Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

Here are few Q&A about DGRR 2008


1. Can I buy extra T-shirts later? - Answer is YES! You could buy them later but there will be a much earlier deadline then last year. I'll also print few extra but after the deadline, the cost will be higher...

2. Does registration include a guest? - Answer is NO!! Because this years registration includes 3 meals, if you are bringing a guest, you would also need to pay for their registration. Trust me, This will be cheaper than if you drove somewhere for a meal...

3. If registration fee refundable?? - Answer is NO!! Only exception will be if Nantahala Burns down to the ground or place is iced up and for the safety of everyone we had to cancel the event.. Then, I will refund (minus the paypal fee).

4. What if I can only make it to one meal?? - Answer is, "I'm sorry but I can not pro-rate the meals... If you miss one, you miss one..". I got a package deal so that we could all save and I can not do individually.

5. What happens if Nantahala Village is totally BOOKED? - Answer is, YOU will have to find your own lodging somewhere else... or try to stay with someone with large cabin/house. Most cabins hold 6+ people with separate bedrooms. I highly recommend registering early to get the deeper discount! This way you could maximize the saving!!

6. How far is the drive to the Dragon? - Answer is, 30-60mins away. Pending traffic and speed of travel.

7. What if I have to cancel at the last moment? - Answer is, If you sign up early, I'm sure someone will buy your spot at the discounted rate. There will always be someone who wants to attend at the last moment.. But as stated before, its non refundable. I will help as much as I can to help you.. but once the payment is made, its final!!

8. What if I want to stay at Nantahala longer or come in earlier? - Answer, I will ask them if they will extend the discounts to +/- 2 days. I'll get back to ya.

9. What if I just want to come check out the event? - Answer is, you are welcome to come and take a look at cars and such.. If you want to eat with the group, I will have to charge you $20-25 for either Lunch or Dinner ( 3 meals will be - $60-70). If you want a shirt, it will be $20-30 for a shirt. And if you want to stay at Nantahala, I'm sorry.. ONLY registered member could book the ROOM!!

10. Can I book a room at Nantahala Village without registering? - Answer is, NO! Even if you book it without the discount and somehow the receptionist book you, I will check their list with my list and your name does not show, we will contact you and apologize for the mistake and take you off the list!! I've reserved EVERY ROOMs, CABINs, HOUSEs at Nantahala and ONLY those register will be able to book!! If rooms available just before the event, Yes, you are welcome to book.. But at this point, I'm expecting that all the cabins and rooms will be fulfilled for the event!

11. Do the lodge serve alcohol? - Answer is NO! But you are welcome to bring Alcohol with you at your own discretion. I'm debating about if I'm going to let people drink at the Banquet hall or not. I will let you know later... But you are welcome to drink whatever at your own room/cabin/house.

12. Are we all going to caravan to the Dragon? - Answer is Yes & No.. Last event, I had way too many complains about staying too long at the Fontana Dam and such.. So for that reason, next year, you are welcome to goto the Dragon whenever you like! Nantahala Village will be our head quarter and we'll have things going on all day.. Either being a carshow, event lecture, etc.. I might even ask Chuck Westbrook to give his seminar there.. who knows! But one thing will be there will be informal drive to the dragon as a rotary owners!!! Will announce that at the event..

13. Any vendors coming?? - Answer is.. I hope SO!! Unlike past events, We will have a specific area for vendors to give lectures or do a product show.. Trust me, we will have all the rooms, halls, etc at Nantahala Village!! That's why it took so long for me to organize this.. working out the details..

14. I'll be coming with non-rotary car, can I still be part of this event? - Answer is YES! Anyone interested in Rotary car's are welcome!! But you still need to register to eat and get the discount.

15. Can I sell my parts at the event?? - Answer is, If you pay transaction fee.. Just kidding! Of course! Its a great time for you to sell parts or even to Sell your car! Last year I think couple of people bought cars because of this event!!

16. I have a show car and don't really want to drive the Dragon.. Is there other stuff I could do around there?? - Answer is YES!! Down the hill there is a HUGE rafting center. Also, ton of outdoor activities at Nantahala Village.. such as paint ball, horse back ride, boating, etc.. Nantahala will give you a discount on any of those activities.

17. Phil, I think you are ripping us OFF!! - My answer will be,.. YES!! I'm ripping you off because other events at the area are charging $60-80 and they are only providing one meal and a shirt.. I'm providing 3 meals, a shirt, door prizes, car show awards, and pretty much getting paid less than a dollar an hour organizing this event... Also, I'm helping you save as much as the registration on lodging.. Yep! I'm trying to RIP you OFF!!!



I've received couple of questions about the lodge/cabins at Nantahala Village.

