You do have some good points Matt, local runs are the essence of the club…
But, you mentioned the number of cars at Cromer this was due to the amount of areas involved and the weather, we would never achieve anything like that in the Eastern Region on its own, although I would love to be proved wrong!
In January Martin and i stood up and invited all present to organize runs on a voluntary basis, we even offered to pay peoples petrol money for doing it, and apart from one run (which has been put on hold and may be run ad-hoc just as you have suggested), the calendar reflects all that volunteered, please take a look, there are still events that need volunteers! But personally i was very pleased with the response.
The shift toward some larger events is in some way in addition to local ones, this is due to feedback we received last year, whilst a few of us are happy to go and purely drive, many like the social side after wards and socializing is always better at a nice venue such as Duxford or Merc World, these venues are also ideal for inclement weather, the drive and the visit to a venue constitute the best of both worlds, and people are more than welcome to disappear after just the drive part, as many did with Duxford.
The cost is another factor we have considered, venues like Merc World are completely free to get in to and at venues like Duxford we have tried hard to find money saving measures such as Tesco clubcard points, to save as much money as possible, the Picnic in the park event later this year has free entry to Sandrigham Scenic Drive so the only cost will be fuel and a picnic.
It has to be noted that Ad-Hoc runs are somewhat of a problem, unless properly researched for both parking, catering and loo stops we would rightly be open to criticism for organizing a run with no facilities, the majority are not happy to pee in a field and would certainly not be happy if the route for the run had roadworks blocking it. You could research a run and keep it on hold, but not many people are willing to put that much effort in, organizing a run just for it to just go onto a shelf and not know when the fruits of their toil will be used. But despite all this as we said earlier we are considering doing one ad-hoc run during the summer with probably little more notice than an e-mail a couple of days beforehand.
Looking back at last year here: http://www.mmmjaycee.f2s.com/ERevents08.pdf
There were 5 “local” runs, organized by the Eastern Region (the Fish and Chip run was organized by Northampton totally last year)
In 2009 here: http://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/forums/t/2280.aspx
There are 10 “local” runs, (we organized the Fish and Chip fun from Thetford this year) not including the ad-hoc one, or the Monopoly run down to Brooklands this Sunday.
Ady has a good point point about runs to monthly meets, although all of the attendants to last months Suffolk meet managed to get around just one table (Norfolk meets have also been low on numbers during the winter) and assuming they all came from the same direction, it would have still been a very small run, but probably still worth while, as i think the more we do at the meets the more people will come. It has worked well at the Norfolk meet which this year has two runs departing from the meet venue and returning an hour or so later so all attendees get the chance to run it.
As always Martin and I look forward to all offers of help, this years full calendar is taking some doing! I realize you appreciate the effort that goes in, and I hope this in some way answers some of your questions, as i said at the start, the runs are the essence of the club and I hope to see as many members on as many runs as possible this year.
Thanks for your comments, all feed back is always welcome[:D]
Jamie