American Iron / Mo-Power Madness

[dave kanofsky]

Thanks to everyone who put effort into the American Iron / Mo-Power Madness event. I had a good time and thought the event went off quite well considering all of the new aspects of the venue, format, weather forecast, etc.

[Super43]

Hey Dave, I agree, a nice day, decent car show and swap.... but the biggest stand out by far... and something that makes me very proud.... our all volunteer work staff... wow... it is such a good thing to work with such a great group of people... effort with a smile.. I really felt a bond of a small group pulling together in the same direction.. that part of the event was a 10... and perhaps the most valuable part.

Without rehearsal, all new surroundings, we adjusted, adapted, kept it moving and made something.... and it was all with a smile and an upbeat attitude. We went home tired, but it was the good tired of having gotten something done.

I do not have a car count yet, a gate count or even a final number on the swap, but it was "something" it was not small or tiny or poorly attended, it was a solid day it looked good, it looked well attended, some super cars... We pulled it off with 3 months to prepare and did not fall on our face.... whether or not we return our members will decide... Thanks to all that helped, attended or just spread the word ----B---

[furious70]

I like the venue for sure, I hope we can continue there. The big, vague class structure left us scratching our heads a bit during the day however. It wasn't clear where exactly dad should park his Charger. The car won a trophy, but we have no idea for what, it doesn't say and mom couldn't figure it out (we were loading the trailer when it got called). I'm not sure what the reason was for the class structure, and I didn't attend any meetings to join the discussion about it, so I can't say anything other than my opinion is that people not in the loop for this show but used to 'regular' shows probably were confused to start the day and left that way. That's too bad, as they may not come back.

[JRD45]

Well, someone has to speak up, so here I go. First off, to set the record right, I did not enter my car, but I did attend as a spectator. You lucked out with a good day, although with a forecast of hail and severe storms, I was not going to travel 60 miles in bad weather. I've been through that before. For me, the biggest disappointment was the parking lot area for the show cars. It could have been a Wal-Mart parking lot. Every picture I have ever seen of a car show at Pheasant Run shows a beautiful grass and tree area for cars to park on. You could not see the show from North Ave. and not enough signage to attract attention. I do not think the Fords, GM's, and bikes will be telling all their friends to attend next year. I saw a lot of confusion with cars trying to get in and find where to park. Maybe the show planners should have been more helpful instead of just riding around on golf carts. I do not think it was worth the cost for this location. The CAM chapter should change it's name to the NAM chapter, ( Naperville Area Mopars). There are no shows near the Chicago area now, and that will cost the club some members. Trying to get a show on the South Side for years has met with excuses like " we're all showed out" and "we just can't put on another show" but a new show popped up in Plano, another show popped up in DesPlaines, and another show to pop up again this year somewhere up North. Toyota Park in Bridgeview was the ideal location for a Chicago area show, easy to get to from the North, South, East and West, and great visability from Harlem Ave. Good luck next year. I will not even be a spectator.

[Super43]

Well I guess I just don’t fully agree, every show... every single one, needs good weather, every good weather show is lucky, I don’t care where it is... bad weather ruins car shows. period.

The paved parking area is, a LOT of blacktop I agree... but so are so many places that we have shows... Toyota Park is Grass? I thought it too was 100% blacktop... The Mancaris show we all enjoy in Orland.. NO grass not any.. I could go on and on... but I do agree, when I have a choice I'd choose Grass.

As far as other car shows at Pheasant Run, some are on the North side and that is a mixture of grass and pavement, but many shows are held in the exact same location as ours was, in just a couple of weeks it will be the big Corvette show, and it will be in the same area.

WE were short of volunteers, we did not have but a handful and parking was where we decided to be short, I did see some confusion, but then... I see some every single year. More CAM helpers would have made it better.. for sure.

We were told by Pheasant run not to put on the road signage... granted we were not told until 3 days before, but I'm not sure how many spectators we could pull in COLD from a street sign, but it would not have hurt.

The "open aspect" of the show was not as large as it could have been, for sure... It’s hard to sell an open show put on by a Mopar club... I get that. If we continue with an open part of our show I think we will bring in another club to manage that part... if we continue with an open part.

