Tips for organizing an ICCC affiliated Regional Gathering
WHAT CONSTITUTES AN ICCC ‘REGIONAL GATHERING’?
A Regional Gathering is basically an invite to get both ICCC and non-ICCC members together to talk about, work on, trade or swap, and generally hang out with your Coleman items in the company of like-minded people. The meetings are friendly, relaxed and informal. Attendees are expected to meet their own expenses unless otherwise stated.
WHO CAN ORGANIZE ONE?
The organizer should be a member of the ICCC in good standing such that the event can be listed on the ICCC website.
HOW MUCH NOTICE DOES IT NEED?
You should begin by planning 4 – 6 months ahead of time.
If you don’t have a definite plan yet and want to get some consensus from prospective attendees, you can use the Coleman Collectors Forum (i.e. the CCF at www.colemancollectorsforum.com) to get things going by posting an announcement in the Gatherings section. You can either post an idea for a regional gathering and ask for dates that work for a majority of people or just announce that there will be a gathering at this campground on this weekend, anyone who’s interested can feel free to join in.
A discussion will spring up and you can all work it out amongst yourselves. When it has been finalized, and there should still be a few months before the event, write up the information you’d like to share with prospective attendees and send it in so our ICCC Webmaster can post it on the ICCC site. If there are changes to your event, notify the Webmaster so your announcement can be updated.
WHAT ARE THE LOCATION CONSIDERATIONS?
Let readers know all about the amenities of the campsite and surrounding area and why it’s a great place to go. People will want to know if there are tent sites or camper hookups, showers, nearby hotels, etc. Include a link to the campsite so people can check it out for themselves. Quite often you can negotiate a special rate with the campsite or local hotels if you can give them an idea of numbers.
HOW DO I TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THE GATHERING?
Look over previous gatherings posted on this website for ideas to see what sort of information you need to provide.
You can send your fully sketched out plans to the ICCC Webmaster to be posted here on the Regional Gatherings page. Give your name and contact details as an official contact for the event in case prospective attendees have any questions (e.g. name, phone, email – whatever you are happy to be posted on the public site). If things change, please don’t forget to notify the webmaster.
If you do this far enough in advance, you might be able to have it announced in the ICCC Newsletter as well (contact the ICCC Editor).
MANAGING THE ATTENDEE LIST
It’s up to you to manage the list of people coming. We won’t post any list of names on the website so make sure you have everyone’s contact details. You will end up being the “Point Man”…
SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH OTHER MEMBERS
After your event is done you can write something up about what a great time you had and send the text and photos to the ICCC Newsletter Editor and it might end up being used as an article. The website announcement can be updated with photos as well – send them to the ICCC Webmaster or ask him to check the CCF for images if you put them there.