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Re: Tigers United

To: Steve Sage <rootes@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Tigers United
From: Tom Hall <modtiger@engravers.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 00:06:34 -0700
At 12:58 AM 6/17/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello Everyone:
>
>Here an answer to some questions and a few of my comments for you to
>have fun with!

...
Open letter to the list.

I have been to every Tigers United since their inception.  Bette and I have
also attended both SUNI's  and a few TE/AE Uniteds over the years and we
also co-authored and/or edited the Tigers United Handbook.  I would think
that I would be and expert on the event but I really don't know what to
make of the current state of affairs.  

It is apparent that a lot of prospective attendees have residual problems
with the events past that color their perception of the current and future
events.  In all of the events that Bette and I have attended, we have never
failed to enjoy the overall event or left with any regrets about attending.
 Like most everybody, we occasionally felt that some event or other was too
tough, or too easy or was not perfectly appropriate for Tiger
participation.  We came back to the event headquarters, had a couple of
beers and bitched about the situation with our friends and had more than a
few laughs over the whole episode.  And then we went on, no hard feelings,
no regrets.  Over the years we felt that the event  needed some
standardization and the result was the TU Handbook.  It's not complete,
doesn't deal with all possible situations, and hopefully allows the event
organizers to personalize the events as circumstances warrant.

The suggested Masters Class has never been tried, for some basic reasons.
Over the last few years, many interested owners have expressed interest in
more "formalization" of the concours.  The concept of having "experts" to
judge the loving work and care and money you have bestowed on your Tiger is
largely a myth.  Yes the experts exist, but how are you going to convince
several of these "very independent" individuals to attend the event, much
less devote the substantial amount of time required to judge 50 to 75
Tigers.  And who's going to agree that an expert in Stock Class nuances is
qualified to judge Personalized or Modified Class.  If you combine previous
winners in all three current classes into a Masters Class, how are you
going to compare and balance the substantially different class criteria.
Lots more questions than answers I can assure you.

Most event organizers have the toughest time just trying to get enough
volunteers to provide the most basic concours evaluation, and the people
that do volunteer are by in large (technically speaking) concours amateurs.
 They don't know the nitty-gritty details the way the experts do.  After
looking at 20 or so Tigers, it's 3 hours later everything starts to look
the same and their done for the day, I've done it many times and I know how
it works. You can't even get good repeatability or uniformity between the
current classes. 

Volunteering to help is a nice symbolic but empty effort.  How may of the
current detractors submitted detailed written recommendations of how to
change the classes or the criteria for judging.  How many times did they
call the chairman or go to his house to work on "improving" their
particular areas of interest.  How many sub-chair responsibilities,
Registration, Insurance, Rally, Autocross, Banquet, Swap & Shop, etc, etc.
did they take on and fulfill.

With all of the flack from last years great event being dug up and
rehashed, and this event being thoughly trashed on the net before its even
held, I'd say it's a good thing that we're scheduled to shelve Tigers
United in lieu of the third SUNI event next year.  We may have a real hard
time finding a Tiger enthusiast that is ready to accept this kind of abuse,
and I'm sure that pleases a growing number of event detractors, no end.

Tom



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