[Greg Reid]

I got an email invite from the host club and decided to mention my concerns to him in regard to the locale change. He actually wrote me back the same day and I thought I'd post his response here. Totally understandable in this light...

Hi Gregory,

You are right that the Marriott parking lot was a great venue. In our 35 years of putting on the BOP & BOPC their lot was used the majority of the years.

The main reason we had to pull away from the Marriott was the difficulty in working with recent management and the increased cost of using their venue. In recent years the management changed and they no longer wanted our show. The parking lot went from being a way for them to make money on rooms, dinners, guest services, and show lunches -- to the major money making part of their BOPC revenue stream. They began charging our clubs for the use of the lot. It became a major source of our show expense. Then they scheduled hotel renovations during the show and removed parking spaces. They allowed non-show cars to park in the lot that we were renting and refused to have them towed. They kept raising the cost of renting the lot. At the end our Non-Profit, Charity event was paying the lion's share of our show net income to the Marriott. I'm sure you realize that our show profits are doled out to charities over the years when our club is not hosting the show. We host the show every four years and split the profits (and any other income to our club like dues) to various charities over a four year period. When you figure up the amount of club members' effort required to put on the show, plus normal show expenses. it is heartbreaking to have to remit most of the net profit to the hotel and not have a decent return for funding our charities.

Our choice was to:
1. Discontinue the show and disappoint the BOPC group and just reduce our charity funding,
2. Go with the show at the Marriott with only a little more money to send to charities,
3. Have the show at the church for free (we will however be giving them a donation based on our net income)

I'm attaching a GOOGLE picture of the back church parking lot that will be used for the show field, Vendors spaces, & Car corral. there are picnic tables under the trees near where the food vendors will be that aren't shown. There are also additional areas that we will be able to park spectator cars as well.

If you are in the area Friday night before the show, you are invited to our "Meet & Greet" at the Cherokee Cattle Company. Our host club, Southeastern GTO Association is providing snacks & soft drinks. A cash bar and cash dinner are also available at the restaurant where we will be meeting.

Thanks again for your participation.

Hope to see you in April.

Best,
Ed