National 2024 - Ellesmere Port 01/08/2024 - 05/08/2024

[keanej]

At the national we announced the location for next year, a few miles from Chester at the bottom of the Wirral is the former Shell Sports and Social club site where the 2024 national will be held. A large site with onsite bar & kitchens open daily, huge entertainments hall, large flat grounds for camping and plenty of space for show and shine.
The Whitby Sports & Social Club
Dunkirk Lane, Chester Road,
Ellesmere Port,
West Cheshire
CH65 6QF
There should be something for everyone, Roman Chester a short trip by car or train, Liverpool One and the Docks just the other side of the Mersey again by train or car, Cheshire Oaks shopping centre practically within walking distance for those that like shopping, Chester Zoo and Blue Planet Aquarium as a sample of tourist attractions for the whole family. Interesting sites to visit such as the Anderton Boat Lift, Boat Museum, Engine Museum and as we will be on the boarder with North Wales we have the whole of Snowdonia, Cheshire, The Wirral and Welsh Borders to choose from for some fantastic runs

[John A Ross]

Looks a great site John and loads around to keep folks busy

Team line up looks great, sorted

.

[oli]

Postcode?

[Uncle Henry]

It "could" be this one perhaps ?

Dunkirk Ln, Chester Rd, Whitby, Ellesmere Port CH65 6QF

Google search for Shell Sports and Social, Ellesmere Port.

AG

[bazzateer]

Site looks good. North Wales roads look better

[phatbob]

Site looks good. North Wales roads look better

Patience dear boy, patience...

[spares]

BTW for anyone who hasn't read Impressions, the National 2024 Web site is here:

https://www.impnational.uk/imp2024

Includes details of site and how to get there plus activities over the weekend.

Any questions please contact Me, John or Gary.

[Social Media]

Booking is now live for club members:

https://www.theimpclub.co.uk/events/nat ... 4-booking/

[Uncle Henry]

As in previous years, I believe an explanation is needed regarding costs : does EVERYBODY need to have an Event Pass for the duration ( or a Show and Shine Pass for Sunday ONLY). On top, if camping, do you need a Camping Pass for each night ? As already stated, a family group of 4 might need to find £120 just to get in, plus around £208 to stay in the same tent ! If correct, this will likely price Imp enthusiasts out. Just saying....

AG

[The Nun]

Eventbrite ? Does this mean there's effectively a booking fee charged too in the price as it says if you have to cancel their fee is not refundable?

[Uncle Henry]

Yes, I guess so. Many events are now run this way, and although it takes the stress and strain away from volunteers, it adds horrendous cost. Our local classic car event went from a nominal £5 contribution to £10 virtually overnight because of using third party fee collections.

AG

[John A Ross]

Peter / Andy

I asked the question to confirm the costs and just had the response that indeed there is roughly a 7% booking fee which was not evident when the solution was presented or at least not in the budgets.

This point and the potential cost got past me unoticed. It would have kicked off another direction entirely if I had spotted it but I didn't fellas. I can only apologise for that.

The basis on which the booking model will be forthcoming shortly as it is not a secret. I have no more knowledge than you guys at present.

My current understanding currently as of today is

There is the event pass (per adult) kids are free and defined as being under 16.

A familly (2 adults plus kids) camping 4 nights with 2 event passes for the adults works out at £160 (ish)

There is also a daily charge for the site facilities and camping (per adult) regardless if they are all in same tent or seperate tents.

Now this is an assumpltion, so I may need to correct myself as I am waiting for confirmation, the concept of a "pitch" as we would think of it has gone.

As each adult is sharing the cost of all the site services evenly, showers, toilets etc. the cost has been divided up evenly and then per night. If you have 2 tents, 3 tents makes no difference. So attendees only pay an even share based on what they use.

The costs I am looking at for showers/toilets alone would work out at £30pp and that does not include trophies entertainment.

I am making no case for the costs one way or another as I am no better informed than you guys at present but will be over the next few days.

Event wise the costs have topped almost £30k I believe and Elsemere has turned out to be a particularly exensive event but the guys have everything planned down to the last I and T so I am sure it will be worth it.

Original costsing (at least 4 months old) and costs have increased as more shower blocks were needed, bigger tanks to store waste and be emptied etc and of course add waste cassette emptying capability for those in caravan or motorhomes.

The man hours that has been put into this particular national has been nothing short of extraordinary as the N2024 team had to fill in shortcomings in the clubs existing systems and obtain licenses etc which we should have had years ago.


No secrets, any queries i will go get the answers as it is members (your) money.

first costings elsemere port.jpg

[impmann]

Thanks for sharing this John.

