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Mar 11th, 2005, 02:26 PM
| #1 |
  Awwww %%%% it!  | Feedback feedback Feedback feedback ……………. Let's keep the main feedback thread to constructive comments, we can use this thread to argue the toss if so desired!! OK, my response to your responses, and I’m sure some of the other organisers will have their input too – I’ve had Dora on a restraining order for the last week  Venue It wasn’t “glam”, it wasn’t a high class hotel but you only have yourselves to blame!! Originally we had a more expensive hotel lined up but people, for numerous reasons, would not commit. Without commitment on numbers we could not progress so had to make a choice – cancel it or do it on a smaller budget. We did the later and I believe the room looked great come the night. Sure there is better out there but not at the price we had to work to. We have taken this on board in our search for next year’s venue, but it will be down to you folks to commit early. And if we don’t get the commitment then chances are we’ll be back to the same place again! Location Too far south  OK, it wasn’t exactly central to the whole UK, but it wasn’t to far off. For example it took a lot longer to travel up from Cornwall like Wylie did than it would to travel down from Newcastle like Mo didn’t! We are looking at different options this time around but can’t guarantee anything yet, but if it is more “central” we will be press ganging the complainants this time around – be warned  Northampton was chosen purely for the reasons given above about the venue – last gasp chance to keep the event on. What is essential though is wherever it is held we need a person locally to provide support. And personally I do think that if I’m in the car driving for 2/3 hours then if its 3-4 hours doesn’t really make much difference to me and NE/NW/SE England had no excuses really. Time of Year February was hard work for us too with Christmas interfering and we are looking to address that next year  Disco Some of you thought the music good, some of you didn’t. Never please all the people all the time I guess. Key thing though was that someone was always on the floor so he got some of it right. I do agree that some more modern stuff could have improved things – though he did do a session of it at one point. DJ Yes, he was a bit past it, but I needed someone there to make me look young What happened to the Band? We felt that time in the evening was tight as it was so having a band as well as disco was going to be too much – as it turns out we had even less time than we thought. I think I prefer a disco really as it enables a much wider variety of music – unless you’re paying for an expensive professional band. Auction/Raffle It took too long – agreed. We had planned to keep the whole thing to 40 minutes max. but it overran. We need them though as its where the money is really raised, but we’ll have to do it differently next year. Dancing time Not enough time – agreed. And we were lucky to have a 2.00am licence, a lot of places finish at 1.00am. Partly due to the raffle over running, and also due to late sitting down for the meal. Sit down earlier Yes and no. It’s good to mingle and chat for a while before dinner. We probably need to start pre dinner drinks earlier, 6.30 maybe and sit down at 7.15. Also you can help – we went through at 7.45 as planned but then everyone went looking at the cars and raffle prizes, it was another 20 minutes before they could start serving. Food My lamb was fatty too - but the person’s next to me was fine! Lamb I guess is always tricky. Pleased to see most comments are positive. It’s very difficult to cater for so many people and to find a menu that will appeal to all. I love a nice rare piece of venison but that would never do as a menu choice for 200 people! Some of the food could have been warmer has been said by a few – mine was fine but it was probably due to the fact we were running late. Soup My fault  I’m pretty sure the tomato & basil was requested, indeed my contact at the hotel thought it was what I’d asked for, but it didn’t get put on the contact that way and I didn’t check it closely enough – it said “Chef’s homemade soup”, I just assumed that would then be the tomato and basil. Apologies Wine with meal If we add wine to the meal, even a half bottle, it would have added £7 to the ticket cost. Also we’d have had a house red and house white on the table and that was it. By having a wine desk you could select what you really wanted to drink. Let’s just take my table ……… if we’d had wine provided we would have had 2 x bottles house red, 2 x bottles house white. We actually ended up with 4 of the 8 not drinking wine so they would have paid for something they didn’t want, one drinking a medium white as they don’t like dry, 2 drinking a red nicer than house red, and one drinking house white. So only one person would have been drinking what they wanted to if we’d included wine. I also noted a few were drinking the bubbly we had on the wine list – they’d not have had that, and some just stuck with beer, while those driving were not drinking. So ………….. I do not want to include wine in the price, leave to individuals and let people have their choice. Arrival drink It would have been good to have a drink on arrival but it would have added £500 to the cost