xerofall

Is there going to be a JK-Forum event like last year's JK Jam? I need to plan my vacation around such an event.

wayoflife

well, i was waiting on more details to be solidified before announcing it but yes, we will be have an event but, it won't be like last year. the whole jk-jam thing was fun but extremely expensive and frustrating as hell to put on. our biggest grief was in getting insurance and for the amount of people we were dealing with, it was more than i could afford. needless to say, that is the reason why we weren't allowed to do an organized run and why we're not gonna bother with it this year.

what i can tell you is that we will be having a meet-n-greet BBQ dinner on thursday, april 1st but details on this have not been hammered down yet. also, i can tell you that i have talked to full-traction & superior axle and they have invited the members of JK-Forum.com to join them on their Rock Run out in Area BFE. more information on this run will be posted up as they become available.

xerofall

I wouldn't mind paying for such an event if cost is a factor. All my other (car) get togethers in the past have been that way.

I'm mostly interested in meeting up with fellow forum members, and because I have a stock JK, I can't really tag along with everyone on the extreme trails.

I'm looking into setting up a trail run away from the Safari hub-bub on an easy, scenic trail that stock Jeeps can do but still have some fun and excitement. I'll have more info soon.

wayoflife

come on jeff, you know what i mean and honestly, you know how grateful i was for your help last year. fact of the matter is, area bfe required that we have insurance to put on an organized run and the cost for something like that was out of my league and that's why we didn't do one. if there is a "blame" here, it should be directed to all the sue happy people in this world who do not accept responsibility for the things they do and therefore make life hard for everyone.

regarding the vendor display, we had a lot of vendors complain about us having our event so close to the vendor show and this was problematic for them. if we do something like this again, it just won't be like what we did last year.

wayoflife

oh, believe me, i thought it was a great event but it was an enourmous undertaking to pull off. above and beyond insurance was the cost to rent the place, cost to cater it, cost to have banners made, cost to have t-shirts made, cost to have name tags made and on and on and while we were able to get sponsors to help foot the bill, a lot of it still came out of my pocket. of course, this is to say nothing about the astronomical amount of man hours that was required to make it happen. now, i would be more than willing to do all this again IF i thought i could get more financial support from sponsors and enough so that we could afford to do an organized run as well (something a lot of folks wanted) but, given the current economic climate today, i seriously doubt that i could. what i heard time and time again from people was that they came all the way out to moab to wheel and if all we were going to have was a meet-n-greet, they would be on their way. needless to say, we will most likely have some kind of dinner so that people can go out and wheel all day and then come in after a long hard day and join us for some grub and good times.

OffRoadGeorge

Eddie,
Was great time even though my jk was broken and I had to drive the rental jeep. Kudos on great job last year!

As a JK-forum member I would be happy to pitch in. And if not a ho ha event then just some fun wheelin. If a bunch of us show up to BFE at the same time and pay their fee at the gate can't we go for fun whithout a special insurance?

Just sayin anyone want to go on an unorganized run in BFE?

xerofall

I didn't mean to open a pandora's box... I'm sorry I didn't understand the logistics.

I felt the event was great. I would rather meet up with everyone, hang out, then hit the trails. I loved the t-shirt and the badges and would love to pay for such items again in the form of a registration fee.

The catering at events like that I'm not a fan of, never have been. So that's not something I particularlly care about.

It's meeting all of you guys. (and gals)

I was happy to meet Jeff the insurance guy (one of like 4 other Jeffs I met there), he offered me a blanket and a sandwich on that cold first night at BFE, but dammit, I wanted to experience camping in my Jeep and eating my military MREs,

I got to meet Toad, mccan, Eddie, a bunch of guys from my own neighborhood and probably a bunch more I never put a screenname to their faces.

I was a member of a Ford Focus forum and knew a guy who ran the Focus equivilant to the Jeep Safari called "Focus on the Beach" He too had similar issues. I remember the one complaint he had was having to provide, by some state regulation, a humongous full size dumpster on the day of the event, and it only got filled partially. He ended up charging a registration fee to cover some of the costs of insurance and swag. Looking back, it's the community I remember most. I'm sure he feels the same way.

I realize it's apples to oranges, because all we did in the Focus was park and try to look good. We weren't rock climbing with the possibility of flipping over.

I have one question... could BFE, or JK-Forum have us sign a waiver before entering their premises so no one gets sued if something happened?

Preciousmetal

Well what ever takes place I'll be in Moab. I'll be there and if its a dinner its a dinner. I've already been planing some trails to go down this year. Hopefully I'll put another insane photo on the forum. Its to bad things are so costly, in the old days we just jumped in and took off and had fun. Sure would be nice if we could turn that clock back. When Moab first started the event they didn't have to do all these legal munbo jumbo they just got together and had fun. Now it just a money maker or taker and we lost what it was really about. The one thing this forum does is it allows us to meet each other and do trails together and that was like it was when Moab first started. So if we don't have a event I understand , we'll still pull together and have fun and see some awesome trails.

xerofall

Yes the wife is coming!!! No more gall bladder to remove this time, lol. As for the MREs... I was quite surprised that she liked them too...

We'll be around from Wednesday night to Monday morning Mar 31st to Apr 5th, We're staying at the Inca Inn Wednesday night, then camping in the Jeep Thursday night, then the hotel again Friday and Saturday (they had a 2 night minimum for the weekend) then camping Sunday night, heading home Monday.

violence of action

Enjoyed last year's meet n' greet, just make the official date and if you need a donation I have no problem donating to the fund.