2020 Beech Party - Beechcraft Heritage Museum - Event Closed

[wjknight]

I am posting this at the request of the President of the Beech Aero Club. Early this morning JP received a call from the Beechcraft Heritage Museum regarding the closing of registrations for Beech Party 2020. According to Jody, the State of Tennessee has changed some of its restrictions regarding the conduct of large capacity events and the opening and restrictions regarding museums. As such, these State restrictions would make the conduct of Beech Party 2020 far too difficult to manage safely. The Beech Heritage museum had originally given a Go/No Go decision date for this event of late July or early August. As such, the event has not yet been formally cancelled, but online registrations have been closed until further notice.

How this will affect BACFest 2020 has not yet been determined. As JP and I are Co-chairmen of the event, we will be working closely with the Beech Heritage Museum and our other venues in the Tullahoma area to determine if there is latitude to still conduct BACFest 2020 without the added numbers associated with Beech Party. IE., if the maximum limit for an event is 100 people and BACFest 2020 standing alone only has 75 or less people, could we still hold our event and would the BHM still function as the base of operations for the event. Rest assured that the safety of our members is always paramount to us and we will be providing further information to the Beech Aero Club members as we move forward.

The president felt that this information needed to be disseminated soonest and from the very top to avoid any confusion or speculation. As soon as we determine the way ahead, we will update the membership through the forum. To be clear, at this point Beech Party 2020 and BACFest 2020 have not been cancelled, but online registrations have been closed for the time being. Stay safe, and we hope to see many of you in Tullahoma this October if able.

 

[AVIATOR_]

Jeff, I just received an e-mail from the Beechcraft Heritage Museum. It states Beech Party has been rescheduled for Oct. 13-16 2021. So, Beech Party has been cancelled for 2020.

 

[jhbecker]

Just got a call from the Holiday Inn. They canceled my reservations since Beech Party is canceled.
Things are unraveling quickly.

 

[wjknight]

Just got a call from the Holiday Inn. They canceled my reservations since Beech Party is canceled.
Things are unraveling quickly.

Nothing is unravelling quickly.
I received the email from the Beechcraft Heritage Museum announcing that they are postponing Beech Party until 2021.
I also received a phone call from the lady at the Holiday Inn Express. She did not understand that there were two flying events scheduled independantly of each other during the same timeframe. She has stopped cancelling hotel rooms for BACFest 2020. Thanks to Tom C. for assuring her that our event has not been postponed/cancelled yet and having her contact me. If your room was cancelled, I would encourage you to call them back and rebook it.
The situation is such in Tennessee that the numbers and restrictions that have been put on large events and museums in particular are rather onerous at this time. With the small volunteer staff at the museum that would have to manage that for both Beech Party and BACFest, the museum has decided to postpone Beech Party (the larger event) until next year.
BACFest on the other hand is not an overly large event and we are predominantly self sufficient. Therefore, all the venues that we are currently booked for us outside the museum are still able to handle our numbers and requests. The municipal Airport, our Hotel, the currently booked tours, the Awards Dinner and shopping excursions are all still a go. They are unaffected by any restrictions associated with large events or museums. Discussions are still ongoing whether the BHM could practically handle our smaller numbers in some format whereby the museum would not lose all of its income this summer/fall. I will update you later as those talks evolve. It was announced a couple of months ago that a Go/No-go decision would be forthcoming by end July/early August whether BACFest would continue. I ask your patience as the Co-chairs and your Board of Directors keep their finger on the pulse of BACFest 2020. We are monitoring the situation in Tennessee and have the best interest of our members in mind.
I'm quite confident that with the passing of the month of July, we will be in a much better position to determine what will become of our event that is still 4 months away. Tennessee has a fantastic economic plan in place that not only ensures the safety of all our participants, but also those businessess that are committed to supporting our event. I will post more information as it becomes available and should we need to cancel, you will receive ample notice. Thank-you for your patience.