Firstly a massive thank you for all the previous kind words and comments - there is an incredible amount of time and effort required to make these events happen and it is very nice to hear that it is appreciated.
As promised a reply to some of the earlier points raised as to why we took the very difficult decision to ask our guests to obtain tickets as opposed to just turning up on the day.
The Club now has it's own Facebook page which although only started a few months ago has a following of approaching 1,000 people. There have been many posts and pictures on the Club Group since the National - a massive thank you to Nick Day for getting this live so quickly. It is also often customary practice when something of interest is posted on Facebook it is shared with people and other groups which are likely to be interested in it - this is one of the real strengths and benefits of Facebook in my opinion.
Given the number of Volvo Facebook Groups and the phenomenal increase in Social Media over the past few years out there it was reasonable to assume that potentially the Rally details could be shared to many, many thousand people, and if just a small percentage of these were to arrive on the day it could cause a number of issues, with insufficient space, insufficient catering, and the logistics of trying to manage a lot more cars and people than usual.
I can fully understand the comments that this is unlikely, something that would never happen, and really ticketing was not needed and it should just continue as previously. This was something we did discuss at length and from my perspective (as the person arranging/organising/monitoring/dealing with queries) would have made my life a lot easier! I did often wonder if we had made the correct decision.
- Two local (mixed car meets) suddenly without warning cancelled their events because due to the success of promoting on Social Media they were worried they could not accommodate the numbers - they have not been re-scheduled.
- The WhatsApp Group I am a member of suddenly went frantic on a Friday evening asking everyone to stop promoting an event as the anticipated entries from responses meant there was a real risk of not being able to cope.
- Probably the best local Cars and Coffee at the Golf Course started off on Social Media with the organisers catering for 30 cars and getting 181 on their first meet - the venue holds an annual car show with around 5,000 cars so no issue with space, but as they said a couple of Marshalls can deal with 30 cars - 5,000 requires a massive team, extra catering toilets etc. They have now gone fully ticketed for all their events.
So in conclusion the risks were and are very real, and that is why we went ticketed. A large number of free tickets were made available for guests, far, far more than we have ever had turn up at an event before on the basis that we ideally wanted everyone who wanted a ticket to be able to get one, and also to allow that a small percentage would not turn up.
As Jaki has said previously, it was an extremely large percentage who had taken the tickets who did not turn up on the day. We will know this for next year.
Hope the above helps clarify the situation.
Chris