Disappointment At The 2017 SDC Int'l Meet

[DEEPNHOCK]

Here's what I did not do at the SDC IM this year. I went as a vendor.

(1) Did not walk the vendor buildings.
(2) Did not walk the show field.
(3) Did not go downtown (dinner, or host hotel, or First Friday parade).
(4) Did not go on the building tour.
(5) Did not go to the test track.
(6) Did not do any AOAI stuff.

Here is my complaint list.......

(1) No complaints

Here is my disappointment list.....

(1) No disappointments

I had a blast. A crazy weather beating, full on, blast.
Met sooo many great people. Heard sooo many stories, was dragged around to dinner and into the back of motels for impromptu Avanti land speed demonstrations (best done when the brakes work), fire trucks trying to run me down. It was nutz.
I have no complaints. I need no trinkets, as I have too many now.
(besides, my trinkets weighed 61 pounds and 31 pounds respectively).

The SDC meet people ran in to see if I was all right several times (but never with free food, which I was kind of hoping for).
Ed George was kind enough to keep his wife up until 3am in the hospitality suite talking to me about Portillo's hot dogs and Giordano's deep dish pizza.

All my Stude friends came over and looked at my stuff, kind of winced, and ran away.
All my forum friends came over and chatted about everything under the sun.

Drove almost 2,000 miles round trip (at 10.8 avg mpg). Don't tell my wife that, though.

Complaints? None...Not a damned one. Well, the weather, but it sucked that week all over the country. Sooo what..

Disappointments? None.

I had fun... No... I had FUN!
Nuff said.

[Chris Pile]

Wish I could have been there with you!

[52-fan]

Great attitude. I would have preferred to see more, but helping my brother in the swap meet still gave me a chance to visit with lots of nice folks including two guys I met at my first International meet in Dallas 1975.

[Avantidon]

Jeff,

Thank you very much for your comments as they are greatly appreciated. Lots and lots of hard work goes into making a meet successful and fun for all including vendors. Glad you had a great time and hope you made some $$$$

[BobPalma]

Good post, Jeff; thanks.

What all the naysayers are overlooking is this: The new National Meet Format was not concocted in a smoke-filled room by a bunch of bearded old crustations who have been in SDC since Adam cautioned Eve, "You'd better stand back; I don't know how big this is gonna get!"

NO

Rather, the new format was crafted after SDC went to an enormous amount of trouble and expense to design and conduct the most extensive membership survey imaginable about the nature and future of SDC International Meets...and all the member preferences were carefully weighed.

That survey, to which many of us contributed, enjoyed a participation/feedback rate at least twice the expected response for a survey of that type, according to Don Jones on the SDC Board, who makes a living doing that kind of research. Obviously, many people took the time to give honest feedback and provide constructive ideas and suggestions.

Also obvious is that not every suggestion could be accommodated due to inevitable conflicts. I.e.; Do you like having an awards banquet? I don't know the response rate to that question, or even if it was asked in that way, but if 412 people replied that they no longer wanted an Awards Banquet and 117 people said they did want one, what's the Meet Planning Committee supposed to do for the 117 people who were out-voted? Ditto Fun Night and a host of other issues that had to be resolved.

OTOH, there are people who just like to gripe, so I suppose it is appropriate that they be accommodated.

'Twas indeed a great meet; ideal temperatures for no vapor-locking, minimal sun damage to fragile vinyl instrument board overlays and OEM upholstery on original cars, and no annoying field dust.

Seriously, thanks to all who participated in its design and implementation. Well-played and executed. BP

[Avantidon]

Bob, THANK YOU for your kind comments as you are correct that a lot of "blood sweat and tears' went into planning this first of many to come shorter meets. Yes, there were some mistakes and that was to be expected. Lessons were learned as well and from all of this changes will be made and these events will get better and more refined.

All we ask is that people bear with us as we move forward and make these even better meets in the future.

Just to follow up on one of your points, we had a 9% return on our original suvery almost double the normal response rates for direct surveys.

[Deaf Mute]

Studebaker folks are like Lutherans... we HATE change. But changes needed to be made and the upcoming survey will be just as important as the last one was. So when you get your survey... Please take time to fill it out!

