I never thought that dirty laundry from the scouts west forum would end up on the ihon forum. Potter claims that I [who else could he be referring to] Abandoned the regionals making it an orphan. Anybody that knows me and understands the facts surrounding the ihwr know this is not the case. People know the passion I had in helping to produce the regionals. Potter, even you praised me for my dedication at one time. All my notes concerning the 08 regionals were posted on the scouts west wiki and forum for anybody to view and see the progress being made.
John pulls all the strings when it comes to regionals. John is the only person I am accountable to. Many times I May have been the “front man”, but it’s johns gig, not mine. He controls the money [budget and slush fund], overall direction, what activities get planned for, or not, marketing, sponsorship, raffle and prizes, the ag center, tents and other rentals, etc.
My duties at regionals, which begins in early October, and were primarily organizational & clerical stuff, running the registration booth, coordinating schedules and activities, etc. I was one of the first to arrive at tulare and last to leave. Everything I worked on had john’s approval [or disapproval] Throughout the years.
Regionals has always been self supporting. Staff and volunteer crews are all members of scouts west. Even though sw is the title sponsor, they have never been a money contributing sponsor.
Tim potter, and only tim potter, is the sole reason why I handed my resignation to john shortly after the ’07 show. I stepped down after heated – heated is an understatement – online battles with tim over how the regionals should be run & handled. Tim’s emails and pm’s were critical of most elements of the show. His rage should have been directed at john, not me. [keep in mind that this was tim’s first regionals show and a member of Scout west for just over a year at that time. Tim potter is now the newly elected scouts west club president].
Fast forward to early January 2008. Either john or scouts west dropped the ball as nobody has yet to take over my responsibilities and little effort was being made for the 2008 ihwr show. I did speak with john about resuming my usual regionals duties at the 2008 show. John fully understood my conditions and accepted that I would be making minimal efforts and with little paperwork. When I gave my notice in ’07 there was 10 months to find a replacement. John could not find anyone, including potter, to step forward. Sad thing is john attends most of the main and grapevine chapter meetings where the bulk of the sw membership is located, and still no luck.
The show was a free event for both participant and sponsor. Most event t-shirts were all pre-ordered and paid for. There would be no frills, no big tent, no games, no real responsibility, no heavy expenses…just a meet-n-greet-n-eat, raffle and people’s choice type of get-together. When potter got wind of this, all hell broke loose again online. He was harshly critical of my “selling out” of the ’08 show with his armchair quarterbacking.
One of potter’s criticisms was about not having the games or any planned activities. My attitude to tim was, “if you want games, then do it. You are on your own and you have no budget to work with.” tim talked to members of the sw main chapter and got a small group together to provide a few Scout games and activities. Tim added the toilet seat toss and shaving-cream-toss board [ both tim and I were targets for the pies. That was funny, we did good ]. My point here is tim "got his regionals feet wet" by organizing the games and activities for ’08. We did manage to finally put something together and it turned out ok for us. All things considered.
“the state of the regionals” is that it is currently on life-support. Potter mentioned a few reasons for the downward turn: dwindling IH truck numbers, cost of fuel, most participants coming from the southern areas. Heck, I'll even throw in the economy. However, all this is true and those are just some of the facts that affects a show’s attendance, no matter what the size or conditions at the time. What he didn’t mention is after all these years, people, including the exhibiting sponsors, are just plain tired of the conditions at the ag center: dust, wind, smell, etc. And the lack of amenities: no water or electricity for our use. There is also the ag center restrictions. For instance, using his own money, tim lined up a band to play last year and was rejected by the ag center. Welcome to the world of dealing with the ag center.
Something had to be done to rescue regionals. Four-five years ago at regionals, doc asked me what the possibilities would be for a northern California IH show; which later turned out to be the rallye. My first response was that I think a show could succeed. We talked about the concept of 2 shows at our next chapter meeting. Doc went on to talk with Jeff & Mike.
That’s when I began to tinker with the potential of moving the regionals into southern California. [ the majority of attendees of the regionals come from bakersfield south. Specifically la and orange counties ]. Year after year the #1 suggestion for regionals was a place to go wheeling as a group. I finally began to do something about it. Fraizer park was my targeted area because of the proximity of hungry valley.
What I proposed was a brand new show – new name, new location, new date, new traditions. [I later went with a different name that referred to the socal location and left the regionals name in tulare ] This new event would become an official production of scouts west; the regionals would still remain in john’s name. What I had envisioned was this new sw venue becoming a brother IH show to the rallye and Binder Bee. Three major IH shows: one each in the spring, summer, and fall along the I-5 corridor.
I live in san jose and attended the March 2008 main chapter meeting in orange county to explain why the regionals should move and what can be accomplished with a new location. At that time, there was a full 13 months worth of planning to be had before the ’09 show date. The following is an 11 month old post from my notes on the club wiki that outlines a move for a 2009 socal show. This is what I presented at the main chapter meeting. Tim was in attendance.
'''regionals '09'''
successful shows always brew-up support within the IH “community”. I did it for years with the regionals and last year’s rallye.
the regionals are coming your way. Here is a verrry rough sketch of the '09 show:
*an all day trail ride on Friday at hungry valley
*base camp with features similar to a koa; complete with rv hookups and space for tent camping.
*the usual Saturday show and shine with all the Scout games
*bbq lunch
*afternoon live band
*all chapters meeting
*catered bbq dinner.
*Sunday morning we’ll serve ya breakfast, and send you on your way home.
''the sooner the location can be found, the sooner the flyers and marketing of the '09 regionals can begin.''
All I requested was for the membership of scouts west to find me a suitable location and I would begin to build a show around it for us. [chris and paul checked out one area with no luck]. By scouts west not following through for whatever reasons, the subject of relocation support was dropped for the 09 show.
[potter] The organizers also decided that '08 would be the last year that the they would be involved with future shows. This is true. John has health issues. In my case, it was known that if the ihwr was formally held at the ag center another year, ‘09, I wasn’t interested in the planning portion. I was pushing for relocation.
I'm not the scapegoat for current conditions surrounding the regionals. I never abandoned the regionals.....scouts west did.
Cary
is involved, I have no interest in supporting them either.