of the event. As it turns out we had a late rush of attendees and could have afforded to do that, it would have been £500 less for the charities but we would still have far exceeded our hoped for total. So yes, we will plan to do it next year, but will only be able to once we hit a set number of confirmed registrations – again it will be up to you folks to commit to the event and support it from the outset. Bar/Toilets outside Ballroom This is normal; very few venues have the bar inside the Ballroom. Personally I prefer it as it enables you to have a conversation at the bar without shouting over the music. People disappeared after dinner There were some people who were not stopping and once they’d had dinner and seen the auction/raffle wanted to make their way home. We can’t force folks to stay! Some also just went in the bar as they did not want to dance – that again is individuals’ choice. Country location V City location I guess there are arguments for both I do prefer overall a town location. It enables folks coming up for 2 nights to go out and hit the town rather than have to stay in the hotel and eat expensive hotel food - those who stayed Friday night had a great time at Aromas Chinese Buffet. City also enables those from overseas to arrange and collect suit hire near to the venue. Dance floor was too big Agreed. We could have had it made smaller with a carpet overlay but we were advised this did create a trip hazard. And as some mentioned it enabled a few folks to really let loose Food was good but not £35 ahead good No, it was £21.50 good – that was the cost of the food alone. The rest of the costs came from balloons, flowers, ticket printing, postage, internet connection, providing a free ticket for the incentive draw, loss of deposit on Heathrow hotel, candles, postage, DJ ………… and we were trying to raise some money in the price too!! At £35 a ticket we were keeping costs well down – EVERY supplier gave us a discount for charity. If it were not for the generosity of sponsors we’d have made little if any on the event without the auction and raffle. Cost of weekend overall Well yes, it is an expensive weekend …….. BUT …… we all frequently meet to do a run, stay overnight at a hotel, have a meal, have tons to drink …… so while there is the cost of suit hire etc it is not THAT much more than folks would have spent coming to, say, the Cotswolds last year. But yes, we do know it is asking folks to spend quite a bit, but hopefully you are having a damn good night out and enjoying the chance to dress up and party. I know I did and while I may have been local it still cost me a lot of money too. So no pretence, you will have an expensive weekend but what we will try to do is make it a bit more of a glam location next time – but as said it‘s up to you folks to make sure that can happen. Pressure to donate Other than the raffle ticket selling I hadn’t been aware of pressure to donate – hopefully the raffle ticket stuff was not too heavy, it was meant light heartedly. I’ve since been told folks felt they were being bullied into paying a fine for not dressing correctly etc. The other “fines” were not planned by the organisers, they cropped up on forum initially from Max and Trainman I think, and were well received so we let it flow. Folks have since said they did not like being fined so next year we will ask people not to do fines. Raffle/.Auction didn’t flow/Stronger voice needed Sorry – did my best! More car bits in auction Most of the auction was MINI related stuff even if not actual car parts. At the end of the day we are totally dependant on what gets donated to us. Cheaper auction items We limited the auction to 10 or so items so it did not go on too long and knew this was where we’d raise some big money so purposely put in high value stuff. 5 minutes bidding for a £10 item wouldn’t have been best use of limited time. We did try to make sure there were lots of raffle items for folks to win though Photographer Glad to see this was such a success and big hit with everyone. Some asked that that he be placed in a less obvious place next time as folks watched you having pictures being taken – no !!!! What is there to be embarrassed about, we all know each other so chill seriously, he was placed where he was so that he could grab people as they arrived, enabling everyone to get a picture done. It didn’t quite work out as a load of folks were in the other bar and then arrived on mass so we need to work on that next time around.Location of late bar Nothing we can do about that I’m afraid – that’s up to the hotel. Promotion of MINI2, run pics etc. We wanted to keep this a non-corporate thing as much as possible and advised sponsors that we were not going to put up banners and the likes. The idea was to maintain a formal Ball type atmosphere. That said maybe we can next time around but there is a cost element to it, and we’re only promoting it to ourselves and we don’t need to be sold MINI2 Order wine in advance Maybe but it would have to be paid for too – it was hard enough getting ticket money in!! Run on Saturday too long I thought it was just right – but I am biased!! We were back by 3.30 at the hotel so plenty of time still for check in and cleaning up before the party. Donation to attend the run I was going to do that but with all the other stuff on my mind it got overlooked. |
  
