[Bill]

I don’t want to throw a bucket of water on your fire BUT…didn’t I read somewhere that “pete and re-pete” were done with big rallies ?

So the plan was rally-no rally….What’s changed ?

Think about a Tylenol and a half hour nap ?

[Archived]

We do not want to run any more rallies.

That does not mean we do not want to ever see a rally that can be so beneficial to all our members. A rally of 200 coaches in size involving 5 or 6 Prevost social groups like the Prouds, Bikers, Royales, etc. is going to require a lot of coordination and effort, and if Tom or I can facilitate the conversations, provide a platform for planning, inspire someone to take responsibility, etc. we are offering whatever help PC can offer.

I don’t think our position has changed. We prefer someone else to take responsibility.

But if no one emerges, but there is strong broad based support from the clubs, from Prevost, from converters, from attendees we probably would volunteer but I can tell you from our past rally experiences neither of us would look forward to making the effort required. The issues are the venue, budgeting, coordinating all the groups, vendors, converters, etc. We expose ourselves to substantial financial risk. We spend a lot of time dealing with exceptions such as special meals, charges with more or less than two per coach, collecting money, refunds, parking preferences, and putting our money up front and then watching the cancellations pour in.

[Jim/Chris]

Despite my sour grapes, I can say with conviction the Prevost Proud rallies of the 200 coach size were top notch in terms of information gathered and access to the best of the best experts. We need to get back to that point.

[Archived]

Just think about the concept of 200 buses in one location and represented by all the various groups! This is what they used to do back in the day before my Prevost time, but those ole timers can relate. This would be way different from our PC rallies and would have to be co-oped with the various entities. It won’t be Pete and Repeat Al, it would be a group effort, shared by many.

We would like input from the PC folks on the concept and the time frame would have to be 2016. We’re going to try to get the ball rolling and see if there is enough interest from the various groups, as well as the converters, bus sales businesses and Prevost.

The big question, is where do you have the event that can handle that many power hog buses and attract folks from all parts of the US and Canada.

[Archived]

That was my main question, who can handle that many coaches at once.

That might pretty much dictate where you have the rally.

I am game for anything, anytime and anywhere.

Drove 915 miles to Tampa just to see “Pete and Re-Pete”

[Archived]

I hate to recommend this, but FMCA has been putting on very large rallies for a very long time. They have several areas around the country that they use for large rallies. They also host regional rallies that attract hundreds of coaches. It might be worth contacting them for advice. I also wonder if there is a “professional rally planner” that they might be able to recommend. If I had to guess, someone in the Prevost community probably has high up connections in FMCA that could be used to approch the management.

I am not recommending that we all join FMCA, but maybe try to use there expertise to our advantage.

Every winter they use Brooksville, FL airport for a large rally. That might be a spot to check out.

Some FMCA groups hold what they call a “Pre-Rally” just before large FMCA events. I wonder if you could talk FMCA into letting the Prevost masses particapate in one of their large ralllies as a one time thing to try and attract more members?

Or, how about using one of the NASCAR track campgrounds, during a time when there is not a race?

Last comment, in my opinion we as a group really do not want to become a FMCA Chapter. The aggravation out ways the benifits, at least that is how I pereceived it when I was an active member.

[glen]

The 200 coach rallies that were typical of the Prevost Proud rallies were held at various venues, often in RV parks but on occasion in a venue such as a county fairgrounds.

The selection of a venue is important because if it is not accessible to the bulk of Prevost enthusiasts attendance will suffer. But that would be an issue for organizers to resolve.

The key to moving forward that our PC members can participate in is influencing their social group members and officers to embrace the concept and throw their support behind such a rally. That alone is the single greatest hurdle and unless that happens a large national rally is nothing more than a pipe dream.

[Corey]

The only Prouds rally we went to was the Balloon Festival, 2002. We had a great time, and if memory serves correct,there were close,to 150 busses.

