We have a date. The decision was June 16th-20th. There is no scheduled track day during that time, however, the wheels are in motion to see about setting up a track day exclusive to Homecoming. Cost and participation will be the deciding factor on that event. There IS a SMALL possibility that we could switch it to the 9th-13th as there is a scheduled track day on the 9th. But, in my opinion, we should just stick to the 16th-20th and hope a track day can be worked out.
We are working on Alpine Valley as the host hotel and for a banquet. Also possibly having the Thunderbolts play there seeing the have an area for the band.
Bads1 took some pics when we stopped by there last weekend. Maybe he'll post them to give everyone an idea of the set up.
We will also be looking for alternate locations for the hotel and banquet if Alpine Valley falls through. We will keep you updated.
There was discussions about setting up a Paypal account to start taking in money as we are all sure there will be some sort of deposit required by whichever facility we have the banquet in.
There was a discussion about setting up a Homecoming 2010 website so we don't have to keep updating on different sites.
We also we considering setting up another questionnaire in regards to how much people would be willing to spend on a banquet which we are hoping will include the dinner, an event tee-shirt, seeing the Thunderbolts play, and of course, having Erik as the guest of honor.
We are also trying to figure out a way to include the former Buell employees as guests at the dinner at a reduced cost or free to them. That may be a bit tricky.
We considered "sponsor an employee" OR getting companies that have benefited FROM Buell, such as aftermarket suppliers, to show their support for the people that made Buells, allowing them to have their own business, sponsor the former employees to offset costs for them. Just a thought we had.
We discussed ways to offer different packages, such as seeing the band play, but skip the dinner. Purchase a tee-shirt for those that can't attend or don't want the dinner and skip the band. The decision was also made to supply wrist bands to those that pay for the banquet, band and tee-shirt. Maybe a different color for those that just want to see the band and no dinner. There has to be a way to make it fair to those that paid and those that didn't.
We have a "committee" looking into rides.
We have a volunteer getting in touch with the town of East Troy and seeing if we can get a "Buell Day" proclaimed by the town.
We have some one looking into the track day.
Bads1 and myself are responsible for lodging and the banquet. We will also find a campground for those wishing to camp.
We really need to know how much people are willing to spend on the dinner.
$15? $20? $40?
You have to realistic as the dinner will include a tee-shirt and the band, tentatively.
We also have to be realistic about the "packages" that we can offer.
I think maybe;
Package "A"= Dinner, tee-shirt,concert=?$
Package "B"= no dinner, tee-shirt, concert=?$
Package "C"= tee-shirt only=?$
Lot's of great ideas were thrown out there. Some may just be logistically impossible.
We also have to consider time constraints.
The cost of a "HOG Roast is being looked into as well. Which, of course will add to the expense. I guess a good question to pose would be would you rather have a banquet or the roast? It may just be too expensive to do both.
Maybe we can incorporate the roast into the banquet, however, I'm not sure at this time if we can have an outside caterer at Alpine Valley.
We also are figuring a way to include Gus's and Roma's into the plan as they really stepped up to the plate for the lunch given at the factory. However, we stopped at Roma's last weekend, and think that their facility is just too small to hold a banquet. BUT we WILL make sure that they benefit from this event.
There was talk of having a "Buell Bike Show" at Hal's. Maybe dyno runs, and possibly the "HOG Roast" there.
Lots of ideas. Lots to do.
That's just an overview of where we stand right now.
What we really need is to know how many plan on attending and how much people are willing/able to spend.
It came up last night that we really need to keep cost in mind, and do this as inexpensively as possible without making it "cheap" and boring.
Please keep the ideas coming and comments on what we have planned so far.
