STAR 2018 Full survey results

[hhemstreet]

Steve - even with all the beer you could drink and all the food you could eat and a wonderful setting, we could only score a 91% which shows that this is a pretty hard to please crowd!

Some folks are never happy.
 

[DirtFlier]

In Avon, the "free beer" was a 6-pack of normal Budweiser for each room and lots of beer was left unopened.  I know mine was.

Some people gripe about the lack of food or minimal food at the Welcome Reception but honestly, it's a difficult task to know how much food to put out.  I never go to that reception thinking the finger food will be a substitute for a real, sitdown dinner!

One of the difficult tasks with STAR is that it's most often a different hotel each time so the idea of "making it better next year" doesn't easily transfer to another hotel with totally different management.  The Christie Lodge in Avon has been the only facility used more than once as far as I know. 

And I agree with NinjaBob/Louisiana that La Crosse ranks right up there at or near the top!  :-)

[stevegrab]

In Avon, the "free beer" was a 6-pack of normal Budweiser for each room and lots of beer was left unopened.  I know mine was.

Some people gripe about the lack of food or minimal food at the Welcome Reception but honestly, it's a difficult task to know how much food to put out.  I never go to that reception thinking the finger food will be a substitute for a real, sitdown dinner!

One of the difficult tasks with STAR is that it's most often a different hotel each time so the idea of "making it better next year" doesn't easily transfer to another hotel with totally different management.  The Christie Lodge in Avon has been the only facility used more than once as far as I know. 

And I agree with Bob C/Louisiana that La Crosse ranks right up there at or near the top!  :-)

Must have been a different Avon, maybe 2000 or 2006, I was there in 2012 and don't recall the free beer, but had heard about that from other members, something our hosts (RIP Lynn Weas) at the Christie Lodge did.

I believe you're correct about repeat facility, I know a few locations repeated, Taos NM 2010 was the second time, and maybe 1-2 more other than Lexington KY which occurred while I've been a member. The two hotels for Lexington were quite different, first time was Holiday Inn (near outer edge of town right off I-64) second time we were right downtown (The Campbell House).

[NinjaBob]

We used the Sage Brush motel twice in Taos, very nice venue. We used the same motel in Mammoth Lakes both times but I can't remember the name. Another nice place.


Several of the STARS over the years have been part of a truly epic trip for me it is hard to pick a favorite. Sometimes friends you make at a STAR mean as much or  more than the event itself. By the way, a few that know me no I am a Bourbon fan and have been on a quest for the rarest Bourbon of all for the last few years. At the Old Crow bar in La Crosse not 4 blocks from the Radissson we stumbled on some Pappy Van Winkle 12 year!

[Landon]

We all get that most are volunteers, but if you don't want to hear that breakfast was bad or the membership meeting was a downer, then quit asking people for their opinion on what needs improved. The survey was sent and the members gave their honest opinion, that doesn't make them terrible members. Isn't that really the whole point of the survey to see what we can improve and keep people coming back?


As the raffle bike coordinator I absolutely agree with the comment about being hounded to purchase tickets. It's exactly how I felt when trying to sell. Limit tickets sells at STAR, sell them at registration and then at the banquet. Hounding members all week did not produce more sells and people were ready to strangle the volunteers selling the night of the banquet as we had already asked them 20 times that week to buy tickets. Honestly, it sucked.

[HawkGTRider]

I came to much the same conclusion in soliciting donations for the Ride For Kids. For the first few years after taking over from Tom Bartels, I'd plant myself at the door of whatever the venue was for the lunch ride. A few folks made donations, but I don't know that they wouldn't have done so at the banquet anyway. It just seemed like I was making a pest of myself...so I quit. I give up pretty much 2 full days to be in registration and an evening at the banquet. But our folks are already so generous, I don't see how asking them repeatedly would help. Our membership is amazing.


Ok...maybe we could use a few more people to step up to volunteer at the state level.

[RIDEMYST]

..........Hounding members all week did not produce more sells and people were ready to strangle the volunteers selling the night of the banquet as we had already asked them 20 times that week to buy tickets. Honestly, it sucked.

