Gathering, Long post with a question. Options

[JoeSharp]

Gathering, why aren’t we getting the participation that we should be? We have over 14,000 members now. I can’t say as all of the last 4 or 5 events that we have had here I have considered flops as far as numbers go. I don’t understand it.
One of the reasons I enjoy gathering so much is the Brainstorming. I feel that it is very important because, we as creative individuals will be turning ourselves lose into Mother Nature’s realties in a creation of our own invention. Brainstorming with anyone that can get themselves to an event and adding their IQ to mine, I am sure that the total will be at least an IQ of 120. And who knows, they may have a totally different insight into what you are thinking about.
Just because you are here you are a unique individual. You have an affair with a car that even Volkswagen pushed off on Porsche. And for years Porsche owners have looked down on us and treated us like they had something shoved down their throat.
No matter who you are, you will find Respect at our gatherings. You will find unique individuals like yourself, interested in the same things as all of the other unique individuals there.
So my question is how can we reverse the trend and get more people to come to our gatherings?
Sorry about the long post.

[arkitect]

Gathering, why aren’t we getting the participation that we should be? We have over 14,000 members now. I can’t say as all of the last 4 or 5 events that we have had here I have considered flops as far as numbers go. I don’t understand it.

I think one of the reasons is that most of the recent bigger events seemed to have been centered around autocross and track days.

Frankly, i think that distracts from what made those early events so great, which was the people being able to get to know each other and talk cars in a relaxed atmosphere where you are not constantly pressured to "do something".

IMHO, a nice scenic drive, a Saturday evening dinner and maybe a car show/judging is all you need in terms of scheduled activities.

The rest of the time should be dedicated to hanging out in the parking lot of the hotel with a keg of beer and your 914 friends ...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) I have only been to a few events but the one I did attend, WCR at Tahoe, I really enjoyed. We had a large parking lot to gather with room for all the cars in one spot and no one to hassle us. I enjoyed just the hanging out and bs'ing...err I mean brainstorming.

Dave