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Mar 11th, 2005, 04:19 PM
| #4 (permalink) |
| 003 On a Mission  Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Cabbage County Local Time: 11:10 AM
Posts: 4,111
Offline |   Eloquently put old man Only one other thing to say and that is> I did not realise how old the DJ was until I saw him next to you DJ Yes, he was a bit past it, but I needed someone there to make me look young Roll on next year Where ever it is |
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Mar 11th, 2005, 07:13 PM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Lord of The Four Rings  Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Reminiscing Local Time: 11:10 AM
Posts: 10,464
Offline | I'll confirm that the original hotel we'd booked was the business. We would've had a MINI in the room for that as well and everyone would've been impressed with it from the ambience, to the quality of the food, to the bedrooms, to...... well you get the picture. I foolishly or naively assumed that getting the minimum number of people we needed wouldn't be a problem, given the number of M2 members there are. It was only after that lack of interest that we needed to make decisions quickly. This meant finding an alternative that would please more people, in particular the people who complained about the venue being too far south. And thus the Moathouse was chosen. We would love to be able to add some of the 'nicer' things to make something like this truly magical but at the end of the day it would've pushed the price up to a level which many people would not be happy with. However, I think that the end result was excellent given the constraints within which we had to work. Another 50 people in that room and I wouldn't have had so much of the dancefloor to myself. 170508  |
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Mar 11th, 2005, 08:29 PM
| #7 (permalink) |
| In exile, down SOUTH!  Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: London WC1 Local Time: 11:10 AM
Posts: 13,580
Offline | What's left for me to say now that you have said everything?  Ah yes, cost! IMHO, the overall cost of the weekend (Sat night stay only) was not much more than a weekend away at other MINI meets for most locals. The added extras were the cost of the outfit and donations. However, we did give plenty of notice, and I believe it was possible to spread the cost by putting a bit aside each months. We will always get the extremes - those who are enthusiastic and sign up and pay up as soon as the details are available, and then those who would wait until the very last minute to pay up or decide to join in the fun. I hope, as organisers, we will be able to persuade more of those in the middle ground to join the fast pay camp, and pull some of those in the slow pay group into the middle ground And FYI, I already bought the main fabric of next year's dress, and my dressmaker already knows I would need another dress next year, and I shall re-start my standing order payment to her to build up the fund required for the new dress as soon as I have been paid As for location, we will never be able to please everybody, however, we will try and please as many people as we can next year As for the food, I believe it was adequate, and my lamb was fine DJ, well, enough said Location not exactly glam, well, see responses from Soggy and Sham Raffle/auction too long - already recognised as an issue Sitting down too late - see Soggy's response I had to ask the duty manager to hurry those still hanging around outside at 20:10h, and said that it would be the last call before dinner would be served. Do we need to use a bell next time or something? Pressure to donate - those fines were not the ideas of the organisers We, as organisers, will look for ways to improve people's enjoyment of the night next year And thank you for your feedbacks However, please take a read of the organisers' feedbacks so that you, the attendees and would be attendees, could help us in making next year's ball even more enjoyable and successful than this one, thank you DK :apple: |
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Mar 11th, 2005, 08:29 PM
| #8 (permalink) |
| M2m Police Officer  Join Date: May 2004 Location: Nottingham Local Time: 10:10 AM
Posts: 220
Offline  | Great stuff Soggy- didnt realise why you planned certain things the way you did until u explained why and it makes sense. LOL ........ im biased ..... the dancefloor wasnt big enough!!! Cant wait til next years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Mar 11th, 2005, 08:36 PM
| #9 (permalink) |
| TUNIT DX  Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: midlands,uk Local Time: 11:10 AM
Posts: 1,827
Offline | We had a great time yep the food was a bit pants the dj was so so, But I had another amazing night helping kids that need all the help they can get. My brother had some learning diffuclties when he was younger not major but having schools that cater for all the different levels of diffuclt is a bonus. Any help I can provide in a little way pleases me greatly. I would have happily paid £50 for my ticket And also the peeps made it for me too! Thanks to all the organisers again |
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Mar 11th, 2005, 09:03 PM
| #10 (permalink) |
