<VV> Convention Thoughts -- a contrarian speaks

[Jim Burkhard]

Geez, You guys are complete ballbusters!   I'd like to offer a round 
of hearty THANKS to all the guys/gals who worked hard and (IMHO) put 
on a great convention!  They are all volunteers, hadn't done it before 
and put on a lot of fun (IMHO) events.  I was fighting a cold the 
whole week and wound up missing the Auto-X because of it, but we 
immensely enjoyed the Car Display, Rally, Econorun (except the turn I 
stupidly missed), Tech Sessions (some good stuff this year!), varied 
meetings and the like. The offsite nature of events did not bother us 
too much as the locations were CLEARLY indicated in the convention 
program and detailed maps were provided in the registration packet.  I 
wonder how some of you folks even found the hotel if following 
directions/maps is that tough.

Every year somebody ALWAYS has something to gripe about something in 
every convention and yes, more often than not, somebody has to tell a 
sob story about how they were treated so meanly by some bad person 
that they picked up their toys and went home.  Get real -- putting on 
these things is a lot of work that takes years of effort and planning. 
My kudos to them all!  Occasionally, there are bumps. Deal with it, 
look at the pretty cars, participate in events, talk to old friends, 
and meet new ones!

One more thing -- a lot of griping about the hotel it seems. Sure, 
it's always great to find enormous, brand new $99/night hotels with 
all the amenities (including really big meeting rooms & banquet 
seating for 500+) in the middle of nowhere, but accessible from 
everywhere.  Oh yeah, said hotel has to be somewhere near a large 
group of dedicated masochists willing to work hard for years getting 
ready to play host to a bunch of complainers and dart-throwers (some 
without the decency to even wait until the event is over).  Come to a 
reality check folks -- there are only so many local clubs that have 
the willingness (and manpower) to put these things on.  If that and 
"under $100 / night", "huge banquet hall", "outdoor onsite facilities 
galore", "ample onsite free parking for everything", etc. are ALL 
constraints, something will often have to give.  People can argue 
about prioritization, and maybe that is a smart thing for the CORSA 
BoD to discuss for the future. But in the meantime, please thank all 
the people who worked so hard this past week putting on the 
convention.  They didn't make a nickel off any of it and did a damned 
good job, in my opinion.

best regards to all and good seeing you there!  I am looking forward 
to Michigan next year!  It's only a 6 hour drive in the Purple Pylon 
Eater, so Dad and I intend to be there.

Jim Burkhard
CORSA
PS - If anyone has the email addresses for the varied people who were 
on the convention committee and the event chairs, please email it to 
me. I would like to send some thankyou notes...