Thread Archive > STAR 2018

STAR 2018 Full survey results

(1/21) > >>

hhemstreet:
All of the textual answers are in here:


http://www.hemko.com/star/surveyresults2018.pdf


The year by year comparison of STAR's (the last eight) are here:


http://www.hemko.com/star/star18surveystats.pdf


Harry

stevegrab:
Of all the STAR's I've attended (12 over 20 years) Avon in 2012 was the only one I recall their being serious amounts of food at the welcome reception, enough that every member had their fill, and there was food left over. I wonder if that is the primary reason for the very high rating for that year's welcome reception. (The Subway in the Christie Lodge prepared [and donated?] a large number of sandwiches, so much that there was some left over the next day or two being offered to members around the hotel during the daytime.) They also had those cool cup cake displays, I know many people who had seconds (and there were still plenty.)

I'm usually resolved to getting little to nothing to eat at these, because there is not often a lot of food, and if you were not there in the first 15-20 minutes it was already picked clean.

This club loves their food, that's for sure ;) 

stevegrab:
Oye, I have to say reading the text comments that some of these people don't want what STAR has always been, they want to make it into their style of event, be it
- make it longer, not enough time
- we don't need a fancy expensive hotel with a banquet room
- have it in September - STAR has been in June for decades, why change it now?


I will have to agree with the comments on the breakfast and the quality of the eggs, but right after this event I was at a work conference at a Marriott downtown Cleveland, and their eggs were just as bad. I just don't think you can make a large batch of eggs (maybe if from real not powdered eggs) and have them taste good as they sit in a warming tray for a period of time. I think the best breakfast I recall was in Taos 2010, with the southwest themed items and the chef (or other staff) there to help us, explain the sauces, etc. It is still great to be able to have that every morning, meet and catch up with other members, meet new members "may we join you?" and do some pre-ride planning.


I also see a recurring theme, well several actually but this one is big and heard this from a new member at the event as well. There are a lot of people looking for pre-planned, pre-organized rides led by somebody else, that they can simply join and have fun. I know that is the idea behind the ride boards, but we cannot force members to lead rides, and many are not comfortable leading a bunch of people they don't know (often on unfamiliar roads). Not sure how to cure this, but maybe help set new member/attendees expectations, so that they understand this is not how our rallies work. Not sure why they expect that, maybe other groups do their rallies like that, or they're accustomed to a poker run or other organized rides.


Set expectations, then people are not so disappointed.

hhemstreet:
Steve - That was great welcome reception in Avon. If you remember they also had keg(s) of beer and you could have as much as you wanted. It was the prefect reception - as much as you could eat and as much beer as you could drink - all provided FREE by the Christy Lodge! Unfortunately - no other venue has ever been or ever will be - that generous.

I have been reading these comments for 8 years and, at first, I wanted to just chuck them all, throw up my hands and say forget about it! However, we have made several improvements to STAR based on the comments. You just have to ignore some of the nastier comments.


It looks (at least to me) like folks don't understand that STAR (and the club) is run totally by volunteers. These volunteers spend a huge amount of time and effort organizing and setting up STAR. We don't / can't predict what the breakfast will taste like, we can't sample the banquet dinner - we are totally at the mercy of the hotel. We could just eliminate breakfast altogether - think how that would go over!


The volunteers do the best they can, and usually it turns out great for the majority of attendees, but there are those who expect it to be perfect.  Of course, if you don't like the way things are going, the best advice is to volunteer! That way you can have a direct influence on how things are organized.

I could go on and on but, like I say, I have been reading and analyzing these for eight years and have come to really treasure the comments that are basically "Thanks for a great STAR".

RichGrab:
OK, I'm filtering through the comments now, and some are just ridiculous. One in particular about concealed carry to me was just not needed.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page