| M2m Police Officer Join Date: May 2004 Location: Nottingham Local Time: 10:10 AM
Posts: 220
Offline | Thats a lovely thing to say baz!!!! I work with a few disabled children and them having extra help means a lot to them and to people who help care for them. Ive been working on a one to one care basis with a certain child for the last couple of months whos been very ill and has severe disabilities, hes nearly 2 but at the physical and mental stage of around a 4 month old baby... the other day he did something so small but its such a huge acheivement for him ....... he smiled for the first time and waved. Its so rewarding to everyone who looks after these children!!! I also would of happily paid £50 for my ticket! Sorry for being a little off topic. |
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Mar 11th, 2005, 09:15 PM
| #11 (permalink) |
| Morph-a-Doodle  Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Shakey Wakey!! Local Time: 11:10 AM
Posts: 3,043
Offline | [quote=SoggyCornFlakes]Feedback feedback ……………. My answer to all those who complained about this and that........... Venue: Good Venue, Rooms a bit ropey but if your only in there one night who cares? Do you expect the Waldorf Astoria for £60? Location lots of free parking pretty central to everything Time of Year Why the hell should time of year make a difference? Disco I was all for busting some beans on the wooden slats, but I was (other wised engaged in Tomfoolery!!) DJ I did think when he sat next to the computer for most of the night he was collecting subs to use it!!! What happened to the Band? It'd been nice to see a one band, or maybe the organizer band featuring Soggy with a big drum, Sham with the castanets and Dora shakin that ass in a grass skirt. They could of done a rendition of name that tune!!! Auction/Raffle Did the ones winging about the time it took for the auction actually put there hands into there pockets? Dancing time Give me my day and I'll be strutting about like R2'FrickingD2 Sit down earlier The social aspect was good to mingle Food OK I never get enough to eat, but that chicken and profiter rolls filled a little hole Soup If you didn't like it should have given it to me!! Wine with meal I'm far too common for wine, although I can appreciate a nice bottle of Chardonnay Arrival drink If there was no mention of an arrival drink who expected it? Bar/Toilets outside Ballroom Lazy people People disappeared after dinner So they did Country location V City location I've never been to Northampton, and quite honestly I wouldn't rush back there (Sorry Soggy) but for me somewhere that I haven't been before, is somewhere new to explore!! For Gods Sake open your minds to something other than where you know Dance floor was too big ?????????????? EHHH? Food was good but not £35 ahead good So it Was, Room wonderfully done out with time and effort spent on the little things things like place cards (By the end of the night Chris on my table had to start reading them to remember peoples names!!) Cost of weekend overall What do you really expect? It to be done all at cost Pressure to donate Well Max did have my arm up my back, but that wasn't the pressure of selling it's because I stole one of his Cigars!!! Raffle/.Auction did’t flow/Stronger voice needed Smoke more Soggy (exp Chris Rea) More car bits in auction What like Wings, Paint perhaps a full chassis and sub frame! Cheaper auction items What like novelty Mini Chocolate Easter Eggs Photographer I though he blended in nicely with his brown brogues and Farrah Slacks!! Location of late bar What 100 yards from the Ballroom. If you couldn't walk that means you've had too much to drink in the first place. Promotion of MINI2, run pics etc. ?????? Order wine in advance Money, Money, Money in a rich mans world Run on Saturday too long Not at all, I got some decent footage from that, decent roads well planned run top notch!! I think the underlying theme to these gripes are because of Money, unwillingness to go with the flow and the majority of complainants wouldn't even contemplate organizing something as large as this if indeed organize anything at all. Time+ Fuel + Telephone calls+ Risk=Attention to detail, delivered very well. Believe it or not it costs money to organize anything, Well done to all the organizers and those who enjoyed the event |
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Mar 14th, 2005, 05:41 PM
| #18 (permalink) |
| Lord of The Four Rings Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Reminiscing Local Time: 11:10 AM
Posts: 10,464
Offline | My fault Paul yes folks it was originally conceived as a MINI2 Birthday Party/Charity Ball which is why it was timed to be around the end of Feb. So it was a 4th birthday bash as well as a Charity Event. It was originally going to be a late Xmas do in Jan but we decided to move it slightly.170508 |
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Mar 14th, 2005, 05:52 PM
| #19 (permalink) |
| I can feel it  Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sheffield Local Time: 11:10 AM
Posts: 10,883
Offline | Would it be an idea to say on the tickets what time to sit down? We, or those we were drinking with in the bar didn't have a clue what time we were supposed to eat... we were there in time for pre-dinner drinks  |
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