Quite a few AHCO members attended the recent Northwest Meet in Harrison Hot Springs, British Colombia, hosted by the Austin Healey Owners Association of British Columbia.  Photographs from the weekend are posted in an events album.

I met up with Tom and Skip Monaco, at their house, on a cool, overcast, Thursday morning for our drive to the Meet.  After Tom finished packing their car and we decided to head north topless (the cars that is), we set off for Longview, to meet Chuck and Barbara Gowen.  Fortunately, and unfortunately, Chuck discovered he’d left his wallet at home, so he and Barbara departed to retrieve it, vowing to catch us farther up the road.  Tom, Skip, and I continued up the back roads of southwestern Washington to Centralia (on a route familiar to those of you who went on the recent Centralia overnighter), where we stopped to refuel at the Olympic Club.

After lunch, we resumed our drive north on the back roads east of I-5, with Tom and then me leading the way.  I missed a couple of turns while in the lead and we did a little backtracking as a result, but nothing too serious.  All went pretty well until late afternoon, when a turn from one road to another, which looked fine on Google maps, turned out to be only an underpass without the option of a turn.  Suffering a lack of what mariners term “local knowledge” of the area and fatigue, we opted to drive onto I-405 at Renton during rush hour.  Traffic moved at a snail’s pace, neither car seriously overheated, and we finally managed to get to Woodinville, the day’s planned objective.  A nice chat at a service station with a fellow, who had owned a 100M and a Bugeye Sprite in a previous life, revealed there were no motels in Woodinville, so we headed on to Snohomish, where we found lots of restaurants and bars, but couldn’t find any lodging there either.  It was dark-thirty by now and we reluctantly drove over to Everett and I-5, where we knew we could find lodging and food, which we did in short order.

Friday morning, we backtracked to Washington Highway 9, and turned towards the border, which we managed to cross a couple hours later without incident.  We made an obligatory stop (at least for me) at a Tim Horton’s, chatted with a couple of locals who were interested in the cars, then drove the final leg to Harrison Hot Springs.  We found the hotel and met up with some earlier arrivees from Oregon, who were in the midst of trying to help John Carter fix his windshield wiper motor.  I went off to find the bed and breakfast where I had a reservation (having been slow to decide to attend the Meet) and spent the remainder of the day catching up with folks, sightseeing around the village, and viewing the recent World Tournament of Sand Sculptures along the lake’s shoreline.  I capped off the day by attending the great welcome reception.  I recall someone saying there were about 70 people at the Meet and it seemed as if half of them were from Oregon or were AHCO members.

I awoke Saturday to overcast, but dry weather.  Since the CBC was forecasting rain showers, I hustled outside and installed the hood and sidecurtains on the Sprite before breakfast, just so I wouldn’t be forced to do it in less convenient conditions later.  After breakfast, I had a soak in the hot springs, then continued sightseeing.  A couple who spotted my Sprite hat waylaid me during my wanderings.  They are in the process of re-building a Bugeye to add to their collection of assorted vehicles and we talked Bugeyes for better than an hour on sidewalk.

After lunch, I gathered with other Meet attendees for a drive to the Othello tunnels, a series of closely spaced, 19^th century, railway tunnels above Hope.  Fourteen or so Healeys and a couple other cars made the trip.  The rail bed is now a hiking and biking trail, which features several interpretive signs about the railroad along the route.  The area the tunnels pass through is very impressive, with vertical cliffs above and below the tunnel mouths and a river winding back and forth between a couple of the tunnels.  After walking through four of the tunnels, admiring the views, reading the interpretive signs about the railway, and taking a few pictures, we returned to the cars and had a great drive back to Harrison Hot Springs.

Saturday evening featured a buffet with salads, breads, vegetables, and a choice of chicken or a gigantic roast beef (it looked like it had come from a small mastodon, at least before everyone devoured it).  Dessert included a selection of fruit and pastries that you could drown in a chocolate fountain.  After dinner, a troupe of tribal fusion belly dancers from Chilliwack (that hotbed of belly dancing) entertained us.  Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening.