Let me clear up couple of things...

1. Why do they say their is no vacancy? Entire Nantahala Village for the weekend of April 11-13th is reserved for us. Which means, no one can book the room unless you have a registration code. If you don't specify that you are with Deals Gap Rotary Rally, they will automatically tell you there are no rooms available. Currently there is less than 15 rooms.. http://www.webervations.com/magic-scripts/resbook.asp


2. What if all the rooms are book because I waited too long? Once all the cabins/lodges/houses are booked, you would have to find your own place to stay. there are several places you could stay with.. or you might want to ask others to join you and get a house. As mentioned before, some of the houses/cabins are harder to get to. Especially if it rains. I've asked Nantahala Village to run a shuttle service for at least one day (Saturday). We also have several rotorheads who will trailer their car and will have trucks and SUVs to help you out. I'm hoping this isn't going to be an issue... but it can.. we'll see.


3. Is there places to park trailers? Answer is Yes! There is a large parking area near the main lodge and also another lot on top of the hill next to the main lodge.. Also, if you are bringing non rotary car (except V8 RXs), you will also have to park in these two areas.

UPDATE (2/20/2008)

I would like to get extra shirts and wondering how much are extra shirts??

Short Sleeve - $15 and Long Sleeves are $20. At the event, it will be $20 for short and $25 for Long. Also there will be limited number of shirts available. (I'll be also selling shirts from 2007)

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

who is heading up the design on this years shirt? any prototypes yet?

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

Same person who designed last year's shirts.. PureMdMa. I kind of have an idea but he will carry out the final design.

dregg100

iTrader: (34)

can we have a different company make the shirts this year(the actual printing of them not design)? because last years shirts look like they are 20 years old now.

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

Unfortunately I have to go with someone close to me and do them at a reasonable price. I tried to go with someone else last year and it was BIGGER headache for me than anything else.. So, for that reason I'm most likely going to stick with the guy I been dealing with..

Indyfc3c

so do we reregster or do u use the one from fontana that everyone has sumitted to....larry

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

i agree phil, after washing the shirt one or twice it really starts to look like crap. id be willing to pay more for a shirt thatll last through a few washes

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

I haven't had issue with my shirts.. Suggestion, maybe some of you are drying them at too high of a temp.

But need some of you to know, I REALLY would hate to change vendor when they have gone backwards to meet the deadline and help out past 3 events.. Hope some of you could understand that..

dregg100

iTrader: (34)

i understand the bending over backwards part, but when i saw yours at nopi it looked just as warn out as mine. i too would be willing to pay a little extra. but if you want to stick with someone you have used before, it doesnt really matter. ill live. lol

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

Really, you thought my shirt was worn out? Hmm.. I thought it was ok..

Well, only thing I can do is I'll mention it to my guy and see what he can do. Maybe he could use different ink or something.. But I've tried to switch last year and it was more of a pain then anything else.. SO, pretty much I have to put my foot down about T-shirts.

But most importantly, please understand my time constrain on this event.. I really don't want to spend huge amounts of time and after 3 years of it, I've realized that I can only trust who showed me what they can do in the past and do most of the stuff myself.. I'm going to play the violin again and say, "I've already spent hours and hours, days and days, getting to this point.. Please, understand that and give me some slack!!".

If you guys want to help, stop complaining and help pass the word about the event

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

Alright.. I sent an email to the printer about the shirts.. I will let you guys know what he says about the issue.

dregg100

iTrader: (34)

thanks phil!!

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

wait, you used the same guy the past two years? my shirts from two years ago look perfect and theyve been through way more(even bleaching) than last years shirts. maybe it was just an issue with the ink used last year or something.

have you decided on a color for this years shirts?

Noxlupus

Let it Black or Grey!

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

We haven't decided on color of the shirt... also it could be the color or type of shirt we used... I'm still waiting on the email from the shirt people. I'll let you know what they say.

Let me talk to the shirt designer and see what he comes up with and what he recommend.

PHIL

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

OH, Starting next week, I'm going to get on the www.DealsGapRotaryRally.com more than this site... So go over there!! I'm also taking advice on what subforums needed and such.

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

Again,

Please visit www.DealsGapRotaryRally.com for latest info, pics, videos of the event.

Also, I want to make a statement about something...


Tonight, I wanted to spread the word about DGRR and I ran across few threads about DGRR 08 on other regional forums...

1. I'm glad that the word is spreading... But at the same time, I think from last years event, some of you were offended by me and are boycotting this event..

