DC Metro MINIs is pleased to annouce that we have made a $5,000 contribution to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America on behalf of the MINI Community and those who attended MINIs on the Dragon in 2006. These funds were proceeds from MOTD4, and we are very proud to continue the MOTD tradition of supporting charitable causes.

Many people will ask the obvious question ... "What took you so long?" It has always been our intention (stated several times in the MOTD forums) to donate proceeds from MOTD4 to a good cause. Unfortunately, 2006 became a rather complicated year for DCMM, with unforseen delays with banking and other things on the business end of the club that prevented us from making a donation until December 2006. We have waited until now (when the donation has been confirmed received and processed by our contact at Make-A-Wish) to post the information.

DCMM has decided to take a more relaxed involvement at MOTD5. So we (as DCMM) will not be handling registration or sponsoring any events this time around. Many DCMM members do plan to volunteer and assist on an individual basis! We are pleased to see so many who are coming forward to plan events for MOTD5 are continuing the strong charitable aspects of this national MINI event.

See you all on May 3rd 2007 in North Carolina.

(the text of our letter to Make-A-Wish is copied below for your reference)

Make-A-Wish Foundation of America
3550 North Central Avenue
Suite 300
Phoenix AZ 85012-2127

Attention: Gift Processing Center

Dear Frances:

Subject: Donation of Behalf of the MINI Cooper Community

DC Metro MINIs (DCMM) is very pleased to present the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America with a donation of $5,000 on behalf of the MINI Cooper community at NorthAmericanMotoring.com (NAM.) These funds were generated by MINI Cooper enthusiasts at our annual gathering of "MINIs on the Dragon" (MOTD) from May 4th to 7th, 2006.

Each year, MINI Cooper enthusiasts gather from all around the country in Deals Gap, North Carolina, which is the location of the famed "Tail of the Dragon" road, also known as route 129. The Tail of the Dragon is a spectacular 11-mile section of road that has an astonishing 318 curves - with no cross streets or driveways. The May 2006 gathering was the 4th such time that the larger MINI community has gathered there, and each year the numbers continue to grow. MOTD4 had over 600 enthusiasts driving over 450 MINIs and Minis, representing 35 states and even two Canadian provinces! MOTD5, to be held from May 3rd to 6th, 2007 promises to be even larger.

MINIs on the Dragon has a tradition of supporting various charitable causes as part of the event, and DCMM, which organized the main registration for MOTD4, is very proud to do our part. We are very impressed with the difference that the Make-A-Wish Foundation makes in people's lives, and we hope our donation will have a positive impact in support of the Foundations' mission.

Best regards,

Jennifer L. Oakes
President
DC Metro MINIs

cc: NAM

 

Way to go Jen and everyone one at DCMM, You guys did a great job last year and really stepped up to the plate to fill in the voids for the rest of us. Hope you guys enjoy a well deserved relaxing Dragon this year!!

 

That is awesome! Way to go DCMM!

 

Absolutely awesome!

 

You all rock!!!

Donna

 

You know, that's wonderful. It really is.

However........

MOTD was never, at least to my knowledge, conceived to be or intended to
be an event whose primary focus was to make big charitable contributions.
It was started as an opportunity for people with an interest in all things MINI
to come together for a weekend of fun. Now, it seems, everyone gets the
opportunity to pay exhorbitant fees, with no real option not to pay them if
they want to actually participate in the original primary focus (see above) of
the event. If folks want to make a donation to a charity, put a bucket at the
check-in for people to toss money into but don't force people to contribute
by charging outrageous prices for organized meals and other events in the
name of charity. It's not right and it borders on extortion.

Personally (and speaking strictly for myself and no one else) I don't believe
I much like what MOTD has become.

 

Since my first MOTD was #3, I can't comment on the original intent. I'm sure that some of the original 80 people will tell you the intent. As far as I understand it, charitable causes have always been part of the intent, based upon discussions with some of those original 80. For that reason, I believe you are incorrect.I have to ask - how do you consider a $5 registration fee to be exhorbitant? You're driving a $21,000+ European vehicle that requires premium gas and doesn't get hybrid-like mileage. Your charge of exhorbitant is ridiculous. Compare those costs with the fees charged to attend almost any kind of "convention" around the country... MOTD is cheap by comparison. Not to mention that nothing stopped you from showing up without registering, as many people did.

