DR

Just for clarity sake, Sharks in the Mountains has always been a 928 Specialists event, not an official OC event. For many years the OC has sent sponsorship money to subsidize about half the cost of the free t-shirts to support OUR event and we have promoted and held 928OC membership drives at our event in return.

Unlike the official OCIC events that are funded by the OC and also cost members to attend, 928 Specialists' Sharks in the Mountains event has always been a FREE event paid for completely by Jeannie and I, period!

Keep in mind I am one of the Founders of the 928OC so let's not make this an "OC thing, it's not. IF you need clarity of my part and many years of contribution to the 928OC a quick check of the 928OC DNS records might give you a clue as to my deep involvement and commitment.

Our event started as and has always been "in spirit" a 928 Specialists Customer Appreciation Party, but we have always(and always will) welcomed and encouraged every 928 owner no matter if they do business with us or not.

But, over the years things have gotten to a point that other vendors attend that start selling things out the back of their 928s, passing out business cards, overtly or covertly promote themselves, all while attending a Party that 928 Specialists completely pays for and spends all the time arranging, promoting, and setting it all up.. for over 12 years and literally 6 figures out of our pockets.. I am personally insulted.

While I have been turning a blind eye for a few years in hopes people would act more honorable, it has just worsened to the point that something has to be done. Before I go any farther I want to make this PERFECTLY CLEAR, Roger has never to my knowledge done any of the things I have mentioned, quite frankly Roger is "collateral damage" caused by others. BUT, I cannot, at least this year, pick and chose.

I have been torn and frustrated for many years about what to do about this. You may or may not have noticed but a few years ago I added the "Vendors by invitation only" paragraph on the SITM page in hopes to get people to think twice and/or at least act more respectful to our "non-commercial" event. You also may have noticed over the many years we really don't even sell products at the event, and certainly not to any level that we could. For us Sharks in the Mountains is and has always been a literal "Family Reunion 928 Event", not a commercial vending event, not even for us.

You can beat me up, talk about me behind my back or do or say what ever you please, but just think about this one fact (and it is hard to be forced to write this because I am not or ever want to appear arrogant) .. Name one other couple or vendor that supported the 928 community to the level we have by completely creating, promoting, setting up and funding completely FREE 928 Events, especially the size of SITM, for the 928 Community for the past 12 years in a row...trust me, there have been years past where the choice for us was to pay for Sharks in the Mountains so it would remain free for everyone, or pay our house payment, and I even remember one year when my health problems started that we couldn't buy food for ourselves to make sure we could fund SITM for everyone.

So, everyone can question my decision about getting the vendor problems at our event under control this year, but don't dare ever question the commitment to the people of the 928 Community that Jeannie and I have shown over the last 13+ years.

fraggle

Can I recommend no one post or reply in this thread for a few days? There's a lot of fire and people upset. As someone who's helped run and organize an event, I can get an idea what everyone's going through and I'm sure it isn't fun. I would rather not have the flames of the internet burn up more relationships here.

ew928

Cause picking and choosing would be throwing around favoritism.
And it'd be lot cleaner to just outright ban all.


And WAAaaaaaah!
I didn't get invited to the party.
I'm going to go on Facebook and Twitter all my friends.
Waaaaah.

And I thought I was a vindictive ****.

DR

Afshin,

If anything could be in any way funny today, I find it funny that your comment was something I had been considering the last few years and with the new location had been seriously considering something similar for next year and was part of the reason for my decision this year. As I told Roger I wanted to "get back to basics this year, but had some big ideas for next year".

Unfortunately with current developments I am now reconsidering my future plans, today's "events" shows exactly what my worst fears would be concerning what I had in mind, sad.

928er

I consider Dave and Jeanie great friends. I've known them for going on 10 years. The 928 community is too small for this. I also consider Roger to be a great friend. This is a tough situation for all involved & I think this should be taken offline, between the parties involved. The 928 community is an awesome family, and very diverse. I've always told people that the cars bring us together but the people keep us together. Lets work on keeping that statement true.....

ROG100

For those of you that have posted on this subject please remove the posts in respect for the 928 Community. I have removed my posts.

DR

Stering,

Thanks old pal for your words of wisdom and understanding, it is appreciated.

Yes it is a tough situation, no one knows how much I have agonized over what to do about it for years. What makes the whole situation even sadder and dramatically worse was that it wasn't handled between two men, as you said kept "between the parties involved".

I also heard a rumor you weren't coming now, just so you know you made an old man cry today.

Sometimes real life really sucks!

Dave

DR

Roger,

I am even more saddened to hear you say that, I wish you had told me these feelings more when we talked so we could have talked it out as friends, even more than I "thought" we did.

If there has ever been any true friendship between us on your part I only ask for one small favor in the spirit of truth and honor.

(A) Did I ever say or use the word "Ban", or "Banned" in our conversation in any way ? YES, or NO??

(B) Concerning you not attending, did I say "This year" and that I "maybe had plans for next year" YES or NO ???

If you would please do me the honor of answering those questions, I will consider us "cool" and also "close the book".

Cheers,

Dave

ROG100

A) You asked me to "not attend" you did not say the word banned.
B) You said "not attend and hopefully next year it may be a normal GTG"

We are cool and I love you both - sorry. I still feel sad about it though and we will both miss our annual trip to SITM's

Rick Carter

English politeness and manners, good breeding, well done.

hans14914

Well, I for one think its time to administratively close this thread, and start up a new "Official 2010 SITM Thread" to clear the air, and get everything back on track. It would be nice if the first post had all the event details, and could be edited to reflect any of the neat new activities planned for this year - as a quick reference as time is closing fast.

Thanks,
Hans

DR

Roger,

Thank you so much, you are truly the honorable man I always thought you were!!

I knew this whole "situation" was going to make some people unhappy, not near as unhappy as you and I, but as I said over and over it was not personal.

Hopefully still your 928 pal,

Dave


For everyone else PLEASE do not start or continue the "in-fighting" among the ranks.. PRETTY PLEASE!!

auzivision

I second that motion... all in favor say aye!

DR

Give me a little while to write up the offical announcement with all the new stuff and I will make the Offical SITM post. Hopefully I will have it at least in some sort of sensible arrangement in a few hours.

JPTL

+928