For those of you who were offended by me, I would like to publicly apologize!
I know I sometimes do come off kind of harsh (hence my nickname "Internet Pitbull") but I also feel that I'm a very reasonable person.. I know we all debated and said what we had to say about last event on this forum and I know some of you thought I was un reasonable and hard headed.... I apologize for that and want ALL of you to know that I listened to every single comments and tried my hardest this year to come up with a solution so that most of the problems will be resolved for next year.. Hence why I didn't want to make it official until I could work out the details...

All I can say is, Give Next Year's event a chance! I've spend more time so far organizing next years event than any other previous events. I'm trying my best to bring the community together and at the same time trying to not take everything so personal. Its a learning lesson for me, and hope we could put all the issues and problems we had in the past and come out and have fun! So, lets start OVER and see if the NEW DGRR will work this time!!

Sincerely,

PHILIP SOHN

J2R

Whoa can I asked a dumb question? What happened to Fontana Village? Sorry I am just now jumping into all this info.

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

There is NO such a thing as dumb questions... ok.. I guess there are some... But this one isn't..

To answer your question, about a month after this past DGRR event, I contacted Fontana to set up for next years event.. As some of you have read earlier this year, there were some problems and issues with the event and with Fontana.

For months (over 3 months) I've tried to lock in a specific date and tried to work out a meal plan because that was NUMBER 1 issue I saw of having an event out in NOWHERE NC. For months the management was so poorly organized, I just couldn't deal with them.

After hours and hours on the phone and emails, I just told them off as they wanted to INCREASE lodging and Wanted to charge insane amount for way too many things..

Nantahala on the other hand was actually nicer, cell phones worked, and food was GREAT!! I also had a chance to talk to the owner and he was VERY accommodating...

If we hit 85-95% capacity, they are going to literally have the whole area for DGRR.. Now that will NEVER happen at Fontana....

J2R

Awesome! Thanks for clearing that up. No problem here man.

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

I recently got a question via email.. and thought I share that with you...

Question: Why is it SO expensive?

Answer: I had several people complain about the cost of this year's event... I know for some of you $60 (now $70) seems kind of high. But you need to see from my point.. I've REALLY worked hard this year and negotiated to bring the cost down as much as I could...

1. the registration fee includes 3 meals. Any of you who's been to previous DGRR would know its a pain in the *** to get food around the area. If you stayed at Fontana, Dinner could be high as 20-30... And if you try to seat 100+ people at once (like Sweetwater BBQ), the service could slow down so bad that you could be seating for hours. So, to minimize problems and make things easy on everyone, I had to make a deal with the lodge to open the restaurant just for us! They will serve food in buffet style to speed up the service and seating and open for 3 hours so that people could eat at their own rate!. Also by doing this I was able to get get a deal and they are happy because its guarantee business for them! (which in turn I also got a deal for lodging).

2. Carshows and Door prizes (Raffle) - Most event you might attend, people will charge $20-30 for entering a car show.. Which usually goes toward trophies and such. The remainder from the food cost will go toward the trophies/awards and door prizes. Last year, most of you got something by coming out..

3. T-shirt - Previous events, all you had to do is to buy a shirt.. Well, this year, I'm going with a more reputable printer and they are guaranteeing me of better shirt and better quality print (will NOT fade)..

4. Material costs and such - Well, like any event, it costs to buy materials for the event.. whatever left over will go towards that... ie, paying someone to bring up a truck, gas for the truck, etc..

5. My time, Gas, previous trips to DG, other expenses, etc... Well, As I stated before, longer you wait, more expensive the registration fees will be.. the extra fees WILL go toward my time, gas I spend running around DGRR, my trip that I took last OCT to scope out the new lodge, other lodges around the area, gas I spent, food that I had to buy, etc...

Well, Hope this answers why the higher cost for this Years event and hope some of you will see that its a fair deal

Viperx7

iTrader: (4)

Phil, you know by now that you can't please them all. You always get those who want something for nothing. You could probably say that everything is free and you'd still have somebody **** and moan about something. For everything that we're getting with the registration, it's a steal. If they don't like the price, don't come. We'll gett along just fine without them.

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

I know Mike... But I have to state it like this because otherwise, I have to re-type and such.. I think by me doing this Q&A, I reduced quite a bit of PMs and Emails..

Funny thing is when I personally email them and direct them to thread like this, they still seems to get pissed off by it.. I guess some don't quite value my time

Anyhow, I'm hoping more will sign up and come to this great EVENT!!!

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

One more thing... i was going to post this couple of weeks ago but totally forgot..

I don't mind you selling personal items at the event.. But if you are a vendor or person acting like a vendor and selling multiple of the same item, I will ask you to stop and leave the DGRR area (Nantahala Village). It would be unfair for an individual to come out to the event and sell stuff to make a buck without donating or becoming a sponsor... Hope you understand.

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

any update on the shirts?