...continue of thread hijack....

Love it here! But then, Fuzzy and I lived in San Diego for over 20 years, we prefer the climate out west. Mike and Donna were at AMVIV, we chatted with them a bit. If you ever want to visit Vegas, you know where you have a home base.

The "evil we haven't tried" is South Dakota. Fuzzy and I are going to spend the summer exploring cowboy country and the Badlands.

 

Yeah but you don't have to worry about them playing dueling banjos in NC, that's only in WV.

 

Just remember as you hear the banjos, I'm the one responsible for you being at Fontana.




Hope you have a great time!

 

 

** LONG POST WARNING (sorry!) **

Wow, I go out of town for a few days (business trip for work), and all hell breaks loose!

I feel the need to clear up a few things. First off, the defensive part. Prior to this post, I have posted to the thread 3 times... Post #14, Post #64, and yes of course... Post #93.

Now, in post #64 I did state (at the end) that I am not one of the organizers this year. I can understand how some folks may not have caught that.

This is the problem with being a Moderator or Administrator sometimes... our words are always viewed under a spotlight, even though we may just want to express our opinion. I wish it were easier to take off the Admin/Mod hat momentarily so that people would take our "personal opinion" remarks as just that, not official policy.

I remember all too well the pain of MOTD4. What pain, you ask? The pain that I and many other people went through to make the event happen, completely as volunteers, with no financial compensation at all. It's a huge undertaking, and the fact that Mark has taken it on in the past 2 years, asking for almost no help from me or the other folks on the moderation team, amazes me.

You really can't fully appreciate the work that goes into an event like this, especially in such a remote location... until you've been chin-deep in organizing one.

So I got defensive. It's a bad habit sometimes, I know that. I got defensive because the frustration I felt 2 years ago at members who moaned, complained and criticized (destructively) without lifting a finger to contribute to any part of the event, was incredibly difficult to take. Those feelings just came back at the thought of people opting out of just $10 but still planning on enjoying all of the hard work.

The thing is, people - I'm a community member too. I love my MINI, and I love the friends I have met simply due to this wonderful little car. I wouldn't be here... I wouldn't spend so much time on the site, just like most of you... if that weren't the case. Working with NAM isn't a job to me (I work full time in systems engineering for an IT department, totally separate from NAM), it's a labor of love - just as it is for most of the others on the moderation team.

As for MOTD, I paid full price for my registration & dinners, just like any other community member. No "freebie" handouts here. Some of you may not believe that, but it's the truth. In my posts, I was speaking as a member of the community... one who feels just as passionate about it as any of you (even if that passion isn't always aligned the same way as some of you).

So, to anybody I truly offended in post 93, I apologize. I let emotions get the best of me, and I could have made my point in many other ways without being as divisive.

I'm really looking forward to MOTD6... more than most of you realize.

Peace.

 

You will have my eternal gratitude for that dear lady!

 

Fontana is taking registrations for 2009 right now.

That cannot exist in a world where there will not be enough people there to keep the vendors happy.

MOTD2 went off fine with no regiatrations at all.

It will all work itself out in the end.

 

it always does.

 

As a first time MOTD'r I managed to get two other drivers involved (one who doesn't even own a MINI..he's bringing his Exige) so I wouldn't let the Registration numbers get you down too much.