MINI MEET WEST ‘98

by Steve Malins

The first time the Vancouver Mini Club hosted Mini Meet West in Whistler was in 1991. Despite our eager promotion of it, the turnout was only lukewarm, about 55 cars in total. Actually it was the smallest west coast meet anyone could remember. The response at the meet however, was very encouraging; they loved it! Even in the years following Whistler we were still getting favorable reviews.

People kept nagging us to host Mini Meet again, so we finally broke down and agreed to an encore. Same time frame, same location, same hotel. We surmised, from the response we got, that those that had attended previously would likely return. Furthermore, those that merely heard about ‘91 and regretted not going would also be there.

We were very optimistic. We should easily match our previous numbers, and most likely exceed them. But it was not to be. A week before the meet we had only 37 cars pre-registered. We had many “day of” registrations but we still fell short of the ‘91 numbers, only about 52 cars in total.

We were a little confused. How could we have even fewer cars than before? Had we not promoted it enough? Were there simply not that many Minis out there? We did some inquiring and here’s what we came up with:

Top 10 Excuses For Not Coming to Mini Meet West ‘98:

 

10 Passport wasn’t up to date.

9 Unable to speak French.

8 Thought 28 degrees was way too cold.

7 Thought a Mini Meet was hanging out at Craig’s on a Saturday afternoon.

6 Refused to stay in a hotel less than a day’s drive from home.

5 Didn’t realize a dollar would only cost 68¢.

4 Thought British Columbia was in Central America.

3 Didn’t think 2 years was enough time to put the motor back in the car.

2 Didn’t have any snow tires for the Mini.

1 Couldn’t find Canada on the Denny’s placemat map.

The preceding was all in fun. Don’t take anything you read here too seriously.