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WTD 2016 - Registration Details

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Old 10-16-2015 | 04:38 PM
  #191  
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Originally Posted by airgate
Originally Posted by SkiLLeDS2000' timestamp='1445033698' post='23777823
185 cars last year didn't mind the early April dates. I know people were shocked that the dates were moved.

I'm excited that Tapoco will be totally full with S2's, but be sad that we are not all together in one spot.

To see so many people upset about this move should be considered, but it's pretty obvious, it really does not matter. That's a little callous and rude.

A good leader will hear our voices old and new. One persons "dream" should not trump dozens of people that are put off by this change.
Callous and rude, eh? Lemme tell you...for one, you don't even know the "WHY" behind any of this...the "original" dates shared by Ken should've never been shared and they are too early in the month of April. While Ken had agreed to work with me on this event, he went ahead without my knowledge and selected THAT date because that's what Fontana told him would work. So why are we working with Fontana? Because they can fit nearly 200 cars? These events shouldn't be about quantity, they should be about quality.

Where you see "so many people upset," remember there are plenty of folks happy about this event and can't wait to be a part of it. My mission is to cater my efforts to those who WANT to be there, not the folks who get their lift from making jabs at me.

I've been through this before. When the event moved from Knoxville to Aloca and then eventually Fontana. I was just thinking about the challenges we had with Fontana so early on how upset folks were with that venue. Much has changed over the years, that's for sure. Any event organizer can recycle events and host them at the same place, year after year. That's no fun and no challenge. This event will be different. For those who attend, I believe they'll be impressed and will enjoy a great weekend. I'm confident that I'll learn a lot with this event and look forward to applying them into DragonBall Run in the Fall and again in 2017 for Wake the Dragon. Continuous improvement. That's the goal and I guess you could say that IS my "dream."
Okay, let's put a stop to the BS right now. That date was selected in April of 2015. You were aware of the date as I told you a number of times. You came up with some cockamamie BS story about being later so one person could attend. I selected an open date that would work with the largest number of people being in one place at one time. I had no problem working with Fontana and arranging the event as I have done for the last three or four years. Amazingly, last Spring was the third largest Dragon event in the 12 years that the event had been going on. You agreed to work with me, I asked you to come back because you wanted to "HELP" (your words, not mine). You can try to rewrite history all you'd like, unfortunately, it doesn't work.

I'm glad to see you have a dream, I hope it comes true for you. It seems you never had an problem with showing up at Fontana and taking advantage of all the things there that were given to you. Sorry it turned out this way for everyone else. There are a lot of people who will be unable to attend because of the venue and their dreams won't come true. Seems the prodigal son story is unfortunately, all too true.
Old 10-16-2015 | 05:38 PM
  #192  
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I'm trying to figure out... Who's not quality and a S2000 owner. Lol. I've honestly never met a S2000 owner at the dragon that was not friendly and super nice. Please point me to these "not quality" people

Plus, Raul, I'm already booked at Tapoco. I actually offered to save the whole group money on t-shirts, that are better quality. Didn't hear from you. I guess since this will only be my 3rd year, I'm too noob to be heard. Lol. Amazing.
Old 10-16-2015 | 05:58 PM
  #193  
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Originally Posted by AP2DragonWagon
Originally Posted by Habitforming' timestamp='1445002235' post='23777225
Well Raul, congratulations on building a loyal base of fanboys. I've been coming to these events for 10 years, I think only 5 or 6 people have attended more times than me, I've helped organize in the past, I've lead so many drives I've lost count. A few years ago you left us high & dry very suddenly, took your "name" and went home, leaving everything in limbo. Some other individuals were, thankfully, willing & able to take over so that our long standing tradition could continue.

Now you swoop back into the picture, abruptly take over the reins, and shit all over everything... and those of us that point it out & bring up our concerns are roundly criticized for doing so. You are cutting the normal attendance for the event in half, and further necessitating 1/3 to 1/2 of the attendees stay a significant distance away from HQ, all so you can test out some new romantic getaway (which would have applied perfectly to the normal fall group size, BTW). You'll either have drunk people on country back roads late at night, or drastically reduced attendance for some very popular evening activities. Parking will be a huge pain for the banquet. Those of us that need to keep in touch with business/family during our trip will be greatly inconvenienced to do so. Best of all, your event is in the hands of new ownership that likely has little experience hosting large groups yet, and you give them our largest.

f@#k all of this. It's not that I hate change - it's that I hate poor planning. And this, my friend, is a prime example. This could have easily been done in the fall, when everything would have scaled perfectly for the location, and we could have had a test run in less strenuous conditions. Great to have you back!

