Weve all been challenged when trying to create our volkswalks... but as it says at the end: dont give up. Thought you would like to see this: If at first you don’t succeed…try and try again! In the case of our club, the LoneStar Walkers, it took us SIX tries to find a site for our scheduled Traditional Event on 18 October. I am very pleased to announce that we were finally, finally successful and this avoided cancelling the event. The original walk was scheduled to be held at the Rio Cibolo Ranch on 18 October 2014. We got word that a new, special major event had been booked for that day at the RCR and we were asked to postpone our walk until November (22). We then tried Hardberger Park West, the Walker Ranch, Vintage Oaks, and finally Seguin. Each of these began with very optimistic and highly promising encouragement to use the location, BUT…something always seemed to rear up and we were eventually presented with a “NO, not at this time.” Each time the turn-down caused a delay and we had to once again begin looking for another location. The clock was ticking and time was rapidly running out. Thanks to a very understanding and supportive Director, Southwest Region, each time we were turned down we were able to continue the search process. The Seguin site was, we believed, to be a firm GO. We got approval from the County Judges office to use the county jury garage for the Start & Finish and the like and we were progressing well with our planning efforts. Then, last Friday (12 Sep) we accidentally found out that the City of Seguin has a new ordinance that now requires all group event organizers to obtain an Event Permit. This not only involved a stringent 60-day requirement to meet (meaning the application needed to be submitted two months before the start of an event) but a bunch of other requirements. Here we were 37 days out from the scheduled walk on 18 October. The six page permit application required clearance from five city agencies, as well as liability insurance, fees, layout drawings, health permit, route maps, and numerous other things. WOW! What a blow!! AND…we learned that an event permit was required not only for this Traditional Walk but for our Year Round Event in Seguin (Y1122) as well. We have decided to continue to operate the 2014 Seguin YRE until 31 December this year unless we are forced to close it earlier. The proposed 2015 Seguin YRE has been withdrawn and WILL NOT be operated next year. We analyzed the permit situation and came to the conclusion that the requirements were just too demanding. We were outside of the 60-day window and with a long list of exacting requirements it was just not worth the time and effort needed to get a permit even though we had already spent a considerable amount of time and effort in the planning process as well as personal expenses. Thus, the Seguin site on 18 October was cancelled. Wednesday (17 Sep) we obtained approval to hold our event on the Leon Creek Greenway. The Start & Finish will be at the Leon Vista Park Trailhead and the 10km and 5km routes WILL NOT duplicate YRE Leon Creek- SOUTH (Y0966) and only a couple of hundred meters of the 20km portion of YRE Leon Creek- NORTH (Y1154). Complete details can be found in the Event Listing Section on the AVA website. An Event Brochure for this walk will be available at the Kerrville – Schreiner Park Walk on Saturday/20 September. There were many lessons learned during this episode of finding an event location but a major one is that you to start well in advance and always make every effort to contact key people. This needs to be the first order of business to ensure that you avoid potential future problems. Also, NEVER GIVE UP! It is too easy to “throw in the towel” and walk away. I sincerely hope that none of you will be confronted with a similar situation in the future. Again, our sincere THANKS to Joanne Forinash for her on-going support and ready encouragement for us to not cancel the event. There may be confusion about the location of the walk on 18 October so please let your membership know about the new walk site. THANKS. Heinz Johnson, President LoneStar Walkers
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 01:03:55 +0000
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