I think the problem is that most venues that are big enough to cope want a pile of money and loads of risk assessments thrown in. As a result the event has to be "commercial" to generate the income to pay for it.

Received 2CVGB news today and noticed that the club only has £200,000 in the bank.

I think it's more to do with the people attending than the club itself.

French National Dunkirk - Success

UK National St Ives - Success

French National 2010 - FAIL

UK National 2010- FAIL

Question what did the FR National 2010 & GB National 2010 have in common ??? A party building far away from campsite, both on public roads, trade stands separate from party area.

What did Dunkirk and St Ives have in common....?

Party area near trade stands - keeps everyone together as a focal point. Lots of trade stands - somewhere to go and have a natter near the trade stands.

As an ex trader I have a real issue over charging traders to attend, We decided this year not to trade because of cost. Dunkirk and St Ives had great trade stands.....Remember the fish and chip van at midnight...top idea!! Mr Barbour, Ru and I tried to get me a cup of coffee at 11am on Sunday - was told by the staff at Winchester not to bother - it tasted bad.

Look dont get me wrong I appreciate the efforts of those involved and despite only living 20 minutes away - i've no idea who my local club is and would have offered my help - so I cannot complain. In fact going forward I am very prepared to help - but look 2cvgb needs to make its mind up where we are going.......I bought my marquee for 400 euros 8m x 5m - and larger ones weren't much dearer. I think Maurice had the right idea over buying or even if we went to the same location - I feel St Ives had everything.....

Rich x

Why though? I'm not a trader so excuse my ignorance, but I would have thought the fact that you have a captive audience combined with the lack of carriage & the fact that your goods are readily apparant to potential customers would make an event dedicated to your line of business even more reason to trade. I don't know what level of fees are involved but you wouldn't expect to get a market stall or magazine space for free would you?

Personally, I usually find myself buying more in this situation through impulse than need if nothing else.

I wouldn't go as far as saying the international was a fail. Certainly not comparative to the French fail. I realise I was there for a couple of hours, but nobody has mentioned a violent and misguided organising team or a stupidly laid out campsite, or that anybody was assaulted or had their keys removed for no reason. That was why France failed, the lack of a beer tent and it's replacement a good route march away simply made a shit meeting worse. If that was the only problem then I'd have certainly looked back more fondly upon it, and I don't think it's fair to say a meeting was a failure simply because of that.

Perhaps I'll actually attend a meeting soon, and will be better qualified to make judgements I guess.

I have been to a fare few 2CVGB Nationals and Internationals a good number of French Nationals and 5 World Meetings.

My own opinion is that some were better than others but none were a failure.

You make of these events what you can. It is the people you are with that make them good.

Having been on a number of organising teams let me assure everyone that it is very hard work and you do your best for no personal reward and often very little thanks.

Anyone getting involved with organising a big meeting are top folk and deserve masses of respect.

Both of which I really, really enjoyed.



Trade stand income helps to balance the budget and thereby reduce entry fees. How far would you like visitors to subsidise your profits...?



(Down in the evening bar)
Was there any reason you didn't go to the coffee/hot pasta/snacks van parked next to the beer van by the arena?



Yes, the club's own "party tent" was erected next to those vans by the arena, too - and the hassle/mileage involved in fetching it to the site has already been mentioned...

think ill put my bit in... having attended every international since 1984 and organised 1 i think this qualifies me to know a bit about this subject. the issue of traders is always sticky. i personally didnt charge them for pitches at bicton 1999. this due to 3 things. 1 how to be fair to traders on the amount of space they can use. some bring larger marquees than others. 2 how can you take money from traders when they are working when the rest of us (including the organisers) are there to party enjoy ourseleves etc. its bad enough that they are there to work let alone pay to be there. all i charged was standard entrance fee for staff. and the 3rd most impotant you want them there why put them off by charging loads of money to be there. if you ask people why they go to big meetings some say to see old friends make new and look at the cars. the other main reason is to buy spares,parts things to keep the cars going etc. therefore its in the clubs interest thet a good range of traders come along. the cars cant survive with out the traders and the traders cant survive without the cars so the 2 go hand in hand. what we did at bicton was ask for decent raffle prizes from them instead. this boosts ticket sales and makes the raffle intersting. for example to my knowlege bicton was the only meeting where you could win a chassis with free fitting. and ok i know this was donated by frome 2cv but this was 11 years ago when this was a good buisness.
i dont know about you but surly you would of got a ticket for a prize like that.....
the lay out of the meeting can make or break it. you need some focus area round a bar with the trade stands dotted around this central point with camping extending out from here the further away from the focus point the quieter the area will be. people seam to forget that just nby camping in the noisy field means they can make as much noise as you like where as there is usually only a small hedge in between noisy field and quite file. its still just a hedge not a sound proff booth.

some of you are aware that i was at the french national by default. dad had pre booked then his brother died so he couldnt attend. just as well he didnt go really the site was poor lets be honest.
at least in winchester it was flatter. i only came for the day on sunday and it seamed like a reasonable meeting. the problem we have is when you put 500 or so tents on a field they is always going to difficulities in find somewhere that has infrastucture in place at the right price. yes the club has £200,000 in the bank good to know really considering the membership own that money. but why should they spend it all on a party when it should be used for more impotant things. such as restoring rare cars and storing them for future generations to enjoy. yes i know the club havnt got anywhere near as much clout as citroen france have with the conservatire but the are cars out the that need to be saved and stored.... went of topic i think but never mind

the budget for bicton was £14,000 and we broke even i know this was 11 years ago but we only had 600 attending including day visiters. whilst im on this subject HOW MUCH did i have to pay on sunday. we the wife and i were there for 6 hours and were told to pay £20 for 1 day. this meeting had better break even

Think yourself lucky, I worked 6-3 Saturday then packed the car and drove 5 1/2 hours arrived at about half 11. by the time I set the tent up in the dark I needed my bed so I only got one full day, that didn't bother me but £60 was a bit steep! Maybe I should sleep in the car in a lay-by and only pay one day?!

60 quid! are you not a 2CVGB member?