Christmas Rally - what is your preference?

We want to know what you prefer.

The last two years the Dogwood Christmas rally has been held in Virginia Beach at the Holiday Trav-L-Park. Prior to that the Christmas rally was held at the American Heritage campground in Williamsburg for a number of years.

If you haven't been to American Heritage, there are 2 adjoining meeting rooms each with a small kitchen. There was some general discontent with American Heritage as we felt that they were not attentive to the needs of Dogwood. In particular, they would not guarantee Dogwood use of both meeting rooms unless we guaranteed that we would have at least 30 coaches attending the rally. At that time, we typically had attendance of 25 to 30+ coaches, but couldn't guarantee 30. We felt though that we needed both rooms to accommodate our group. Attendance at the Christmas rally has dropped to 15-20 coaches the past 2 years. Our reduced attendance may be a result of location or other factors such as decline in economy, snowbirds have already left town, or for other reasons.

Prior to selecting Holiday Trav-L-Park, a group of members checked out campgrounds looking for other options for the Christmas rally.  A requirement for this rally is that there be an indoor meeting room for our festivities.  If you have any other suggestions for locations for this rally, and are willing to follow up on them, please let us know.

Below is a generalized summary of the pros and cons of the two locations currently being considered for the 2011 Dogwood Christmas rally.

Virginia Beach - Holiday Trav-L-Park

+ Nice large meeting room with kitchen facilities.

- Members must climb stairs to get to the meeting room on the second floor.
+ No extra charge for use of the meeting room.

+ Nice large, paved campsites with full hookups including cable tv.

- Navy jets flying overhead can be noisy.

+ Cost of campsite per night is $38.42.
+ We have reserved this site for 2011. 

Williamsburg - American Heritage

+ Area activities = outlet shopping, Colonial Williamsburg, Grand Illumination

- We can only have one meeting room unless we can guarantee 30+ coaches will attend; however one room may be sufficient to accommodate us if have less than 20 coaches. If there are 2 rally groups, the larger group gets the larger room.
+ No extra charge for use of the meeting room.

+ Campsites have full hookups including cable tv.  Sites are shaded so some may have problems getting satellite reception.
- Cost of campsite per night is $42.90 if 10 or more coaches register or $51.98 (or $46.78 if you have a Good Sams, AAA, AARP or Active Military card) if less than 10 coaches register.   

+ Location is more centralized for the majority of Dogwood members

We need your input on the rally location. Williamsburg is currently a choice but may not be available unless we make a commitment soon.  As usual, the voice of the majority will rule.  Let your voice be heard by emailing fmcaDogwood@gmail.com or calling Mann at 804-873-1328.  

We still need volunteers to host the Christmas rally, so if you are willing to help call Fairleigh Schooler at 804-443-3844 to put your name on the list.