Guide to NALM bidding

[epegoblue]

General guide:
Host Hotel
T-shirt Vendor
Sticker/Plate vendor
Daily lunches & dinners (hotel may provide daily breakfast?)
Local tours / Track Day / Dyno Day
Local points of interest / stops / photograph points / videography stops
Dealer Day / Awards / Raffle

HOST HOTEL

This may be the most important part of hosting a memorable NALM. The hotel should be easily accommodating for large groups (up to 50 people and 25 cars), have usable standard amenities, priced well (no major local events at the same time), and easy in and out access. Ideally, the hotel manager will be a car fanatic! Most previous host hotels have had a free continental breakfast provided in the hotel lobby or breakfast area, but it's not a deal breaker if that's not included. It's nice to have a lobby area for all attendees to meet in the morning (for inclimate weather), but it's not a necessity. Ideally, the host / event director would be a local to the city and be 100% familiar with the area, but successful NALMs with all attendees being tourists have been successful.
www.grouphotels.com / www.hotelengine.com / www.travelperk.com
will help with filtering out hotels that may work and hotels that won't work at all. At a minimum, the hotel should have a meeting space for up to 40 for the closing awards and raffle. You'd think this would be the easiest part of hosting a NALM (group sales department having an easy room block sale of 15+ rooms), but that's not always the case. Some hotel managers have only had experience with 'car clubs' being loud, rude, revving engines at 1am, and being rowdy in general. It might be a good idea to include a few youtube videos of the group and car gatherings. It should put the GM at ease when they see that we are a generally low-key crowd and our cars are too old to redline and blast stereos at full volume.
I?m only aware of NALM 2021 in Phoenix, AZ that the registrations were capped at 50 due to venue space concerns. In 2023, the host had expected 25 people MAX to attend. It was a shock to see registration close a month out with 40 people signing up and paying all fees. It's a great problem to have!

T-SHIRT VENDOR

The t-shirt in the swag bag can be the most talked about item of the meet for years to come. At the Lexington NALM, someone wore a Milwaukee NALM shirt from 11 years prior! The shirts from all previous meets have been completely different in style and color. Most of them are short sleeve t-shirts, but there's been a tank top (2019), 2 button polos (2013 and 2022), long sleeve (2018 and 2023), and a real deal Acura tech button up (2016). The t-shirt vendor and design shopping should start EARLY in the process to make sure the front and back designs are set and ready to order when registration closes. It'd cost a small fortune to do any type of custom shirt at the last minute.

STICKER / LICENSE PLATE

2023 was the first year that the swag bag didn't include a sticker, instead, all attendees received a NALM labeled license plate. There's several ways to go with this:
Vinyl cutouts (done by Alex Alperovich for several years)
1-piece stickers (most recently, Phoenix 2021 and Wichita 2022)
a sun visor (Daytona Beach 2019).
License plate frame?
Rear view mirror placard?
There's not a rule stating what HAS TO BE in the swag bags either way.

GROUP DAILY LUNCH / DINNER

This can be the easiest part of NALM to plan all the way up to unnecessarily complicated. Ideally, the group would all sit together, park together, and order together. But for a group of up to 40, that could be difficult for any establishment. This would probably require several phone calls to confirm a reservation just to ensure that the local hot spot (who wants to eat at a chain restaurant at a car meet?) can meet the group's needs. I'd recommend the first night's dinner be VERY close to the hotel, even walkable, since a majority of the group may have driven 600+ miles that day. Plan on all attendees dining together for every meal, but it?s possible that 5-7 will arrive late, leave early, or have other plans locally. Flexibility is ideal, but not always possible. Some places may be better for the weekend meals vs the weekday meals for parking & seating.
WELCOME DINNER: _________________
DAY 1 LUNCH: _________________
DAY 1 DINNER: _________________
DAY 2 LUNCH: _________________
DAY 2 DINNER: _________________
DAY 3 LUNCH: _________________
DAY 4 LUNCH: _________________
DAY 4 CLOSING DINNER, AWARDS, & RAFFLE ____________________

