Saturday, November 15, 2008

GO Announcement from Mark the "Shark"

2010 Golden Oldies

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Boys and girls, gentlemen and ladies, and all ye who gather in the name of rugby! We hereby declare that the FBI (farm boys of Indiana) will be attending the 18th Golden Oldies World Rugby Festival and this is YOUR invitation to join us. Before any specific details are shared, you should know this event, in the past, has been the most fun we have ever had (legally) involving rugby, and in our humble opinions (okay maybe not humble) worth every cent we spent. Imagine 4000 people who love the game of rugby, and more importantly, truly GET what the spirit of the game is about, all in same place, at the same time, looking to have a good time. Can I get an AMEN!

WHEN AND WHERE
Okay, on with the details. The festival will take place in SYDNEY AUSTRALIA from September 26 thru October 3, 2010. It would seem inconceivable, ridiculous even, that we would ask you to make any kind of commitment now, when that is two years away. But it truly does take a great deal of time to plan and communicate, and more importantly save up the money and make payments.

HOW MUCH
Here are the approximate costs:

AU$300.00(198.81 US dollars) Team entry fee, this is split by the number of players that end up going.

AU$ 1695.00 to $1799.00 per person depending on the accommodations chosen and the number of people in each room. The conversion rates as of 11-14-2008 makes that US dollars of $1123.27 to 1192.19. This includes the hotel accommodation, your transport tickets and entry to all the festival sponsored events (Opening gala and parade, midweek event, in the case the vineyards and the closing gala/dance/dinner, as well as all games)

Your traveling kit – previously we have had really large kits with a big variety of things to trade, put together by James Wilkinson. Because of the airline baggage restrictions, the kits will be considerably smaller this year and will be done ala carte. Minimal kit is three jerseys for each player, so that you may have one jersey for each game. Cost should be somewhere between $150.00 and $180.00, depending on the jersey. Sponsorships to benefit the whole team will actively be sought. If enough sponsorships are received, it will certainly lower the price of the jerseys, possibly even purchasing the jerseys for the team. The preference seems to be for old fashioned sturdy cotton jerseys. We will be asking the esteemed James Wilkinson to design a jersey specifically for us, since he did great job on the jersey design this last time. There is no limit as to how many jerseys may be purchased, by both players and non players. We may offer a couple of other pieces, such as a bag similar in quality to the “Ireland trip” bag w/ the travelers name on it, and we will offer a good quality baseball hat, as those seem to be requested. HOWEVER, it seems to work best for you all to choose and purchase shirts to wear and trade for yourselves, such as polos, t-shirts or dress shirts. That way you get the colors, sizes and styles that work for you. You may send your kit to have the team emblem embroidered on each item. Once the new emblem design is completed and it is decided where we will be having that embroidery work done and the cost per piece is finalized, we will communicate that to you.

Badges/Pins to trade – Usually about $2.00 a piece, different design each year. Ask someone who has been on one of the trips to further explain.

Costumes for the opening parade: On the majority of previous trips the costume has been black suits, white shirts, black ties, black fedoras and sunglasses like the FBI of old, or kind of like the blues brothers. The jackets get embroidered with the FBI logos and we recommend you buy them at a thrift store. This is not the definite costume, just an idea as to the kind of things that can be done.

Airfare – Airfare on Qantas, the Australian airline seemed high when I checked, but that is something everyone should keep watch on individually. It would be fairly safe to say that you could expect to pay at least $1000.00 for airfare. If everyone could agree on one airline, we could possibly get a good discount for a group rate. Quite likely it could be done cheaper with planning.

HOW TO PAY
Okay, here is the big, cool news!!! A Pay pal account has been established for the Golden Oldies trip. It will let you make a payment via your checking account, your credit card, your debit card, your e-bay account etc. You may initiate the payment on your Pay pal and send the money to fbigoldenoldies@gmail.com. Of course you can still make payments via check or cash.

The creation of a pay pal account should also be an incentive/encouragement to sponsors who might hesitate to write a check or make a donation to a specific person. Knowing the money is going into a central account for the benefit of many tends to make people more confident and more generous. Maybe even enough sponsorship donations would eliminate the team entry fee.

Sending your money to paypal does not mean you could not get your money back. It is simply a place to accumulate the funds to pay for your trip, with a built in bonus feature of accounting for where and who the money is coming from and in what amounts. Plus it is an insured holding account.

Speaking of changing your mind about going, once you have already committed and given your money. Air New Zealand has given us a tentative “last date you can change your mind” of June 1, 2010. You would need to notify the team leader soon enough that they can turn in the cancellation prior to June 1, 2010. If you have submitted money and agreed to attend the festival and you change your mind or some unfortunate incident happens after that time, You would be responsible for finding someone to take your place, finish paying for the trip, and refund your money.

And, ta – da!! There is now a FBI website,(under construction)which will link you to the pay pal, and I am working on links to the FWRFC. The site is:

Once the website is fully completed, info will be posted with dates and meeting times and places. Money and decision deadlines will be posted.

A deposit of $100.00 now is appreciated to get a count of who thinks they are going and to fund the team entry fee, so that the FBI can be among the first teams to be registered and possibly have a shot at being one of the teams in the spotlight on the newsletters that get sent out all over the world.

For right now, the person to direct your questions to is Mark “Shark” Andrews, but that is seriously subject to change, and once a team leader has been determined, it will be communicated to you. Inquiries and interest can be made to the new email address dedicated to this trip, fbigoldenoldies@gmail.com
Looking forward to Sydney with you all!!! Yours in Rugby

Friday, November 14, 2008

Paypal

You may now have the convenience of setting aside your Golden Oldies funds through a pay pay account through several forms of payment including auto withdraw from checking or savings or credit card.

Go to www.paypal.com to set up your account and have funds sent to:

fbigoldenoldies@gmail.com

Dates

September 26-October 3 2010 Sydney Australia

Welcome to the Blogspot

This will be the official information site for the 2010 Trip---keep watching for more information and links to important sites

Welcome to the Site

Keep checking for updates and information about the Sydney 2010 Trip