Thanks for more feedback guys. Intially the cruise was to go through Cowes, however, we'd been down earlier in town and the traffic was chaos, there was a market on and a number of other things as well. Yes, totally agree, it would be fantastic to do the cruise through Cowes, but we would have added our 50 & more odd vehicles to the chaos. Parking on the foreshore etc? Have you ever tried to park a large number of vehicles in the middle of Cowes? We'd like to do that, but the space just simply isn't there. We'll look into doing something, but there's no guarantee, ok? As to advertising, myself and 5 others were down about a month prior to hand out flyers - we walked Cowes, Rhyll, Newhaven, Sanremo, Wonthaggi and various other towns handing out flyers to shops and the like. The council would not let us provide info any earlier at their offices due to other festivals etc on prior to easter. We did also advertise in the local paper, local radio stations and they in turn put an ad on local tv stations. I myself did the Dicko & Dave advertising agency thingy on the radio (yes live Melbourne radio). So advertising wasn't an issue. In regards to food at the venue - we were let down by the caterers who at the last minute decided they would not do lunches. Yeah, great! how do you think we felt? Anyhow, we tried our best and bought sausages, bread, drinks etc. Not realising the influx of the crowds, we sold out a lot faster than expected. We went and bought more and sold out of that as well - the effort was certainly made to try to cater, but keep in mind - we weren't catering in the first place, that was supposed to have been done for us. Next year, we're planning ahead and definitely doing it ourselves and not relying on others, so there'll be heaps of food and drink. In regards to location? Let's see, where do we start? Albury/Wodonga (a fair few years), Pambula (2x), Maryborough, Naracoorte, Nabiac (NSW), Gympie (QLd), Port Augusta (SA)... and probably a fair few others as well. The Australian Van Nationals are held whereever there is someone willing to put in the effort at their choice of location. Vanners are welcome to put forward a presentation at the Nationals so everyone can vote.
Also, this year, the aim is to get some other clubs to come along for display day as well. We're in touch with a number of other clubs and will try to get them to come along for the day - you are all welcome to join the force and get others there as well. The more the better for us. I remember the days when SSM's used to join in as well and we had huge shows - unfortunately, times change, people grow up & change their priorities.
We'd really like to make this work again and make it better and bigger - there's a few of us who'd love to see the days of huge shows return. Let's make it happen, take the bad with the good, sure not everything always goes the way you want it to. If you as an entrant are annoyed with something - how do you think the organisers feel if something goes wrong? Why not help out instead? Don't ask what can your vanning organiser do for you? or what r u gonna get out of it? ask yourself what you can do for vanning in Australia and do it.
Ok, enuf from me again...
(PS: just read what i've written, yes i'm gonna leave it like it is even though it sounds i'm recruiting LOL)