Here are a couple of possible ideas/venues

1) Campbell County, Wyoming-Camplex, Gillette, Wyoming where there are 1700 50/30 amp full hookup up sites. WBCCI-Airstream International was there in 2010, and we will be there again 2014-this July. Many RV organizations have used the Camplex that “coal money” built

2) The Agri-Center, Perry, Georgia. There are several hundred hookup sites there. Once again WBCCI-Airstream International Rally was there in 2007. It’s also popular with FMCA

3). Now, let’s hear the groan, “dry camping” ;utilizing the full capabilities of our coaches. Location would have to be a “hard surface” so no one sinks into the mud if it rains-The old base in Moultrie Ga comes to mind. We lug around hundreds of gallons of water and a massive generator, why not “use” them!!!

[Chas]

Hear Hear ! and Amen !

[Archived]

I’m not sure what the message here is.

I thought it was clear that you, Tom and Jon, didn’t want to host another rally. It still sounds like that’s the case.

Maybe, you’re trying to influence other groups to host an event and open their event up to others to influence corportate sponsors or whatever. That could be good or bad for their organization. Take, for example the Prouds, which I’m not a member. It would seem to me that they would not want to open their rallies to outsiders, unless the outsiders are willing to pay a non-member surcharge. After all, the Prouds appears to be a social club that is really a two rally per year kind of group (that’s an outsider’s view looking in). If they didn’t charge an upcharge then the value of being a member would be questionable. They probably would also have an obligation to charge an upcharge as a FMCA chapter inviting non FMCA members (again, a perspective based on an assumption). How many PC members attended the Prouds rally in Austin that aren’t also Prouds members? Given I haven’t see anyone report on that rally here I’m guessing the number might have been really close to zero. That shouldn’t suggest PC members won’t join in the “Big” event if hosted by the Prouds. It might, and I believe it does, point to the strong possibility that the Austin event might have been too expensive for the schedule. If a multi-group rally is really going to work, I’m pretty sure many potential attendees are going to be looking at value.

As for event locations, there are many across the nation, so that shouldn’t really be an issue. As already stated, just look at what FMCA does. BTW, the example of the Brooksville airport is a good one in the power of large numbers. To get FMCA to return (they are going to Sarasota next year), the airport has agreed to full hooks for all, or most of their attendees; that’s a few hundred coaches. Daytona clearly has a large enough facility and the list goes on. Even RV parks booked on shoulder seasons would work. I was just at a Country Coach Rally haeld at Cajun Palms in LA and they could have easily taken 200 coaches when I was there. It was a week or two before the water park opened, so the weather was good but the attraction for the locals wasn’t yet available. The ballon fest had water trucks and honey wagons, so you only needed your generator. The bottom line, is that finding a capable venue should be a non issue.

I know PC has 1,000+ members. That’s a great achievement. Given the site is free and open to non-Prevost conversions, I wonder how many members are Prevost conversion owners. I know that there are only few names show up on the forum. Some may be just sitting on the sidelines, some may be shy, some may have joined just for the free bees and others may have left. The problem with a free site is that you really don’t know when someone is left.

IMHO, there is really only one way to to pull off a big Prevost conversion rally. That would be for Prevost to host the rally. It would then be open to all Prevost conversion owners rather than members of this or that group. It would likely be co-sponsored by all willing converters and their major suppliers.

[Archived]

Prevost is not in the rally business. The purpose of such a rally is the large number of attendees allows all who support our coaches to justify the expense of attending a rally. Unless and until we can again get rally attendance in the hundreds of coaches we as owners are missing the quality of seminars and support we had available at the Prevost Proud rallies when the Prouds were the only show in town. The Prouds would be a key to this endeavor because they are the only Prevost group that has the expertise and past history. But they should not have to be expected to shoulder the burden. As to interfering with rallies, ask a converter what it is like out there in Prevost land right now. Every group has rallies and it is almost getting impossible to cover them all. Maybe if the planets all lined up every group could consider a large national rally as one of the rallies they have each year. We would have to resolve the business side of such a rally so those run for profit would end up with a share of profits from a large rally. I see money as a problem.

