The word from Tony as of May 28 is: Looking at the calendar, that would mean as of June 1, the earliest it could be would be mid-August. That is NOT the date -- just looking down the road two and a half months.

No hints as to location or activities.

Anyone have any updates as of yet? Ten weeks out as of July 1st and we're after Labor day and into the new school year!

Mike

Tony says expect announcement next week.

It's the end of next week with no news. I am trying to balance some airline bookings and it would be helpful to have a date and place at least. Inquiring minds want to know!

Been an awful long week since July 1st.....

It looks like there will be no regional this year.

Has it been made official yet? Should we still be waiting for some kind of event? Not sure how you and sell a "regional" piece without some kind of regional. It's been 3 1/2 months since the word was supposed to come down.....

Would be nice to get some offical word on this either way.

If there's 10 weeks notice as promised above...that's the week of Thanksgiving. Assuming the announcement were made today.

That's not the time I see a lot of people being free. Nor the next five weeks...

I'd say don't hold your breath, because you're liable to pass out if you do.

Just wondering if Tony still reads this forum. And If so why he has not Posted or mentioned the regional event. If nothing else he could or should state if it is still being Planned on this year or not planning at all this year. How about it TONY feel the need to inform your collectors?????

I forwarded this thread to Tony and he said he will work on a response and post it on Thursday...

Thank You Paul !!!

I've thought long and hard on the subjects of Regionals and whether they are worth the time and expense to have. I'm going to give you my thoughts on Regionals and I expect that very few of those reading this post will agree with me. Most of you will think it's just the ramblings of an old retired "Coastie". There are several reason for what I finally decided, and that is, that Regionals should be a thing of the past.

1. The last Regional that I attended was held at St. Augustine and had approximately 40 attendees. It was very disappointing because of the lack of dedicated HL collectors attending. Most of the people wandering in and out of the picture were those that were visiting the lighthouse because of free admission during Lighthouse Week. You could not enjoy Bill's company because of the crowd of non-HL collectors.

2. The Regional held in New Orleans, while I was not there, was a lot better then the previous Regionals mainly because it was ramroded by Dave. The Regional events were a success, but, I'm told the turnout was less then anticipated. Much less then what you would have had 4-5 years ago.

3. Now, based on the above 2 Regionals and their less then anticipated turnout, what makes you think that a Regional in 2009 or 2010 would be any more sucessful, especially with the economic situation. While there are some collectors that would attend, there are many others that would not attend for one reason or the other. To prove this point, out of 2000+ Forum Members and 50+ that regularly read the Forums, only 22 Forum Members took the time to donate to lighthouse preservation. The cost to participate was only a $5.00 donation. If we only had 22 members donate to preservation, what makes you think that we would have more then that attend a Regional.

4. Are we going to have a Regional in 2009 as Tony mentioned? I would guess not if an announcement has not been made to date. Will we have one in 2010? I doubt it also. Why blame Tony or HLs for not responding to very lackluster turnouts for the above 2 Regionals. It cost money to promote a Regional such as food, facility, deposits, prizes, gifts, entertainment, travel, etc. If you planned a party and expected 75-100 guests as in the Regionals held 7-8 years ago and only had 25-30 guests turnout, would you be very happy? We, as collectors expect too much from HLs and Tony. They are in business to make a small profit and how can they even break even with the disppointing turnouts at the above 2 Regionals.

5. And finally, the 2009 Regional Event Piece that was produced for the 2009 Regional that never happened. I consider it a very rare and special piece since there will be less of these bought then any other Regional Event Piece. So buy it, and be happy with it. It will be a piece without a home, so to speak and maybe in the next year or two, if HLs is able to weather the storm and is still in business, we will have another Regional that will be better attended due to the improved economy(I hope).

The last Regional was at Cedar Point and was pretty well attended.. The attendance at New Orleans was down a mainly because it was in New Orleans in June, bad idea (HOT) but we had a Great time..

Lead time is the most important variable in people attending these events. Summer obviously has many conflicts. Pre and post events and trips make the cost committment easier to justify. An easy place to get to would always help but we've overcome that before.
These are tough times for Harbour Lights so it's not big priority with the unknown of a great response.

I think some of us just want to know why there wasn't a regional this year.

Maybe it's time for us to have a "wacko" regional event which we plan ourselves and invite HL to send a rep. We could do it around a Bill signing event or some other lighthouse event. I think there is at least a core group of folks from here who would enjoy getting together for a weekend event.

