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VBOA 2019 BILLING 6/7 July chat thread


GreyDJ2

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Decision made this morning, VBOA going back to Billing for the weekend of the 6/7 July.

The format will be different and I will be asking for views on the options this week. There are significant organisational changes. I will outline the options later and have now put up a thread specifically for that.

One thing is whatever happens you will have to decide and pay months in advance if you want to camp in our group. The option to do it a few weeks in advance is no more.

Edited by GreyDJ2
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Many Clubs had very serious reservations about MH and going back could have fractured VBOA. Also LMF were very offhand as to what they would do to improve things. THe vote split 7 MH and 16 Billing with i abstention.

Next years will be a bit more compact as significant development has taken place there.

I have now started a thread for comments after I tell you more.

 

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1 hour ago, steffi said:

thats a shame  i felt that it the vboa had some life to it at the showground, and really enjoyed this years event.  

 

Agreed Steffi but then i'm easily pleased i go for the company so location is minor for me 

Thank you john for the update as to what is happening

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yeah to me  billing was becoming a unsafe place  , After the last year at Billing is it really safe for anyone ! People who live on the site drinking driving crashing their cars. Speeding all day and night. Pikey kids walking into tents day and night stealing what ever they can get there hands . Saturday night half the ladys toilets flooded and closed. for me its a big step back.

 

 

Ma
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2 hours ago, GreyDJ2 said:

Many Clubs had very serious reservations about MH and going back could have fractured VBOA. Also LMF were very offhand as to what they would do to improve things. THe vote split 7 MH and 16 Billing with i abstention.

 

i have heard from mike and steve that they were not even aware of this and have found out by social media so maybe being offhand is a lack in talking with them 

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1 hour ago, Paul said:

Out of interest John how long have you known this vote was coming up?

There was a meeting in September at which considerable dissatisfaction at MH was expressed, not by me I might add as I would have gone back, it was decided to check out the alternatives for next year. A sub committee then checked out MH/another site in Suffolk/Billing. For reasons of commercial confidence, LMF hadn't at that stage paid us the money they owed VBOA for this year's event, we were told not to tell anyone. In confidence I told Andy.

So this morning after discussion on the sites and particularly on LMF's response (it stunned me) which virtually treated us as if we had no alternative, we had two votes, where (I went with the majority) and then as Billing won, which option.

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1 hour ago, Paul said:

What happens if not many book months in advance will billing pull the plug again?

No, if the simple option is selected (same booking pricing etc as before but radically different show) then the show should still be OK without early booking but camping will be very messy.

If the new admin option is selected (new advanced payment with the Clubs on the hook as per their pre-ordered spaces) as the majority of reps voted, I think we will get enough bookings for it to fly OK.

This is a multi year contract, we never had one of those before! The current VBOA committee is quite different to the old one and there are some really active new clubs around.

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If there had been any chance that the vote would have been close I might have consulted members but £3500 was potentially (I emphasize potentially, not wanting to say that they wouldn't pay) at risk if LMF got any inkling of what was up.

I wasn't going to get that pinned on me if it went tits up so I exercised my judgement.

Anyone else want the role?

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no John you do a great job for the club and are the perfect man for the role, i just wondered why the vote was rushed, i guess like you say to make sure LMF didnt get wind.

have you been onto the billing site recently John? just wondering how much it has changed, wonder if we could still have our spot by the trees

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If billing is so keen to get the vboa back on site for a major event, surely the vboa must have enough clout to dictate how they want it run. For my few visits to billing, i always thought it worked well, save for the usual idiots driving like morons on site. Last minute camping was a boon, especially for those whose car may not be ready in time and therefore may not attend. If the vboa doesnt stand its ground now we could well get turfed out again in the future. Billing made a big mistake for which they will have paid financially and coming back cap in hand to offer show facilities again must give us the upper hand.  Dont waste the opportunity,  it will only be given once. 

