Pony club suggestion

[Irish stargazer (John)]

Hi

As a relative newbie and at the risk of becoming unpopular I would like to suggest a possible course of action regarding the monthly viewing night at the PC. While I understand that this is an informal meeting and is not associated with any club or owners as such, I feel that it needs at least some limited organisation, as left to its own devices it will result in chaos and only be of benefit to those members who live locally and who probably have a plan B if things go wrong. Last night was a good example, where with the very best of intentions by all concerned,some people made the trip out to the PC for nothing and turned around and went home.
Could we as a group

1. Nominate two or three observing coordinators (only need one per month), preferably key holders who are

A. Willing to act as coordinators
B. Will contact the PC to check all is OK for that one night a month
C. Will send out a post to confirm the event is on or not two or three hours beforehand
D. Will turn up with a key at the prearranged time, even if it is only for 30 minutes (if say the weather is 50:50) so that a group decision can be made to stay or not. This needs to be a commitment if the event is a go (as posted). You will find more people will turn up even if the weather is a bit iffy if they know someone will be there.
E. if unavailable make sure another coordinator is nominated in advance.

If I lived locally I would be very happy to do this. Would anyone volunteer?
Do people want to leave as it is? I won't be risking another trip to the PC unless something is done. I've had to turn back too many times and not being a native or local, have no plan B.

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Originally Posted by Irish stargazer

Hi

C. Will send out a post to confirm the event is on or not two or three hours beforehand

According to your status, I thought you were online when i posted the Pony Club was unavailable and that we were looking for another site.
And
When also I posted the other site was the sporting Oval on Bloodtree road.

Additionally, Greg left a note on the gate at the Pony Club to tell any late comers we were at the oval on Bloodtree road.

I don't see what more could be done.

Afterwards, I checked the Calendar of the Pony club (something anyone can do ifd they are interested enough to google, and nothing was showing for this weekend.?
But...
Unbeknownst to me however, was that there was a separate calendar on a separate site for another club showjumping club that shares the site.

If I had some contact details for those who had posted they were coming, I would have contacted you, as it was, I saw your on line status and thought I had done so.

At the risk of this post being closed (like another threatened) I simply suggest anyone coming who wants to be updated if a change occurs, puts a contact number on a register somewhere.

Hope this helps.

[Deeno]

There is a member who has a contact within the Pony Club who was away last weekend. I think if I don't get the OK from him, I wont bother wasting time with the Pony Club.

I pulled up behind Greg when I arrived and then saw John going up the driveway so, I followed him in to see if anyone was there and if a message had been left.

Greg will probably mention to someone in around four months time that he saw us..........

[Shano592 (Shane)]

What I will say is this, then I wash my hands of it.

Greg, Geoff and I all arrived at the PC around 4pm, to see it in it's occupied state.

Greg called Allan to let him know, so that we could try to at least get a message to anyone who may have been online. We know that at least several potential attendees saw the message and acknowledged it.

None of the three of us wanted to give up, while there was daylight, so we looked for an alternate site. We were informed, by a local real estate agent, that the sports field on Bloodtree Road may do the trick for us, and that after dark, there was little traffic.

It turned out to be alright, and Greg went back to try to catch anyone who was already there, and to leave a notice for anyone arriving later.

In the end, we had 3 dobs, a Meade coffee grinder and some large binos in action, with 6 individual arrivals, plus Bones and Paul later in the evening.

I like John's (Irish Stargazer) suggestion for a notification system, but I don't know of anyone of us who lives within 45 minutes of the Pony Club. I live up past Lake Haven, Allan lives near Tuggerah Lake, and a lot of the other viewers live beyond Gosford. On top of that, phone reception at the PC is very dependent upon your carrier.

In summary, I am completely satisfied that we did what we could, with the information and technology at hand, to notify as many people as best we could. I'm sure that after this event, if an offline register is created, then at least an sms broadcast can be made.

Until then, it is what it is.

[Zincberg (Andrew)]

I dont see a reason for this thread to get heated or anywhere NEAR needing to be closed, we are mature adults that I am sure can conduct a conversation without it needing to turn into a $&@! fight.

I tend to agree that there is a level of frustration involved in arriving to the PC and having it "not accessible" and putting steps in place to set up a "contact" system would be great.... but...
at what point does it become unreasonable for someone to have to arrive a certain time earlier than everyone else.. so they can make the call? in other words, if it takes one person interested in visiting the pony club 45 minutes to get there from their house, then the designated person needs to be at the pc at LEAST 50 minutes prior to everyone else. what if someone wants to come from Wollongong..or Campbelltown? does our designated person get up there 2 hours prior.. and make the yay or nay call then?
I'd be happy to volunteer to be there early.. within reason. but everyone relying on me, or whomever takes this responsibility has to understand that things happen outside of anyone's control... and there still might be times when you turn up and it all goes to crap in a hand basket.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

The other thing is ... this wasn't a Pony Club event. It was a separate Showjumping Club, which also has tenancy. None of those attending on Saturday night knew anything about this club, and it was only Allan's finely honed Googling skills that uncovered a meeting at the PC venue.

[Irish stargazer (John)]

Gentlemen, please note that nobody was at fault, it was just the circumstances and the fact there is no formal system. I have seen SMS text alerts used very effectively in cases like this as you can alert everyone in real time without worrying about 3G reception. We just need a list of those who want to be notified and set up a group listing. ?

[Amunous (Michael)]

Why don't we just change the venue to the oval that everyone visited? Its not locked up as far as i know, and we don't have to worry about conflicting schedules and what not.

A lot of people have said that the only reason we go to the pony club is for the club house. If they are just going to be obstinate and not give us a key to it then why bother going there when there is a suitable place just around the corner, that we don't have to beg access to does not require a key, is not event reliant and will negate side fence arguments.

[erick (Eric)]

May I hear a little more about the Bloodtree Road site - the "Mountain Districts Sports Park". Extraneous lighting - flood, street? Access to "observing field"? Any undercover or toilets accessible? I note the airport is next door, but I suspect it is daytime, light aircraft only?

[Zincberg (Andrew)]

I don't think the blood tree oval is a good "all the time" venue. although it was better than my backyard, there are some fairly dominant lights there. I would say its an "ok plan B" at best.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Definitely a Plan B site.

There are some quite strong fluorescent lights next door to the north, and they wash out the area where we eventually set up the other night. If not for Allan's rolling hotel, it probably would have been a total bust on the night.

On the street, there are 2 street lights, with one being a phosphorous globe. From memory, the other was white light. I think they were around 100-150m away.

We ended up setting up in the car park's east end, as there was no open vehicle access to the playing fields. If one was keen to carry their gear back and forth, then the southern section of the playing fields is completely obscured from lighting. A locked council access gate is the only way in.

There is a changeroom / toilet block, but it was locked up tight on Saturday. Wilderness toilets were available everywhere. Sorry Carly ... probably not the news you would have wanted.

Bones mentioned that there was a slight breeze blowing at the Pony Club. At Bloodtree Rd, there was not even a hint of a breeze. Not sure if it means anything though, as it is still a very open site.

A couple of cars cruised by each hour (road to the west), but from where we were, they were only noticed if they came into the car park. Very little stray light from the headlights.

If we could get onto the sports fields, south of the clubrooms, then it would be a really nice alternate site.

I thought I heard somewhere that in summer, there may be night sports events here too. So that would be a problem. There are the obligatory huge flood lights over the sports fields, which would be activated from within the clubroom building.