The Fan Dance

I have that mail now as I seem to be on his list at at last. It’s strangely worded, as it mentions nothing at all about the 19th.

Begs the question, logistically, could they even hold one on the 19th and then get set up again for the 20th?

This is their bread & butter FP. I’m not trying to be glib; but when you’ve done it a few times, it just becomes a big admin exercise beforehand. On the weekend, it’s ‘just’ guys in tents with radios wearing ‘DS’ sweatshirts talking ‘Ally’ (I’m over simplifying it for effect obvs).

The logistics are nothing compared to running two IM70.3 races back-to-back!

Ah ok, didn’t know how big a circus it was. i was in such a hurry this morning, I didn’t fully take his reply in for one of the mails but I’ve pasted it here. He knows I was talking about the 19th, so doesn’t look optimistic.

You were right. We had a tech problem at our end for which I apologise. You should be back on the mailing list.

I’ll either see you at winter or Shropshire on the 20th.

Best wishes and thanks for your support.

Yes, deferred to winter. Which tbh, isn’t necessarily much worse than Pen-Y-Fan in summer! It’s pot luck. At least I got all my £228 from Air BnB back in my wallet :ok_hand:

To be fair to all RDs, it’s a hard job, especially in the era of social media; you could be spending all day answering queries with everything that’s happened this year! Hopefully we will see KJ in Jan.

Meanwhile, the ‘trg’ will continue.

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Looks like Shropshire will be off now as well.

Are the bladerunner results even on there yet ?.. I gave up looking.

Yeah. This whole CV-19 saga is a cluster. How is say 150 people spread out over the Shropshire Hills more dangerous than 50 people sat in an office/school/factory?

Although sports are exempt?

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Organised team sports are exempt. Not sure if that means stuff like runs, I can’t imagine it does.

I’m wondering if Little One’s swimming lessons will be gone now? (due to start again on Sat)

I am spending part of my time in Cardiff each week and intend to hit the hills occasionally…

I am happy to lead a fan dance tab for those that wish with perhaps a few beers afterwards in Sarah Siddons (social distancing as necessary). I can provide the instructions and kit lists for those that need but you will need to bring your own cam cream Jorgan.

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I can’t find one with Retinol 🤷

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Need some salt for those chips Ken? :laughing:

OLD FAITHFUL - FAN DANCE REPLACEMENT EVENT UPDATE

Dear all,

Firstly, thank you to all who were willing to either accept Old Faithful as a replacement or to keep your summer to winter transfer and purchase an Old Faithful place. We’re grateful you showed an understanding for what we are up against and for doing the honorable thing just as we have strived to do. We have been transparent at every conceivable level but a point a been breached in which I now lay down the law and determine outcomes, not our event patrons. We have an unblemished safety record and a reputation as one of the best managed events in the UK because I make the calls and my integrity is unquestionable from anyone who knows me.

The bad news and in brief, the Old Faithful event cannot go ahead on 20th September. Sunday Fan Dancers have rebelled against it as a replacement event claiming an array of reasons for nonattendance ranging from no longer being available, to simply not being interested.
To set the tone for the rest of the message so you can understand how serious about this we are, you must refamiliarize yourself with our Terms & Conditions, something we didn’t want to have to resort to drawing recourse to. In effect you agreed when registering that the organisers reserve the right to modify the route or change the location. You must understand that we maintain this right and absolutely can enforce it if we wish. It was originally put into place to protect the race during our early years when a number of fires caused by arsonist in the Brecon Beacons jeopardized the event. We never foresaw a virus but the measures serve to protect the event all the same.
When the summer Fan Dance was cancelled, we did say there would be a transfer to winter but the message also indicated we would strive to organize a replacement event and would keep you posted. That was your indicator to keep the event date clear. The mentality held by too many of you that we as organisers only incurs costs on race days needs to be aggressively combated even at the additional expense of some of you bitterly deciding never to support our events again.

