Next Spotting Weekend

[Stuart Trevena]

Hi All,

When is the next planned Spotting weekend?

I maybe finally be able to attend it.

Stuart

[Lawrie L]

was wondering why no one replied back....

[Ian Gains]

Because there isn't one planned ? Just a thought.

[Kurt A]

Hi all,

Unfortunately there are no plans in place for another official "Spotting Weekend" at this stage. As has been mentioned previously, over the past 3-4 years I and others have observed that you can almost pull in more of a crowd on Shep's Mound by just visiting it on any Saturday than we could by organising a 'planned weekend'.

For this reason it makes no sense to hold a special day or weekend for spotting when everyone is doing their own thing, and on almost every weekend themselves anyway.

For the added extras like the Annual Dinner, Trivia Night, breakfast on the mound or the lunch time BBQ etc; dwindling attendance numbers really doesn't justify all the work to get it organised.

I've really enjoyed putting on the Spotting Weekends since Shep's departure in 05, but along with fixing an appropriate date, trying to round up people to come to the dinner/trivia and also encouraging people to meet in one location to hang out, catch up and meet new people; I've found that a lot of people, or groups of people, just prefer to do their own thing, spot where they want to, keep to themselves and rather not participate in an organised event as such. And this is fine too, each to their own.

This is not to say that I won't ever organise one in the future, it's just that I can't justify organising something official when there is almost a Spotting Weekend just as good out there every weekend

I don't however hold any ownership or sole control over these events, so throwing it back to the members as I've done before, I freely encourage any others who may be willing or interested to go ahead and organise something on everyone's behalf, to actually do so. If people on this Forum feel strongly enough about having a 'gathering', then let's use this thread to discuss it. You could also poll the group to determine who would be interested in a dinner on a particular date, or a stand alone trivia night etc?

Maybe it's not even a dinner or trivia night that people would be interested in coming along to, maybe it's something else I've not heard of yet. But let's hear what people are interested in?!

With regards to other formal events organised by myself in conjunction with SACL at YSSY, like last years airside bus tour, something similar may still be planned in the coming future. I am in regular discussion with SACL and we may try to plan something again in the new year but there are no promises and I have nothing to report as yet.

[Ian Gains]

Great update Kurt. Thank you.
For us interstaters, a few of us have got to know quite a few of the regular locals, so we catch up at the mound, or at Ranz, depending on the time of day.
The St George Rowing Club is a reasonable venue to have a cooling ale & a feed at the end of a good day's spotting/photographing.
Might be seeing yo'all there on Australia Day weekend.

[Craig Murray]

Originally Posted by Ian Gains

so we catch up at the mound, or at Ranz, depending on the time of day.

Ranz! There's a phrase I haven't heard in a long time!!!!

[Tim B]

Perhaps we could have a "working bee" one Saturday to chop down a couple of trees, move a few light poles and perhaps move a building a few metres away from the line of sight of the runway.

[Robbie J]

Photographers will always (or should, at least) plan their spotting around the right lighting (time of day) and weather conditions for the best shots. That generally isn't a group decision. If you put on another Spotters Weekend, pray for sunshine.

[Philip Argy]

If anyone is wanting to organise an event for a large number of people, here's a great tool: www.thebestday.com