I agree with what Barrman wrote about in his last post: I think we need to get this behind us and start planning the March event.
But things being the way they are, I must respond to nofearnohope's "hissy fit/temper tantrum" statement/rant.. I'll do it the same way I did responding to Barrman. I'll be in the red corner, nofearnohope will be in the Black Corner. In the old days this would be settled on the Field of Honor like in the movies. Now we have words. Really a lot better, yes?
Before I respond to ap’s hissy fit/temper tantrum and everyone else who has a problem with the way I have handled this rally. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has attended each rally which is what helped make them the successes they were. I enjoyed every part of planning, scheduling, arranging, organizing and pulling off each one of them.
There seems to be a bit of a control problem here. The ability to ask directly for help, the willingness to delegate responsibilities to others, and most importantly the ability to say "Hey, I need help!" seem to be missing. I, myself have a brother in the printing business who would probably have made that banner for free. Having not been subscribed to this thread, I wouldn't have seen it, but my son would have. Did you ask for any help with this? If so I'm sorry that we missed it. I am sorry for not having subscribed to this thread so I could have seen the requests, instead of relying on Badga (whose computer had died over at his mom's house).
Sorry that this rally went into the dumper. A lot of people were looking forward to it.
Having said that, please pay VERY close attention the “I” portion of planning, scheduling, arranging, organizing and pulling off each event. I got several pointers from Barrman and one or two others. Beyond that, this was entirely my effort to make every one of these events happen. If I'd known the secret to getting others to volunteer or offer to help was to cancel a rally, I may have considered it prior to this.
There's an awful lot of "I" statements here. I did this, I did that. The trick to doing something like this for others when they refuse to help is to actually use an "I" statement, as in "I refuse to go any further if I don't get some help." And then follow it up by NOT doing anything further. I'm guessing you never read Atlas Shrugged. Long book, but has been extraordinarily influential for something like 50 years. Simply put, you should have gone on strike.
I'd like to remind everyone that I've asked for planning help, deposits, feedback & nearly everything else suggested on this thread. Everyone has been happy to let me do it all until it didn't go your way- I would have welcomed a sharing of the load. However, this is "my baby" - I made the effort when no one else would bother and I really don't appreciate the rudeness of some of the comments. Or, frankly, the "suggestions" made 2 years after the start, when I've asked all along, after EVERY rally, for feedback.
I've been taking these one paragraph at a time. but I see now there is a bit of repetition, so "See above red paragraph." Especially the part about going on strike. I really don't wish to see you harmed, and there really is nothing like the emotional rewards of a job well done. Me and Badga actually drove our bobber just this past Sunday and we were thrilled with the results. But I couldn't have done it without Badga, and we couldn't have done it without the help of some special people here on SS (and a friend/mechanic). And it still gives us that feeling of accomplishment even with that help.
My original intention in writing this was to verbally skewer you, at least for the name-calling. As I'm writing this I see some of myself in what you went through. Not pity, but empathy. Of course you've banned me for life from any of your events. I did just skip to the bottom and you'd actually wrote: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME TO ANY MORE EVENTS I AM INVOLVED IN THE PLANNING OF!!! (Well, there goes the empathy thing.) I wonder how everyone else feels about you usurping their power as to who and who not to invite? If Lincoln doesn't get to be pitcher he'll take his ball home? Is this Lincoln's Club and no one elses?
(This next paragraph I'll have to break up so that I can answer.)
For all of you whining about putting time into being able to attend these rallies, I have put all that time in of making sure everything is set up so all you have to do is just show up.
The rally is not a wedding and you're not the caterer. Get the money up front, and send it back if not enough people pay in advance. If you'd asked for my money up front, it would have been sent to you. It's Pay to Play. You can't even pump your gas without paying for it first.
I have personally laid out almost $3000 of my own money to rent the off road ranch, the room at the BBQ restaurant, the fee for having the sheriffs at each event, the t-shirts and the banner.
That's a lot of money. After the first loss I'd've said "No more!" Actually I would have said this before incurring this kind of loss. I certainly don't have that kind of money, or I wouldn't be playing with used army trucks. As for the restaurant, I've never heard of one which charges for the room, but only for the food, and I grew up in the restaurant business.
As for the Sheriffs, I thought they did this as a public service. We could have done fine without them. All we needed was one mama duck who knew where he (she?) was going and all the ducklings would've followed.
You all complain that I have cancelled this rally and no one else had a say in it.
It seems that only a select few were consulted. If you want this rally to grow you have to involve others in the decision, and others need to be able to pick up the completion of the rally in case you got hit by a Russian satelite. Otherwise it's just Lincoln's Clubhouse. And banning someone for speaking his mind, in an orderly fashion, doesn't feel like it's condemned in the rules, or at least spirit, of Steel Soldiers.
No one seems to have a problem if they are the one to back out of coming to the rally after they have signed up and the fee has been set based on their attendance. Yet I get stuck with their portion of that fee.
Did you ask for the money? Did you call it off when they didn't? Did I not show up when I said I would and paid you?
Please don’t say anything about well you never asked for it. Basic math states that if X number of people sign up and the event costs Y dollars and the per person fee is Z, then if anything less than X number of people show up, the rest of that money has to come from somewhere.
You never asked for it, and you committed to paying BVORR before you had the money. Never make nachos at 7-11 unless you have the money in your pocket to pay, especially when you grabbed a Super Big Gulp while you were at it.
I have over $100 worth of t-shirts people ordered, but never paid for sitting at my house.
How about it guys? Buy the shirts, they're real nice. I would but Lincoln doesn't like me.
Do you hear me complaining on this board about broken promises, making rude comments, or posting when I am going to get PAID! No because I accept the fact that things don’t always go as planned.
I have a little motto that I live by: Never risk more money than you are able to lose.
AP this last paragraph is for you! You whined like a little girl about your measly $25 after the last rally, but didn’t have the common courtesy to email, call or PM to inquire about your shirts or if there was anything you could do to help get them, but you were sure ready to try and blast me all over the forums about my “complete lack of response” to your ONE PM sent asking about them.
OK, NOW we've got some real whining. I challenge you to find ANYTHING where I wrote about the T-shirts. Me and Badga made several PM's to you and received no response. If you'd answered that you were having some problems with it, I'd have said "No problem, just let me know when they're ready." You only responded when I put a little "attitude" in it. It's not whether a person or a business has a problem, it's how they handle it.
I want there to be no mistake, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME TO ANY MORE EVENTS I AM INVOLVED IN THE PLANNING OF!!! By your own admission, you are not willing to do anything to help, but are sure the first to start complaining when something doesn’t go your way.
Why don't you look at my previous post where I did, in fact, volunteer. I don't make decisions for others unilaterally, but I'm real good at arranging things, letting the decision makers point out what they want done. Not blindly, mind you, but I CAN play well with others. As long as they're not playing Tinpot Dictator at the moment.
How about accept the fact that the one man show could not pull it off this time. Maybe instead of complaining you all could have simply asked if how you could help.
How about the one man show stop being the one man show long enough to say "I ain't doing it alone!"
OL AG, my only suggestion to this is to have you learn how to set your notifications for new posts on a subscribed thread.