The past few days have been a bit of a roller coaster. From the disappointment of having to cancel the North Mountain Rally (NMR) to the fun and success of the Lost in Lunenburg Rally the next day, it really emphasized the highs and lows of what our sport can provide, especially from this organizer’s perspective. And while no crews had committed to the NMR, I feel I still owe a brief explanation of why the event was cancelled.
As I wrote in a Facebook post, the decision to reduce an already short rally season was not easy and not arrived at without a lot of thought and weighing pros and cons. And without going into a ton of detail, the decision came down to a matter of resources, time being the most critical. While I thought I had plenty of it, some unforeseen circumstances resulted in me running out of it. I possibly could have produced a sub-standard event in time for November 8, but that may have ended up as counterproductive.
Our RRDG is comprised of the rallymasters from previous years’ events. It’s fair to say that, other than exceptional circumstances, we are all “one man shows” and can rely on varying degrees of support from various sources. Two of us live in HRM, the other three are scattered amongst Lunenburg, Falmouth and New Minas. Other than Ian, we are all retired or semi-retired but I warn you: if you think your spare time increases significantly once you retire, I’ve a few acres of Alberta ocean-front property to sell you. All that to say we can’t lean on each other too much due to geography, other tasks, and the associated expense with travelling hither and yon to check out a road, for example. We all love rally, but we all have other lives and responsibilities.
So what to do?
As we move towards 2027, we’re discussing a three-event season beginning with the Midwinter Moon in January. Our next Zoom call will include a 2027 schedule as an agenda item, as the calendar needs to be roughed-out by the AGM next month.
Would you like to see more road rallies? Are you interested in helping out with either organizing your own rally or helping out with an existing event? If you visit our Resources page, you’ll find a guide to organizing a TSD rally and any of us will be happy to help and keep you on the right track. All you need is a sense of adventure, time, perhaps some route plotting skills, and some basic computer knowledge. Yes, the pay sucks (read nonexistent), but the emotional reward you get at the end of a well-run and attended rally makes it worthwhile. Of course, you would be included in our monthly RRDG meetings where you can bounce ideas off the rest of us and help us grow the sport. New and fresh ideas and energy are always appreciated!
Give it some thought and reach out if it appeals to you and your teammate or friends. We can always use your help.
Take care and rally on!
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