Considering that, only three weeks ago, the decision was made to put the rally on a green light, the result was a masterpiece.
The location was, as usual, the community centre at Gaywood. Intrepid volunteers followed the timetable laid out by Chairman Mike, (M0XXM) and the maps provided by Ted “King of the Rally” G4OZG, and the plan worked. Yes, it started very, very early, (unless you were Mike, who had had no sleep, and therefore it was very, very, late!) but it was worth it.
Jack “Miracle Worker” (2E0HSP) and Charles “I am hitting this” (M0OEB) did a superb job of putting stakes and tape out whilst Ben “Car booter? Go straight up!” (2E0TKK) sorted the cars that came in and made sure everyone was in the right place, with the help of Becky “Park it here” (M0XXR).
Jack and Not-Norwich-John then manned the tradesman’s entrance with much determination.
For many of the people who strolled through the doors, (ably manned by Ron “Give us your money” (2E0RWK) and possibly by Pirate Dave,) this was the first rally that they had been able to attend since the start of the pandemic, and this was one of the reasons that we decided to go ahead if at all possible with doing it. There were quite a few comments about how well the rally was run and how much people appreciated having a place to go and see people that they hadn’t seen for two years.
The traders have had a really tough time, and they didn’t let us down, turning up early, being ready to go, and being so cheerful and accepting of the situation we were in, and many of them expressing their appreciation for the club running the rally and the volunteers making it work. Several of them expressed their appreciation of Gordon “Where do you want this?” (G0VHH) and Charles “I can hit things *and* carry things” (M0OEB)
We also had a jolly good “table of interesting things you can buy” run by Eric “the briefcase” G4JNQ), Kev “Plug it in and see what it does” (M0KKM) and Peter “the signposter” (G0IJU), which did jolly well over the course of the day. A good table of interesting things does not just happen, and the winnowing of the wheat from the chaff is one of those behind the scenes jobs that only the truly knowledgable can manage. (And Kev.)
Great thanks also go to NARC, who have promoted the rally, headlined the rally on their news, and supplied volunteers to help with the never-ending joy that is car parking the rally. Choosing that job really went above and beyond the call of duty, so thank you to David (G7URP), Kevin (G7UJP) and Mark (G0LGJ). Your efforts were a real boost!
Finally, we as a wider club are really appreciative of the community centre and especially of the bacon sandwiches, which were superb.
And as always, we are happy that no-one fell down the sink hole!
See you next year!