I know the ticket sales at STAR usually push us over the top for showing a profit on the raffle bike. This year’s bike wasn’t one of the more costly bikes that we have raffled and yet the profit margin was tight.....thus the push to sell tickets.
If members aren’t buying enough pre STAR raffle tickets to pay for the bike costs up front and are annoyed at the push for tickets sales at the event to make up for the deficit maybe it’s time we stop doing a raffle bike.
Why take the financial risk? -JEP-



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[brider]

I don't recall (and that could just be me) seeing nearly as much pre star raffle bike reminders on the forum or FB. 

[Patmo]

The balancing act is comparing the cost of printing up and sending out raffle tickets to all members prior to STAR verses the increase in ticket sales that this would bring.  It would  certainly increase the cost of doing the raffle, but will there be enough extra ticket sales to make up for that increase?

Not to mention the amount of time and effort it takes to get those tickets sent out, and just who is going to do that? 

At this point I can’t imagine getting rid of the bike raffle, but somehow we need to make it an MSTA bike raffle and not just a STAR bike raffle.  We need to engage many more members than just those attending STAR.

[NinjaBob]

Among my crowd the raffle bike is a big deal. I think that tickets sales depend a lot on the excitement level of the raffle bike.
I.e. new/or updated and popular in sales and media. Like the Africa Twin. The Versys not so much. Would like to know the ticket numbers for these two models.

[Patmo]

Among my crowd the raffle bike is a big deal. I think that tickets sales depend a lot on the excitement level of the raffle bike.
I.e. new/or updated and popular in sales and media. Like the Africa Twin. The Versys not so much. Would like to know the ticket numbers for these two models.

We sold 12,000 dollars worth of tickets for the Honda, but it had a cost of just over 11,000 dollars.  The Verseys cost about 7500 and ticket sales were just a little short of that...haven’t seen final numbers on it yet.

The one thing that everyone needs to know and understand is that they are not “stuck” with taking that bike.  The dealers that we have worked with in the past have always said that they would be willing to work something out if the winner wanted something different. 


I’ll also point out that in the survey for Colorado Springs we got several comments about the raffle bike.....most were that we needed something that was smaller, less expensive, and more of a Sport Touring bike than the Africa Twin.  The Verseys LT was all of those things.  Yet we sold a lot less tickets....go figure.

[erniee]

What if we offer a choice between two bikes for the raffle. It might be fun to hear why everyone would pick one over the other. It might help with ticket sales.

[RichGrab]

Being a past winner, I for one would hate to see the raffle bike go away - it's a real plus I think. However, with a declining membership, it only makes sense that ticket sales decline too. I was also wondering about the mailing of tickets and if it produced greater sales than the cost of mailing. Not sure what the answer is - maybe since all members get a STAR magazine quarterly, a page or two of tickets could be included there. Then it's up to the member to fill them out and mail them in with payment (or go to the website and do it.) That takes the cost off the club and it could be repeated in a couple issues at no additional cost to the MSTA.

I realize that means needing to know what the raffle bike is maybe before the end of the current year, and that may not be possible. I'm just throwing out ideas, in the hopes that it could spur others to do the same and maybe come up with a solution, or at least some possible options to consider. 

[RIDEMYST]

Getting back on my soap box here.

I just read through Harry’s survey results again, specifically the member comments.

Comment #36 requested more “action” photos of members on their bikes, hit close to home.

As the past photographer I am not offended and I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.
What this comment tells me however is that members don’t understand how these kind of things happen.
I have done the club photography for 12 years and then “stepped down” officially last year. Prior to retiring I had requested on the forum, Facebook and in StaReview for volunteers (hopefully 5 members) to take over that position. I got two! A huge thanks to Luis Santiago and Joe Thomas for stepping up. This year things didn’t work out for both of those guys for valid reasons and they could not attend STAR.
I did the photography, with the help once again, from Bryan Dunlap  (THANK YOU!!!!) but now for the 13th year.

Members need to understand that good things just don’t happen unless people step up and help!

Our EC is working on many important issues for the MSTA and a key issue is getting members to volunteer.

When you see how to make our club better ask yourself what can I do to help. It’s your club, help make it better!

Just my 2-cents. -JEP-



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[Patmo]

We hope to have a raffle bike for 2019 picked sooner rather than later....

We really need to make it an MSTA bike raffle and not just a STAR bike raffle.  The aim should be to have the bike paid for BEFORE STAR even starts.  Figuring out how to do that is the challenge.