[JONAT] Re: Maybe Some Objectives & Criteria are in order?

[Bob]

Mike

Great thoughts!  It must be said we tried to implement I think pretty much
all of what you suggest in '04, sometimes with success, sometimes we were
forced into flexibility.  I think with '06 we will have better luck with
setting and keeping these items as we have one under our belt, and I think
have learned quite a bit.

Brainstorming is good at this stage - is anyone writing this stuff down?

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: jonat-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:jonat-admin@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Mark Stephenson
Sent: April 7, 2005 2:38 AM
To: jonat@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: [JONAT] Re: Maybe Some Objectives & Criteria are in order?

It's understandably chaotic in the beginning of planning for anything.
Throwing out a bunch of suggestions doesn't mean we are going to implement
them. We're brainstorming to see if anything resonates. Sometimes the idea
submitted isn't that great but it gets someone else thinking of a variation
of the same idea that is brilliant. Because we are a small subset of what
will eventually be the entire group, there isn't a lot of reason to increase
specificity. Anything we decide will be so preliminary that modification is
a near certainty. Once have the whole group, we'll start narrowing our
focus. I think that will eventually necessitate a forum split or two. Some
people (who me?) brainstorm a lot. Get a bunch of us on a list and the
resulting discussion becomes a distraction. (I've been known to distract
myself on occasion.)

For now, we should be able to agree on a simple goal for the tour: Encourage
the driving of Jaguars past and present. 

The purpose (objective): Make the public aware of the marque, see neat
stuff, and have fun, encourage dialog between JCNA clubs, and interest
unaffiliated Jaguar owners in the JCNA and forming JCNA clubs where none
exist. (Anyone have anything to add?)

The planning part becomes how best to achieve that. Here's my concept
subject to feedback. Looking at the 2004 stats, I'd guess that 80-90% of the
tourers drove only the local sector. For me, it was nine of eleven. Only one
from my sector continued into the San Diego sector. Because of the
preponderance of local participation, I think we'd have to conclude that it
is best to plan a route that local participants will find interesting and
fun. Planning the sector based on the preferences of someone who has never
visited the area (i.e. not local) and visiting sites that locals know all
too well, will make it less fun for the locals and reduce overall
participation. This was borne out by the comment of one SC who stated that
no one took a section of his sector because the trip had been made so many
times by the local club. 

Therefore, I conclude that the SC is going to have the best idea of where to
go and what to do and that planning should occur at the sector level. The
criterion/directive to the SC should be, "plan an interesting tour for the
people in your area." If it's interesting for locals, then chances are it
will be interesting for anyone who comes in from another area. The drawback
is that it may not hit the "tourist traps" that "everyone" (meaning everyone
from everywhere else) wants to see. But you have to play to your audience,
and that will be overwhelmingly local. The suggestion of a "social gathering
in each segment of the tour to encourage social interaction among
participants" is a good one. I suspect that within a sector there's much
encouragement needed. It's tough not to interact with people you've been
driving with for a couple days. Where it might not occur is at the handoff
point. If there's a club event or it occurs at an interesting site,
interaction will happen automatically. If not, then the two SCs should
coordinate a group lunch or dinner. 

Regarding tie-ins, Christina makes a good point about the amount of work
that goes into the tour. However, because of the nature of the tour, we need
to have everything locked in place months in advance. That was my biggest
single frustration of 2004. Things appeared to be set a couple months before
the tour, but they kept shifting, including my hand-off point just a week or
so before the tour began. That was because the previous SC had no certainty
about what was happening prior to him taking over. I think the uncertainty
was one of the reasons we didn't have a larger turnout. I received a few
comments that people weren't committing to schedule for the event because
they weren't sure it was going to happen. In a few sectors, it didn't.
Again, the local control alleviates this concern. If you tell your
participants that it's going to happen whether there is a continental tour
or not, they know they'll have something to plan for.

This time around, we are going to have to have the handoffs locked in,
immutable, at least six months ahead of the start of the tour, so people,
not just club organizers, but tourers, can arrange for the time off, have
cars ready, and can feel confident that things are going to go as planned.
The SCs should have their routes set (except for last-minute minor
alterations like avoiding road work or similar problems) four months in
advance of their sector start. With the hard part, timing and routing,
completed well in advance, the remaining time can be spent promoting the
event at a leisurely pace. If there is a tie-in with a local event, then
promotion can be for both simultaneously -- a win-win, as I see it. Having
the JCNA communication lines to the clubs will make that easier this time
around, I hope. Agree? Disagree? 

In any case, tie-ins are totally optional. I would give preference to them,
though. After all, if a club is willing to plan a slalom, concours, or rally
to coincide with our passing through the area, the least we can do is to
oblige them. As you surmised, Christina, the drivers and concoursers are
relatively distinct groups within most clubs. It's difficult to drive a car
and keep it in "trailer queen" condition. The "queen" owners are the serious
concours competitors. The club drivers may show their cars, but it's more to
support the club than to claim JCNA fame. There may be some people who have
a trailer queen and a driver, but with a tiny bit of planning they should be
able to show and drive. 

One person in a club who would probably be unable to attend the tour would
be the director of an event, if it was tied in. He or she may feel more
comfortable being around to handle last minute situations, especially for
the concours. Slalom and rally shouldn't be as much of a problem.

Finally, routing to avoid weather extremes is of paramount importance. If I
failed to communicate that in my earlier e-mail, I apologize. That is the
reason for my routing the tour south from Seattle counter-clockwise, rather
than west or northwest clockwise. The only problem I can see with my most
recent extremely preliminary route is that it crosses the Rockies about May
1. That's early, but it's about a week and a half later in the year than
2004. Those of you who followed the tour reports will recall Robert
MacLeay's photos of his XJ40 in the snow. Huge elevation changes are always
going to create weather anomalies. A month later would be excellent, but
then you couldn't get through Arizona and the heat would be deadly by the
time the tour reached Florida. My suggestion for anyone in a mountainous
region in the spring would be to plan a high route and a low route.

As always, comments and alternative points of view are welcome.

Mark - JCNA Coordinator