Thread: Discuss the future of the national convention.

^This makes sense, and I like the idea... Road course with the Miata clubs lol a little 90s nostalgia

Maybe this is laughable.. but.. There's got to be SOME moneys that could be squeezed out of this forum somehow to support the convention(s). I'll probably never go to one and haven't even owned an SR vehicle in a year and a half, but I still got the love and think SR conventions are something worth supporting. I bet there are a lot of lurkers who feel the same.

Would it ever work to charge EVERY forum user a very small annual fee? Money could go to support not just conventions, but the forum too, and maybe other things like calendars, etc.

What about a raffle/lottery? $25 tickets, set a goal of $5k or higher, when we hit the goal theres a raffle and 1 person can win say $500, and the rest goes to the community funds. Sure there would be challenges.. just a rough idea.

There are a shitload of people on here for the love of the same things. There's got to be a way for folks to collectively support the things we like.

Can I predict the future?

http://www.sr20-forum.com/general-sr20/65292-community.html

I guess we'll see..here I prophesied back in 2013:

"So I've been lurking/posting on the SR forums for around 7 years now and I have a feeling this community is going down in numbers/interest rather than up. Anyone get this same impression lately? Seems over the last 2 years it's taken a pretty hard dive down. I wouldn't be surprised in 3 years we stop having national conventions."

No one wanted to have a serious conversation about these issues back then and here is where we end up..

@gomba: You do know the convention is still going, right??

The issue is the roadcoarse portion and the ability to retain one 2 of the last 3 years by either our own doing or the track having issues (and seemingly the patrons which 95atl has experienced), NOT the convention.

From what I understand, it is full steam ahead and the West Coast guys have been having thiers for several years now with a successful road coarse portion.

However, I do agree: No one wanted to have an open ended discussion on how we could improve the convention and not allow the same mistakes to be made time and time again.

Also, it's only been 2 years................

There's no way to make everybody happy (even if everything went smooth). Complaints about location, distance, dates, rain, sun, hot, cold...

Show up, drink, and have fun. Or, stay home and mope.

Yes, I'm saying we may not have a 2016 or 2017..kinda looking like that may be true or what a 'convention' looks like will change.

I ran an extremely successful convention in 2009 with only a road course and a picnic. We had a nominal registration fee for all attendees ($20 or $25 I think). We started with no monies left from the previous year and ended with a couple hundred bucks that I forwarded to the next year. There was little stress or worrying about money.

Fast forward several years. I'm told that any convention MUST now include a drag racing day. No more registration fees allowed. HUGH amounts of stress in terms of getting enough people to sign up for the track day, I ended up filling the event with local guys to minimize the potential loss. Endless hours to make the drag day happen, but felt it was my responsibility so I did it.

Two years later and now those of us that really look forward to tracking our cars are bluntly told to piss off. I'm a big boy and I'm OK with that sentiment. But call it what it is now. It's a meet (we run go karts at nearly every meet I've been a part of) with drag racing.

In what is a crazy plot twist, the REAL National Convention has shifted back to it's roots in Southern California. As far as myself and a bunch of the other "whiners", we're getting together for the first of many "Regional Track Day & Cookout" events on July 31st at Road Atlanta. All are invited.
http://www.sr20-forum.com/southeast/77296-road-atlanta-250-a.html#post1017660

@gomba I owe you an apology. Way back then I called you out but it turns out you were right. The conventions may go on but the format has shifted 180*

Utter madness how this is the accepted way.

Somebody remembers too.

I just want to let it be known that WCC was in no way shape or form made to take away from the National convention. I created WCC because of past conventions I've attended (04, 08, 10, 12 and 14) and wanted to share the same adventure with the guys out here that cannot make the trip to the east coast. We've planted WCC 2hrs north of Los Angeles and we have several great road courses in the area and 1 drag strip that is perfect for us. This will be our 3rd year in September. I hope the Nationals keep going strong with both a track day and drag event.