It's difficult to know what to say....
Rachel will tell you from our chats beforehand that I was a little disappointed with the low numbers this year; at one stage actually quite worried. Two weeks before we only had 22 cars! Considering it was my first year in control of JAE (yes i did the bulk in 2011 but I had Alan and VC to keep me on track). Of course, i know i made mistakes, i know i can do things better next year. But without doing things wrong sometimes, you cannot see how to improve them.
So were some people put off coming by the position of the stand? Possibly.
Was it really an issue? In my opinion yes, i f**ked up and freely admit it.
Did it make a difference (aside walking) to us? Not really.
Will it happen again next year? Absolutely not!!
But what happened was something really quite special. The smaller attendance pulled EVERYBODY together, it was quite incredible. For the IKO contestants and watchers it was a choice, keep walking backwards and forwards all day or just stay and watch. I'd say we had 70% of the people on the stand over by the IKO. What this gave us was a good group to choose from when people were unable to continue with events or start in the first place - we were never short of volunteers.
. Entering 3 or even 4 teams in some events.
For that guys, i cannot thank you enough.
Next... Supporters!
Well; with 70% at the IKO we were never short of this. As the big man Justin said, all that cheering certainly made a huge difference getting through that 20-30 seconds of pain .... and believe me, it feels way longer when you're actually doing it.
I don't mind telling you that Sunday morning i was a little emotional. Yes, some of that will be down to my lover driving off to the opposite side of the country and not seeing her for a few weeks but more than that.... It was the end of another great JAE. After all my worries and fears it had been nothing short of EPIC. All friends together, the heart and soul of the club is not those that run it but those that make it. With attendance 40% down we took more trophies (and places (2nd, 3rd & 4th) than ever before.
I don't mind saying that with the loss of all of last years planning team (aside me) i had lost a bit of my JAE mojo. Alan, Paul and Tony are 3 good friends whom made Thursday night for me very enjoyable. Some of the chats we had will stay with me for a very long time. This year though, new team, new conversation, new laughs. Not better or worse, just different. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend - despite ending Saturday exhausted and broken!
Team ..? No
I agree with Red (never bring this up again
) .... Family
So finally from me in this, a huge thank you to the guys that massively helped me put this all together.
Andyroo
Chris
Shinny
and Vinny
The trick next year is to boost the attendance and maintain the team/family feel
My favourite JAE yet.
