[Rastus]

The next run will be either at Mason or Gilmer.

Shain paid me one hell of a compliment and in doing so the entire crew who was there. He told me that he and Randy were VERY pleased with this weekend and it was as good as some of the better closed events they have held like the Lonestar Bronco event or the Landcruiser event. We are more than welcome anytime. Below is a copy of the email he sent me.

"It was a GREAT weekend and I had a blast. We'd love to have y'all back.

Shain"

I'm looking at dates for the last weekend of September or the 1st or second weekend of October. I don't want to get to close to the anniversary run weekend due to cost of travel for the members. River Rat, Is there a Midnight event scheduled around then anytime you are aware of? ( can't be missing my club runs smokin )

the dinner and breakfast went extremely well considering this was the 1st time we have done a dinner Breakfast like this. River Rat suggested some ideas on how to improve on this as well as Benji.

Meal tickets will be used from here out.
Have servers to control the food portions.

It bothers me that a few shared the brunt of the costs for this event (in regards to food) So my intention is to develop a plan where the members of Texas4x4 donate to a food fund to offset the cost of the food and other items used for the dinner and breakfast.

my thinking is for Active members and families wil lbe fed as normal, guests (anyone who is not an immeadiate family member) will have the option to purchase a meal ticket before the event.

you guys tell me how this needs to be handled and lets get a plan going on how to do this for the next run. any and all ideas are welcome...

oh yeah... Our word is law smokin

 

[TX_ZUKI]

Rastus,
I like the meal ticket idea, people have a choice to buy meals. Active members deserve to have a meal in my eyes.
I do it because I really like people to enjoy themselves. But if we have someone there that never get's on the site that's not fair to the active members. We can have 2 seperate color tickets, we hand red tickets to active members and blue tickets for people to purchase.

We can volunteer servers next go around.

 

[RIVER RAT]

good idea on the color tickets....
? are you going to have a min # of posts as active member..
or just who ever logs on...

 

[Rastus]

good question... how do you think we should handle it?

 

[TX_ZUKI]

Not sure on that either. Maybe pick a number of post you have? But then again, if we have enough people to donate funds, who cares who eats, you know.

 

[BOWTIE]

how about the donating members?? could serve as a perk to help with the site.

 

[Rastus]

Something like donating members get a Red ticket, everyone else gets a blue ticket?

everyone with a high post count is already a donating member if memory serves me right...

another question, how much should we charge per plate? this is not a fund raiser, just need to be able to offset the cost of the food and related expenses.

 

[BOWTIE]

what do you think the expense was for the last run?

 

[Rastus]

Not sure, I asked and was told "Don't worry bout it" (Benji ) but I'd venture to guess at least in the neighborhood of $500. that's probably a low figure.

We had 60 lbs of fish, 30 lbs of fries, 20 lbs of hush puppies, 5 + cases of beer, not sure how many bags of ice or soft drinks, cooking oil, plates, napkins, chips, eggs, picante sauce, peppers, tomatos, tartar sauce, plasticware, and I know I'm forgetting somethings..

 

[TX_ZUKI]

yea I am sure with everything it was probably close or more then that.

 

[xanthias]

I like the idea of making donating member the litmus test. Red tickets for them at the gate, no charge. Everyone else buys.

I sent Rastus a long PM with some ideas too while this forum was temporarily closed earlier today.

I think $600 is probably way low, especially considering incidentals like propane, the cooking oil, etc., etc. I figure $300 was spent just between Goat and I, based on our conversations. Don't get me wrong, I took some things home--which brings up another point: FullTop and I duplicated what we brought. Another reason this committee is a great idea.

 

[Rastus]

Katemcy Thoughts

X's pm to me
======================

At the end of the Katemcy weekend, Rastus approached Goat and I to suggest the topic of this forum and a Run Committee. We all thought it was a great idea. I got the sense from his comments that Kenny wanted to avoid two issues that seem to recur with each run:

1. A very small group of people ends up shouldering the labor and cost to feed a much larger group, and that small group ends up being the same people over and over again. This means a $40 run for everyone else is a $2-300 run for the 'hosts'.