Edited by chris m
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VBOA approached Billing not the other way round. There is no clout to be applied, there are new owners and we and other car clubs are having to fit in with their new policy on car shows. This will be a multi year agreement, from memory 3 plus 2.

There are two options one of which means that VBOA can run the show much as before but we have to advance purchase the whole site which has administrative and financial implications. The site available, which incidently is a smaller space than before, as all the area the 'other side' of the river has gone to other uses.

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1 hour ago, Paul said:

no John you do a great job for the club and are the perfect man for the role, i just wondered why the vote was rushed, i guess like you say to make sure LMF didnt get wind.

have you been onto the billing site recently John? just wondering how much it has changed, wonder if we could still have our spot by the trees

Thanks Paul. No haven't been recently but as I mentioned in answer to Chris's comments the site has changed with much more hard standing sites. All the car shows are now down the turn left after you get onsite. Straight ahead, where VxON and multi Astra sites were is now gone.

Where we get our stand is in the lap of the gods but I will try to get us the same location but it is highly likely to be smaller.

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Right thanks for clearing that up John. I had heard rumours that they approached us not the other way round. Thats the old chinese whispers at work then. What was so wrong with MH? I thought most people seemed happy with the progress of changes at the new site. To reiterate Paul's comments though,  you are the man for the reps job. I appreciate its not always easy though, but you have my full support in whatever decisions you make on the clubs behalf.

Edited by chris m
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Thanks Chris. The Chinese whispers were correct but out of date. Billing approached us roughly a year ago. How things can change in a year!

VBOA had an exchange on the lessons of this year with LMF in which LMF did not make any friends. Further progress seemed to have stalled. I suspect that LMF had noticed the following.

Overnight pre-bookings were about 350 in 2017 then 250 in 2018. There is a view that it was only the fantastic weather that saved the show this year. At least one club bailed out this year and a couple more were going to do the same next year if we had stayed in MH. Factor in the risk of wet weather and 2019 could have been a disaster.

LMF has done a sterling job but in the final analysis it is just a large field, almost in the middle of nowhere.

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its weird that the minutes of the last meeting said that MH 2018 was the best vboa rally in 15 years (and 13 of them were at billing)

anyhoo.  in order for us (the royal us, old vauxhall brethren)  to have a billing exactly like 2016 and before, i.e big show ground, camp by your cars, will require vboa paying billing a huge lump in advance to book the site, one that i know vboa cannot cover.  Therefore vboa will need clubs to pay in advance,  its a huge financial outlay for a club which they probably cannot afford either, so then individuals have got to pay their clubs in advance, actually commit and pay (in this case before the end of the year).  i cant speak for mk2cav, but our club people are usually scrabbling for last few tickets right up  to the dying days before the event.

the alternative no cost option billing, we will be tourists at billing, have to book via billing, get assigned a camping spot not necessarily with your friends or clubs, and that camping spot will be in isolation from the car showing area.  showing area much smaller for same reason.  at night you will have to leave your car under the careful gaze of Kai and sammy-joe in their transit tipper, or move it back to where you are camping.

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54 minutes ago, GreyDJ2 said:

I see that is your first post here Darren so welcome to our site.

Do you run a Mk2 Cavalier? You have obviously been to Billing, did you come on our stand there and you mention "our club" which one is that?

 

Hi John, i signed up as you mentioned about not blowing hot air on facebook!   i couldn't reactivate my old account (probably doesn't exist due to forum upgrades)  i did visit your stand at both MH and previous billings, our club is astra-mk2 owners.  my car ownership since passing test was mk2 cav L, astra gte, mk2 cav L, mk2 astra gte, mk2 astra gte, frontera, mk2 astra merit ,mk2 astra merit, i still own 4 of that list

keep up the good work, talking with our club rep this situation (which i think its pretty dire) seems to be evolving on an hourly basis

Edited by DarrenH
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