It’s here at last!

I must admit that, when the idea first popped into my head to host a convention, I had a much different vision than what we are about to experience.

The original idea was simple. It was pretty much based on the ‘fact’ that Alfa Romeo was going to return to the States sometime in 2005 or so, and they were partnering with GM.  The return of the marque we all love, coupled with a partner with deep pockets—a real advertising budget!

Visions went through my head—Alfa showing up with all the new vehicles, throwing them at us to raffle them off or give them away. GM writing huge sponsorship checks, and sending along professional ‘convention planning’ teams to run the whole thing for us. We would just sit back, enjoy the festivities, and all drive off in 2006 model year Spiders at the end of it…

Fast-forward a couple of years. Alfa is not coming back any time soon, and GM didn’t write us any checks. We’re on our own—looks like somebody is going to have to do some actual work.

The good news is this—I asked for volunteers, and I got the most kick-ass convention committee you could imagine. Kevin Murphy has spent a weekend a month for the past two years now personally driving every back road in New Hampshire, in preparation for an amazing driving tour. That’s just one example of the effort that’s gone into this thing.  We’re going to put on one helluva convention, even without Alfa or GM participation!

I’m going to spend some time during the convention itself thanking the committee; hopefully, all of the attendees can then appreciate all the great work that has been put into this thing. But in the meantime you should all know that many, many people have stepped up to help plan and run Giulietta Giubilee. In addition to many of your fellow AONE members putting in huge amounts of time, we’ve had other individuals from all over the country offer to help with things once they’ve arrived, and entire chapters have offered to send delegations to help out with certain venues (Detroit, Long Island)!

I do have one request of the all the attendees. A lot of people have put in a lot of effort to make this a great convention. But we’re not perfect, and we will make some mistakes.  We sincerely want all of you to have a memorable experience, so my request is this: If you see something going wrong, or if you see somebody else having some trouble, don’t complain! Jump in and help, or call somebody else to get some help! Most of the convention committee will be publishing their cell phone numbers. We want to put on a smooth, well-run, and fun convention. Nothing is more frustrating than finding out after-the-fact that somebody was struggling with something, when a simple call for help could have fixed things.