Been viewing the posts in here plus seeing stuff on Facebook about this, so I've had time to think about things and this is what I've come to think about the rallies in the North East. Some of this will echo what others have already said.

Advertising for the events does need looking at, seems like some of the event organisers are in the mindset of thinking that everyone knows when and where the rally is held, so why bother mentioning it on Facebook and such when everyone knows about it, there will be some people who won't know if/when the event is, especially with the MetroCentre event having to move to the Monday last year. I imagining preservation groups are not wanting to pay much/anything for any form of advertising, so I doubt we are likely to see them putting posters or owt like that in the MetroCentre. The event that I feel that really needs advertising is the Whitley Bay rally in July as when I went last year it seemed to mostly be enthusiasts attending especially those who are members of this forum and about the only other people that seemed to be around were people who happened to be walking past whilst out walking the dog.

It's tricky trying to think of ways to better fund the events plus the people who have brought the buses along to the event, it is good having collection buckets but I feel that they should be clearly visible to try and get people to put some money in them, at the 500 Group's Teesside Running Day I was on one preserved bus and I couldn't seem to see anything like this to put money into, so for that journey I ended up giving them nowt which I actually feel bad about, at the Kirkby Stephen/Brough rally many of the buses I went on had a visible bucket or someone holding something to put money in when passengers alighted the bus, as such every bus I went on at that event got some dough from me (excluding the Ribble RE as although that is from the Lancastrian Transport Trust collection, it's often in the hands of Catch22Bus who are a commercial operator and it sort of blows the classic image seeing the base plate for a Wafer ticket machine! [emoji14]) I ain't really sure on other ways to make money apart from programmes or something along those lines.

One thing that is probably a make or break situation for rallies is what is in attendance at the events, in most cases we are probably expecting it to be mostly old preserved buses which will mostly appeal to the older enthusiasts and general public but it won't appeal as much to the younger enthusiasts and public and it seems like some of the younger generation especially families with children are often drawn more to the younger buses there, namely those with the major commercial operators such as Arriva and Go North East especially the latter as they were doing ride outs and some kids will simply want to go out on the bright and colourful buses especially if it's a double decker, so I think this is helping to keep some of the younger generation heading to the events, even on my Flickr the Go North East and Arriva photos got the biggest views and favourites, whereas some of the preserved stuff got nowt, that may be just a case of where the people who follow me intrest lies within the hobby though and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. With these things in mind, it's no good referring to them with terms such as "window lickers" as if people are seeing stuff like this on Facebook it may put people off going if people think they are just going to be given offensive terms for being there. Back to the stuff in attendance, it is good having a collection of preserved stuff there but if you go to these events all the time you may get sick of the same stuff each time and is even worse when you attend all/more than one of these North East events, I'll be honest if it wasn't for the fact that there wasn't people there I know to talk to I probably would have left after an hour or so as there wasn't much of intrest to me and some of the stuff that was didn't go out on any tours with much of the stuff out on tours being stuff I've already been on in preservation and then there's the Go North East stuff as well which I personally ain't that intrested in although I did get the trainer coach and 3818 which were intresting rides. I also noticed the absence of some of the independent operators who normally appear, can't help but wonder where the likes of Kingsley's, Scarlet Band and Stagecarriage were and why they have decided not to attend?

In addition to the stuff in attendance, I feel if tours are going to be done, I personally prefer that the buses do various different routes as it adds some variety to proceedings, for example the 500 Group's Teesside Running Day this year had various different routes for the tours to run which was nice as you got to see various different parts of Teesside rather than just Swalwell over and over again! It's bad when I actually was pleased to be going down the A1 on my journey on 3818. The other advantages of the varied tours at the 500 Group's event do is there is more photo opportunities, you can get photos in different town's on that event whereas the only unique photo ops at the MetroCentre Rally is when something is moving to a different part of the coach park or to photograph stuff arriving/leaving the event sadly I was unable to get stuff arriving in the morning due to the lack of transport options I have, so I ended up with endless shots in the coach park, woo! Even a stop somewhere on these tours would have been nice but sadly it was non-stop journeys (excluding the traffic round the MetroCentre).

I think programmes are a good idea if it details what's going out on shuttles and when as it allows you to plan the day and get what you want, if there's a gap of stuff of intrest to you, that time could be used to get lunch, it's a bit irritating guessing if/when stuff goes out especially if you decide to head to say Spoons for dinner then you find out the thing you really wanted to go has done a trip whilst you were eating your lunch.

These are just my thoughts on what I feel about rallies, feel free to agree/disagree with them.