I'm out
Truth and bravo for having the balls to state it, Habitforming. So this event now looks like a complete cock-up. Whereas the early dates were always great due to the fact of not encountering pretty much any large groups and traffic bc the S2000 crew was the first of the large groups to kick off Dragon Season, these late dates seem to serve the needs of one, rather than the many, and now we will encounter other large groups on these dates. Not good. I don't think that cannot be denied. Consensus would have been better and weather really was never an issue and always blown out of proportion. The people that ran it the past few years did a great job (BD and Ken) and even added some new twists to the event with Back of the Dragon which was awesome.
Do what a lot us do, come down a few days earlier. We are heading down Tuesday. Too many roads to fit in 2 days.
Old 10-16-2015 | 07:28 PM
  #194  
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Little worried that i just found out about WTD2016 just now and all the rooms are almost filled already!

I've only been to one of these events (rtd2015), which happened to have record attendance (175 i believe) and everyone i know, including myself, had a beyond amazing time. The early dates seemed great. Barely saw any other traffic, and NOT ONE police car the entire time we were there. So I don't quite understand "trying to limit" this event to a smaller number of cars to make it a better experience?

Iv'e been looking forward to this event and being able to spend time with the amazing people i met last time. Being spread out miles apart and not being able to party late at someone's cabin because i have to drive back 20 miles to some other god forsaken spot due to lack of availability, just seems like a buzz kill and very inconvenient.

Not to mention without wifi or cell service communication between members is pretty much out the window. Normally i could live with that because we could communicate with radios, but if we are spread out 20 miles apart thats definitely not happening

Not trying to doodoo on anyone's efforts here, those are just my legitimate concerns. I am a mere newbie.
Old 10-16-2015 | 09:40 PM
  #195  
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Raul - just registered and check is in the mail tomorrow morning - reading through the posts and I see the whiners and complainers are out in force - well for those of you that do not remember, Raul planned this event for Tapoco some years ago and was submarined by a bunch of "well-meaning" guys that went out and "organized" a different hotel venue - the owner of Tapoco got wind of the bashing of his lodge and pricing that was going on and cancelled the event leaving us all high, dry and spread out between the Robbinsville Microtel and Fontana - NOT A GOOD THING and none of that was Raul's fault. I for one am looking forward to the return of Wake the Dragon, and I promise you I WILL KNEECAP the first idiot that screws it up! If you do not like the plan - don't come! Seriously stay home! (rant over, calming down now).

Incidently - I spent a weekend at Tapoco last fall and it was super enjoyable - New ownership and some of the very best dining in the area.




Raul, if you need me to help with anything just say so - I'm retired now and have lots of time to invest.


Old 10-16-2015 | 11:29 PM
  #196  
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I booked tapoco did I do the right thing? Not really sure what the fuss is besides no cell reception. What is the total number of people that tapoco can accommodate?
Old 10-17-2015 | 01:58 AM
  #197  
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This will be my 11th event and Raul has not dissapointed me yet except his t-shirt color selection of the years. Lol. Maybe I'm his "1 fanboy" because he has done such a good job with the events. It's impossible to please everyone. I'm thankful for people like Raul that makes these events possible
Old 10-17-2015 | 04:13 AM
  #198  
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Registering today. I am thankful for the privilege to be a steward of the s2000, and the opportunity to have the health and means to attend these wonderful events organized by dedicated people who volunteer their time. What would Uehara-San say: "...share the quality and legacy of the S2000 with many friends so that the legend of the S2000 will continue for long..."
Old 10-17-2015 | 08:56 AM
  #199  
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Originally Posted by zeroptzero
Originally Posted by pwrinxs' timestamp='1444964320' post='23776910
For a small fee I may offer shuttle service to folks to Fontana. Only one passenger at a time, however :-)
Adnan, your car is highly addictive and you won't be able to kick me out of it. The power, the sound, the handling, good lord that is one sweet taxi service

Thanks Joey... I'd love to take a ride in the all Mugen goodness you have going on. The best part of this event is sharing stories, the love for this vehicle, and the good times. I also love picking up ideas on how others have modified their cars.

The venue and date for this event is set and done. Can we respectfully direct all discussion toward future events? We don't want to ruin relationships with the businesses that make this possible for us. Let Raul run this event and see how it goes before saying it will fail. I'm worried about all the negative energy taking the fun out of this one... Instead of what we can't do, let's talk about what we can do to make it more fun!
Old 10-17-2015 | 09:47 AM
  #200  
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So many back seat drivers saying Raul is not going the route they want. Planning an event is a lot of work and listening to all this crap is no doubt taking the fun out of volunteering.
David and Ken stepped up and ran the event when Raul was unable and ran it the way they thought best. I suspect they were quite happy to pass the duties back to Raul this year. Since Raul is doing all the work, his choices are really the only ones that matter. We can attend or not. It is not our devine right to have the event run per our personal preference.

It is a free world and there is nothing stopping all the naysayers from planning and organizing a different event whenever they want and call it whatever they want. When it comes down to it, I doubt anyone really will want to do the work it takes if they have to do it themselves.
Rant finished


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