BAC Fest 2010

The dates under consideration are the last week in September or the first week in October 2010. A few of the factors affecting the final determination will be hotel rates, meeting facilities, catering costs, FBO availability at KSSF and whether or not a city-wide convention will be going on in downtown San Antonio over those dates. More details as they develop, likely in the next couple of weeks.
 
Oh, OK... I'll keep an eye out.

I actually might be able to make this one... 680 nm according to Skyvector...
 
The board and others have had recurring discussion about what was the preferring timing within the week for BACFest. I've added a poll with some main choices. If there are other strong suggestions we can add to the poll (upon request we can clear your vote so you can switch if you want).

Historically we've ended on Friday night to allow two full days to return, this year we ended Saturday night.

The tradeoff is allowing two full days to return for those flying and making the entire event to let them fit their trip within a Calendar week versus requiring an extra day of time off for those working folks who are travelling within a single day.

We can't promise to honor the most popular choice - host hotel and FBO scheduling constraints often drive these things. But we on the board and involved in planning BACFest 2010 and beyond would like to hear and take that input under consideration as much as is possible. We'd like to hear from the all the membership, including the majority that haven't yet had the chance to make a BACFest.

I do have my own opinion and will share in a bit but I don't want to skew early comments or voting, although Candy isn't as shy and will probably have something to say.
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Mark
 
I voted for Wed -Sat, but would like to suggest the luncheons be held early on in order to help people get acquainted. We old hands know each other but newcomers need a way to meet others early in the proceedings. The banquet should still be on the last night, though.
 
In Wichita we started on Wednesday and had the dinner on Friday night.

But we didn't have a spouse luncheon then. Added it the following year.
 
I liked the Wednesday to Saturday format this time with the dinner banquet on Saturday evening. It seemed to me that it allowed some people to come in as late as Friday and still have time to enjoy themselves.

The one thing I would change is the luncheon. Lunch followed by dinner just a few hours later was too much, even for a fat guy. I would prefer to have the luncheon on Friday, and/or perhaps a mid morning brunch instead of the luncheon on Saturday.

Dan Jonas
 
I vote with Dan Jonas... If you're going to have 2 lunches (like we did this year), have them Thurs and Friday. I now have 2 lbs to drop that I didn't have on Thursday.
I do like the Wed-Sat format, especially siince I'll be flying commercial next year and the wife even threatened to come.
Dr. Bill
 
I'm not sure whether or not we'll make it to San Antonio. My wife's family is just another hour west in Del Rio and we'd really like to make the BACfest, but end of September/early October is peak foliage in Vermont and the busiest (read most profitable) time for her business.

Regarding Wednesday - thru - Saturday or Thursday - thru -Sunday (or whatever), my sense is that most Beech Aero Members have some flexibility in scheduling as long as it's known well in advance. For me, midweek is the easiest time to go AWOL from work. Weekends are our busiest for me.

Larry Perry
N65503
 
CalifDan said:
The one thing I would change is the luncheon. Lunch followed by dinner just a few hours later was too much, even for a fat guy.

No kidding, if I would have known we were going to have fried catfish I would have skipped the lunch, it bout near killed me with the double helping, but you can't get this stuff in California.
 
Wednesday to Saturday... most likely traveling on Thursday, giving me two days at BAC Fest instead of just one...
 
Actually the split day luncheon isn't a bad idea, Candy had commented on the same thing.

My vote was for ending Saturday for exactly the reason Dan mentioned. This year and last it was a struggle to get away from work. I think the majority of members that come have only a single day of travel so ending Friday sort of "wastes" an available day (Sunday). For those that do travel two days and have the timewhat's the difference between taking off Tuesday before versus Monday after. (For most, I know schedules vary and noting is perfect for everyone).

Candy made the comment and I agree that not enough of what was said/announced in the business luncheon Saturday made it into the general banquet. Candy doesn't like to have to choose between the spouses lunch and missing out on the awards and business meeting. I realize time is tight - but one option might be to more formally have a breaking line between the "lunch" and the "meeting" so that folks from the spouses side can join (this could be as simple as having the courtesy to poke a head into the spouses lunch and say the business meeting is starting).

There is the issue of wanting to have the membership meeting come after the board meeting. But it could also make sense to have the board meeting the morning of the 2nd to last day rather than the last. We certainly got squeezed for time between all three this year.

Random thoughts...
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Mark
 
I now have October 07 through October 10 (Thursday through Sunday) on the KLUX 2010 Work Schedule, for BAC Fest 2010. There is a good chance we will have to drive this year, so we will probably be traveling on Tuesday-Wednesday and Sunday-Monday. We have a plane scheduled into KLUX on Monday 10/11, which I will probably shift to 10/12 instead. That will be for both us and the owner, in hopes he can make it to BAC Fest, too.

We sure are hoping to see another great turnout for 2010! Especially if we can manage a good vendor turnout this year. LED lights, wheel pants, new AECI products, etc. would all be welcome additions to the agenda for most of us.
 
Mike and others,

The dates have now materialized. After some great research and work, Bo Boggs, SoCentral Regional Director and member of the BACFest committee, has been able to nail down October 7-10, 2010 as the official dates.

As for vendors, the BACFest committee and others worked pretty hard to get vendors to participate last year. As you know, we only had one vendor show up and make a presentation. I, too, would like to see a strong vendor turnout but our attendance numbers are too small to really attract them.

We had a pretty compelling offer to the vendors last year, such as reduced room rates, guarantees for poor attendance, short duration, and more. Lots of phone calls and emails went un-responded to by the vendors.

If we have members who want to make phone calls, and I mean lots of phone calls, to see if they can get some vendors, I think the BACFest committee would be delighted to have the help.

That's the story! Such as it is....
Chris L.
 
I'll second what Chris said. We need all the help we can get with vendors, door prizes, etc.. The FBO people are working on it as well as the airport personnel, but they will only be working the local sources.

As to the dates, we had 9/29-10/3 as out first choice, but there will be a large convention in San Antonio that week and we didn't want to compete with them for rooms and services.

Bo

See y'all in San Antonio!
 
It looks like Juliet (our Sundowner) may have a busy flying schedule this October. The POA forum meets (tentative)the first weekend in october in Davis WV for the Windwood resort fly in then it looks like we will just have to wander our way south to San Antonio for the BAC fest!
 
I have been to BACFest the last 3 years! What a great time! I just hate that I missed the first one.

But don't you think some flexability should be plugged into this question? Given a more central US location like Wichita or San Antonio, Wed-Sat, leaving 1 travel day home for most of us might be OK. But having it in Myrtle Beach or Santa Maria probably requires 2 days given the performance class of our aircraft and the age of some of our crews.

I spend about 7or 8 weeks a year at the Embassy Suites in San Antonio, free hot breakfast eggs/omlets cooked to order, free happy hour beer/wine/margaritras until 1930, FBO rate $99 to $119 per night. This hotel is at the International Airport, SAT. It is a long way from Stinson Muni, SSF.

There are many great hotels downtown on or very near the river walk which is awesome! This area is some what like a Nawlin's French Quarter (Spanish Quarter) with a small river/water way running down the center. This time of year we should be able to get a really good deal, as the prime tourist rush over. Downtown/riverwalk is not real close to SSF either but not far by Texas standards.

No pressure, BO!

http://search.mywebsearch.com/myweb...san+antonio+river+walk&redirect=GGmain.jhtml&

Sciscoe
 
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