As for the meals, the cost of catering a meal in a remote location like Fontana Village is not small. The quality and quantity of the food and service provided was very good by most people's accounts. Not to mention, these meals were entirely optional - you are perfectly welcome to drive 20 miles away to some other restaurant to eat your meals... or even better, buy and bring your own food to prepare at your accommodations. Seriously, I have to wonder where your sense of cost is really coming from. Nobody is making you spend money to simply be at MOTD, so you do have an option.

The only "planned" meal that was very cheap was the chili cook-off held by AtlantaMINIs. Why was it so much cheaper? Because Graham County sponsored the event, providing significant funding to AtlantaMINIs to assist. (Those of us who attended the chili cook-off may remember the Graham County Tourism web link stuck to the top of our serving plates). This funding offset the cost to the attendees, who I believe only had to pay $5 each, if I remember correctly.

To my knowledge, no funding from Graham County was provided to DCMM or any of the other clubs that sponsored events. AtlantaMINIs was the sole beneficiary of this funding.

Now, understand, I am not knocking AtlantaMINIs. I attended the chili cook-off, and I had a great time. The food was delicious, the decorations were great, and everyone seemed to have fun. I'm simply trying to provide context when it comes to meal cost.Sorry to hear that... but MOTD is what you make of it. If you believe something should be done at MOTD that isn't, step up and do it. Every year, it's a volunteer effort. Simple as that. Every year the volunteers may change, the dynamics may change, but one thing stays the same - we all go to have fun. And if you're not having fun, why go?

 

I go because I want to see all of the people I don't get to see during the year. And, I go to have fun, just like everyone else.

I want to go to the events at Fontana and eat dinner but refuse to pay the
high fees charged for dinners there, which means I have to, primarily, go to
Robbinsville or someplace further and therefore miss most of the event at
Fontana.

I'm not buying the "it costs sooo much to cater a dinner out in the boondocks" argument. When you can afford to give away $5000 to charity, you're charging way too much money. When you're putting white tablecloths on the tables so folks can eat high-priced hamburgers, your overhead is too high. When you have a private dining room for your members and won't let a non-member in the door, your priorities are in the wrong place.

Again, though, this is just my opinion.

And, yes, I will be there this year and I do plan to have a very good time. I hope everyone else does as well.

 

No one said that AtlantaMINIS had the monopoly on getting assistance from Graham County, it was available to everyone else too.
Come on Edge, who is going to go to an event and sit in their cabin eating a cold bologna sandwich? That is what Pete means by not having a choice. We are supposed to getting together in the spirit of fun, but it is has become too much of a competition. I believe the price that Pete was referring to was the $20 dinner that a club organized.
IIRC, there was also an ice sculpture at an event, that couldn't have been cheap.
Let's all just try to have fun this year. I will be there and I look forward to seeing some of my friends from last year.

 

Well, other clubs are hosting dinners this year, not DCMM... so it remains to be seen what the costs will be, and how the food & settings are.
The farewell dinner was deliberately meant to be "fancier", no question about that. The people who planned the dinners did their best to organize them, with very little help outside the club (I'll note again that very few other clubs stepped up to the plate, despite our wishes... we didn't want to host all 3 things!), and many of the complaints from MOTD3 had to be addressed, including running out of food. The dinners at MOTD4 had no food shortage... gee, imagine that.

Will things be done differently this year? Probably... each year is a learning experience, and I hope that those organizing it this year are able to do it even better than we did.

I don't know what you mean about a private dining room. I was on the DCMM MOTD planning committee, and I attended all of the meals... and I ate in the same room as everyone else, at both meals.

However, I hope you don't refer to denying access to a dining hall for people who haven't paid for the meal. Surely you can appreciate that possible freeloaders would be locked out, since the meal was buffet-style.

