It Looks Like We’re On…
…for another great Saturday, July 1, and another wonderful day of E@RTC! The weather should be excellent, so come on out. Free admission is half off. This also marks the halfway point of our season, if you can believe it. I know it's harder to believe than Taco Bell tasting good. Did you know in the Deep South it's easy to find a Taco Bell? Just look where the buzzards are circling.
Meanwhile, I thought I'd continue with more about our history over the past fourteen seasons for those who want to know. I know this post is longer than that extended warranty, but a lot of you ask why we don’t do more stuff and it's a good question. The simple answer is we tried a lot of things.
When we began, some of you were still in diapers. Fourteen years later, some of you are back in diapers. In those early years, much of what we were doing was trial and error. Lots of, "Whoops, we won’t do that again." Sort of like dating or driving through Fresno. Our goal was to last. That's it. That was our focus. How long would this banana last on the kitchen counter?
In the first three years, we started our season in early February and ran until Thanksgiving when the mall needed the parking stalls for Christmas riots. It was a lot of miserable cold Saturday mornings, but we were worried that if we shortened the season, people would forget about us. Breaking off a frozen toe had little appeal, so we shortened the season so we could walk. Nothing is worse than showing up at the hospital with a bag of toes just because we like cars. Oh, and you thought they called it Evergreen Hospital because of trees. No, it was the color of your toes.
We were already spending a lot of money on promoting the event, and we tried everything, from drives, to charities, to dinners, and we even did early morning pre-event breakfasts at Desert Fire before it shut down. Tony Hayes, now the owner of Classic Eats, was there every Saturday morning to open up Desert Fire super early for breakfast, something they didn't normally serve. We will always be grateful to Tony for all his work and support, and please give his place a try! Say hello for us!
When Tony was forced to shut down because of the building sale to BJ’s, we tried a private breakfast buffet at Willows Lodge, but that was a huge challenge to manage and another financial loss. We were super good at losing money.
We failed many times. We even did tech sessions, drives to SSC in Eastern Washington, and runs to Leavenworth, all in an attempt to build community. We were like the cast of Stranger Things, always fumbling our way at something with a lot of yelling, except without the bicycles or anyone chasing us on a creepy road.
Jody Takagi’s run to Remlinger Farms after E@RTC.
We were experimenting with every suggestion you gave us, except the naked rave, and we always read our press to find a way to make it better. We listened to the critics when they had something constructive to say, except for that Honda Type-R guy who wouldn't leave us alone in recent years.
We've always made our site something we laugh about because early on, some tried to brand us as snobs. We couldn't let that happen, so challenge accepted. We don't try to make our humor for everyone. We aim our jokes at our core participants and spectators who we know laugh at the same stuff. Besides, there's nothing more fun than answering someone's fiery rage with humor. Let the other shows be stuffy if they want; that was never us. We were car people hanging around cars, making fun of each other, just like we did when we were kids.
We discovered that a big part of our sustainability was all about the photography, and so we started organizing cars based on what we saw going viral. It wasn't just about bringing them in and parking. A row of Ferraris got a lot more online views than random cars. We also discovered that angle parking made better photos. All of that was learned from experience and looking at what you all posted online, besides pictures of your dog licking something it should’t.
You also helped us define our entrance criteria and when we'd lower the bar, you'd write to us, and when we raised it, you'd also write to us. Questions and debates about criteria are still our most common email topic, and we do let you help us define who we are. The stewardship of a brand always lies with the consumers, and that wasn't lost on us.
Meanwhile, car owners behaving badly were wrecking other car shows nationwide. Bad behavior around the US was instantly ending something people worked hard to create, so we developed strict rules to keep it from happening to us. This was to preserve what we all created, and that became our focus along with keeping it safe. The lack of maturity with some startled us more than their own parents. We had no idea there were that many Hot Pocket-eating basement dwellers with free access to Mom's hot car...or Mom.
Shortly after the Lamborghini corporate breakfast event, Jody Takagi organized the Remlinger Farms group photo shoots every early summer and if you were a part of E@RTC, there was always something to do those first three years. Jody did a great job of building community and we were glad to support her. Seriously, we were into everything!
Ted, Nick, John, Tom, Vic, Sean, Andre, and Blair early 2013.
