturday Afternoon show.

Keep 'em comin!

Best,

M

Mike, I'm just offering a suggestion that by skipping or making more casual the most expensive line-item of the main event, it wouldn't bother me. If you charged $20 per person, which $15 covered the chill session(s) admission and $5 covered the smaller items you listed, it would be fine with me. And please don't interpret my suggestion as an unappreciative gesture for the planning you do. You did ask for ideas.

JDB—

I'm not, at all, taking the suggestion as unappreciative. Not in the least. It was mostly for the group, than directed at you (though I guess I *did* use your message as the quote, it was not directed at you)... More than anything, I want people to understand that this is an event on a razor-thin budget. This year, I am going to end up putting about $3500 of my own money into it, just to make it break even. So, when people start saying "let's toss the banquet," I get the jitters and a panic attack wells up inside of me. THAT was what you might have "heard" in my reply...terror, not anger or frustration.

I ABSOLUTELY want ideas. Lots of them. But when an idea that is virtually impossible to act on started to take root, I felt I needed to step in and say something before it went too far (just as a reminder that there is no budget to run the event without someone paying something, somewhere). There are plenty of "Bro-Down" format gatherings (Here in the Midwest, we have the Ottawa, Indiana and the odd one or two at state races...the South has the Atlanta gathering in May, and SoCal has the OS gathering). My hope is that we can keep the spirit of the events side as well as the show alive and refine it to better fit our needs.

Best,

M

I like the idea of adding chairs to chill session. I like idea making banquet, less about meal and more like chill session. I would not mind paying the necessary fees to help the event pay for itself whatever that amount is. Mike should no have to support our event.

I thought overall (except for length of Sat night drawing) everything was very well organized. My only recommendation would be to relocate so we have more space. It would be great if everyone had a place to park. We carried our bikes, stands, & tent 850 steps each way to the end of the park because we could find no place closer. Assigned displays were great, could be have assigned parking next year.

That's it for my soapbox for now. Keep up the great work Mike, and again best of luck in your new ventures.
Don

And that's partly where my idea came from. Quite frankly, I'd be fine if you charged me the exact same amount as the banquet and just made the main event more casual like the chill session w/pizza. Some people might see that as paying the same and getting less, but I actually prefer the atmosphere of the chill session. It's somewhere in-between a Bro-down and banquet. Either way, I'll be there next year and I'm sure we'll all have a great time again.

I agree completely with JDB.

I am happy to pay the same amount, but be fed pizza or a taco bar type of meal deal. Lower your overhead on the meal, shorten the time down that the meal took to eat / serve and cover the costs involved.

I feel really bad that Mike had to pay out of pocket so I could have an awesome weekend. That is just not right. If anything, Mike should be able to profit a small amount from the event - I would bet he would invest that money back into improvements to the website, or fly in other guests, etc.

The bottom line is, if Mike has to pay out of pocket to put on this event each year, eventually, there won't be any more Rockford. WE, the members of the website, need to keep that in mind when we are complaining.

My other suggestion would be to not have an interview format for the guest. The one with Stu seem to dwindle a bit and I noticed a lot of guys talking among themselves from losing interest.

I like the format where the guest makes a slideshow and kind of talks through it - Like Bob Haro, Woody and Ron did.

I would still pay for the event and be happy without the sit down dinner. Pizza and beer is good. Especially if we can go barefoot.

Let me start off by saying what a fantastic weekend! I had such a great time meeting everyone and getting to puts faces to names. It was good to see a lot of old friends, and make many new ones too.

The best part was just being in the company of so many like-minded individuals, from the show at the track, to the banquet at the Clocktower with Stu and Cash.
Stu is such a humble guy, and easy to talk with, that it isn't hard to understand why we all have looked up to him as a role model these many years.

Mike, you and your crew were incredible. I'm sure there were a few snags along the way, but I sure didn't see any.
What a great job of keeping all the balls in the air.

I will speak for myself, but I think that there will be others who will agree with what I am going to say.

Just tell me where to send you some money to help cover the cost of the weekend.
I would send you enough to cover the whole shortfall, but I can't swing that much.

With as much joy as I get from this place on a daily basis, and the great weekend we just had, I feel that sending you a little extra cash is the least I can do.

