[JONAT] JONAT 06
Jerry Mouton
jonat@autox.team.net
Fri Dec 3 14:17:01 2004
Interesting, after JONAT was over, I swore off doing it again,
but time is an anaesthetic, I guess. Now I'm starting to think
of new routes!
Mark, you make some good points.
Weekends are important, but kind of get in the way of a continuous
tour. Perhaps in rethinking JONAT 06, we can take advantage of the
idea that nobody is on a timeschedule to round the whole continent, and
add in more rest days so that all sectors center around a weekend.
I believe our San Francisco sector benefitted a lot from having a
Friday evening start. Well, I guess our Tuesday - Wednesday section was
also
pretty well attended. Anyway, making the tour a group of linked weekend
tours sounds like a good idea to me. Having the sector stop in the central
city of the sector in the middle is helpful, too, since people can either
start
out at home or end up at home, no loop drives required.
Our sector was completely simple. Since I did it pretty much by myself, and
I don't care that much for "events", I concentrated on great roads and
great sites to visit. The driving was the high point, (it was certainly
the high point to me), after getting to interact with such a neat and
diverse
group of people. Everyone seemed to enjoy the (pretty spirited) driving,
though perhaps some thought it was a bit much. The "events" were dinners
and lunches. In any case, I think I can equal or exceed the JONAT 04
turnout
in 06.
Despite misgivings, everyone without exception wanted to eat together, and
drive the same route. Every meal was interesting. We did a few "found"
events,
like the Sonoma Farmers' Market. Serendipity and enjoyment. And extra were
the
amazing contributions by some of our participants, like Roy and Rose
Swearingen's
wine tasting and wine country tour (for Fazal). We were lucky (I guess) to
have no
breakdowns. The FRS radios made it really fun, too, as we could all discuss
scenery and history as we drove by.
I asked our local club for help, and got little response. On the other
hand, several
of our club stalwarts showed up for the tour and made it much better. This
time I think
there will be interest in helping to plan the tour...JCNA involvement won't
make our
sector better. Actually, having more than 8 - 10 cars would make the whole
deal
a lot less interesting.
The work to put together a tour like the SF sector was really pretty
minimal.
Adding "Events" would make it much harder. We'll be simple next time, too.
The turnout was partly people I know well who also enjoy driving. The other
real draw was the route -- including many places that everyone always
wants to drive to/through, and a few new places. Getting together with
other people you know is not enough to bring you out for 3-4 days on the
road and in restaurants and hotels.
I put an article in the club newsletter, and polled several times on
the jag-lovers forum. Next time I'll get the club article up a little
sooner.
The tour itself was so much fun that even if nobody else signs up, I'll
go out and do it by myself and count it a geat event! Maybe I'll even
try to help in the Texas sector, too, and make that work. There are some
dynamite roads and areas that would be much enjoyed back in there.
Having a retired SC makes all this a lot easier ; -)
About routes:
My tendency would be to make a completely different route
next time -- especially if we come through North to South, I'd drive
the Sierra and volcanoes as well as the ocean.
But maybe it would be better to just run the same route again?
Two years between might be long enough to make people interested
in doing the same roads again? What do you all think?
Jerry
Jerry Mouton '64 E Type FHC "Laissez les bons temps rouler!"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Stephenson" <marks@jaguarot.com>
To: <jonat@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 7:26 PM
Subject: RE: [JONAT] JONAT 06
> Dave,
>
> I was skeptical from the beginning that someone might take the entire
> tour,
> however I thought we might have one or two. Gary Singer from Albuquerque,
> who met us in Colorado, who was planning to run from there until his XK120
> broke down. Unfortunately, the 120 wasn't ready and he brought his e-type
> which began to suffer clutch problems and he left the tour at the end of
> the
> Arizona sector.
>
> As the tour planning evolved, I began to view it not as a continental
> tour,
> but as a series of local tours strung together as a big relay, with Jay as
> the baton. I think every club has a group of people who want to get out
> and
> drive to new places and see new things. The secret to the success in our
> area and the good ones up the West Coast, play to your audience.
>
> If you look back through the old posts or archives if we have them, I
> wrote
> up what I thought was successful.
>
> Here are a few things that worked for us.
>
> 1. We took over Tuesday night and ended on a weekend. A Saturday or early
> Sunday handoff gives people leaving at the end of the segment the ability
> to
> get home for work on Monday. A weekend start and a mid-week end would work
> just as well, I think, because it fits most people's "long-weekend"
> mindset.
>
> 2. I planned a loop that started in Phoenix and tied into the tour at the
> handoff and returned to Phoenix at the end. So it wasn't just a going from
> point A to point B and leaving people on their own to get to A and back
> from
> B. In fact, I planned alternate connecting points for people who were
> taking
> Friday off and those who weren't, instead driving up late Friday. So,
> basically, I had a self-contained tour that would have run with our
> without
> JONAT. However, the idea of being part of a continental route was
> intriguing
> to people. It made it more than just a local club drive.
>
> 3. We had our sector planned out early. If people are going to take more
> than a day off work, often they often need at least 2-3 months notice. We
> were still tweaking the schedule a few weeks before the start. That made
> it
> especially difficult for the early segments, but since I set up my segment
> independently, and had a couple items cast in stone, the segments on
> either
> side had to conform to my schedule. This gave me a lot more time to
> concentrate on the details and get people interested. If we can the
> handoff
> dates for each segment set and immutable three months in advance of their
> departure, it will allow participants to plan.
>
> 4. Promote the daylights out of the thing, with the emphasis on local
> participation. If you have a reputation for putting together some neat
> drives, that helps. I think that if you aren't a member of a local Jaguar
> club, you are going to have a hard time getting people involved because
> you
> aren't known and you don't have the communications line already in place.