LOCAL TOURS / TRACK DAY / DYNO DAY

What is your host city known for?
Atlanta - Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, GA
Daytona Beach - Daytona Motor Speedway
Lexington - Bourbon distillery tour
Wichita - Omega / Car Wizard
Colorado Springs - Pikes Peak drive

Can you arrange a tour for up to 40 people? Maybe split up into 2 groups at the same time? Our cars are getting to the point where not many are interested in drag racing or a dyno day, but if ⅓ or more are interested in participating, the other ⅔ would more than likely be happy observers.

LOCAL POINTS OF INTEREST - PHOTO OP and/or VIDEOGRAPHY SPOT

Where can a photo shoot happen worthy of a Facebook cover picture?
Do you know someone with a drone willing to do a video at a specific photo op or dealer day?
Do you know a pro or semi-pro photographer willing to do individual photo shoots of cars with the possibility of selling professional prints/files? (perfect for someone possibly selling their Legend soon)
Do you have or know of someone that has a Go-Pro that could do a moving shot of all attendees on the way to a destination?
What point of interest could be unique from any other host city?
Would any of the venues be better or worse during the week or on the weekend?

DEALER DAY / AWARDS PRESENTATION / RAFFLE

Almost all NALM host cities have had a dealer day, but a few were in smaller towns that weren't large enough to have an Acura dealer or close enough to make it convenient. (most recent Asheville 2013) Car judging can be done by a mix of attendees, outside judges, dealer staff, hotel staff, etc. There's no set rules on who has to do the judging!
Chris Miller (Maryland) has done the awards purchasing and presenting the past few years.
Alan Jackson (Florida) has done the raffle drawings and the gathering of the donated items the past few years.

MISCELLANEOUS

According to the NALM charter posted on the .org site back in 2011, a host city can't host more than once every 5 years, but no city has ever hosted twice. As of this writing, only 2 states have hosted more than one NALM (Metro Los Angeles & Sacramento, CA and Houston & Dallas, TX)

Weather can make or break an event, but it's unavoidable. Having a NALM at the Gulf Coast probably isn't a good idea during hurricane season. A NALM in St Louis would be prohibitively expensive if the MLB All-Star game was the same weekend. A NALM in Death Valley, CA in early August . . . you get the idea.

It's YOUR EVENT! The 18 NALMs that have happened so far have had some similarities, but each one has been its own unique event in many ways. MAKE IT YOUR OWN! You'll get input whether you like it or not, some good, some . . . completely opinionated that you can take or leave at face value. Feel free to ask any questions at all about logistics, past experiences, past issues, hotel concerns, etc from any previous year's hosts. THEY ALL want NALM to continue for as long as there's a Legend still on the road!

Avoid chain restaurants if possible - everyone wants to try local places & local flavor.

Each NALM is to be financially independent. DO NOT count on carry over money from previous years to be used for following year's events.

In previous years, 15% has been the average of people who signed up and were no-shows, but 2023 was an unusual year and only 7.5% didn't come (3 of 40).

All recent NALMs have been held with a Wednesday night group dinner opening and a Sunday morning departure, but again, no set rule for timelines! If the host city has an annual event that the group would enjoy on a Monday, there's no rule stating NALM can't happen from Friday to Tuesday.

NALM hosting and planning can be a lot of work for 1 person, so don?t be afraid to ask for help & delegate. If you are a born procrastinator, you'll DEFINITELY need help.

The process of hosting a much anticipated yearly NALM for up to 50 people can be overwhelming, but hopefully this helps!

Eric Edson
Lexington NALM 2023 Host


8-31-23

[Tyson]

This is awesome. Thanks for putting it together!

[4HondaOwner]

All this thread needs is a picture of your NALM mat!

Great job Eric.

[ActionJackson]

Great info, Eric.

[Acura2g]

Priceless! Thanks Eric!