Sunday morning dawned even more overcast and damp than Saturday.  After a leisurely breakfast, I made my way over to the Harrison Beach Hotel, where we remaining AHCO members had a brief membership meeting and then prepared to hit the road.  At Walt Harrison’s suggestion, we convened a quick Bugeye photo-op with the four Bugeyes attending the gathering, and then we headed south.  The lines at the Sumas border crossing were slow, but we eventually got through.  When I arrived at the booth, the agent passed on a message that the rest of the group would be waiting for me at the Chevron station up ahead.

The Monacos, the Gowens, and I set off south, after reconvening at the Chevron Station in Sumas, while another larger group of Healeys, mostly AHCO members, stopped for lunch or pie and coffee at a restaurant next door.  We headed back down the same route we’d followed north.  Unfortunately, I became separated in traffic from the others while entering Sedro Wooly and missed the fact that they had pulled off the road, despite the fact that I was looking and they reportedly were waving and honking a car horn.  A few miles past Sedro Wooly, I pulled over and waited for a while, but finally decided to continue on home because I had to go back to work the following day.  I thought I’d try to avoid I-405 at Woodinville this time (which I didn’t) and take another of the small back roads at Puyallup I’d marked on my map (which I couldn’t find).  So, I returned home the rest of the way back on I-5, which other than being boring, was alright for traffic and speed., 

The Sprite and I experienced no major problems on the trip, which capped a summer during which I drove the car to San Diego and Canada without any serious problems.

The following may serve as a reference guide for planning of a Healey Rendezvous.  It was put together by Pat Bolton (wife of Bill Bolton).

As far as AHCO, the President asks that each person interested in chairing the event here in Oregon put together a proposal that will be presented at a club meeting where the membership will determine which one to accept by a majority vote.

The proposals should include information about:

Location - accommodations (should have about 100 rooms), room rates (should be reduced from standard rates through negotiations), restaurants, interesting activities in surrounding area, place to hold popular car show and concours judging, food arrangements for hospitality evening and banquet dinner (if hotel can handle or caterers needed and room available large enough to handle large group), rooms available for any tech sessions planned plus regalia, registration, photo/hobby displays, etc.     Once the club has voted which venue they prefer, it should be determined if the person who presented the proposed site wants to be chairman or if someone else needs to take the job on.  The person presenting the proposed venue generally expects to be the chairman.  The chairman will then make a request for volunteers to take charge of various tasks.

The areas of responsibilities include:

Chairperson - Work with the hotel/motel or resort to make all of the arrangements necessary for extra rooms needed for any tech sessions, regalia, etc., room rates, blocking rooms for the Austin Healey Group, area to be used for car show and concours if they will be held there or at another location, area needed for registration, hospitality and banquet dinner location, parking and security, and any other needs that may arise.  Make arrangements for microphone for speakers.

• Develop a core group of volunteers to take on areas of responsibility.  Meet with them regularly to get progress reports and determine if there are any problem areas that need to be addressed.     There are the basic committee chairs that would always be necessary, but other committees may need to be added for additional activities.  Sometimes we’ve had soap box derbies, funkanas, gymkanas, photo contests, craft contests, etc.
• Develop a budget based on information provided by the committee chairs for each area of responsibility.  This should cover all of those forgotten areas such as phone expenses, postage, envelops, etc.  There will be other areas where the budget will be based on quotes received such as foods, trophies, etc.  If the quotes are obtained many months prior to the meet, I would recommend adding at least 10% anticipating an increase by the time the orders are placed.  I would also recommend adding at least $500 to the budget for miscellaneous costs, those that were unforeseen.
• Once the budget for expenses is complete, project what income is anticipated from the auction and any other income areas except for the registration fees.  The difference will then be used to calculate what the registration fee will be.  I recommend basing the expected income from registration fees on 100 people.
• Report progress and ask for assistance where needed at club meetings each month.
• Contact insurance agent advising of the meet, location and dates.  Also request liability waiver forms that must be at the registration desk for all to participants to sign.  In the past, AHCUSA has insured this meet and provided the waiver forms.  We have always taken their seed money of $1,000 which then legally tied their insurance to the event.  At the end of the meet the seed money has been returned to them.  Check with them to be sure that this is still offered.

