Janet lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and one neurotic Border Collie. Forum rallies are camping get-togethers organized by forum members. Each rally is unique and designed by our members to meet their interests and needs. There is no formal process to make a rally an "official forum rally" and the forum offers no substantial support other than encouragement and internet space for planning. Forum rallies are independant, member driven events but any rally including rallies sponsored other organizations may be posted on our rally calendar.
Once you have chosen a date and location, get to work on the details. Generally rallies are either planned substantially by one person or in a more free form fashion by the folks attending. In either circumstance, you can use a forum discussion thread to hammer out details and get attendance information.
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Post a rally listing on the forum rally calendar and include a link to your new thread as well as links to information about campgrounds, local tourism, etc.
Design a rally graphic. The forum offers ad space for rallies at no cost to our members. These will substantially increase visibility for your event and improve attendance. These graphics are in rotation on the right hand column on each page of the forum and will contain a link to your calendar posting. Rally graphics should be exactly 125 x 125 pixels, visually interesting and text should be kept to a minimum. If you don't want to do your own design we can help. Contact a forum moderator for help with this.
Use your Rally thread to involve others and encourage participation
Plan or discuss meals. Meals can be simple potluck meals, catered extravaganzas, restaurant runs, BBQ pits, pizza deliveries, group or individual meals or anything else that works for your group. Consider posting a menu and then encouraging those attending to contribute items on the menu. Don't forget the plates, utensil, condiments and firewood.
Plan or discuss activities. Some rallies have organized activities, tours, special guests, demonstrations or even classes. Other rallies have no activities and are deliberately designed to be free form, relaxing and unstructured. Make sure that those attending understand any costs involved. Planing a rally does not mean that you have to foot the bill.
Share the work - learn to delegate! Enlist folks to help with set up, cleanup, meal prep, parking, kid activities or whatever you anticipate needing help with; remember you are supposed to be on vacation!
Share the fun. When your rally is over, post some pictures to your rally thread! Show us a great location, a happy camper or Airstreams in their natural habitat!
Rally Planning Checklist
- Choose a rally location and dates
- Post your rally thread
- Post to rally the calendar
- Contact a forum moderator about a rally graphic
- Reserve a venue or post about reservation details
- Plan meals and activities or post to encourage group planning
- Go camping and have fun!