Or was there some other circumstance you were talking about denying access?

 

No, it wasn't. No funds were available to DCMM or any other clubs, to my knowledge. I'd have to check with those that looked into it, but I am quite sure that no additional funding was available from GC, at least last year. Again, my intent was never to criticize AtlantaMINIs for obtaining this funding - all power to them! The funding made it possible to provide a meal for much less cost to attendees, including me! However I believe it is an important point to note when comparing meal prices, since DCMM did not have the benefit of outside funding for the welcome and farewell dinners.Choices are limited by the simple fact that the area is remote! There is no easy solution to this. I simply wanted to point out that nobody was forcing Pete or anyone else to pay and attend the organized meals. That fact doesn't change... and it isn't extortion, no matter how you look at it. Again, a ridiculous charge.DCMM never wanted to "compete" with anyone. We stepped up when many other clubs didn't. Period. (Note I didn't say NO other clubs, but many. If enough clubs had stepped up, then DCMM wouldn't have organized any of the meals, which is what we would have preferred). Again, we don't want to compete. This is a VERY significant reason why DCMM has chosen not to organize anything this year. Time for others to carry the load - we worked our asses off last year, many of us... as volunteers, with NO compensation, for the benefit of the entire MINI community.

And we get slammed for our efforts. Instead of people being so critical, how about volunteering and doing it better? We're more than happy to hand over the reins, as we have chosen to do for MOTD5.Yes, the farewell dinner was more "fancy", and this was deliberate. If you didn't like the fancy meal, then you didn't have to attend. Many people who did attend were very complimentary of it.
Exactly... I plan on having fun without all of the responsibilities this year.

 

Wonderful announcement! Thanks for the update, Jen.

 

Me, too.

I am not intentionally casting stones here. I am just pointing out what I feel
to be the wrong direction for MOTD to be heading and hoping things can get
turned around. I would love to see some changes this year. We'll see if
anyone else is listening.

Edge, thanks for your thoughtful replies. I don't want to belabor this to the
point that it gets out of hand. I remember meeting you last year at Fontana
and speaking to you at the Chili Cook-off. You are a nice fellow and I hope to
see you at Deal's Gap this year.

 

I agree - but MOTD has always been decentralized, so people are going to make decisions as they see fit. It kinda goes back to the whole "if you want something done right, do it yourself"... the catch is, people's opinions differ on what is "right".Thank you - I look forward to getting a lot more social time this year as well, an element I truly missed last year.

One thing I want to point out - DCMM has been slammed by a number of people, especially here in the MOTD4 forum, for things that we feel are patently unfair. We don't have an agenda... in fact, we are one of the most openly visible clubs around. Heck, we host our only forums here on NAM, and anyone can read and post in there as well. No secrets! No other "private" forums, nothing. All of our events are public knowledge...

I know that we (especially me) can get defensive when slammed, but can you blame us? If we had a secret agenda, we'd be doing things very differently than we do. All we want is for everyone to have fun and participate.

We didn't expect to end up with $5000 extra, and we were pleasantly surprised that we did. Keep in mind that extra was due to three hosted items, not one (registration & swag, plus 2 dinners), with vendor donation/participation as well (most of it too late in the process to use in planning cost calculations). We priced things somewhat conservatively, because we needed to ensure the club wouldn't take a loss. Could we have gotten it better? Closer? Sure... but at least the extra funds went to a good cause!

Had we ended up being very close and only had $150 extra, people would have complained and said "Where did the rest of the money go? To your coffers?". Had we taken a loss after fronting money to get it done, any posts stating as much would probably be seen as whining and complaining... or "not my problem". It's truly felt like a lose-lose situation for DCMM, and that has played a large part in our collective decision to stay out of it for MOTD5.

What amazes me is that the same negativity shown to DCMM is not given to any profit-seeking vendor that makes money from their presence at MOTD. DCMM is a non-profit (now even properly registered as such, tax-wise), and nobody in the club benefits financially from anything we do as a club. Yet we get demonized.