I really liked the sit down dinner, but some type of a buffet would be alright too.
Tim Ferry and I camped at the track all weekend, (Tim raced all 4 days) and it was really nice to have a good dinner brought to our table.
I have mixed feelings about having things start later.
It would have been nice to stay and see all of Saturday's race, but after a long day at the track, we were starting to fade away around 10:30pm.

If the pre-race would not of been pushed to Saturday morning, don't you think that the races would have gotten done a lot earlier. That might be enough extra time for people to get back and get cleaned up before dinner.

I'm sure that there are more things I will think of as the days go by.

Thanks again to Mike and everyone involved for making such a great weekend possible.

Bryan

I honestly think that the event format worked out nicely... And should be working because the event has not only sustained for 10 years but it looked to me like is also growing... Yet it might need some tweaking, but that is exactly the idea for this thread.

Announcing the category winners worked out much better than last year and even though my group left early (Thinking the winners would be posted somewhere at the hotel), We had plenty time to pick up our set up, stop on the way back to eat and take a shower back at the hotel (So we didn't mind waiting a little for the food)... But again, we were at the door 15 minutes late.

Didn't have any complaints for the Hotel, but looking at it from another angle, I was so tired every day that I could've slept with no roof over my head

What really concerns me is knowing the budget felt short for the event, and by experience I can tell that is the exact main reason for many shows to begin fading overtime (Mike is already putting his soul into this and is not fair for him to have the out of pocket expense to cover any balances to break even). I understand that as an event planer he has to consider a neutral budget to accommodate every one's spending capabilities and that this will place the ball into the supporter's field, which I also understand has its limits... With this in mind, I guess we just have to figure out a way of tweaking the schedule and improve it little by little throwing small ideas at a time... BUT IN ANY CASE, I still think that I would gladly repeat it the way it was with not a single complaint.

Budget permitting, the idea of the indoor-museum-style event would work out nicely, and the clock tower has the capabilities to make it happen (I would like to address this with Mike some time).

When Oz talked didn't we have a buffet style dinner for that??? It might not have been cheaper than how it was this year. Not sure. Something to look into possibly.

I myself enjoy the dinner style banquet. I agree with Bryan Franklin, I camped at the track, and it was nice having a hot meal delivered to me that wasn't through the window of my car.

Offer raffle tickets throughout the day and limit sales to the first half hour of the banquet. Ourt local track pulls numbers and tapes them to a prize, then you go check your numbers. Would this work for this type of gathering?? Would it take way from the fun of hearing your number called?? Dunno.

If you have a table with the tickets attached to them and 200+ people trying to shuffle up there to look at each number (three or four times to be sure), I think that would cause a big mess. But calling the numbers takes a long time. I don't have an answer off the top of my head, but there must be a way of doing it that's not only quick but doesn't cause a big mess either... there's got to be a way.

My 1.5 cents on the dinner... I don't care what it is -- buffet, pizza, nice dinner... I would pay the same either way, I'm not there for the food. But I do feel for the people who race or camp all weekend and want a nice dinner. Either way, I'd pay more... $40, $45, $50 or whatever for the whole shebang. It's a whole weekend of all-access activities for whatever price, so it's a good deal when you look at it like that. Bringing in all the speakers, room reservations etc, can't be cheap. Make sure you don't lose any or much $ next year. Losing $$$$ on an event like this isn't right or fair in any way.

I also like the idea of an itinerary in the event bag. I printed mine out ahead of time, but many will forget or won't ever see it. It's very cheap to xerox off ~200-300 copies of something like that... nothing fancy, just B&W schedule.

"With that new huge and stoke skatepark nearby.. I think there could be something a freestyle chill session there. If Blyther would bring his bike... Maybe incorporate the skatepark somehow..... "

Best idea ever. How cool would it be to get to ride with your heros.

Mike,
One tiny thing that was way cool about last year was the Rockford stickers that Mike P. and the Minnesota Faction made up. I'm proudly rocking mine on my truck. It would be cool to have a commemorative sticker for each event, maybe you could have a sticker sponsor to cover the costs? It would have been killer to have a 10 year anniversary sticker.

One idea to take it to the next level would be to make the raffle a main component of the entire banquet: happens during dinner, and is the main tool for generating revenue. This is exactly how the Ducks Unlimited banquets work. For the local chapter I attend, the Plum Creek DU chapter buys about 200 guns from the largest local sporting goods store at slightly above wholesale. The entire night is one giant raffle from start to finish with a dinner taking place at the same time.