[007]

My wife and I attended this meet and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Yes the weather was inclement however our many friends once again made it a great time. There is a tremendous amount of work involved in hosting any meet and if any individual can improve the product please put your name forward to host the next event.
The International Think Tank once again convened and solved all of the world's problems. Look forward to a picture to be published in a future edition of Turning Wheels.
The next International will be here before you know it, please come to the Pacific Northwest to have a great time.
Regards,
007

[Colgate Studebaker]

My wife and I had a great time at the meet. As stated there were hic-ups with the new format, but the event team was marvelous at trying to make adjustments on the run. Bob Henning and his crew deserve many accolades for the job they did. Our thanks to Bob and Tom Curtis for solving our personal dilemma, as well as several other folks individual issues. We'd love to make plans to go to Washington next year, but our jobs will dictate that feasibility. Bill

[Avantidon]

Duane is correct. When you get your survey Make sure to complete it and return it!!! It is important to your IMC and your BoD.

[Buzzard]

We are saddened we had to cancel this year. However next year looks great in Washington State. See you all there.
Cheers, Bill

[studeguy54]

Good post, Jeff; thanks.

What all the naysayers are overlooking is this: The new National Meet Format was not concocted in a smoke-filled room by a bunch of bearded old crustations who have been in SDC since Adam cautioned Eve, "You'd better stand back; I don't know how big this is gonna get!"

NO

Rather, the new format was crafted after SDC went to an enormous amount of trouble and expense to design and conduct the most extensive membership survey imaginable about the nature and future of SDC International Meets...and all the member preferences were carefully weighed.

That survey, to which many of us contributed, enjoyed a participation/feedback rate at least twice the expected response for a survey of that type, according to Don Jones on the SDC Board, who makes a living doing that kind of research. Obviously, many people took the time to give honest feedback and provide constructive ideas and suggestions.

Also obvious is that not every suggestion could be accommodated due to inevitable conflicts. I.e.; Do you like having an awards banquet? I don't know the response rate to that question, or even if it was asked in that way, but if 412 people replied that they no longer wanted an Awards Banquet and 117 people said they did want one, what's the Meet Planning Committee supposed to do for the 117 people who were out-voted? Ditto Fun Night and a host of other issues that had to be resolved.

OTOH, there are people who just like to gripe, so I suppose it is appropriate that they be accommodated.

'Twas indeed a great meet; ideal temperatures for no vapor-locking, minimal sun damage to fragile vinyl instrument board overlays and OEM upholstery on original cars, and no annoying field dust.

Seriously, thanks to all who participated in its design and implementation. Well-played and executed. BP

Bob,

Thank you for your kind comments on the meet. Could the weather have been better? Of course, but we had no control over that. Was the history of the first weekend in May a good indication that we would have good weather? Yes, but this years weather was, of course, different.

The format of the meet was, indeed, crafted from the comments our membership made in the survey. We've given SDC'ers what they asked for: NO overpriced ($$) banquet, NO Fun Night ($$), NO lapse in the schedule, and a savings ($$) in hotel cost, all equating to a savings for everyone who attended.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Denny Foust
SDC International Meet Committee Chairman

[studeguy54]

My wife and I had a great time at the meet. As stated there were hic-ups with the new format, but the event team was marvelous at trying to make adjustments on the run. Bob Henning and his crew deserve many accolades for the job they did. Our thanks to Bob and Tom Curtis for solving our personal dilemma, as well as several other folks individual issues. We'd love to make plans to go to Washington next year, but our jobs will dictate that feasibility. Bill

Thank you, Bill, for your comments. We expected hiccups, and, of course, one of them was the rain we had during judging on Wednesday. Are we not going to judge those prewar cars in trailers today? (Wednesday). No, indeed we ARE going to judge them, and we let the owners bring truck and trailer into the dry building and let them unload their cars so they could be judged in the dry. Was it a bit chaotic? Yes, but about 90 minutes after we expected judging to end (1:00 PM), we were done with judging Divisions 1-4, and a lot of people were happy that we were able to judge their cars. And adjustment on the fly? Yes, but it worked.

[TX Rebel]

I just got back home last night. Like Jeff, we missed many activities, but had a wonderful time.