The problem was, E@RTC became a full-time job, and I ran out of time organizing and managing. It was turning into a giant challenge to keep everyone happy. I was burning out. People started to see E@RTC as the solution to their problems, and we were hounded by requests to do something on someone’s behalf, such as showing up at their restaurant opening, doing charity events, arranging a birthday drive-by, or even settling gripes with dealers. Even explaining “no” burns up time and requests were coming in daily.
The strangest call I ever received was when a mom demanded that I let her daughter use a car of mine for her wedding. When I said no, this psychopath went full Karen on me over the phone, and used a lot of words that should never be put next to each other as though that would help. It’s to this day the weirdest phone call I’ve ever had in my life.
No, she wasn't my daughter.
Every once in a while, someone comes along to try and redefine us to make it about them, and we stick with our foundation of just having fun on a Saturday morning and nudge them away. This was always about having a good time, and there is no buck in it for us.
Redmond PD was super helpful and pitched in, beginning in our very first season. Matt Hurley of Redmond PD became a volunteer and helped us weed out those who behaved badly. Redmond PD has always been good to us, and we do all we can to be helpful and supportive of them. They are a great group, and we can't thank them enough. Same with the Redmond Fire Department, who also comes out now and then.
We tried publicized meet-ups at other restaurants, but then we ran into the problem that not a lot of places want a big influx of people showing up. That was a big surprise to us. We got turned down at a lot of places when we'd show up en masse, even if we called ahead, we heard “no” a lot. Besides, a few of us got tired of picking up the tab when others would walk out and not pay their own bill. It happened just about every time we posted that we would meet somewhere.
We decided to do breakfasts by invitation only, and we only invited those who had a reputation for paying and tipping well, and not complaining to us because the water for the tea they brought wasn’t hot enough. I'm not kidding. Normally I am kidding, but not this time.
Some exotic owners in groups are not the best ambassadors, but even that got to be difficult to manage. Some restaurants would suddenly change management, and we'd have to create new relationships all over again. We have a few in the car community who are the exact opposite of generous, let's face it. Like any group, it can be a mixed bag, but we got tired of the cleanup. It was like always getting the bad M&M.
Still, we listened to all of you, and if it improved our event, we implemented it. We even tried outside sponsors for a while, but that got to be too difficult to manage. A few wanted special favors and treatment in return, and we couldn't manage that against the sponsorship money that never covered the expenses. The demands wore us out when we just wanted to have fun with all of you. It ultimately cost us more to manage sponsorships than the sponsorships provided, so we decided to keep it super simple and cover our own expenses. Don't get us started on setting up a booth or table requests, we get about one a week. The last thing you want is to walk by some booth with a dude selling Colon Blow or a “face” massager that looks like Falcon Heavy.
After years of building E@RTC, Redmond Town Center now picks up about half our seasonal expenses, and I pick up about 90% of the other half with the other volunteers kicking in some here and there to make up the balance. It's not like I'm donating a kidney. We keep it cheap so we can last longer than your first marriage. Expenses also vary, depending on our needs, so it’s not a big deal. It’s not like we’re throwing up a building.
We also have a fantastic participant who wants to go nameless, I'm told, who hosts our annual volunteer end of season party and has always been generous with us. Thanks, BW! We are extremely grateful for what you've done for us over the years and we never forget your generosity.
It’s critical that the exotic and rare car community keep coming out to support E@RTC or a lack of participation could eventually harm us. You are giving back to the community by showing up! We don't have a commercial angle in any of this and so you give back just by being there. RTC is the one beneficiary, but it’s their space, so they should get some benefit and we encourage you to shop at RTC.
We’re very community-focused, in spite of pressure from those businesses who do it for profit. We support them too. This community event helps everyone in the automotive space. We'd like to see a thriving car community around the Pacific Northwest. This inspires people to get involved and buy more cool cars!
The first few years of our existence were a lot of putting out fires after trying to do too much, and by season 5, a few of us were feeling the mass burnout. Things like organized dinners, meetups, and the Carz video party always ran at a loss and that Carz event was a particularly big expense. Even the St. Michelle Stay-cation was costly for us, especially on a date with a super-high probability of rain, so we gave that up. Avants runs it now, but they are a for-profit organization and it’s far better for them. We support Avants!
