Two Years in the making : SCOM / SHINDIG 2024

Two years ago, few of us rode out to El Paso for SCOM / Shindig.  Was my first for both.  Shindig was 'born' back in '20 when SCOM canceled due to the Chinese virus crap.  Boomer came up with the idea, and it's was a HUGE success. They put  together a weekend party in the Hill Country and over 300 members rolled in.  Since then, they are celebrated together. Damned I wanted to attend that one, but I believe I was in Mexico at the time. Well, in El Paso during the '22 meeting our CC at that time stands up and volunteers our chapter for SCOM '24.  Now, here's the kicker.  It was the first I'd heard of it; caught me off guard.  Most I talked to later seemed to have no idea.  Now, I haven't taken the time to research our minutes but .. I have no friggin idea when it was actually, if ever, discussed at the chapter level.  Well, the clown of a  CC at that time, got what he asked for.  Greenville Texas was chosen. I believe as do many others, he just wanted to look good.  His own personal glory.  Now the kicker is ...  we're (Greenville) really not setup for 'large' events.  No huge hotel for all to stay at.  No conference area that truly is setup for it.   But ... it's game on.  Now, there were no committees formed at the time.... just the pledge to do it.  Funny part is, the clowns that volunteered to do it 2 years ago?  They'd leave our Association a year later, all butt hurt and tail between their legs. Following that fiasco, the chapter went though a few a few bumps.  Few people resigned their positions.  Others stepped up to take their place. I took over the head position this past October, actually not even wanting to run for it, believing that a nightmare was about to ensue with the event.  Well, October 2023,  I'm now at the helm and it's game on (in my mind).  We've got a single task at hand: a successful SCOM / Shindig event.

Now, in all fairness we had a few folks in the mix that were working things all along.  Three or four folks were working behind the scenes to keep things on track.  Dutch was at the core working all the angles and solving problems and keeping all of us abreast of the facts along the way. But as we got closer, I was frustrated because I personally didn't like some of the previous decisions that had been made. But, we were on a path that couldn't be altered easily.  Personally, I'm all in as were many others.  A few months ago we become aware of the Solar eclipse commotion (happens today as I type this up). Well, now the City of Greenville is causing us some issues since the Police are on an alert of sorts and will not provide us with two officers for the Shindig as promised.  So, we put out heads together and decide on Sweet Water Grill as the location which was my thought from day one. We need a location that can handle 300 plus folks.  We had our State Mtg there back in 2017 which was a huge success for SWG, so we brought them greatness again ... (in my mind). On a super positive note, vendors didn't have to pay for table spaces.  We didn't have to spend thousands for the officers.  We don't have to pay for a band. Truly simplified everything.

Well, back to the event! Friday night we held Bike Night at the American Legion.  Big T smoked up some pork butts in advance and the Legion Aux served it all up at a fair price, putting funds in their coffiers. Three to four hours of good times, throwing back cold ones, raising money for the chapter with basket raffles, DJ and Karaoke going inside.  Around 10pm we're breaking down and all is a success!   Home, hit the sack and ....

...........damned, it's 0500 already and we're moving.  Actually, Lucy woke up at 0345 so she's about to have a really long day. Anyways, 0600 and we're packing up coolers with Cupcake's goodies, xtra gargantuan  cooler to hold waters, and we're rolling.  Around 0700 the doors open and the chapter is rolling in to setup.  Dudeman and Cupcake are on hand to do their setup since SCOM is a State event and it's their baby.  By 0830 parking lot out front is almost full, coffee is flowing, breakfast tacos and other goodies are being consumed and....  0900 hundreds of members are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and it's game on.  Got to admit when I went to SCOM in '22 my head wasn't 100% in the game.  I was there for a good time.  This time around, holding the the position of CC now, immersed in the whole event weekend setup, I'm 100% mentally in the game and into every speaker's message and facts provided.  No breaks in the meeting and 3 hours later, adjourned!  Chapter members do a quick cleanup, grab some grub from the food truck (Freddies) and ...we're rolling to SWG for the Shindig.

SCOM PARKING

SCOM PARKING

SCOM Meeting

Audie Murphy Chapter

Few of our guys not only did an awesome job getting bikes parked front and center, cages in the back, at the Civic Center, but they also headed to SWG for the initial setup of vendors and parking.  We arrived around 1:30 or so and everything was rolling.  Cold drinks were being consumed.  We'd overwhelmed their kitchen apparently with some long wait times for grub.  In SWG's defense, I don't' think they grasped how it was going to play out and didn't expect most folks to roll in until after 2pm.  Hell, I was under the belief our SCOM meeting would last five hours, so I didn't expect to see SWG slammed so early.  Still, Ema was serving us cold drinks and taking care of my folks so all good (at least for me).  Everyone I talked to was having a good time. All the vendors were making money.  Throughout the day, we'd raffle off some chapter items, do our gun raffle , and raffle off State items. Chapter 23-10 raffled off a $2k sound system for a lucky winner (Tailpipe?).  We had some items donated by the knife folks totaling over $300 to us (awesome!).  Our final three items go up for raffle but it's the end of the day.  I 'voted' to hold these items for another day but got out voted and the bidding began.  When the smoke cleared, I'd won all three items.  They weren't getting the numbers we'd hoped for and I couldn't see them go that low .. so bid them up and took them home.   Still, my quick math tells me we've raised about 5-6k total, with minimal overhead. By 2030, the SWG's band is cranking out tunes, less than two dozen of our Shindig folks look to be left ... and soon, headed home.  

SWG

I've hit the wall.  Legs hurt. Back hurts.  Hungry (forgot to eat at SWG!).  Dehydrated (barely drank any water throughout the day).  Pour myself a double shot of bourbon, raid the fridge and ....for me and mama....  off to zzzzzzzzzz.

So, from everyone I've heard from ... JAMs to State officers, the weekend was a success.   Was it all worth it?  Hell yes.  Was there a lil stress along the way the last twelve months?  Fuck yes.  Will we do another event like this in the near future?  Ummmmmmmmmm.... maybe after a few other chapters do their share.... lmao.

My closing thoughts  ....... it's just the way I operate.  Hell, I plan on doing an after action lessons learned of sorts for other CC's and ... for my own notes in the future .. but for now .... one last thought. I've always been a proponent of the 20/80 rule.  Basically in this case, 20% of the folks do 80% of the work.   I actually just broke down some numbers for my.. and only my eyes... but .. they are 'interesting'.  My numbers show ...   40% of the folks did the work.  The real work.  Now in all fairness, we have a few new members (that participated).  We've got a few that are out of pocket for various reasons.  But....  there are a few that .....   well, lets just say ... did zero.  Or I like to think .. 'fucking nothing.'  In my mind, inexcusable.  There's always a few....  What can we do about that?   Hmmmmmm...  well, nothing in the big picture.  But, I've got a good memory.  Well, actually I don't ... which is why I do some of these blogs and keep notes :)

Now ................  ready for some riding this Spring / Summer / Fall!