Great location, bad timing

[plee4139]

I've been looking forward to attending the International meet in Dover DE next year with my Sky Hawk, but just realized it's on the 4th of July weekend. Fighting holiday traffic from Long Island through all of New Jersey and back is not my idea of a terrific time. Either that or I have to spend extra days at the hotel to avoid driving at peak times Question: whose dumb idea was this?

[Captain Billy]

I am booked and will be driving from another country.....not the next state over. It's a year away so start planning your route and time table now, and we'll see you there.

[StudeRich]

Most people will arrive at the beginning on a Sun. or Mon. and leave on the next Sat. or Sun.
Keep in mind that I have no idea how the days of the week play out in 2014.

[studegary]

July 4th is a Friday (end of the convention). If you travel home on the 5th, you will be in the middle of the holiday weekend and will miss most of the traffic.

[Skip Lackie]

It's not that simple. The Intl Meets require consideration of many factors, including dates, location, availability of other facilities (variety of hotels, RV parking, flea market space, huge parking lot, camping sites, tour attractions, etc) and (very important) the price of rooms. In many areas, there are NO facilities capable of handling a group with SDC's requirements. A chapter also has to be big enough to provide ~30 worker bees (chapter members) for the whole week of the meet. As a result, many chapters simply can't sponsor a meet. The SDC IM guide allows the chapter considerable freedom to pick exact dates, to allow the best combination of the above factors. Even with the financial incentives and these flexibilities, SDC often has to pressure chapters to take on the task. It's a lot of work for all concerned.

The negotiations with the HQ hotel normally take place 4 or 5 years in advance, and many hotels are unwilling to commit to a particular discounted room rate that far in advance. It is not unusual for the HQ hotel to only be willing to commit to dates during which it otherwise expects few guests. As a result, IM proposals often come to the board for approval on an almost take-it-or-leave-it basis. Not saying that this was the case when the Dover meet was proposed, but there is often very little opportunity to adjust dates to match everybody's requirements. No matter what combination of dates and places are chosen, some members will be unhappy.

[Deaf Mute]

Be glad that the NASCAR boys will be in Daytona instead of Dover that week!

[snowy_buffalo]

That's part of the same reason I'm not attending CS this year. Love the area but don't want to be on the roads with all of the holiday traffic, plus holiday travelers making for a more crowded site-seeing when I get there. The fires in CS this year were a secondary factor that I know the meet committee couldn't help, but WHY schedule a meet over a major holiday to start with??

[snowy_buffalo]

July 4th is a Friday (end of the convention). If you travel home on the 5th, you will be in the middle of the holiday weekend and will miss most of the traffic.

No he won't. That's just the traffic he wants to stay away from if you really read what he was trying to say.

[Jet Green Daytona]

I am delivering the flyers for the 2014 IM meet to Colorado springs, in fact, I have one in my hand right now. If the only reason for not attending the meet is because of holiday traffic, you are really going to miss out. Since I also live in the same "tri state area" that you do, I can tell you there will be traffic jambs any weekend that is picked during the summer of 2014. The New Jersey turnpike is in the process of adding extra lanes, I think it should be completed by then, or if not let's put our heads together and find a different route that would stay off of the turnpike, there are some great roads to drive on in Jersey, that don't include the turnpike or the parkway. The Delmarva chapter has put a lot of effort organizing this meet, lets show support instead of complaining about something that hasn't even happened yet, IE sitting in a traffic jamb.

Todd

[JimC]

I hope I can make it! I've been dying to attend my first meet for years, but problems keep coming up that stop me from going.

I hope I don't step on too many toes by saying this, but I feel as though the current format for meets sets up more barriers to younger enthusiasts coming than it does to free them to come. In my family, my wife is supportive of my Stude habit, but just isn't a car person. I think this is pretty normal for orphan makes, since they're something you sort of have to personally catch the bug for. What this means for me though, is that going to a national meet as our one family vacation a year just isn't going to work. It could work however, if the meet were shorter, and I could pitch it as "half vacation, half car stuff", but with 7 days of events our entire vacation time is spent once you factor in getting there and back. Plus, there's the holiday issue. Keep in mind that most younger folks are lower on the workplace totem pole, and so taking time off during a holiday can pose a huge challenge. Additionally, if we get time off, we usually have family who want to visit with us, which means picking between cars and family.

Just for comparison, I went onto Google and started searching for car clubs with posted national meets. Here are the first ten I found:

Mustang Club - July 5-7 (3 days)
Model A Ford Club - July 14-18, 2014 (5 days)
AACA - June 27-29 (3 days)
Cadillac & LaSalle Club - July 31-August 3 (4 days)
WPC (Chrysler Restorers)/DeSoto Club - July 17-21 (5 days)
Fairlane Club of America - July 12-13 (2 days)
Oldsmobile Club - July 23-27 (5 days)
BMW CCA - August 19-24 (6 days)
Hudson, Essex, Terraplane - July 24-27 (4 days)
National Chrysler Products Club - July 18-20 (3 days)

And for the comparison, here is our meet - June 30-July 6 (7 days)

My observation is that of all 11 listed there, our meet is the longest, and also the only one falling over a national holiday. I'm not saying that a long meet in and of itself is bad, and I am sure that there are longer meets than ours. I'm also not a big fan of "just do what everyone else is doing", but at the same time, if what they are doing is working, why not try it? I know we back up meets at least half a decade deep so it's not like changes could be made anytime soon, but it's something to consider.