It's too complicated to explain why/how it's fun, and you'd just have to experience one to know why. There's only 1 year that I didn't win a gun, but the following year I brought my wife and then we both won a gun with the table raffle. I also won Gun of the Year once. The dinner ticket is $65 and I do blow about $250 more on raffle tickets throughout the course of the night though. But everyone's dinner ticket includes a general raffle ticket, so you could win a $150 gun or you could win Gun of the Year (which is how I won it, so you're not required to spend money above the dinner ticket to win the best stuff). The Plum Creek DU chapter is one of the most profitable and well-organized chapters of DU in Wisconsin, and many people from other chapters travel to this one because it's so cool.

Could it be taken to this level at the Rockford banquet or by next year? No way. But it's a concept worth considering on a smaller scale and implemented over a gradual course of time, ramping up each year if it's successful.

Maybe the raffle ticket sales and numbers drawing is done before the banquet somehow. I'm not saying I know how this could be done, but I'm just saying maybe. Then loot is picked up at the banquet.

The biggest problem I have with a buffet, and the reason I passed on it this year, is because it takes people away from the chat at the table.

In 08, the flow of the conversation at the table was disrupted because people kept going up to the buffet...and I think that is one of the most special parts of the event--the friendships and fellowship at the table.

Just some insight into the "why" behind table service.

Lots of great feedback here, please keep it coming!

Best,

M

Mike:

I haven't had time to read this thread so I hope I don't duplicate what has already been said. Here were a few of my thoughts:

Instead of calling out each raffle ticket, just pull em, post em, and give out the stuff as the winners come up. It keeps people there till the end also.

The bikes out at the track are part of the culture of rockford and very good for bmx in general. Please keep that alive. There is so much room at rockford you could have it further back in the park if you wanted to as there is MASSIVE room there. People would still come there I am confident. In fact, if you put it way back there, that would be the furthest any racer would have ridden his bike the whole weekend. It might also squelch the other vendors from being offended. We are a big enough group now that we need our own space but still be at the track.

Was there a commerative t shirt?

I think a photo op with Stu for a fee might have been a cool way to defray. It would take very little time and be very cool. Sort of like the prom.

A roving camera man during the bike event then having snippets played during the intro of the banquet might be awesome. We needed music or something. There wasn't much of a vibe to start with.

I wish I had more time from the mic to introduce members and talk about a couple of things on the site. Maybe a "topic" of the year or "poster of the year".

It's ok if we start later to accomodate the racers. We are all adults and can stay up late. It might hurt first moto people on Sunday though!

Mike, you were too busy during the start. You need more help. Joey was awesome, but I felt like you didn't get to enjoy the event as much as you might have. Let's get a couple of full time volunteers who work for food or something. It's an honor to work to build something like this. I know there were others who helped that I am not mentioning, but the check in at the track seemed difficult.

Bike Voting. Man I was just lost. Crews and I were copying off each other. Not sure what to do there. It was overwhelming. I know nothing about it, but I would have put all similar bikes into a similar area for two hours and let people rock the vote for a short amount of time. I took three laps trying to find an 800 series bike to vote for so I just wrote in 802 I think.

An autograph thing with the guest and a handout with his pic and having it promote vintagebmx.com might have been fun. Get some mic support promoting the BMX Hall of Famer over in the Vintage area signing photographs...etc. Maybe do a Vintage poster with several people on it and as we grow more of those folks would be available to sign. The thing at Phoenix was cool with the ABA poster. The ABA can print anything!

If you will invite me back next year, I would have maybe 4 members come up to the mic and tell a great 2-4 minute bmx story about the speaker, their lives, anything! Let's keep the members involved. I loved interviewing Stu and think it was historical as well as hysterical. He is such a good guy and he made the process fun. I thought it was cool at the end when he signed and got to take a couple of photos. Maybe next year we can raffle off "Dinner With ......." and we can have a table of 10 Vintage folks and the guest speakers?
These are just thoughts of course.

Mike, this was awesome and it will remain that way. Thank you for letting me be part of something relevant and worthwhile. It was worth the drive for me. Let's get started on next year's banquet. Let me know how I can help.

Cash Matthews

Mike, first off thanks for putting on a great event and all the others and sponsors who helped out too! I do agree with Cash that you were SO busy that maybe having some more assistants will help ya out.



