Any word?
those places are very nice with a price that reflects it. perhaps a more moderately priced location. something closer to $100 or perhaps a group rate. i just made the drive from baltimore past there yesterday and it's not at all a bad drive other than the regular urban traffic. maybe we need a head count to start negioations for hotel deals. there will be single drivers sharing rooms i presume. april 20-22 looks good, no race that weekend. weather should be nice and cool.
Birdman How about starting a new poll with 3 possible dates. Time to ^%$* or get off the pot with this thing I say. I am ready
OK guys how about these dates: May 19th,May 26th or June 2nd. Lets run a poll and see which of the 3 dates will work. Not everyone will be happy about the dates, nor will everyone be able to make it. We cannot please every 308 owner. What are your thoughts? Also, do we even have a location set in stone?? I am willing to help any way needed.
Finally got up with Kay Thompson at Berry Hill, they're interested, will need a 10% deposit, facility has everything we need, as does Washington Duke or Siena. I can help the April 20-22 weekend, April 29-30 weekend (that one wouldn't be good for Berry Hill with the Grand Am race at VIR) and May 11-13. Birdman, I'll PM you more details.
I can't seem to find any basic room rates on the website, but their "romantic weekend" packages look like about $200 a night. Pretty steep. Peter, do you know anything about rates? They are about 200 miles from DC in southern VA. A very good location in my opinion. http://www.berryhillresort.com/location.htm Any of those dates [April 20-22 weekend, April 29-30 weekend (that one wouldn't be good for Berry Hill with the Grand Am race at VIR) and May 11-13.] are fine with me. I think more towards the end of April would be better for the New Englanders because the weather will be more predictable. If you get an April snowstorm (it happens) and they salt the roads, nobody will drive on them! I would say that if the room rates are good at Berry Hill and we can come up with a date that works (late April to May) we might have a winner. Birdman
the driving distances between berry hill and raliegh/durham are nearly identical. it seems the r/d area has more moderatley priced accomdations. the last of april looks nice but the deteriming factor should be price. we've several high end resorts, see who will give us the best deal. myself, the best western is fine. i'm sure affordability will increase participation. we should start counting heads so we have something to negoiate with the hotels. i'm in... ( there's two words that've got me into alot of trouble).
I'm sure it won't make any difference, but the dates so far the schools in my area. Northeast Md. are still in session. This definately cuts me out.
I agree that I would like to see more reasonable accomodations. I don't want to see this turn into a $1,000 weekend. Hey, we are 308 owners, not F430 owners.
I just noticed this post I am very interested in attending the VIR get together. I read everything but not really clear what the plans are. Just get together at the FCO event and hang out? Thanks Nate
I think that's pretty much the plan. And probably add some beer drinkin' and tall story swappin'. And maybe go for a drive to show what a convoy of 308s looks like.
Trying to get a selection of dates that these people can give us a block of 12-18 rooms, but need to have a better handle on how many more might come. Obviously, this is primarily for "the travelers" but there is also a sizable local 308/328/348 contingent interested, too. I'm going to turn this over to Birdman and Bob Snow shortly to iron out the details. I think Berry Hill will come off a little from the $200/night, but again, the person is looking into what choices for dates they can give us. Siena and Washington Duke are, too. This is NOT going to be a "Best Western" weekend, nor is it going to be the "Bellagio" or the "Wynn". I don't know about y'all, but my SO doesn't go to places that aren't relatively "nice," especially when she knows that all I'm going to do is sit around, talk shop and ogle cars, instead of her... <grin>
We can't vote on dates until we have a place. Everyone be patient...we're getting there. Peter, I agree, but most of us (myself included) are not going to be spending much time in the room and don't need a $200/night hotel to go to a car event. For those who come alone, they can room up and get the price down. For those of us that bring S.O.s we can have bragging rights to a nice place I guess. But if the price is too high, it will affect how many people show up. I'm more interested in a good showing than throwing an expensive event. Birdman
Birdman, I want to be the first to thank you on putting this together. I know right now its bit of a headache. Please know that many of us really do appreciate what you are doing and are willing to assist you how ever we can. Once we find a date and a place and are all sitting back relaxing.... We all owe you a drink. Doug Crall and his SO
Birdman, I am happy to help you with the logistics and planning. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. It is very tough to plan and execute a successful event, especially with Ferraris concerned. Thanks for all your hard work man! I cannot wait to attend whenever and where ever!
Both Raleigh and Berry Hill are quite close for me and both would be fine venues. My personal preference would be Berry Hill because the property is very accommodating to a car event. First, let it be known that I'll happily assist with anything y'all need. Really, it's quite close and I've been involved with events in both areas already. Berry Hill: 1. Extremely secure 2. Fantastic parking in the hotel driveway and courtyard in front of the hotel 3. Car wash facilities on premises (we arranged them with Kay for our track event last year) 4. Relaxed pub/bar on premises. 5. Small venue will keep the event feeling very 'Ferrari folks only', rather than being in a larger metroplex. 6. Surrounding roads are fantastic. 7. Middle-of-nowhere type of exclusivity. In Raleigh, 1. Much better choice of accommodations at a lower price point. 2. Better choice of restaurants 3. More likely a 'parking lot' for our cars instead of a presentation 4. Good driving roads might *easily* require a 20-minute commute to get out of town. 5. Extremely good major freeway access for everyone. Finally, I'll offer up some sponsorship money again if people would like to have a 'welcome reception' or something. Whoever the ringleader is (Lolaman, Birdman?) just email me with what you need.
Hi Gang, At the risk of getting booed and hissed at, I have thought long and hard about this and I have decided that I must step down as the self-elected "ringleader" of this event. This started out as a theoretical gathering discussion and has evolved into something with a pretty firm range of dates and a lot of effort to be done to organize it. I'm not afraid of hard work to organize something, but I'm so completely over committed this year that it's not even funny. I will be away from home on business for almost 3 months this year, in 1-2 week trips sprinkled all throughout the year. My wife, who works full time, will have to deal with our two small kids by herself all this time. The spring is particularly busy. I cannot even guarantee I can make the event because my schedule is so full. Furthermore, I have already made arrangements to attend the Montreal GP, so that is one weekend away for Ferraris already scheduled. Given that I have little time and possibly cannot even make the event, I really should not be organizing it. I think you would all be better served by someone else organizing it, perhaps even someone local. I don't want to put anyone on the spot though. Perhaps we should elect a small committee to organize the event. I really hope the event comes together, and selfishly hope it ends up on a weekend I can make it. I will make every effort to be there and guilt as many New England fchatters to attend a I can. I feel REALLY bad about this because I have been working on this with you all for so long already. I like organizing events for friends and when I have the time to pay enough attention to it, I think I do a pretty decent job. That's what makes this all the harder for me. I'm really sorry. So please demote me to "cheap advise giver" and lets elect a couple people to really do this right. Birdman