I must admit to being a little surprised at the cost for this year's event, but equally, the cost of *everything* has gone up. So, it is what it is for this year and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the guys have laid on for this year's event - and would like to thank them for stepping forward to do this. Its often a thankless task... and everyone else seems to think they can do it better. FWIW - I don't think I can do it better, but there is a discussion to be had regarding the future.

Perhaps we need to rethink how we approach National going forwards in this financial climate as not *every* Imp owner has significant disposable income and we need to acknowledge this. National has morphed significantly over time from a weekend to effectively a week - especially for the organisers, on top of the huge burden of work to organise lots of other activities beyond a beer tent and field to display your car. The show and shine element, again, has morphed - and I have my own personal views about "judging" each other's cars, as most of you know - and I can see the costs of this aren't small any more because IMHO, some folks take this wayyyyyy too seriously. Some of the other elements that have now become accepted as "part of" an Imp Club National have morphed... and picked up costs. That balance sheet represents a lot of money - and I'm 100% certain that every effort has been taken to ensure its as low as it can be for what we currently do.

The core of people who always attend won't like any changes - especially if it "lessens" the event to them - but equally they don't represent all of the membership (although they may shout very loudly at times). But I think change has to happen, to lessen the cost impact to the club *AND* those attending the event - and to make it more universally appealing. Lets be honest, its the same people attending the same Social Events year-on-year... and a lot of folks *don't* come. Why? Cost? Not for them? Too far? We don't really know...

Most of the other car clubs I have been involved with limit their National (or International) events to either a weekend or a day. As such the overheads plummet - if folks want to stay nearby the event, the club gives details of hotels, campsites etc. They also tend to use car-friendly sites, rather than sports clubs, which already have toilet facilities etc - so whilst the venue costs more money, there are less incidentals and less organisational challenges. Track days are organised as stand-alones rather than tack-ons to National or the National event is held at a motorsport location.

I agree that the Saturday night social event is probably core to our National - and so I'm not advocating a day-only event. I do believe the majority of people want to be there for that, plus the Sunday where you get to see all the cars. What I am saying is, lets look at the other days/elements that have become "part" of National to see if there is a more cost-effective way of having those elements but not part of an all-singing-all-dancing event to bring costs down to make it more attractive to more people. Lets look at other event locations too - tbh, I'm getting bored of Rugby Clubs and the likes. I know *why* we use them, but equally you've seen one, you've seen them all...

Final point is the time of year we do this - it is the most expensive time of year. Its high summer. And as we all know, high summer is no guarantee of good weather in the UK. I know *WHY* this point in the year was chosen years ago, but in view of the age of the majority of the membership now its no longer as relevant (I say that as a parent myself) and it adds to the overall costing of hosting the event. Its also fair to say that certain venues are not available to us for the event *because* of this date in the year - especially in parts of the country where folks tend to go on holiday. And that is why we end up using Rugby Clubs and the likes... its a viscous circle. Lets at least *LOOK INTO* what else is available at other times of year.

Its worthy of a *proper* discussion IMHO - not a shut down on here by those who instantly knee-jerk disagree - and just because its the way we have "always done it" doesn't mean its the best for right now.

The above is not meant as a dig at *ANYONE* as I think all the volunteers that do this deserve our undying respect and admiration. I just believe that we can improve all sorts of parts of this and that's something to aim for, isn't it?

[John A Ross]

Tim

There are no secrets or shenanigans. All the information, documents and so on as far as I am concerned belong to the members so if they are asked for and I have access, they will be forthcoming.

I pushed the committee for the N2024 team to have as much autonomy as possible to prevent arrangements being bogged down and to date the amount of work they have accomplished, the systems within the club that were broken that they have put right has been a massive effort and the level of organisation is nothing short of impressive and I rarely say that

A lot of the changes surround a big shift from renting a pitch to dividing up the event facilities between all the adults. The latter in principle is a far fairer model to share the costs. Saying that I cannot reconcile easilly myself where some of the numbers I have had thrown at me have come from.

Result is everyone can bring their own tent, or two or whatever. Motorhome, 2 tents, gazeebo, fill your boots as every adult is, as I understand it, entitled to their own pitch.

I have other issues Tim, not actually N2024 related and it has left me winded around some of the expenditure as a previous initiative if it has been supported would have actually saved us a fortune on the booking fees and gave us bonus capability far in excess of one event. I wish I had fought harder after being voted down I had to let the N2024 team go their own way with online booking.

So to prevent anything being misquoted, mis-interpreted or otherwise the intent being skewed by channelling any queries through me, I would invite anyone to email the national team directly.

The email is national@theimpclub.co.uk for john keane and others

The Teams email is National2024@theimpclub.co.uk

.