EVOLUTION – A process of change in a certain direction

BMX started out with fast downhill tracks with heavy suspension bikes and years later we have flat, smooth, hard packed/paved berms tracks and highly innovative bike parts, clipless pedals to evolve the sport to what it is today.

Looking at the Rockford Vintage BMX gathering it has evolved over time too. The direction of change started to in 2007 with taking bikes to the “next level” or “raising the bar” by finding the most exotic parts and then making them as perfect “show quality” as you can. As we have seen these bikes have been winning in classes that were not defined until 2009 with the addition of the Custom & Open classes.

Possibly the Custom class needs some tweaking to allow for all VBMX members to have a good time displaying and voting on their creations for all categories. For example Woody Itson’s Gold trick star was an original bike that Woody rode hence if someone wanted to re-create that, which they have, that’s cool. Jason Jensen’s replica was another “custom” bike BITD that was re-created also. Taking a Vintage bike and then adding special plating, unique anodizing, refinishing the frame/forks to perfection, etc. beyond what the manufacture created then becomes custom. Matching up paint colors from BITD and chroming are obvious things that we all need to do to restore a bike but going above and beyond that goes towards the custom category.

Not everyone has the time and/or resources to “raise the bar” and members that have really cool NOS, near NOS, or restored BITD bikes are lumped into only the new Survivor Class, which is too bad. The integrity or Vintage quality is lost due to the fact of taking things to the next level of “show bikes.” It’s difficult to compete against that and possibly limits involvement from existing or new members who cannot go to those high standards. With that the definition of the Custom class needs to be clearly defined so others can feel comfortable bringing a bike that can displayed and have a fair shake at all voting on that.

Are we comparing apples to oranges with the Custom & Open classes vs. the others in Best of Show? All the other categories are for Vintage Survivor/restored bikes which could possibly battle it out for Best Vintage Bicycle and Custom/Open class could do their own battle thus no Ultimate VBMX bicycle winner, just a thought.

Is the evolution of the Rockford BMX gathering to continue on the path of exotic show bikes or bringing it back to its roots of members having a good time displaying what they can bring and everyone having an open mind as to what is cool/worthy for a vote in the proper category.

LOCATION and DATE

Tradition is tradition and we must make the most of what it is and what the Rockford track/ABA has to offer us. The only other suggestion is to move the Vintage gathering somewhere else in the park but doubt many of the bmxer’s and families would stroll through the gathering then. Isolating us as a group doesn’t seem to be moving the right direction.

COSTS and UTILIZATION of TIME

The cost per member is well worth what you get out of the event and could even raise the price by $5 or $10 to help cover expenses.

The hotel cost for what you get didn’t jive this year and only speaking for the Best Western (Clock Tower). If the cost can be lowered and we can make it a longer weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday for our events and Sunday to purely watch the races that would be great instead of having another event in the Winter.

It’s a Vintage gathering not just for bikes but for socializing and miss the events from the past. If we can utilize Thursday and Friday more we can have…

* Pit bike races – Thursday if possible
* Vintage bike races – 70’s coaster brake class and 80’s class (Thursday?)
* Vintage bunny hop, longest jump, skid, etc. at the wheel park
* Wheel park freestyle session/socialize/footdown/etc.

If the guest speaker is a Freestyler then have a Friday night BMXer or vice versa to cater to both genre of BMX. Pizza buffet is fine, if possible?

VINTAGE SHOW

Looked like everyone started to pack up at 4:00 and think that is a good time to start that.

List an agenda at the show so everyone knows or in our grab bag:

* Voting begins
* Voting ends
* 3:50 Voting results announce
* 4:00 time to pack up for the banquet

BANQUET

6:15 winners bikes enter
6:30 let people in
6:45 begin voting on winning bikes
7:00 serve dinner or start the buffet
8:00 clean the plates so no interruptions during the speaker
8:15 Final chance to vote on winning bikes
8:20 Speaker / slide show begins / audience interaction & questions
9:30 Awards
10:00 Call off 10 – 15 tickets right away and post on the screen the #’s so everyone can look them up for the smaller prizes
10:30 build up to the largest raffle prize and/or silent auction items
11:30 end banquet

SUNDAY

Support BMX and head out to watch some great racing action!!!

All up for discussion and know in a year we can come up with a great format!

Thanks,

JT