Phoenix Rally 2015

Executive wrote:

jmtandem wrote:

PM sent and unless I'm sworn to secrecy, I'll post any positive outcome...Dennis

Glad you had a nice chat. Are you going to share the specific strategies and issue resolution, goals, objectives, etc for the next rally? You leave us hanging mentioning a nice hour long chat but no mention of how the next rally will be different.

A couple things to share. They poll previous attendees about the entertainment to help decide whether to invite them back, which is good. Personally, I can't think someone like Martina McBride would be bad. This rally had secondary entertainment with no headliners so it makes me wonder how important entertainment really is. That said, I think it's important to let the rally organizers know early on whether you feel it's important. The food is controlled by the owner of the property, in this case the vendor that holds the contract with PIR. GS has no control over the menu nor the prices they charge.

They also assured me they would be providing a better paper listing those service vendors that will be on site in case you have something that needs servicing. This will help a lot.

Finally, and I think I can talk about this, we talked about the "Match and Win" game they play. Personally, I'm at the rally for many different reasons but one that I'm not there for is to wear a pie pan or paper plate on my head to try to match my number so I might win a prize. My suggestion was that everyone that attends the rally be given prize tickets with their packets. These tickets will be used in conjunction with the match n win tickets so everyone will have an opportunity to win something. We will see how they handle that.

I want to thank Good Sam for following up with me on this issue. If anyone else wants to chime in and/or make suggestions, please post here or send Ms. Black-Osborn a PM and someone will contact you personally....Dennis

Thanks again for keeping us informed.

A couple things to share. They poll previous attendees about the entertainment to help decide whether to invite them back, which is good. Personally, I can't think someone like Martina McBride would be bad. This rally had secondary entertainment with no headliners so it makes me wonder how important entertainment really is. That said, I think it's important to let the rally organizers know early on whether you feel it's important. The food is controlled by the owner of the property, in this case the vendor that holds the contract with PIR. GS has no control over the menu nor the prices they charge.

They also assured me they would be providing a better paper listing those service vendors that will be on site in case you have something that needs servicing. This will help a lot.

Finally, and I think I can talk about this, we talked about the "Match and Win" game they play. Personally, I'm at the rally for many different reasons but one that I'm not there for is to wear a pie pan or paper plate on my head to try to match my number so I might win a prize. My suggestion was that everyone that attends the rally be given prize tickets with their packets. These tickets will be used in conjunction with the match n win tickets so everyone will have an opportunity to win something. We will see how they handle that.

Thanks!

jmtandem wrote:

PM sent and unless I'm sworn to secrecy, I'll post any positive outcome...Dennis

Glad you had a nice chat. Are you going to share the specific strategies and issue resolution, goals, objectives, etc for the next rally? You leave us hanging mentioning a nice hour long chat but no mention of how the next rally will be different.

A couple things to share. They poll previous attendees about the entertainment to help decide whether to invite them back, which is good. Personally, I can't think someone like Martina McBride would be bad. This rally had secondary entertainment with no headliners so it makes me wonder how important entertainment really is. That said, I think it's important to let the rally organizers know early on whether you feel it's important. The food is controlled by the owner of the property, in this case the vendor that holds the contract with PIR. GS has no control over the menu nor the prices they charge.

They also assured me they would be providing a better paper listing those service vendors that will be on site in case you have something that needs servicing. This will help a lot.

Finally, and I think I can talk about this, we talked about the "Match and Win" game they play. Personally, I'm at the rally for many different reasons but one that I'm not there for is to wear a pie pan or paper plate on my head to try to match my number so I might win a prize. My suggestion was that everyone that attends the rally be given prize tickets with their packets. These tickets will be used in conjunction with the match n win tickets so everyone will have an opportunity to win something. We will see how they handle that.

I want to thank Good Sam for following up with me on this issue. If anyone else wants to chime in and/or make suggestions, please post here or send Ms. Black-Osborn a PM and someone will contact you personally....Dennis

PM sent and unless I'm sworn to secrecy, I'll post any positive outcome...Dennis

Glad you had a nice chat. Are you going to share the specific strategies and issue resolution, goals, objectives, etc for the next rally? You leave us hanging mentioning a nice hour long chat but no mention of how the next rally will be different.

Holy Moly -- $3000 for some pots and pans for a camper? I though we were being extravagant at $50!

Executive wrote:
Had an interesting phone call with a rep from Good Sam this morning. We talked for almost an hour and had a productive conversation. Together, I feel we made some progress to having future rallies more productive and exciting. I'm pleased with the phone call and we will see how the next rallies go. I feel GS has stepped up to the plate, listened to what is being said and genuinely wants to put on an excellent rally. Some things can't be avoided of course, but I was assured they will do better with what they have control over.....Dennis

Sounds good. I am glad you followed up with a post to keep us all up to date. Thanks.

Had an interesting phone call with a rep from Good Sam this morning. We talked for almost an hour and had a productive conversation. Together, I feel we made some progress to having future rallies more productive and exciting. I'm pleased with the phone call and we will see how the next rallies go. I feel GS has stepped up to the plate, listened to what is being said and genuinely wants to put on an excellent rally. Some things can't be avoided of course, but I was assured they will do better with what they have control over.....Dennis

I feel better now that I decided on the "lesser" attended Escapee's Rally...had fun and won 200.00 on a prize give-away the first night!!

tsetsaf wrote:
I was wondering why I had not read any descriptions of or about the event. When you say disaster was it just poorly planned?

GS originally had a date set, but NASCAR preempted them and changed the date for the race at PIR. This forced GS to either cancel their event or move their date. They chose to move their date forward, so it forced GS to scramble their vendors etc. Unfortunately they didn't do a very good job and the result was less than stellar. What's really sad is anyone who attended this rally without knowing what happened and was a first time attendee was left with the impression this is what a rally is like. Very far from the truth. Rallies should generate excitement and enjoyment. This one did neither. Example: One vendor offered food inside the tent as he was selling RV cookware. We attended his 45+ minute presentation only to find the cookware way too heavy and bulky to carry around in an RV and it came with the low low STARTING price of only $3,000 ! :E I didn't see him selling any...:S.

The point of this thread is twofold. One, to ensure those first timers who attended not to judge all other rallies by this one and two, to offer suggestions as to what, as RVers we would like to see and do at future rallies...Dennis

I was wondering why I had not read any descriptions of or about the event. When you say disaster was it just poorly planned?