2. As the Texas4x4 runs get larger and more well known (our attendance seems to grow each time), the logistics become harder to handle (serving food, drivers' meetings, etc.) and the organizers end up working much more than wheeling. This is compounded by the 'spammer' factor--non-Texas4x4 people showing up in large numbers and eating for free.

I'm sure we all feel the same way I do: I enjoy serving at the runs--it's a great way to make friends and do your part to support the organization and be a REAL member (not to mention earn your ride if you are a web-wheeler like me). I also don't think any of us want the Texas4x4 runs to lose their 'family' atmosphere where everyone pitches in with a good attitude and is willing to help with just about anything. I know none of us want to kill that spirit by making the runs too money-focused or regimented.

So, what to do? Here are some tentative ideas I'll toss out. Feel free to discuss, accept, reject, critique, whatever.

1. Set up a rotating host committee for each run(?). The host committee reports to and answers to the Run Committee, which will be permanent. That way, people like Kenny can get a break and acutally relax a bit at the event.

2. Set up some sort of ticket system or tag system (like the properties use) for people to sign in and pay a few bucks to eat. That money then gets divided among the host committee members pro rata to cut some of their costs or, goes into an account administered by Kenny to buy supplies directly.

3. Have a fixed schedule of only 1 or 2 group meals max so Grace, Benji and people like that don't spend their whole time cooking in camp.

4. Maybe have a membership tiering system of some kind--"real" contributing members to Texas 4x4 don't have to do the tickets but newbs and spammers do(?)

5. Have a Cleanup Committee that rotates for each run, so the same people don't have to stay every time and police up the campsite.

 

[OldGoat]

cool ideas

Obviously great minds think alike! The group meals are a great way to socialize and as has been stated it just kleeps growing so it is obvious that the members like this way of doing the meals. I like the idea of rotating the host each time and the cooking and cleanup crew. Just as luck would have it I have a roll of 1000 red tickets and will get a roll of blue tickets.
I do not want to talk about the past money spent lol the fall run was a huge expense for me but it was what I wanted to do, this run was a huge expense for Benji and X and in my converstions with them i know they wanted to do it so it all worked out but, as we continue to grow a way of spreading the expense needs to be set in place and the above ideas seem on the right track IMHO.
One more thing, it is truly a great time that seems to be had by all when we do these runs, thanks Rastus!

 

[TX_ZUKI]

And just for the record, I will always be part of the food organization! I just like doing it. Unless someone tells me to bud out, lol!

 

[Rastus]

ok, meal tickets will be going forward from now. We need to come up with a price for the tickets.

 

[RIVER RAT]

remember price per ticket, will get you meal ticket , raffle ticket & t-shirt of event for annv run ... if you still want to do shirts.. jamminzz

 

[Rastus]

good idea Bobby... that's something I need to work on, T-shirts. Need to talk to Pats wife


Need to come up with a design as well....

 

[xanthias]

Getting the ticket price figured out will require us to have a budget up front so we know what the rough outlay is going to be. We then have to ballpark the number of folks coming who would be expected to buy tickets to get a rough per ticket price.

Just a side note, I recommend the Run Committee and the site never supply alcohol as part of the meal activities. People can bring their own and any of us can individually choose to bring enough to share, but it is important for liability reasons to make sure no one could ever say Texas4x4, as an organization, was supplying booze. Individual social hosts are protected but if you turn it into a paid deal, where their ticket gets them a beer with their meal, for example--you have a whole other situation on your hands.

 

[RIVER RAT]

yeah their should never be beer included, that always be BYOB..

 

[OldGoat]

t-shirt

T-shirt included is a great idea and no booze included sure needs to be made clear. Maybe when we get all the prices nailed down a general announcement about the "rules" and what is and is not included would be in order. For my part as a member of this site, I would like to thank all you committee members for taking time to get all this together and for so many fine ideas.