Fierofest update

This email is going out to those of you that were in on the discussion Saturday evening after the show plus Dan and Donna Duval.  As I said, Paul, Brand and I were very disappointed in the turnout this year.  It takes a lot of work to only have 15 cars in the show and have some that just show up for an hour or two and leave.  After the complaints about how hot it usually is in August and discussing that last year, the consensus was to move the show to June.  The second weekend is the best, since the 3^rd is Fathers Day and the 4^th Cool Desert Nights.  Our intention was to announce at the end of the show that this is the last year we were going to organize the event.  The weekend went very well and those in attendance wanted to see it continue.  The discussion Saturday night centered around whether we should continue and if so, what we could do to improve attendance.  We really appreciated your input and ideas.  The three of us will be doing our annual post show review soon and will be deciding on whether to continue or not.   We will keep you informed of what we decide.  In the meantime, if you want to add anything to our discussion that you thought of on the way home, please reply to all and keep everyone in the loop.

Thank you and Happy Fiero-ing,

Art, Paul and Brandi Heindselman

I have put a post on westcoastfieros.com regarding our club poor attendance and have strongly suggested that people need to attend.  Tks for a great show.  Glenn

Art - since we couldn't be there Sat night, was there any discussion about the possibility of pairing the Fest into the Tigers on the Columbia event on Memorial Day weekend and working with the NW Legends club out of Seattle?

We totally understand how disappointing it is to put all the work in to put on an event and have so few people come. Not sure of what all the underlying factors are may be at work. With that few people participating are you even covering the expenses?

Loren Campbell of our club did suggest (and he may have shared this with you) that expense wise it might be better to have the show entry and purchase of a t-shirt separate so people can pick and choose even a bit more what they can afford. 

With the exchange rate as it is coming down is hard for those in BC that would be interested.

Don't know if an email "survey" to all those that have been to the event in years past might to find out why they aren't attending might be informative? 

We are behind doing what we can to help "save" the Fiero Fest -- keep us posted as to your thoughts and decision.

Thanks for the work you, Paul and Brandi put into the event each year.

Hi All -

First of all, please note that my name was mis-spelled in Art's email to the group as "Edmonds".  The correct spelling is "Edman".  This is a common mistake with my name and is nearly impossible to stop once it gets started, so I would very much appreciate correcting your records.  I am sending this email from a more appropriate email address for me, so perhaps you could update your address book with this address.

Since Saturday I have thought of something I could contribute which might help attract participants.  I am willing to donate a nice digital photo of each individual paid participant's car to each participant.  I am including an example of what I mean with this email.  Perhaps in some small way this will entice more people to participate.  (This was offered (by someone else) at extra cost at the GTO Nationals in Bellevue last year)

I like the June date for the Fest and very much enjoyed the nice, less hot weather.  Perhaps frequent and prominent emphasis of this advantage in the promotion and recap of the event might help.  I do think that at least some people are discouraged by the heat of past Fests in August.  I sure slept better at the hotel without the air conditioner running.  I also think that earlier in the car show season is better, as has been mentioned by others as a way to avoid "car show burn-out".

Brandi, Paul, Art, I hope that you feel the love and appreciation . . .

- Mark Edman

Good Morning Everyone,

 I met with Paul last night and we covered a lot of ground. First of all, we are willing to give our show another try next year in Richland.  We are not interested in doing anything with the GTO group. We did talk about making some fairly significant changes.  Nothing is definite because we wanted to get your response before we went any further.  My feeling is that cost is a major factor in people deciding whether to come to the show or not.  Particularly younger car owners.  We certainly want them to attend.

Now some things we talked about.  What if we didn’t have the show in Jefferson Park?  It was great having it there when it was 100 degrees in the shade.  Having the show in June, maybe not so important .  Our first thought was to block off part of that back parking lot at the Shilo and having all cars park there for the weekend.  Then we thought why not have the show there.  Then Paul said, I wonder if the Shilo would let us park on the grassy area around the gazebo?  We would not have the visibility that we had at Jeffereson, but maybe we would pick up some people from the greenbelt path.  Either way we say the cost and hassle of using Jefferson Park.  We talked about only having first place trophies plus Peoples Choise and Best of Show.  Second and third place would get plaques. Again, this would reduce costs.

We could continue to have the Saturday dinner at Jefferson Park by just renting the gazebo for $26.  No big deal with the city, park department or insurance.

The Duvals had suggested we make t-shirt purchase optional.  The trouble with doing that is if we only get a few t-shirts ordered, the cost becomes prohibitive. My preference would be to not do t-shirts at all.  Most of us have more shirts than we can wear and new people probably won’t know we had them in past.

Now about costs.  If we go with an ala carte registration, each participant could pay for what they wanted to do.  Looking at the costs, I think car registration would probably be $25 for early registration.  Friday reception $5, Saturday pizza $5 and Saturdaydinner $20.

Oh yes, one other thing.  What about Saturday afternoon activities.  The wine tour is great for those of us that like it.  What else could some people do?  Dan and Donna, you spend quite a bit of time there.  Do you have any suggestions?

Whether you have the title or not, you are the leaders of the clubs that make up the NW Fierofest.  We value your thoughts and maybe these ideas with make you think of something else.  We look forward to your comments.

Art & Paul