v15ben Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 OK folks, a little bit of background first. I have done quite a bit of work at uni with a charity who have worked to open a school in Tanzania. The school has been built from scratch and has now been open for over a year teaching students from pre-school to sixth form level. The school has changed the village and surrounding area and the students are over the moon that they can finally be educated. We have done plenty of standard fundraiser events like raffles, cake stalls, sponsored walks and swims and also a collection of story and text books for use in the school. The story book appeal was brilliant. We collected enough books for the school library to provide several reads for every child in the school. The students were overjoyed as they haven't had anything to read prior to the school being built. As with all charities though the money we have isn't endless. We are always looking at ways to raise money for the upkeep of the school, providing lesson plans, books and send volunteers out to Tanzania to work with the students. The plan for next year is a new Chemistry and science department - not a small undertaking for a relatively new school. This is where you guys come in. I went to Virginia Waters and it was a great day out. There were hundreds of great cars, lots of great people to meet and generally a superb day out for car fanatics like us. From a fundraising viewpoint too the event was brilliant for the owners of the site - £5 entry for every car. Multiply that by 200-250 cars and that is a lot of fundraising for fairly minimal effort on your part - simply drive in and enjoy the day. This got me thinking, why not have a similar event but have all the money going to charity? The entry fee wasn't unreasonable at Virginia Water (and other similar events like Cars in the Park) and for the amount of enjoyment your fiver provided, it was worth spending it So the idea in a nutshell is find a large site in a central location that people can easily get to. Open it up to as many cars as possible and have drivers pay a minimal amount to get in (a few quid say) with all the money going to charity. Organise it through the forums, promote it on as many car forums as you can find and get lots of people to come along. Get a field/car park packed with stunning cars, meet old friends and hopefully plenty of new ones and generally have a great day while raising a few quid for charity. What do people think of the idea? Of course there are problems. Firstly where do we hold the event. We need a site with plenty of space and easy access for low to the ground sports cars. It has to be easy to get to from the motorway network so people from far away can attend. The site owners have to be prepared to waive parking charges or at least let us have a large percentage of our 'entry fees' to give to the charity. Can anyone suggest a suitable site? Next problem is a date for the event. We need a time when lots of people can attend and it is still warm enough for plenty of people to attend. We need it far enough in the future however to assure it can be properly planned and work well. I think the event should be sometime this year, maybe late summer/early autumn but does that give enough time to organise it properly? When shall the event be held? I am sure there are plenty more issues that need to be resolved, but I truly think this event could be a go-er. So lets fire off some ideas, who would be interested, where would we go and when? Can anyone provide a suitable site or know someone who could let us onto their site for a discounted rate. Please discuss and lets see if we can't have a huge event and a great fun day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v15ben Posted July 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 Can we possibly get this as a sticky too??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 As good and charitable as this type of event may be, I'd be inclined to support a TSN National Meet, held in the Midlands, beforehand. TSN only, I mean. People I know and like. Opening it up to others just makes it far less manageable and open to abuse IMO. Just my two penneth. p.s. I did suggest a National event earlier this year to the powers that be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOSE Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 I'd be up for that as well. Would anyone have anthing against me opening this up to other forums.....if it were a goer?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 Personally, I'd only attend if it was TSN members and not people form other forums outside of here. Nothing against them, but experience has taught me it's best to stick to car forums/meets with those that you know best. Others can be snidey, two faced b*stards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GenocidalDuck Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 Ive been to the last 2 TT owners club National Events. Which have been a great success. With the amount of TSN members i could see no reason why it wouldnt be as successful. The TTOC raised alot of money for charity. Would be more complex for TSN as the TT's being Audi could get Audi involved. Audi brought along the Audi driving experience and also a Q7 and mkii TT. Plus donating various other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rs32 Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 [ QUOTE ] I'd be inclined to support a TSN National Meet, held in Wiggle World [/ QUOTE ] a huge meet is a good idea - midlands area is do-able, no problem entrance fee could be parking contribution PLUS personal donation to the chosen charity or charities ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] I'd be inclined to support a TSN National Meet, held in Wiggle World [/ QUOTE ] [/ QUOTE ] As much as my daughter would love that....it'd be a tad difficult. It's in Australia. Mind you....Rachel_H and the Furry One could come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnss8 Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 A national TSN meet does sound better and probably less complicated/hassle to organise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 TBH I think a National Meet requires the backing of the moderators and TSN as an 'entity'. It would need central and official organisation IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v15ben Posted July 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Thanks for the responses folks. I have been chatting to the owner of another well known car forum not too far from here and we have decided that an unofficial meet would be a better idea. Unofficial means we don't need liability insurance, health and safety forms, risk assessment and all the associated paperwork and mumbo-jumbo that goes with that. All I really wanted was a big meet, lots of cars and a generally fun day out. Not necessarily organised under the banner of a certain website say TSN or a certain company. I am in the process of contacting a few possible sites to see if they would be prepared to let lots of car owners descend on their car park/field for a few hours and hopefully share some of their standard entry fee prices with us for the cars we bring along. I am hoping for something like 50% of the entry fees we bring to go to charity, however I live in hope that a very generous site owner will let us have a much bigger percentage than that considering it is for charity. By having an unofficial meet we also avoid bringing problems and bad press back to the doorstep of the sponsor/website we would need to run an official meet. If for example TSN put their name as an entity to this event and some fools started doing doughnuts or offending passers-by then the bad press and flak would be directed at TSN as a whole and the site would suffer due to the actions of a minute minority. All in all an unofficial, simple event would work much better IMO. For all the hassle, cost and logistical nightmares of organising an official event, we would lose a heap of money which should be going to charity. I am working on a date at the end of summer hopefully but if there are too many clashes and it is too short notice for the proposed venues, we will move the date on to late 06/early 07. I'll keep you posted on how we get on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Ben, do us in the North a favour...and pick somewhere outside of London and preferably in the middle of the country!!!!! The centre of the UK is not London.....(it's actually in the Lake District!!!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M8CKN Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Ben, does us in the North a favour...and pick somewhere outside of London and preferably in the middle of the country!!!!! The centre of the UK is not London.....(it's actually in the Lake District!!!). [/ QUOTE ] I'll second that. I would definately be up for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v15ben Posted July 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 Don't worry everyone. As a Northerner myself I am looking at somewhere in the North/Midlands. I am trying to find a suitable central location and will be giving a few people a call later on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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