> That's why I think JCNA involvement would be a big help.
>
> 5. You have to have some fun and interesting things to do on the segment.
> Every state has it's old roads and interesting history. Carl, it sounds
> like
> this is where your segment had problems. If your club takes this route you
> proposed several times a year, you should have scouted out a different
> route. Out here in the West, roads were built after the car. An Arizona
> road
> map looks like an airline route map. There are population centers and a
> main
> road between them. It's almost is if it's either a major paved road or
> it's
> dirt. We lament that there are only so many ways to leave town and you
> really have to work to come up with something new. Having grown up in
> Pennsylvania, there were so many back roads, that I still go exploring
> when
> I go back there. There are probably 25 ways to get from Harrisburg to
> Philadelphia, from Turnpikes to Interstates and two or three four-lanes to
> dozens of wonderfully windy two-lanes.
>
> But, hey, if it doesn't work in an area, then perhaps the tour should run
> somewhere else. We can't and shouldn't do the same route every JONAT.
> Again,
> this is where JCNA would be invaluable. The communications lines are
> already
> in place. Every club must have their "drive guy" (or gal). Presented in
> the
> right way to all the clubs, you see who wants to do a segment and the
> route
> will lay itself out. OK, there may be a little begging to fill in some
> gaps.
>
> 6. There's a lot to be said for momentum and this gets to Robert's point.
> There was some confusion about the sector prior to Colorado. There was no
> SC, IIRC. I remember Robert trying to figure out what he had to plan for,
> so
> he could actually plan. With no participation heading into his sector and
> not a lot of time to really sell the idea. He had no momentum and his
> sector
> ended up being just him until a member from our sector joined him in the
> Rockies. We built upon what Robert started, and that carried over to San
> Diego and all the way up the West Coast.
>
> 7. Keeping it simple. After a lot of discussion and a number of attempts
> at
> what I'll deem "unnecessary complexity," things smoothed out and in the
> end,
> it was really not much more involved than setting up a club drive. We had
> the stickers and license plates and money to collect, but that was pretty
> straightforward. The ideas about sponsorship are good, but the more it
> adds
> to the complexity for the SCs, the harder it will be to recruit SCs.
>
> Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts. I'll probably kick in some
> more
> as more people respond.
>
> Mark - AZ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jonat-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:jonat-admin@autox.team.net] On
> Behalf Of dave.belanger@exxonmobil.com
> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 7:24 AM
> To: jonat@autox.team.net
> Cc: jonat@autox.team.net; jonat-admin@autox.team.net
> Subject: RE: [JONAT] JONAT 06
>
> Mark -
>
> By way of introduction, since I haven't participated in previous
> discussions, I was the ASC who laid out the Texas leg, and I escorted the
> tour (one driver) from the border at Orange to Galveston, Due to personal
> commitments, I was unable to stay with the "tour" thru Houston and into
> central Texas, and when Bill turned back to return to Florida, "Jay" and
> the
> rest of the materials went via Fedex to Colorado. My observation as I
> read
> the subsequent reports was that other segments had some pretty low levels
> of
> participation, too, although I don't recall anyone else falling to the
> zero
> level we reached between Texas and Colorado.
>
> Has anyone ever questioned a basic premise of the tour - that there are a
> number of persons who can and want to take 2-3 months off and drive around
> the continent at an average cost of several hundred dollars a night? I
> suspect that there are not many who fall into this category, and this may
> be
> a factor in the low turnout and general lack of interest from the local
> clubs.
>
> As an alternative, have you considered an event with a central meeting
> point? This could involve a number of convoys from all parts of N.
> America, and no one would travel more than 1500 miles (3-4 days?). If,
> eventually, the meeting point coincided with a JCNA event, such as the
> Championship Challenge, I'm sure it would be a lot easier to bring them on
> board.
> _______________________________________________________
> Dave Belanger - UTeC / Planning & Security / Coordination Greenway Plaza 3
> /
> Room 620A (713) 431-4580
>
>
>
>
> "Mark Stephenson"
>
> <marks@jaguarot.com> To:
> jonat@autox.team.net
> Sent by: cc:
>
> jonat-admin@autox.tea Subject: RE: [JONAT]
> JONAT 06
> m.net
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 11/30/2004 11:38 PM
>
> Please respond to
>
> jonat
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I think a discussion of the route and things like JCNA and sponsor
> involvement would be appropriate. If JCNA is going to give us any kind of
> official sanction, it will have to be presented at the Annual General
> Meeting (AGM) the end of March.
>
> I think if we can get JCNA behind us, local club participation will be a
> lot
> easier.
>
> Just a side note, everyone had so much fun last year on the Rt. 66 Fun
> Run,
> that I've been tapped to come up with a lead in to it this year.
>
> Mark - AZ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jonat-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:jonat-admin@autox.team.net] On
> Behalf Of Fazal Cader
> Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 3:48 AM
> To: jonat-EC/SC
> Subject: [JONAT] JONAT 06
>
> Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment but I was wondering if the thought
> of JONAT 06 is too much to think about right now? Or, whether we want to
> do
> it at all?
>
> Just that I had a chat with the GM of Jaguar Australia who has, naturally,
> direct lines into PAG and Dearborn and has said he is happy to assist
> where
> possible. If PAG get involved I guess it would be a start at Irvine,
> heading
> East this time and a visit to Ford HQ along the way, as well.
>
> Let me know.
>
> Fazal Cader
> Executive Committee, ISC - Australia
> Jaguar Owner's North American Tour - www.jonat.org
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