Texas Tour

Jordan

Jordan

Well-known member
Is anyone from the Barn going to Texas Tour? I will be there in my car, my sister is driving my brother's coupe, and my brother is taking his Speedster. I am interested to see how many people show up this year with the busy location and the high prices. But maybe with it being the 50th anniversary people will dig a little deeper in their pockets... or at least I hope so. I know a lot of people from this area are opting out of this years tour for these reasons.
 
Jordan, glad to hear you are coming to the Texas Tour! Our club is hosting this 50th statewide anniversary celebration of the Model A Ford and it is our third time to do so. I was Tour Chairman for the previous two Texas Tours the Lone Star Model A Ford Club hosted (the 35th Texas Tour in 1998 and the 42nd Texas Tour in 2005) and you can ask around for other people's opinion of what they were like.

We've heard the objections about the registration fee however most people don't consider what all they are getting for their money - it includes the welcome party meal (a bonafide meal, not just cookies and snacks), the fashion show meal, the lunch on the grand tour (which is definitely NOT a brownbag lunch) and the elegant dinner at the awards banquet at the Marriott Hotel. You'll also receive a nice "keeper" goodie bag (great for storing those extra tools or bungee cords), a gorgeous heavyweight genuine gold-plated radiator tour badge (which will give you real 'bragging rights' to show you attended the milestone 50th Texas Tour), you get to attend several men's and women's seminars, attend the car judging or have your car judged, attend or model in the fashion show, participate in the car games, watch or participate in the Hubley Derby, participate in a poker run, an opportunity to get some wonderful door prizes, see some great entertainment, enter and watch the drawing to win a $5,000 inserted Model A engine to be given away at the awards banquet, etc. Everyone should keep in mind that this is NOT a poor-boy tour! Many people choose the Texas Tour as their summer vacation and when you consider the meals alone it's still a bargain.

It's always fun to see so many Model A's together at one place and we have a large group coming down from Oklahoma so you'll see cars you've never seen before and meet some really nice people.

While it's not my place to try to justify the cost, it is what it is and when you consider all of the meals along with everything else you get, it's not unreasonable.

The "busy location" is not really a problem because just about everything happens at the host hotel and our Grand Tour (which I am in charge of this year) will be a leisurely backroads tour AWAY from all the congestion of the big city and will include some great surprises. I've attended probably 35 of the 50 Texas Tours and some were held in busy locations like Houston, Addison, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Dallas, Arlington, Plano, etc. and we survived and had fun in our Model A's even in such busy locations. I vividly remember attending the 10th Texas Tour hosted by the Dallas Club at Northpark Shopping Center on Central Expressway near downtown Dallas - how's that for still having fun in a congested location?

Glad you'll be here - when you get back to Cowtown you will be able to tell your friends that they "missed a good-un". :)

See you in a couple of weeks; I look forward to meeting you in person.
Fred
 
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It is always a difficult situation in hosting an event trying to provide a value to the attendees ...and charging enough registration fees to ensure the Host does not lose money. In 2009 my wife, my two kids, and I planned, hosted, and ran an event for the Model T club which was just like a MARC or MAFCA National Meet. We actually pulled it off without any local chapter or club, ...which in retrospect was likely a Godsend! I now am co-chairing the same event this next summer in Boone, NC and so I am no stranger to both sides of the fence.

I think the one thing that Fred (--or whomever) should do is offer transparency with where the attendee's registration money is being spent. This has always created a great discomfort, and I know it was for me too at the Dallas joint meet. It was only after I made repeated phone calls to Directors and voiced my displeasure that the Meet decided to reimburse attendees for some of their "overcharges".

I presently hold the office of Treasurer for the Model T Ford Club International, and one of my duties is to audit and review the accounting for any chapter that hosts an event that uses the club's insurance policy. This is done to ensure no one (club or person) is profiting from hosting a Tour. Now this is not to be confused with normal expenses related to hosting a tour such as reimbursement for driving to meet with hotel mgmt. or vendors, mapping out routes, etc. however it lets us ensure that the club or someone is not making a wage for hosting the tour.

Again, my experience in the Treasurer's capacity has shown that if early on the Tour Chairman amortizes their total expected expenses over say 70% of the anticipated amount of attendees, then advertises exactly what will be included in the registration costs, it helps prospective attendees understand why the "higher-than-normal" registration fees are being charged. People will generally pay extra for something if they perceive it is a value. Items like Fred's club are giving does cost money.

Ironically, I attended many of the first decade or so of the Tx Tours as a very young kid, and then later on to the PoorBoy Tours. There used to even be a tour called the Tri-Cities Tour. Some of my best memories came from those tours.
 
Brent:
Transparency would reveal that our registration fees cover everyone's meals and since the host hotel is a very nice high rise Marriott, the awards banquet dinner alone costs us almost $50 per person. Then there are ballroom rentals, equipment rentals, trophies, entertainment compensation, hospitality room snacks, etc. Having been Texas Tour Chairman twice before, a convention this size is a major undertaking and LOTS of work! Our club members have been working for over two years trying to make this an extra special event since it is the milestone 50th annual tour. The first Texas Tour I chaired here in Georgetown, TX in 1998 had over 550 people attending, almost 300 Model A's and people came from as far away as California driving their A's. As you well know, planning, coordinating and pulling off such an event to entertain over 500 people is not an easy task!

Bottom line, our goal in hosting the convention is to provide an entertaining event which people will go away from with a feeling of "That was an enjoyable time and I'm really glad we came" while also trying not to bankrupt our club treasury.

