UNICON VIII

General
1

I read John Foss specific history & description of all the UNICONs held. As a
former UNICON Chairman (UNICON IV in 1988) I want to add something.

I did not make money on UNICON IV, I actually lost some. Can you make money on a
UNICON now? You sure can.

UNICON IV was lots of hard work, I have never been busier in my whole life. Am I
sorry for having run UNICON IV. NO. Actually I consider it one of the highlights
of my life. Not only the unicycling part of my life, but of my whole life.

Would I run another UNICON? Yes, I plan to. I just don’t think this is the right
moment. Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean, south of the USA & Canada. The last
four UNICONs has been held in this area.

I have two suggestions for the Chairperson of UNICON VIII:
1)Take advantage of the experience of the chairpersons of the former UNICON. All
of us probably will be willing to give you help & advise.

2)Integrate UNICON VIII to your community as much as possible. That includes
the riders & the rest of the community. You should start working on that
from day one.

Finally, there is not too much time left before the Summer of 1996. The whole
board will have to act on this, but maybe we should start thinking on moving it
to 1997. Personally, I think we are better off having the UNICONs on odd years,
so that it doesn’t overlap with the Olympics. Often the possible sponsors dry up
their funds with the Olympics. So, if UNICON VIII is held in 1997, UNICON IX
should be in 1999 and so on.

Alberto Ruiz, Director International Unicycling Federation

2

Re: UNICON VIII

To any Unicon VIII organizers, or participants,

I have also read John Foss’ history, and Alberto Ruiz’s comments (which are
copied below).

  • I did not make money on UNICON IV, I actually lost some.

While this may be bad news for a future director, I also lost money on Unicon
VII - but there were plenty of places that we could’ve cut corners, and still
made it a good Unicon. We didn’t eliminate spending the money because we were
expecting much more from sponsors than we did. Oh well.

  • Can you make money on a UNICON now? You sure can.

Absolutely possible.

  • UNICON IV was lots of hard work, I have never been busier in
  • my whole life. Am I sorry for having run UNICON IV. NO.
  • Actually I consider it one of the highlights of my life. Not only
  • the unicycling part of my life, but of my whole life.

I second the above statements!!

  • I have two suggestions for the Chairperson of UNICON VIII:
  • 1)Take advantage of the experience of the chairpersons
  • of the former UNICON. All of us probably will be willing to
  • give you help & advise.

I will be very willing to help, even visiting Unicon VIII organizers ahead of
time to help plan and promote.

Constance Cotter cotter@cae.wisc.edu Former Director International Unicycling
Federation