We're not saying we're perfect (far from it), but dammit our hearts are in right place.

 

I don't know if you are referring to AtlantaMINIS having a forum apart from NAM, but we really don't sit around saying bad things about your club or any other. Our forums are open to anyone who wishes to register. That being said, I think that there is plenty of demonizing to throw around and none of it will do any good, so let's all just relax and look forward to having some fun this May.

 

No, I wasn't referring specifically to AtlantaMINIs or any other MINI club in particular. I was simply pointing out that DCMM is wide-open with nothing to hide... we couldn't be any more easily accessible and convenient to everyone on NAM!

It was definitely not intended as a negative towards anyone else. Nor was my original reference to the Graham County money. I apologize if you took it that way. That was noted only to make cost comparisons fair.

I hold AtlantaMINIs in high regard for the fine job they did with their participation in MOTD3 and MOTD4 (the only two I have attended so far). I just wish every club that attends MOTD was as involved, instead of a few.

 

Very nice

 

I think the mass majority of us really do appreciate everything that both DCMM and Atlanta Minis has done in the past Dragons. It's usually the vocal minority that gets the attention and the silent majority goes unnoticed. I'm part of the Sunshine Mini planning committee for the 2007 Welcome Dinner. So I can really appreciate all that you have done. I've personally read every post this summer on the MOTD4 and Suggestions for 2007 thread and tried to find a happy medium in our planning. Bottom line, we're gonna please a bunch of folks and there will be a couple of those we can't.

I'm sure in hindsight, DCMM would have lowered the price if they had know how much they would have left over. Hopefully we can build on what you guys did well last year and make some improvements on things that did not

Just remember if you like the Welcome Dinner this year, make sure to praise Sunshine Minis. If you don't, just blame DCMM (I'm kidding , you know I'm kidding right!!)

 

NICE JOB, DCMM !!!!

What a great way to use the proceeds... truly one of the best charitable organizations in the country.

 

Thank you in advance Sunshine MINIs, for hosting the welcome dinner this year.
I am one of the "original" participants, and I can't say when donating to charities became pat of MOTD, but I think it's a good thing. DCMM is donating to Make-A-Wish, Clover (another "original") raised money for displaced New Orleans musicians last year. I hope the giving tradition continues.

As participation in MOTD grew at an astonishing rate, organization became necessary. Without a club (or NAM) to spearhead that organization, it would be utter chaos. Chaos isn't any fun. So instead of berating past event policies or what was charged for what and casting blame, let's all pitch in
and make this year's event a good one.

I, for one, am proud of DCMM for the donation it is making. I've worked the last 2 MOTDs, and I among others worked my butt off to make events run as smoothly as possible. There were and will be dissenters and fomenters. To them I say "put effort and time where your mouth is, and try to help rather than hinder". Organizing this event is no picnic I can assure you and injecting any kind of negativity is destructive and serves absolutely no purpose. It also casts a pall on peoples' efforts and that is not fair.
That said, I can't wait for this year's event and the new experiences awaiting us all.

Speaking of working my butt off. ..be sure to come to my free spaghetti dinner if you're an early bird this year. I'm going to request the same cabin I had last year, and I'll put out another of my lovely homemade signs.
(sorry for the shameless plug/hijack).

 

Thank you snooter, your comments are truly appreciated. I look forward to enjoying a delicious Sunshine meal on Thursday, May 3! One of the big "unknown" factors was vendor participation and donation. As I hinted in my edit of my earlier post (#14), we didn't get solid committments from most vendors for their contributions (both product (as prizes) and $) until so late in the game, when prices were already set in stone. Some vendors (Alta in particular) really did step up to the plate (eventually!), and that played a significant part in the $5000 surplus amount too.

A couple of other items that are rarely mentioned about our dinners:

• All DCMM members paid to attend the dinners too, no free rides just because you are a member!
• Once we realized we had costs covered, the decision was made to let kids eat for free, and refunds were given to parents of those who had paid for their kids... in cash, at the door.

Hahaha! Good one.

 

Snooter - I love you man!