The yearly Corvette Forum Cruise-In (held at the end of May) has been a big success. What a great time to meet your fellow forum members and put faces with screen names.

I have talked with many who have never attended, and most say the reasons for their absence is the travel distance and/or they don't have enough free days to dedicate to such a large event. That got me thinking about having a regional "mini cruise-in" that has the same spirit as the national event, but is geographically closer to some of the forum membership.

That is how the Corvette Forum Great Lakes Regional Cruise-In was born. I started a post in my specific regional forum section asking if there was any interest. With a resounding "YES" the plan took wings. Since a logo would be helpful in future posts and correspondence, an event logo was created:

Pictures of our event will follow the text.

In our specific, The Great Lakes region (as sectioned by the forum) encompassed 8 states; Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota. The first problem surfaced - where to hold this event within the region? Obviously it should be centered so driving distances would be kept to a minimum for the masses. But, once someone has volunteered to coordinate an undertaking like this, that person would need the event to be held near them; for very obvious reasons.So idea number 2 was born... have the Regional Cruise-In move each year - to somewhere different within the region. Some years the regional cruise-in may be less than an hours drive... other years it may be too far to attend.

Since I volunteered to coordinate the first ever forum Regional Cruise-In, I found a location that was near my home; making it easy manage. Now that the location had been set, I then started a post in my Regional section asking for date suggestions. Once the date was chosen, the serious planning began. If you haven't figured this out yet... it takes a lot of time to set up an event like this. So, when the plan first gets into your head to have a forum Regional Cruise- In... realize that it won't be taking place 2 weeks later.

Since the specifics of the event will vary based on personal preference; I'll just offer my experience coordinating the first ever Corvette Forum Regional Cruise-In.

* Contact your forums regional coordinator. They can help in getting information about the extent of how much the forum itself can help. Also, the regional coordinator is able to send a mass emailing to those within the region - making announcements easy to broadcast.

Keep in mind that CorvetteForum.com officially sanctions just one event per year; and that's the National Cruise-In at Bowling Green, Ky. Talk with your forums regional coordinator for guidelines about the extent that you may use the forums name in promoting the event. Although your Regional Cruise-In will not be "sanctioned" or "sponsored" by CorvetteForum.com, but they may allow you to use the forums name in some minor fashion. Again, your forum regional coordinator is the person to contact.

* Location: no doubt the most important aspects are an abundance of restroom facilities, food, and reserved parking on asphalt. Since I already had a connection with a local restaurant, I arranged for them to hold our event. They had a large enough parking lot to offer coned-off protected parking for the Corvettes - while still having room for non-event restaurant customers. Room for general parking is important for the restaurant, as they may fear your event "shutting down" their restaurant during the event... and they won't respond well to that scenario. Also, be certain to mention to the management that the Corvette owners welcome the restaurants general customers to walk among and admire the Corvettes. As an added bonus, the restaurant had an outside bar. Not only could you get liquid refreshment and food without going inside the restaurant, the Cruise-In was in full view of this outside eating area.

* Decide on how many days the event is to run. Ours was a two day event; Saturday & Sunday. If it is to be a multiple day event, find hotels in the area that are close to the event site, and publish this information. Day two of the Great Lakes Regional CI was a field trip to a local nationally known site; the US Air Force Museum. If a cruise to a different location is a part of your idea, remember to address restroom and parking facilities at any stopping point along the cruise route.

* Decide on whether you want to limit attendance to forum members only. This was a tough one for me; mainly because I personally see the national cruise-in as a yearly membership get-together. But, I didn't want to turn away other Corvette owners that might like to attend. So we decided to do this: promote the event on the forum only; and no where else. And although we never stated that forum membership was required, we encouraged non forum members that contacted us about the event to log on to CorvetteForum and become a member; reminding them that there were no costs involved. Of the 80 Corvettes that attended the GL Regional Cruise-In, 72 were driven by forum members.

* Decide on whether to limit attendance to Corvettes only. I thought this was a no-brainer; but also wanted to make certain that those with Corvettes in-the-shop to feel welcomed. Although I never dictated Corvettes only, I mentioned that there would be reserved parking for Corvettes, and general parking for all other cars.

* Decide on whether to charge a fee to attend the event. I chose not to. We were able to get plenty of door prizes donated without having to purchase anything.

* Decide on whether to have a judging contest. Another thing I avoided. I saw this event as more "social" and not a standard car show where judging is performed, winners announced, prizes awarded, and ego's bruised.

* In addition to posts in the forums Regional section, I also recommend a web page be generated that has more detailed information. I found out that many attendees printed this page (and the directions page) to take along on the trip to the event. Here is a link to the web page I created:

and here's a link to an after-event web page:

Along with the door prizes, we handed out a few awards though. Prizes were given to the two drivers that drove the furthest distance to attend. At the Great Lakes Regional Cruise-In, one forum member drove 490 miles to attend this event!!! I also gave an award to the oldest Corvette driven to the event. One generous member arrived with a beautiful Corvette tapestry and asked that it be given away... GREAT !!!

Early in the planning stages, an energetic forum member took on the task of getting a GL Regional Cruise-In official T-Shirt made. They were sold at the event, with all profits going to the forums favorite charity, St. Judes.

 

Of course - to give awards out means that data needs collected. To give prizes for those driving the furthest and the oldest Corvette, I had a registration table setup where raffle tickets were handed out, and data collected (persons name, forum name, miles driven, year of Corvette driven). It was well announced beforehand that there would be a registration table, and it was the responsibility of those attending to visit the table and get registered. The parking volunteers told those arriving where the registration table was located.

Luckily, many local forum members volunteered to help. I actually had more volunteers than I originally needed. Three volunteers took one-hour shifts at the registration table. Two volunteers worked the entrance, guiding the Corvettes to the coned-off area, and the others to the general parking location.

As you can see, with each additional option (door prizes, awards, cruises...) you add the need for physical bodies to help with these added responsibilities.

 I hope this sharing of information encourages you to plan your very own Corvette Forum regional cruise-In.

email Tim "Mike Mercury" at: tim-yvonne@juno.com

Links of interest:

*Forum Regional Section page showing state listings: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

* GL- I info web page (pre event): http://mikemercury.home.att.net/gl-ci/index-bak.htm

* GL-CI summary page (post event): http://mikemercury.home.att.net/gl-ci/