The bikes were a real disappointment... we did not do a good enough job.. but to be fair we put our "eggs" into one dealerships basket, and then got caught up in one dealer buying another and we were stuck in the middle..

As far as workers riding on golf carts.. I understand to those out of the loop it looks bad and lazy... but most of the butts on golf carts were there with me at 4:45 am and left at almost the same time I did.. 5 pm,,, if we had 5 or so more volunteers, perhaps I could have walked all day .. well 1/2 a day and handed off responsibility at noon, but when short staffed, the lazy volunteers need golf carts to get to the many areas needing attention.

As far as the cost of a location... in three short months.. the poorest club sponsor searchers, did manage to pull in enough sponsorships, to cover almost all of the cost... it was more sponsorship than the last 3 years total at the High school

I honestly do believe, the Venue at Pheasant Run attracts sponsors, more than a high school or other parking lot... but that is just my perception.

The suggestion of a Name change is just rude, and it’s BS, and frankly offensive... it is true that meetings in the general Naperville area, bring more people to them from that area... and the people from that area are more familiar with venues in that area... all true.... but all anyone from any other area needed to do.. was to gather up a small handful of like minded members and go to a voting meeting... and vote those bums out... its easy, its right there, it would take only one meeting and you could vote in anyone you wanted... and they could move the shows, move the meeting locations, they could do all the things you complain about.. but it takes a tiny bit of effort and someone to do it.

I know the winter swap in Elmhurst is not Chicago, but it is not "Naperville either"... when invited to Thomas Dodge a few years ago.. we went, to put on a show in any area needs at least a couple of people willing to make it happen... and I don’t mean just make the suggestion... I mean carry it out.. I fully and 100% support a show at Toyota park.. Make it happen... propose at a meeting.. a reasonable date, budget, estimates, suggest possible sponsors, and line up 20 area volunteers... I will support it, every step of the way.... I have supported everything our members have put energy into... it is true I have heard 1000s of ideas... that’s not what I'm talking about... get someone to put the basic pieces together and I will support it and push like hell to see it through.

The show in Plano that "popped up" was requested by a sponsor.. and they put up $4,000.00, the fall colors was a joint venture by our chapter and the FRC chapter, also at the request of a sponsor who put up a modest amount, enough to assure no possibility of a loss... both of those... NON NAPERVILLE shows were championed by a member... and those members put in the lions share of the front work... that is all it takes... a viable idea, and some one to work it through.

Jim, we have a 5 year agreement with Pheasant Run.... it allows us to back out at any time.... they too can ask us not to come back... today already they asked us back.. so its up to us... at the next two meetings... one in Naperville at Connies on the last Tuesday.. we will discuss and vote.... I will then take the discussion to The old Mancari's store in Orland on the following Saturday at 5:30pm where we will vote..... If you don’t like it vote it out... bring friends.... I'm not sure why you would complain here.. Our club is run by its members and decisions are made by them.... work to change it.. not grouse on our website ----B---

[Super43]

The class structure... 3 classes... Stock Appearing Mopar up to 1974 ... Modified Mopar up to 1974 and Modern Mopar all 75 and up... is the basic structure we have had for a few years.. I do understand it is not Ideal... but years ago we had 36 classes, and counting the votes took forever... we heard a lot of complaints about late trophies.. and if you had a chance to look at the voting results and get a good understanding... its about getting trophies to the best cars.. this system in my opinion is slightly better than awarding the only three PT cruisers trophies, because there are 3... rather than the 8 fantastic B- Bodies stock 68-70... the old system had only 3 trophies in a class that might get 30 and 3 in a class that might get 1, we had great cars going home with no trophies.. and not so great cars winning a trophy every time..... I can even relate because most if not all of the trophies I won with my Superbird... were because it was the only one or 1 of 3 in a class... I was happy to take home a trophy.. but those who knew my car.... know it was not really a show car.

So your trophy was... top.. 30 in your class most likely.