That being said, I've never experienced a Studebaker National, so maybe when the time comes that I can hold my ground and defend enough time off to make it to one I will discover that 7 days isn't enough time, and my tune will change. As it is right now, my best hope for next year is that I can hold onto a three or four day window of time at the meet, at best.

[plee4139]

Thanks for your timely and thorough reply. I suspected that a low hotel rate was a factor, but now I wonder if there will be a decrease in attendance because a certain percent of the prospective attendees don't want to drive their precious cars on a notoriously high traffic time.

[Skip Lackie]

I hope I can make it! I've been dying to attend my first meet for years, but problems keep coming up that stop me from going.

I hope I don't step on too many toes by saying this, but I feel as though the current format for meets sets up more barriers to younger enthusiasts coming than it does to free them to come. In my family, my wife is supportive of my Stude habit, but just isn't a car person. I think this is pretty normal for orphan makes, since they're something you sort of have to personally catch the bug for. What this means for me though, is that going to a national meet as our one family vacation a year just isn't going to work. It could work however, if the meet were shorter, and I could pitch it as "half vacation, half car stuff", but with 7 days of events our entire vacation time is spent once you factor in getting there and back. Plus, there's the holiday issue. Keep in mind that most younger folks are lower on the workplace totem pole, and so taking time off during a holiday can pose a huge challenge. Additionally, if we get time off, we usually have family who want to visit with us, which means picking between cars and family.

Just for comparison, I went onto Google and started searching for car clubs with posted national meets. Here are the first ten I found:

Mustang Club - July 5-7 (3 days)
Model A Ford Club - July 14-18, 2014 (5 days)
AACA - June 27-29 (3 days)
Cadillac & LaSalle Club - July 31-August 3 (4 days)
WPC (Chrysler Restorers)/DeSoto Club - July 17-21 (5 days)
Fairlane Club of America - July 12-13 (2 days)
Oldsmobile Club - July 23-27 (5 days)
BMW CCA - August 19-24 (6 days)
Hudson, Essex, Terraplane - July 24-27 (4 days)
National Chrysler Products Club - July 18-20 (3 days)

And for the comparison, here is our meet - June 30-July 6 (7 days)

My observation is that of all 11 listed there, our meet is the longest, and also the only one falling over a national holiday. I'm not saying that a long meet in and of itself is bad, and I am sure that there are longer meets than ours. I'm also not a big fan of "just do what everyone else is doing", but at the same time, if what they are doing is working, why not try it? I know we back up meets at least half a decade deep so it's not like changes could be made anytime soon, but it's something to consider.

That being said, I've never experienced a Studebaker National, so maybe when the time comes that I can hold my ground and defend enough time off to make it to one I will discover that 7 days isn't enough time, and my tune will change. As it is right now, my best hope for next year is that I can hold onto a three or four day window of time at the meet, at best.

The points you raise have been discussed at length many times before, but that doesn't mean they're not still valid. First, we really don't go 7 full days. Very few people sit through the board meeting on Monday and most arrive either Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Similarly, if one is not interested in the awards banquet, one can leave on Friday morning and still see most of the Stude-related events. The schedule is stretched out from Mon-Fri to allow for all the technical sessions, tours, and club/chapter-related seminars, each of which has a strong following. If we were willing to condense that stuff a bit, then we could easily get down to four days of real events. Most people rate the events as follows: (1) Concours (Thu); (2) Walking around the parking lot talking to people and looking at vehicles (any day); and (3) Everything else. All that said, the weekend-to-weekend format allows for leisurely travel to/from the site in an old vehicle.

[tim]

I would have to agree having the meet over the forth of July Holiday is very bad timing, I had originally planed on attending the meet had my hotel rooms and flight booked and my kids and grandkids gave my wife such a bad time for missing a holiday that I have cancelled my trip this year and also will not be going next year. With the aging going on in the club I think it may be time to consider what many others have said and try to hold the meet over a weekend so the younger folks can attend. I have tried to go to most of the meets over the last ten years or so but these early ones are very hard to attend, late July , August or September would be much better. And please try not to hold them over a holiday. It almost seems as some of the older folks do not want the younger generations to get involved.

[studegary]

I would have to agree having the meet over the forth of July Holiday is very bad timing, I had originally planed on attending the meet had my hotel rooms and flight booked and my kids and grandkids gave my wife such a bad time for missing a holiday that I have cancelled my trip this year and also will not be going next year. With the aging going on in the club I think it may be time to consider what many others have said and try to hold the meet over a weekend so the younger folks can attend. I have tried to go to most of the meets over the last ten years or so but these early ones are very hard to attend, late July , August or September would be much better. And please try not to hold them over a holiday. It almost seems as some of the older folks do not want the younger generations to get involved.

This has been discussed so much before that I almost hate to get into it. Keep in mind that some of us are older now, but these same individuals drove Studebakers to International Conventions when they were in their 20s and 30s. The conventions were a week long and we figured on the weekends at each end for travel. If the convention is over a weekend, when would all except locals travel? That woud require two weeks off. Many have to take their vacation in one week blocks. It is fine for Zone Meets to be over a weekend because that is for a relatively local group, not worldwide.
If you use the search function you will find many discussions on this topic and it has been discussed at length by the SDC Board. Nothing is perfect for everyone, but this works for most (1000s attend). I too dislike the holiday part of it, but I understand that there are other factors at play. Normally, those that are most critical have never organized a major meet. For younger people, I do not see how September would be better when children and teachers are in school.

[Pat Dilling]

Count me as one who agrees that a holiday weekend is bad timing. I had to cancel attndence of a long standing 4th of July event to attend this year. If our best man did not live in the springs I would not be coming. I also think we should span a weekend with the concours on Saturday.