TAKEAWAYS FROM THE 2024 SHOW

[Gary Lewis]

 

Signup Sheet: We need more room for the names!  It is hard to read the names afterward to put the results up on the website.  And we apparently need a column for the year of the truck as we didn’t always capture the year.

Scoring: It would be nice if we could figure out a better way to score.  Having 93 visitor ballots and 23 entrant ballots (should have been 30 as Henry probably didn’t get one) meant for a lot of scoring: 93 x 1 + 23 x 10 = 323 things to score.

Concession Stand: This year’s approach where Janey and I bought the food and hired Yuri to run the stand didn’t work.  People wanted real food so many left to get some.  And we didn’t even come close to recovering what we spent.

So, we need to consider options, one of which is a food truck.  I’ve written terry@prairiefiregrille.com, Tacowasso, and fatboyzfoods918@gmail.com to see if they would do it, so we will see what they say.  The Prairie Fire Grille got back and said they'd be happy to do it if we don't pick Pioneer Day and use them only.  The others haven't replied and it has now been two weeks.

Networking: I met Jim Wagner and his wife on Saturday when they brought their ’53 F100 to the show.  They’ve run the Ozark Mountain Run show in Branson for several years but recently retired.  It looks like BJ Mayberry may be running it now and I’ve reached out to him to see if we can talk.

Supposedly that show will be in July next year, and I hope to go and take the flyer for our show.  But that means we will have had to set a date by then.

Date: Speaking of date, we need to think this through, again:

• Labor Day weekend: Some like it because it gives them more time to travel to get here.  But others don’t like it because it basically takes up the whole of the holiday.
   
• Pioneer Day: This is good and bad.  Good that there are more people in town so we have more visitors.  (But is the show for the visitors or the entrants?)  But it is bad in that there’s the parade the people coming have to skirt, and some of the potential food trucks we could hire may be scheduled for Pioneer Day.  And, I need to find out who had the other show on Saturday and see what their plans are for next year, but if they are doing it again on Pioneer Day we should find another day.  Also, the casino’s hotel rooms are booked up and more expensive on Pioneer Day.  And Prairie Fire Grille doesn't want to bring their food truck then.
   
• Another Day: If we were to move it to the weekend after Pioneer Day we might have cooler weather as well as less “interference” with another show, the parade, etc.  But when will The Last Run be?

Vendors: The situation with vendors has deteriorated dramatically, and it isn’t just for us as Jim Wagner said they’ve seen the same thing for the Ozark Mountain Run.  We used to get several $25 & even $50 gift cards from multiple vendors, but this time we got two $25 cards from LMC and that was it.  Yes, both LMC & Summit sent swag, but nothing to include with the trophies except those two cards.  And locally Bumper To Bumper gave a detailing kit, Tate Boys gave a card for an oil change, and Skiatook Auto Parts gave a halogen work light.

Costs: And that brings us to costs.  Leaving out the concession stand it cost $410 for the show, not including $109 for the tee shirts.  If we charged $20/truck and had 20 trucks we’d break even.  But according to Matthew we’ll lose some people, so what if we charged $10/truck?  At 30 trucks we’d only be in the hole $110.

[viven44]

Date: prefer to not have 90-degree days

$10 in-state $20 out-of-state

[ratdude747]

I'm certainly in the "labor day works best" category, even if it means dealing with the heat (but hey, more concession sales?).

For me at least casino room availability is a non-issue... did it once, never again.

Fee wise for me it's a non issue as $20 is more than the amount I get nailed if gas prices go high the week of the show. But I'm not normal.