We are faced with the same choices every year.... what kind of a show can we put on with the amount of man power we have.... the real answer is... a tiny show that has great quality... a smallish show that’s decent.. if we go bigger (and perhaps we shouldn't) it costs details, smoothness in running...Classes, judging etc.. I responded to Dave with raves about our volunteer staff, because we pulled off a lot of show, for a smallish group...
----B---

[Devil]

The really sad part was there was almost as many muscle cars in the parking lot then in the actual show. I was talking to one of the club members, and they were talking about this really nice Charger, I said i hadn't seen it? They then mentioned it was in the parking lot with the rest of the show and they laughed.

[dave kanofsky]

The really sad part was there was almost as many muscle cars in the parking lot then in the actual show. I was talking to one of the club members, and they were talking about this really nice Charger, I said i hadn't seen it? They then mentioned it was in the parking lot with the rest of the show and they laughed.


You're right Ryan, I did see some nice cars out there and it was too bad they didn't participate.
Life is not a spectator sport.

Thank you for entering your car, we certainly appreciate your support!

[furious70]

I completely understand and agree with the sentiment of 'put some skin in the game if you don't like it' Bruce. That's why my tone is (hopefully) not negative. I didn't have the time to give, so I really appreciated a cool venue 15min from my house that allowed us to show a car, make some money in the swap, and have lunch at home with my family in the middle. If the show had moved to the south side I would have been disappointed but I wouldn't have blamed the club since I hadn't personally even attended any meetings let alone offer to do any leg work.

Sounds like I might need to try to make the Tues mtg to make sure Pheasant Run doesn't get the boot!

[Abodynut]

Well, not that my opinion means much as I dont get to meetings and dont do all the shows but still lots of people know me. Anyhow, my vote is leave the show right where its at. It was good. The classes are good. It takes much less time than splitting everything up by body type. You guys are fair in how you set up the classes and shows. In reality I think some members could really care less about getting a trophy. At least to me its about getting together with buddies and spending a day out in the sun enjoying our hobby and being in a club event. Isnt that what our hobby really is all about? I am not crying and dont want pity either but I have a 14 year old daughter who is VERY needy and also custody of two grandchildren ages 2 and 3 who are a handful. In addition I drive my semi 12 to 14 hours and 400 to 500 miles a day Monday through Friday and have NO time for nothing. Here and now I will put my name in the hat to help out at next years show. Just let me know what you want me to do. Just let me put my car in the show and get a minute to cruise the swap area for goodies and im good to go. Thanks for the great show!!
Chas.

[sthemi]

I think it was a great first show, I attended and brought my 300 Convert.
There are things that can be improved, the location is wonderful with the covered building and decent price food.
Friday night before the show, a person i have never meet in a Chevy truck pulled up to me in my Roadrunner and wanted to tell me about the show on Sunday.
I have already seen show pics on a national car web site. This show has great potential to grow huge.
Thanks for all the hard work,
Greg

[Devil]

Here is the link to the pictures I took of the show, and a car blessing I attended earlier.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157626658392629/

[JLG1963]

I thought it was a great time, and I was one of the volunteers that started a 5:00 am. I was dead tired at the end of the day but still had fun. I was also on a golf cart for a while, not sure why that was offensive, was just necessary from my point of view and with the number of volunteers we had .

I will not be able to attend the chapter meeting next Tuesday, but my vote is to stay at Pheasant Run !!! With some tweaking and having the time to properly plan for next year. This venue has a ton of potential. :cool:

Charles Rosner said it best:
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"

[Kevhead]

My two cents... Pheasant Run is definately an improvement over Naperville, and, if promoted widely, in 2012 we could see participants travel in from beyond our region based on the new venue!

[furious70]

I like this one :cool:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/5749299230/in/set-72157626658392629/lightbox/

[JLG1963]

I thought the event photos were suppose to be posted on the site somewhere. I can not seem to find them, did I miss something? :confused:

[Super43]

Sorry Jim, my buddy Don Ball took ill, he was going to put them in his photo bucket account.... long story short I have 800 great pictures... but I don't know how to post them... they are very detail and big files... just another thing I have not learned how to do. ----B--- (as soon as he's better or someone else can do it we will get them up... sorry for the delay)

[Super43]

Ok so I went to photo bucket and up loaded 38 of 800 photos.. it took awhile but have a look i'll put more on later
http://s1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa458/mpbg43/ ----B---