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20 August 08 Ride Chapter Gathering August seems to be a month where we see lots of folks coming back together after a summer on the road to Wing Ding and other vacation destinations, visits with riends and families near and far, and lots of hot summer riding. This August Chapter Gathering again brought in the usual friendly faces, some that we hadn’t caught with for a while and some that we haven’t known very long. The crowd is meeting earlier and earlier but Brad and I managed to get to the Longhorn Café early enough to set up and put out lots of handouts and fliers on helpful information and upcoming rallies.
Great turnout with 38 folks! Almost filled the place! The room seemed to fill up rapidly. Lots of hands helped make the “doings” of our monthly gathering go quickly. Kenny Jordan helped our “Ticket Lady,” Linda Brackeen, sell door prize tickets. Millie Kvapil went around and sold $1 tickets to the Christmas raffle. Every one was busy meeting, greeting and eating. Lots of catching up to do.
View from the back. Some "fUn" in the back!! The actual business part of the gathering this month was especially busy with our first annual Chapter Rally coming up in October. After welcoming everybody, Brad tried to single out those we hadn’t seen recently but we didn’t quite catch everyone we hadn’t seen for a while. Sorry if we missed singling you out but we hope that you felt welcome as we caught up with you personally.
Our newest participants and GWRRA members, Skip & Beth Surre Really great news for the chapter is that we now have Assistant Chapter Directors. Steve and Susan Ochs have agreed to be our new ACDs, and everyone gave them a round of applause. Thanks Steve and Sue for stepping up to take on this important responsibility.
Our new Assistant Chapter Directors, Steve & Susan Ochs Lots of updates on the rally were next. Maria has been busy with lining up vendors. Brad has been busy working on getting major donations and lining up publicity. JD Kvapil is trying to “ride herd” on all the plans from where the ice is coming from, the need for more tables, who has ice chests, and the list goes on and on. Basically things are looking good and everyone is pretty excited about putting on our first rally. Fortunately Martha Gover, our Treasurer, says our treasury is building to support this rally! There are benefits to pre-registering and being among the first 100 to pre-register so get your registration and money into Martha! See our rally flier on this website for more information. Charlie Brown filled in our Chapter Educator, Court Van Sickler. Charlie made an impassioned plea for everyone sign up for the Rider Education Levels program as we all like to ride with other safe riders. Charlie told everyone he was going to camp out at the front door and everyone would have to go by in order to leave. It worked…he signed up 18 new participants in the Levels program. By the way, the number of chapter participants involved in the chapter Levels program is one of the scoring criteria for the Chapter of the Year competition which we are planning on being a part of in January. If you aren’t in our Chapter Levels program, please see Court and Charlie and get on board. We want you to ride safe, and we want to document your safe riding in our program!
Brad putting out info. Charlie filling in for Court. Mike Mills our Ride Coordinator gave a review of recent past rides (and birthday parties!), and upcoming rides. He also discussed some new ride ideas including geocaching (set up by Charlie Brown) and perhaps riding to some more adventuresome activities like gliding through tree tops on wire! Yes, if you have something you like to do and want to ride a motorcycle to go do it, see Mike, he is always looking for ideas! As part of the overall discussion on places to stay during this year’s District rally in Amarillo and Wing Ding in Tulsa, Connie and Ken Jordan shared their enthusiasm about the training they received at the last Wing Ding and our chapter Parking Lot Practices that helped them deal with a deer running into them on the way home from Wing Ding. Connie and Ken Jordan went to both the Trailering Course and the ERC 2 Up and highly recommend both to everyone. They reminded people that they need to sign up for these type of classes in advance, and while there is a fee, a good part of it is refunded on completion of the training. Both said it was worth the time and very nominal cost.
Ride Coordinator Mike with fUn on his face! Nice to see Bob & Patrice Cook again!
John McClinton Albert Vasquez Bert & Linda Navin
Dave Weaver & Rod Cotter Great group of folks!!! As we adjourned from the information sharing portion of the evening, most of us ended up catching up, signin up for Levels, or moving into the parking lot to admire bikes, exchange items for the Silent Auction or sort out thoughts on the upcoming rally. The evening had again had lots of “U-U-U-U-U” chants as well as lots of laughs and smiles, and a warm feeling that everyone there was a welcome part of the Chapter. Again it was a good evening to be part of Chapter U. If you weren’t able to be with us, we hope to see “U” soon!
Jill Severe Co-Riding Chapter Director
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