[JONAT] Press Release

[Mark Stephenson]

Christina,

In my other Jaguar life (I think I have about five) as the Information Officer of Jag-Lovers, I received your press release for JONAT. Great idea well executed. I made a few corrections which led to a bit of rewording, plus there were some things I wanted to verify quickly before passing it on to Tony Bailey for posting.

Here is the amended text:

Volunteers Steer the Largest Jaguar Auto Tour in History

Orlando, FLA. - (April 5, 2004) - In less than two weeks, the largest Jaguar Auto Tour in the history of North America will be launched from Orlando, FL.  Planned and implemented by a host of volunteers across the USA and Canada, the Jaguar Owners of North America Tour (JONAT) is a not-for-profit event.  JONAT was formed to organize volunteers and assemble the necessary "nuts and bolts" permitting anyone who owns a Jaguar to participate in this colossal event.

Crossing the two countries and four time zones, it begins April 15, and passes across the southern United States, up the West Coast, across Canada, south of the Great Lakes, into the Maritime Provinces, down the Eastern Seaboard, and back to Orlando for the USA's Fourth of July holiday.  It will be 13,000 miles of some of the finest sight-seeing country in North America. Highlights include New Orleans, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Grand Canyon, the Pacific Coast Highway, Puget Sound, the Canadian Rockies, a ferry trip across Lake Michigan, Niagara Falls, the Green Mountains, and the Appalachians. Take the whole tour, a number of sectors, or just drive part of one through your favorite piece of country.

Sponsorships are being sought to help offset participation costs for group gatherings along the route and promotional items such as banners. Participants are responsible for their own expenses, such as gas, repairs, meals and accommodations.

Designed to be a series of smaller, connecting tours, each segment is between one and four driving days. The pace is leisurely, with the daily drives being at most about 300 miles, and under 200 miles average.  Each day's drive will start between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. and end around 5:00 p.m. (with a couple exceptions). 

Although there are planned overnight and food stops along the way, the tour is self-guided, meaning that you are in charge of where you go and how you want to get there. Detailed written instructions and maps for each sector are available on-line, and we recommended that you download, print, and review them in advance, then bring them along for your trip. Sector Coordinators may have a few extra printed copies at the start of each sector, but not necessarily enough for everyone. 

Recommendations will be made for lodging, shopping, meals, attractions and vehicle parts or servicing locations.  These will be posted on the JONAT website as well as available hardcopy during the course of the Tour. "Many special events are planned for participants along the route, and the schedule includes a stop about once a week for a rest day" according to Fazal Cader of Sydney, Australia, the Tour's International Coordinator. 

Registration for a single segment or the entire tour is an incredibly tiny $10. Pay $30 ($40Cdn) and you'll receive a commemorative license plate.  About 100 plates are available, each numbered, dated, and with the JONAT emblem.  As the tour grows, the first year plates are sure to be a collector's item. They  are available on a "first, come, first served" basis.  Registrations will be accepted on-line up until departure from Florida as well as at the beginning of each segment around the loop.  

This is the opportunity of a lifetime to get your Jaguar on an auto tour, involving fellow-Jaguar enthusiasts, and see country that you may have wanted to see for a long time.  You will be making history by joining the first-ever Jaguar Owners of North American Tour.

For further information, visit the JONAT web page at www.jonat.org.  Other contacts include Jamie Duffey (USA) at Jamie@jonat.org, Fazal Cader (Australia) at fazal@jonat.org or Bob England (Canada) at engl@jonat.org.
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I've made the above changes to the Word doc you sent me. If the changes are acceptable, let me know and I'll forward it, but before I do, are there any more highlights? I'd like to add the "Cradle of Liberty" but I'm not sure where we are going in Boston and Philadelphia. (As an aside, I think it would be great if some of the Eastern Seaboard SCs could make the time to add some enticing details about their sectors. Check what Robert has done for Denver at <http://homepage.mac.com/robertmacleay/.Public/JONAT-CO/COHighlights.html> and what Jerry has done for San Francisco at <http://moutons.org/Jaguar/JONAT/jonat.htm>. I used Greg's template accessible through the Sector Summary link <http://jonat.org/sector/info.cfm?sequence=7.0>. I noticed a few other write-ups, but most just had the sector itinerary.)

The one thing I really wanted to check on is this statement. "Registrations will be accepted on-line up until departure from Florida as well as at the beginning of each segment around the loop." I hope that's not true because it is effectively shutting down registration after April 15. In Arizona, even with financial incentives, we are lucky to get more half the people to register for our concours in a timely manner. In JONAT's case, we are requiring people to register up to 2= months early. That's asking a lot.

I think we should state that if people register late, they run the risk of not receiving a decal or license plate, but the SCs should be monitoring their registrations, making sure participants have paid, and handing out any available goodies at the start of the sector. Is the entry of registrations and payments automatic, or is it reviewed and manually entered. If it's the latter, do we have two SCs who are not running the tour at the same time who can cover for the other while they are? That would be the ideal situation.

Mark (The Usurper ;->) - AZ