We are familiar the demographics of those who support our events as well as a good understanding of some of the selfish aspects of human nature. The suggestion that some people cannot think further than themselves is very much alive and is clearly manifested in the reaction to our event management decisions. I’m not a man who is scared of his customer base or the odd negative review and refuse to be politically correct with you from here on, and certainly won’t adopt a customer is always right stance. Historically here are around 25% no shows and during the current times, friends and colleagues in the events industry suggest 40-50% no shows is now quite normal. Of course, some Sunday Fan Dancers have legitimate reasons, but not being interested, doing the Fan Dance in your own time on the 20th and lying about alternative arrangements or simply claiming you only want the winter Fan Dance for no valid reason doesn’t wash with me. What many of you are doing is gaming the system because you already knew you had no intention of attending the summer Fan Dance and are pushing your luck to suit your own convenience or covering for your lack of motivation. Old Faithful was to be your summer Fan Dance and many of you have decided to withdraw. In effect, we can just remove you from the winter Fan Dance list and mark you as summer Fan Dance no shows. You know the game many of you are playing as do I. It is important for those who support our events understand that we are shrewd enough to manage the business side of the events in a way that protects us. It isn’t craftiness, rather intelligent measures and procedures that allow us to operate with integrity but be shielded from exploitation. Understand what a Limited Liability Company is and what it can do for us. We will never abuse its inherent advantages but won’t stand for threats or any nonsense from anyone. Remember who we are and our backgrounds when it comes to a fight and endurance in terms of giving up. We have a dog eared determination to succeed that far surpasses that of most of you.

Below is a summary of outcomes and measures:

*We will relent and allow you to have your way because there are too many of you and there will always be enough malicious people to raise hell and we don’t have the time or energy to deal with it. We do have the right to remove Sunday Fan Dancers who refused to support Old Faithful summer Fan Dance replacement from the winter Fan Dance event, but we will allow you to stay on it. You are however now on our blacklist and it should understand that there may not be a winter Fan Dance given the current climate, and if there is, it is unlikely we will be allowed to stage one with our usual numbers. If our field numbers are reduced by government legislation or landowner policy, understand who is first to be scrubbed from the list. Tough luck.
*The winter Fan Dance now has a problem because we already had a heavy number of sign ups for the winter Fan Dance prior to the summer cancelation/Old Faithful replacement. We will decide your event date and let you know. You do not get to pick and choose, especially Sunday Fan Dancers.
*The above is also an unfortunate problem for summer Saturday Fan Dancers. We will have to move some of you onto Sunday. Landowners have already told us our Saturday winter race day cannot support the usual field size as that is when the area has the highest footfall from general public visitors.
*Combined event sign ups will preserve their Saturday place.
*We will announce an Old Faithful event for some time in October in the coming days and if you wish you can sign up fresh without summer to winter transfers being a consideration.
You’ll be hearing from us within a week so we can tell you your winter Fan Dance date. We are very sorry that some of you Saturday summer Fan Dancers will have to move to a winter Sunday.
In the intervening period between now and winter we will be staging a number of small scale events’ Old Faithful, the P Coy Fan Dance, the Test March Series and hill fitness and navigation training days in the Brecon Beacons and Elan Valley. The AEE store will also have an open house operating out of Pilgrim Barn, 18 minutes from Pen y Fan.
Our team look forward to seeing you in Shropshire in a few weeks and we may encounter some of you around Pen y Fan next Saturday (19th). We’ll have some Norwegian containers full of hot brews and cold drinks and will gladly hand out the unused Fan Dance patches.

Sincerely
Fan Dance March Director
Ken Jones

Fuck me he goes on and on. Its death by words. He would be good at dealing with auditors. Talk them to death until they forget what they asked you.

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I never got that email. We were Saturday, so guess we’re not in his bad books :sweat_smile:

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It should end ‘faithfully’ as we’re not addressed by name; apart from that I thought it was spot on :rofl:

Meanwhile on FB someone comments…

"Booom💥Just Read your email regarding Shropshire event… Quality and straight to the point🙌🏻"

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:thinking:

He made some decent points, but came across like a patronising so and so. I got bored about two paragraphs in! :joy:

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This bit in particular is pure gold…

Remember who we are and our backgrounds when it comes to a fight and endurance in terms of giving up. We have a dog eared determination to succeed that far surpasses that of most of you.

*We will relent and allow you to have your way because there are too many of you and there will always be enough malicious people to raise hell and we don’t have the time or energy to deal with it.

Reminds me of this:

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Yes, the climb-down after the chest puffing was mildly hilarious.

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He could probably be ambushed with a coffee cup.

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