Loon - Hopefully Tony will give you an answer, but, when all is said and done it is probably the dying interests in lighthouse in general as indicated by the decrease in edition sizes of the Summer issues down to 1200 pieces. As I said in my above post: It's hard to reconcile 25-30 attendees when your expecting 75-100 attendees.

Seems odd that in 2008 there were two regionals and none in 2009.

I like JJ's idea. Maybe for 2010!

Maybe we do have to plan our own reunion. Have a group get info on boats, hotels and such. I dont know if Dave would be interested in doing this but if he did I would be IN. If HL cant and Dave is not interested in doing this because he has other plans maybe we can. I love the boat rides with everyone and getting together and seeing people I would not see otherwise. I would love Washington State. I know it is a large undertaking because I did put together one boat ride and it took a lot of planning. I am hoping Tony says its a go for 2010.

I think the reunion/HL anniversary trip will be in 2011, if they do anything - west coast has been mentioned as a location, but nothing definite.

I talked to Tony last week and asked about the Regional -- official word "The regional is obviously NOT going to happen this year."

While it wasn't said, I think we're pretty safe in assuming that these economic times are tough for most businesses and people.

The regional event pieces are being shipped to the participating dealers. The edition size is small, so if you want to get your hands on one, visit the site and get on the phone:

http://www.harbourlights.com/events/regional.htm

Sorry but it's just my humble opinion that Harbour Lights should NOT put out a Regional Event Piece, if they are not having a Regional Event!

I mean how can you have an Event piece without an Event?

Steph - I see your reasoning but the piece has already been issued to the majority of the dealers and they have already been bought by many of us. Look at it from this point. We had an instore event piece the year that Bill was taken ill and didn't show up, so, this also will be a first with a Regional Piece for a Regional that naver happened..

Rich - Those are two different situations.

As for the in-store event piece... the Store Signings were scheduled to happen. No one could perceive Bill becoming ill. And I believe most of the stores still held the events, just without Bill being there.

But to the best of my knowledge there never was a Regional Event planed for 2009. How can you create a sculpture pertaining to an event when you haven't even planed to have the event?

Yes I understand that the piece has already been issued and many collectors already have the piece in their collection. But what I'm saying is that the company should not have created a piece until after at least preparing to have the event. They put their Cart before the Horse!

Stephanie
Yes; I agree that for next year that if there is no intention of having a Regional, a regional piece should not be made.

I heard that a regional was initially planned for this year.
But I think what happened was that being it takes about a year of planning before the lighthouse can be shipped, that when the time came around HL had the piece made but not the financial incentive to have the regional. Lets face it. All companies this year started buckling their belts and cutting back.

It is kind of like planning the family vacation. Some plans are started way in advance but when the time comes around things happen and it is not financially feasible to go.

But for next year I would consider it an insult if HL made a regional LE and did not have an event. Maybe that’s why we were informed that HL would be making two less lighthouses next year. Maybe they are the regional and store event?

Both HL 804 Duxbury Pier and HL 803 Tybee Knoll were sold at the in-store event in Alpena this past October.

So instead of reinventing the wheel for each regional event in the future, and having extensive and expensive planning, why don't we start hooking-on to a existing lighthouse event in different regions of our country?

For instance, it seems like we could hook-on to the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival event in Alpena, MI held yearly in Oct. This event already has a multitude of lighthouse related activities planned we could offer Regional Event attendees. For the price of a meeting room and a meal (Holiday Inn close) we could have the Regional and an In-Store event too (HL Dealer in Alpena). Many lights along Lake Huron are open during the GLLF and often the Fall colors are beautiful!

The Hoosier Lighthousing Club has a gathering like that already in the plans.. We are going to gather at the 2010 St. Augustine Festival on March 20th...

I am sure I will be posting more about it the closer we get to it. Others are more than welcome to join else in St. Augustine in March...

Any information that you can share about the Hoosier Club in FL? It's not that far away...

Everybody is making their own travel plans then we will get together in St Augustine at the festival on March 20th. Most are combining with a weeks vacation and visiting relatives and the like. We plan on going to supper together as a group, any suggestions for a place to get reservations? We don't have a number on how many are making it yet.

The club has a meeting here in Indy March 13th and can finalize things then. I think everybody is making room reservations on their own.

Paul, is there any one hotel that a majority of the group are making reservations at? Thanks..JJ

I don't think there is JJ..

Are you planning on coming? I am putting together a group email of everybody that is coming; so far I have heard from a total of 15 coming..

I am looking into possible places to have a group meal on Friday or Saturday. So far almost all can do it Saturday after the festival.

I heard from JJ that he is coming, the count is up to 16 now...