Take care,
Fred
 
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Fred, those attendance numbers are very similar to the exact numbers we had on my tour. My only point was if potential attendees are indeed "opting out" for the reasons Jordan is describing, then IMO it seems they are not perceiving the higher than normal fees as a value. You apparently had no problem defending the higher fees, but it sure does appear some do not know about those added amenities, --or worse, they do not perceive them as a value that interests them. Again, I have no dog in your hunt but it is an observation from my vantage point. ;)

.
 
I can under stand the philosophy behind the "one price for everything" mindset, but it's just not practical when it's costing so much. I for one will not be attending the fashions tea, the friday night entertainment, seminars, etc. The only things I will attend are the welcome banquet, grand tour and Farewell banquet. For my family to attend just the tour, it was almost $600 (for 4 people). The fort worth club has a lot of families who want to bring their kids, but it's just not feasible to bring all their kids and grandkids to a tour if it's going to cost around $1,000 for a family to register, plus hotels and other expenses; but they wont come if the whole family can't come. I would have rather paid for what I wanted to do, than being forced to pay for things I don't want to do. I am glad that next year's texas tour will not have this type of registration.

I know how much work it is to put on a texas tour. I was very active in helping plan the 2010, and will probably be the chair of the 2016. It take an enormous amount of work, but this type of registration is just not feasible for the average family if there's more than 2 people attending. If it was so expensive to host at the Marriott, then why was the tour not moved to a different location? If the first tours you hosted had 500 people & 300 cars, obviously something was done right. But this tour will not have 500 people or 300 cars.
 
Jordan:
I'm not the Tour Chairman this year so don't shoot the messenger; a committee from our club chose the site and host hotel. For clarification so as to not mislead others who might read your remarks above, it costs $130 to register for a car and driver plus an additional $125 for additional adults. That's $255 per couple. Kids 6-12 are $75 each which covers their meals. You stated "The Fort Worth club has a lot of families who want to bring their kids, but it's just not feasible to bring all their kids and grandkids to a tour if it's going to cost around $1,000 for a family to register, plus hotels and other expenses" which is not correct. It will not cost "around a $1,000 for a family to register" unless they are bringing 10 grandkids. :eek:

Whether you chose to attend any of the events at the convention or not, you might as well go to them since your registration fee paid for it including the meal.

Again, just the messenger here, our Tour Chairman negotiated a group rate for the hotel of $99 per night when their normal rate is $135 per night as shown on their website (approximately 30% off).

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ausno-austin-marriott-north/

However, if you Google the Marriott in Round Rock it shows up on Orbitz, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Priceline, etc. as rooms costing $220 per night.

http://www.google.com/search?q=marriott+round+rock&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7RNSN_enUS399

Anyway, we're beating a dead horse, that's the host hotel.

See you in a couple of weeks; looking forward to meeting you.
Regards,
Fred
 
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lookin-backtexas said:
Jordan:
I'm not the Tour Chairman this year so don't shoot the messenger; a committee from our club chose the site and host hotel. For clarification so as to not mislead others who might read your remarks above, it costs $130 to register for a car and driver plus an additional $125 for additional adults. That's $255 per couple. Kids 6-12 are $75 each which covers their meals. You stated "The Fort Worth club has a lot of families who want to bring their kids, but it's just not feasible to bring all their kids and grandkids to a tour if it's going to cost around $1,000 for a family to register, plus hotels and other expenses" which is not correct. It will not cost "around a $1,000 for a family to register" unless they are bringing 10 grandkids. :eek:

Whether you chose to attend any of the events at the convention or not, you might as well go to them since your registration fee paid for it including the meal.

Again, just the messenger here, our Tour Chairman negotiated a group rate for the hotel of $99 per night when their normal rate is $135 per night as shown on their website (approximately 30% off).

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ausno-austin-marriott-north/

However, if you Google the Marriott in Round Rock it shows up on Orbitz, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Priceline, etc. as rooms costing $220 per night.

http://www.google.com/search?q=marriott+round+rock&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7RNSN_enUS399

Anyway, we're beating a dead horse, that's the host hotel.

See you in a couple of weeks; looking forward to meeting you.
Regards,
Fred
Click to expand...

I plan on having fun no matter the circumstances. I try to find the best in every situation. For being a young person, I'm glad it's close to Austin so I can venture into the city for some fun.I'm sure it will be a fantastic tour. I just wish more people would be able to attend to join in!

As for the families, there are families who do bring about 10 people to the tour. Jeanette & Danny Z- 4 adults (parents & their kids) and 4 grandkids. Marry & Jerry T- 6 adults (the parents-their kids) and 3 grandkids. Both of these families opted out because of the high prices. And these are just a two examples. Once again, don't shoot the messanger. :cool:
 
Not going to anything out of state this year. No money for travel and hotels.

So here's an old-fashioned thought to reduce costs: host homes. Get a group of brave folks willing to open their homes to attendees. Out of town folks stay free... and sometimes eat free too. Of course you have to exercise trust and a little old-fashioned horse sense, but when you do you make lasting friendships. And duhh, it's not blind; everyone involved interviews them over the phone. After a mail-in app plus three or four phone interviews, they are vetted. Or do a free background check if you are really paranoid.

My wife and I have done this dozens of times for local Christian ministries bringing in volunteers. We fed them home-cooked meals and showed them the tourist sights -- all on our dime. Of course in those cases, you sort-of know what your getting. But still... how bad can a Model A'er willing to drive in from out of town be?
 
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