Meet Planning - making things easier

Firstly - Good luck with your meet!
Secondly - If you have any questions then PM Minvo - he is always happy to help!

Choosing a Date:
Have a look at the All Meets and Events page to make sure your date is not clashing with a national event or another event in your area.

Once you have a chosen a date why not PM or phone a few local people or "freinds" to see if they can make that date? You will feel more confident in posting the meet on the forum if you know people are going to come along and meets always look a lot more attractive once more people have said they are coming (what I call the snowball effect).

It is not at all recommended to give people a choice of dates. Choose a date - you can always change it but it's always better to sound positive.

Creating a New Thread:
Once you have chosen a date then in the "UK Meets and Events" section click the [New Thread] button.

Topic Prefix:
Please choose a prefix depending on the following:
CLUB MEET = for UK S2000 Owners Club Organised Meets by a Regional Event Coordinator or Committee Member
PUB MEET= for a Regular or Monthly Meet organised by a Club recognised Monthly Meet Coordinator
TRACK DAY= A day racing/testing S2000s on a racetrack
MEET = a Meet organised by anyone else
INFO = Possible meet for discussion - no date and/or venue set (Minvo will archive these once they become unused)

Topic Title:
The thread title should be clear where and when the meet is.
Please include the name of the meet, the location or area and the date (including the day of week)
- eg: "Japfest (Castle Coombe) - Sunday 5th May".
This is really useful to Minvo as all the useful information is included in the hyperlink
Warning: Minvo WILL change your thread title if these details are not included! (he has really bad OCD you know!)
Please DO NOT add any highlighting characters ("★", "♣" or "●") to the title of your thread - They are reserved for special meets only.

Main Thread:
Create the main first post with all the relevant information like:
- Name of Event (eg Japfest)
- Date - put the day of week, date and month
- Venue / Start Location (please include a postcode and as much detail as possible - eg Tesco carpark)
- Put "Organised By - yourname" so the reader can see you are actually organising the event
- Cost for S2KUK members and a cost for non-members
- Whether the meet is open to S2000 owners only or if it's open to everyone (we will assume everyone).
- A simple PM to Minvo to inform him of the meet creation would also be nice
Now submit this post and wait for the page to display.


Additional Posts:
Then as soon as possible add another post to the thread and just type in "Reserved" (this will be the attendees list).
Do this again to create a third post if you think you will need routes, convoys, etc).

Please ensure you keep the main details (post 1), attendees (post 2) and the routes/convoys (post 3) as up to date as possible by editing them and a simple reply to the last post to inform everyone the first posts have been updated. Please do not keep attendees list on the last updated page - people will not want to read pages and pages to see who is coming.


FACEBOOK:
If you want your meet to be published onto Facebook then please e-mail steve@minvo.com - I am happy putting up driving meets and also special event meets.
If you want a Facebook event for your pub meet then I suggest you create your own Facebook event as you probably already know your audience to invite.
If you are a regular event organiser then let Minvo know and we can give you access/permission to create posts.


Archiving:
Once your meeting date has passed Minvo will be along four days after the date of the meeting OR four days after the date of the last post in the thread (whichever is most recent) to move the thread into the "UK Meets & Events - Past" page (this may take a few days longer if Minvo is busy or away on holiday "again").

You may still update any threads in the "Past" section but furher amendments will not restore the thread into the main Events page.

Tips on Organising a driving meet
1) Before you post details of the meet make sure you know the following information/have done the following:
- a. Start point including post code - make sure sufficient parking is available;
- b. End point including post code - make sure sufficient parking is available;
- c. The actual route you are going to take;
- d. Drive the route yourself beforehand. If you have a smartphone, use a GPS logger (Google myTracks for Android or find myTracks on iTunes) to trace the route - this will give you a good idea of timings.

2) Some notes on route planning:
- a. Try to avoid towns - getting a convoy through intact is difficult, especially during shopping hours;
- b. Make a note of right turns onto major roads - these are where convoys break up. See if there is a pull over and wait point nearby and make a note of it. If you can avoid right turns then do so;
- c. Keep the route as simple as you can - not easy but a good aim to have.

3) Some notes on convoying with a maximum of 10 cars:
- a. Make sure everyone knows that the leader will wait at, or better still, just before the next turning. This means that followers can remain on the same road knowing they will get reattached to the convoy. It also means that those out in front can make good progress safe in the knowledge that the followers will not be lost;
- b. Use indicators nice and early, encourage everyone to do this;
- c. Go at an appropriate pace, remembering others may not be as confident as you are, as well as not knowing the roads, if attendees are frightened then it's not a good meet.
- d. Stick to 30 limits through villages, remembering people live there and they do not want a horde of noisy sportscars belting past their front doors. This has the side benefit of helping the convoy to stay together.
- e. Overtaking - getting 5 or more cars to overtake can be a tricky business.
- - i. If you are the lead car, look well ahead and observe properly. If you can't see where the road goes, or if there is something coming, then get back over immediately. Once you see the following car is well into the manoeuvre, move back over to afford the follower a clear view of the road ahead. Err on the side of caution at all times;
- - ii. If you are the following car, it's your responsibility to make sure you can overtake safely. If you're unsure, then don't overtake. Do not feel pressured into overtaking to keep up. Chances are that the leader is stuck behind another vehicle half a mile up the road, so you'll catch up anyway. Err on the side of caution at all times. Remember, The lead car will be waiting at the next turning;
- - iii. If you are "stuck" behind someone who is going a bit slowly, please keep a safe distance and do not try to push them along. Backing off a bit on the straights and then enjoying the corners is a good way to approach things. Overtaking is frowned upon unless by consent.

4) If the meet is very successful in attracting attendees and you end up with more than 10 cars, then you need to be aware that staying in convoy is very difficult. There are a few ways you can work around this:
- a. Hand out maps at the start of the run - useful but it's difficult for those driving solo to navigate;
- b. Organise a SatNav file of the route (see below for how to do this) which can be emailed to attendees - be careful with this as some organisers have had suspicious requests in the past;
- c. Nominate certain drivers to be co-leaders - they should know the route, preferably having driven it before (or at least have the SatNav file or some local knowledge) and these cars should ideally be every fifth car in the convoy or at least every tenth car. Make these cars known to the attendees so they know whom to follow in the event of a convoy break-up. The more people who have the route, the better, as it's much safer this way.
- d. Many S2kiers have walkie-talkies - these have proved very useful when dealing with large convoys.

5) Remember to have fun!

 

If anyone wants their meet publicised to S2KUK members who may not read the forum often (or at all) please simply email what you would like sent out to the S2KUK Club email address:


http://www.s2kuk.com/s2kuk/AboutUs/Contact.php

 

Setting up Routes for those with SatNav

Download ITN convertor from here http://www.benichou-software.com/

With this software, you can create a route that people can download into their sat navs (TomTom, Garmin and most others)

Once you're running the programme, click the "Editor" button which takes you to a Google Maps type thing where you can plan a route of your choice.

A couple of tips, use the naming feature for each of your waypoints, and use numbering as part of the names e.g.

01 Start
02 London Road
03 Oxford Road
etc

Select waypoints that are just after each and every turning, as the routing seems to work better that way.

Once you've finished planning the route, just close the window (don't worry, it'll be ok) and it'll take you back to the main screen where you can save the files as TomTom/Garmin/whatever.

Do test the route on the SatNav unit so you can see that it's the same as the one you've planned - you many need to select "Shortest Route" as the option instead of "Fastest Route".

Do practice with a simple route close to home to make sure you've got the right idea.