By our 5th season, E@RTC had grown to become a beast to manage all on its own. I pulled back to just work on administrative functions, and others took over managing the "day of" event as we called it. We didn’t have a formal title. I couldn’t both be there and run administration functions and at the same time still have a life.
No, we never sold E@RTC, no, it was never given to anyone, I was always managing the back end, and Vic grew into the ambassador role. He’s a big part of our glue and the welcoming face people like to see.
We did have other volunteers run the day of event because it was just too much to manage as we were growing. Yet as we grew, the management demands also grew, and we needed more sophisticated and experienced senior management in various roles so we began to make more changes by Season 8.
We were starting to get valid gripes about little things and had to clean up the org into more defined roles. Once we made those changes, things started to get a lot easier to manage once again. It was simple divide and conquer to make it fun for everyone involved.
In the early years, a lot of people were doing the heavy lifting. Andre Cunningham, John Fowler, Blair North, Behan Venter, Mikaela “Honey Badger” Fowler, Sean McDonough, Ted C, and others all took on specific roles. Nick Bergeron in season 3-10 and Dan Putnam joined us in Season 6-10, as I recall, as we all were in divide and conquer mode, as we grew with Nick taking day-of-event management until we split the roles even further and Jason took over that role.
Beginning in our third season, Jason Bourriague stepped up in a big way and grew his involvement over the years, and over time became not just the volunteer coordinator, but also our culture and point guy and senior leader for everything. I don’t know how to best describe his role, but I can say it’s been a big one. While Jason had to dial it back this season, he’s been a critical part of our growth and success all these years. He’s great with people, and always understood our spirit, and that’s important in an all-volunteer organization. So what if he drives a VW bus.
Believe me, Jason puts in some very long hours, and he’s a fantastic leader who's helped shape our great Thug culture while keeping it fun. There will be a hole with him stepping back. (Why does that sentence not sound right?) Others have stepped in to help with Jason’s transitional leadership. He’s not leaving us; we won’t let him. The current roster of about 36 volunteers on the front and back end is an outstanding group, and I’ll be writing more about what they do.
Sean came to E@RTC from nearly the very beginning and over time became the primary gatekeeper and face of those getting in. Sean knows cars inside out, as if he vacuumed every one, and so it was difficult to fool him, or for that matter argue with him. He raised a ginger. He too plans to step back a bit after being with us from damn near the first day. Again, we won’t lose Jason or Sean as we’re all still family. Sean is a constant help with our criteria questions. He looks a little like Kenny Rogers without the shitty restaurant.
Please visit our volunteer page to see all the amazing folks, and there are more who will have their photos up soon. Mugshots don’t capture much personality and they make it look like you slept on a roof, and you’re still in handcuffs so we kept them off the page. I could write all day about volunteer contributions and every little thing they do.
Jason Tang has been consistently taking photos from our beginning except for a gap in our middle years. His stuff is all over our site. It was Jason and Jonathan D’Amato who did so many of our early photos. James Boyer did a lot of our photos in the early days as well. We even tried a page managed by other photographers and that took too much time to organize. Jason is our official Senior Photographer and he earned it. You see his work on the posters around the mall.
We see ourselves as an ensemble and not at all just the two founders. It’s never been about us. My profession has been building and fixing companies, so building E@RTC always felt close to my profession.
I’m always reading and responding to your emails and messages while working on the blog each week. I also manage the website and take in your suggestions. Separately, I also write a lot on Substack about entrepreneurship and management as well as writing anything that comes to mind on my personal website.
As the co-founder, I don’t put my name on much because I never ever wanted this to be about me or any of us individually. I’m just one of the guardians of what matters to all of you. We didn’t know where this would all go but we know we want to keep it going. My current role was never the plan from the beginning, but someone has to be accountable, so because I run the back end, I guess that’s me. It was always for the community and we want to make sure those who did the work, get the credit they deserve. We’re a community with a common interest, and that’s how we run.
Without the generosity of the car community by showing up, including those that volunteer, along with the spectators who love to see the cars, this wouldn’t exist and it’s a remarkable thing that we’re able to pull off each season, thanks to all of you.
You all made this the best weekly car gathering for exotic and rare cars in the US. Nothing comes close to our organization and participation, and it’s all because of you. We need to keep this going because it’s an important shining example of what a community can become when people work together.