I don’t know how or who will coordinate, run, finance the front money, and pull it all together but it will take some effort but for Prevost owners it will provide benefits we can only dream about so it will be worthwhile.

With the glaring exception of one group all of the other Prevost social groups are willing to communicate and work together based on what we have seen lately. The question is if all are willing to pull together for one common goal. There are so many different ways to pull this type of rally off discussions about how to do it are going to be required. It can be 5 different rallies at one single location, with all 5 groups having their own section of the venue, but participating in the seminars and technical sessions. Then each can go their separate ways for meals, activities and entertainment. Or it can be all groups establishing a multi-group council to plan and execute a rally plan. Or in the extreme Tom and I can stick our necks out and just do it. (that ain’t going to happen without a clear signal of universal support from all groups).

However it happens is far less important than making it happen.

PC has a demographic that is similar to some groups in the respect we have a lot of sharing with other groups so as a result we do have Foretravel and Newell and other coach owners as members. Even they would benefit from a large rally because the step up coach for a lot of those members could be a Prevost and a 200 coach rally would have a lot of coaches for sale on display. Non-Prevost owners would benefit from attending just because they can meet with a lot of owners, see a lot of coaches and find out if they would even want a Prevost. Like other groups we have future owners. Those folks have made up their mind they are going to buy a Prevost and they join the various groups to absorb knowledge and ask questions.

The question is if there is enough support to make such a rally viable. From Jim or Chris’s post it appears finding a venue would be the least of the worries.

[Bill]

Of course Prevost would have to be involved, they have the horse power. But as Jon pointed out, they are not in the rally business and would likely not be interested in hosting as the expectations would be too high.

Gil, try not to confuse this with our decision not to do anymore structured 40 +- coach rally’s, this is a total different concept relying on many groups and entities to make it work. I don’t quite follow your comment about the Prouds needing to up charge a non Proud member to attend their rally, quite the opposite, our group was invited to attend at the same rate as their members. I am a Proud member, but couldn’t pull off Austin due to conflicts as well as just coming off our Tamapa rally.

As for non Prevost members belonging to PC, that point was driven home at our Tampa rally, when a non Prevost owner became a Liberty owner and moved up from his fiberglass coach. That’s exactly why non Prevost owners are welcome at PC.

Keep the BIg rally comments coming.

[Peter]

Jon, I think what Gil might talking about,was the rally at Cajun Palms rv resort we were both at. It was hosted by Country Coach Friends, International (CCFI). Since we are not official members, dues paying inotherwords, we were charged a higher rally fee than members. Caveat, we did it this way because it was still cheaper than becoming full members for going to just this rally. We took Chris ‘s with us. We even got Gramma in an airboat on the Atchafalaya Swamp

[Sid]

If you want to have a great rally, you need to try to replicate the rally the PP’s had in Quebec City in 2000 (or so). Personally, I hated the folks that attended as they were way too full of themselves. However, the event itself was spectacular. Prevost factory tour, city tours, carriage rides, free time, dinner at the Chateau Frontenac, wow, so well done. I only worked as well as it did because it was technically a pre-rally to the largest FMCA rally ever. Brunswick, ME with 8000+ coaches. You want to do a “big thing”? Think big, find a site that will accomadate everyone and jump right in. By the way, the Quebec rally was a dry camping event. The city cleared the city docks to allow us to park but there was no power, just an awesome location. In case anyone here has forgotten, you have a generator on board an you can all afford to use it (even in Canada). I do and I can’t, but I did! Would love to do it again.

[Roger]

Wow, good read with Gil and Jon looking at the same topic. Thanks for taking the time putting your views on PC.

AL