Registration - Once all of the pricing has been set for foods, regalia pre-order items, registration fee, concours fee and any other fees, the registration form needs to be designed.  The promotion chair should then be given a supply.

• Receive registrations with payments, send letters to confirm receipt of their registration with total due and total paid, collect any shortages or refund any overages, keep a list of those registered along with all of the events and regalia signed up and paid for, put together registration packets, handle registration desk at the meet along with other willing volunteers.  At the registration desk each registered person must sign the insurance liability waiver.

Promotion - send out packets to the other clubs promoting the event and what other activities are available in the surrounding area.  Send write ups and registration forms to the other clubs.  Check to be sure these items are appearing in the other club newsletters / magazines or on their web site.  Be sure to get registration forms and  regular write ups to AHCO for the Healey Northwest about the venue, points of interest, and progress on planning meet more often than to the other clubs.

Regalia - meet regalia logo needs to be designed.  Designs can be submitted by club members or the meet committee that should then be brought to the general club for a vote.  Quotes should be obtained for cost of several items with the meet logo and then be brought to the committee to decide which items to use.  Place order based on pre-orders through registration plus an additional amount to sell at the meet.

• Develop a group of volunteers to assist with regalia sales and pre-orders at the meet.  Assure that the regalia room or booth is manned during the posted hours and that regalia is secure when not open for business.

Food - work with hotel/motel, resort or caterer to gather menu items and costs for hospitality night and banquet dinner.  Bring information to committee meeting to discuss options and decide on foods to be served.  Be sure to include gratuities that will be charged in addition.  Make all arrangements for foods and quantities based on registration numbers plus a few that may register at the meet (this is usually a low number).

• Work with concours chairman to make arrangements for judges food and drinks that may be needed.
• If there is to be beer and wine offered to the registrants at hospitality night, provide costs to the committee to determine which should be purchased and place order with the hotel/motel, resort or caterer.  Tickets will need to be included in each of the registration packets for the free beer and wine.

Trophies - find several options and pricing for awards to be presented.  Once the various events have been determined, the committee should decide how many trophies / awards will be presented based on number of events and whether to award 1st and 2nd only or 3rd place also.  Place order, pick up when ready and deliver to the meet.

Sponsors - if desired, this position would make contacts with businesses to sponsor an event.  A sponsor fee schedule should be decided in the committee.

Accounting - all of the income and expenses should go through the club’s Treasurer.  The registration fees collected by the registration person will be forwarded to the Treasurer.  Accounting for the meet should be separate from other club income and expenses.  If there is an auction, sit at the table for collection of monies.

Popular Car Show – set up layout for car show, placement of ballot boxes and organize a team of people to help.  Organize your group to set up for placement of cars and ballot boxes prior to car show, direct people to where their car should be parked, collect ballots and count votes at the end of the day.

Concours - speak with Bill Bolton to see what should be included on the registration form.  This is a self-supported endeavor.  Registration fees are paid to the concours committee to cover their costs.  Food and drink arrangements may need to be made for the judges.

Auction - if it is decided to hold an auction, the items donated need to be received by this person, logged and organized into silent auction and oral auction items.  The items need to be kept in a secure room prior to the auction.  Move items to room and organize layout prior to auction.  Volunteers will be needed to assist and to collect monies.  One person at the table collecting payments will need to write down the auction item and registration number of the highest bidder.  The Treasurer for AHCO should be at the table with 2 to 3 other helpers.  In the past, Jim Morrison of Vancouver, BC has been an excellent auctioneer since he knows how to work the crowd to get the most income.  His significant other, Elaine, has worked well with him in the past to organize the auction items also.

Tours - lay out self guided tour(s) and a guided tour or a poker rally or a timed rally with questions about items along the way to be answered.  Organize and lead tour or check people out of the gate and returning for the rallies.  For the rallies, keep record of the times and poker hands or correct answers.   Hospitality Night – the President of AHCO should be prepared to speak briefly to welcome everyone and kick off the meet.

Trophy / Award Presentations – Determine when, where and who will make the presentations.

Banquet Dinner – Determine if there will be any speakers and who.