March 2010
From Your District Director
By Bruce & Barb Beeman
March, what's good about this month when you live in Minnesota? Well, it's starting to get warmer, the sun is up longer, and we made it through January & February. Now we only have about a month and a half before we are RIDING. It seems like this winter has been here forever and I'm so ready for the season I love the most, Riding Season.
March also brings with it a lot of starts; like our Ops. Meeting in Grand Rapids on the 13th of March. Hopefully we have someone from every Chapter there. We have a lot of planning to go over for our District Rally in July. There are Chapter assignments, Region & District updates, hotel tour and Chapter calendars to go over. We will here from our Leadership Coordinators & our interim Educator on up coming seminars. It should a lot of fun.
As some of you know Pete & Laura Winters decided to step down as the MN Educators. Please join me in thanking them for the job they did while they were our Educators. Now we have a big job of filling their shoes. GWRRA is based on fun, safety and knowledge and a big part of that comes from the Educator. If this is something you think you would be interested in, please get a hold of me.
Remember be safe out there, the life you save just might be your own.
Thank
you and Ride Safe
Bruce & Barb Beeman
District Directors
GWRRA Minnesota
507-438-7063 (cell)
District Educator's Corner
By Kevin & Cindy Heap
Once we get through this month, it will be getting close to riding season again. There will be some big plans for vacation touring and lesser plans for cruising with the chapter or a group of friends. In either case, the key words are TOURING or CRUISING. These words hint a pleasurable ride at a reasonable speed that allows the passenger and the rider to enjoy the road and the countryside.
At times in my riding past, I have joined a group for a pleasure ride only to find myself cranking the throttle just to try and keep up. The ride was usually not fun and often very nerve racking.
Excessive speed has does not belong in group riding. A chapter ride or ride with any group of friends is not a road race. There are no bonus points for getting to the end first. Besides the obvious concern with speeding tickets, the higher the speed, the faster everything happens. Even with everyone in the group following the riding rules for stagger and spacing, a mishap at high speed increases the odds that the following bikes will not be able to avoid what’s happened just in front of them.
When planning any ride, especially ride leaders and ride coordinators, remember that you need to ride down to the lowest common skills. That is, you must ride at a pace comfortable to the least experienced rider. As a competent and experienced motorcyclist, it is much easier for you to ride at their level than for them to ride at your level. Asking them to keep up is only asking for trouble.
At the very least, a less capable rider will be nervous and tense trying to stay up with you. They may push their skills past their abilities and end up having an accident. They may be smart enough to realize they can’t keep up and simply drop back and eventually drop out. If they do manage to make it with you to the end of the ride, they will probably find a way to excuse themselves for the ride back. Either way, there is a good chance they won’t be riding with the group in the future.
Riding with friends is much more enjoyable when everyone can take part in the ride, the conversation and ride within their abilities. Remember “Friends for Fun, Safety and Knowledge” should be more than just a motto.
On a different note, we should send congratulations out to our newest GWRRA Certified Seminar Presenters, Connie Richtmyre of Chapter Q and Dennis Jewett of Chapter W. With that in mind, it would be a very good idea for the Chapters to arrange for the Team Riding Seminar and the Co-Rider Seminar to help get tuned up for the fast approaching riding season.
District Leadership Trainer
By Tammy & Brian Anderson
Brian & I went to our first large training group this weekend in Davenport, IA. We helped to train the Region staff on the new Officer’s Training Program. The exciting thing about this program is that no matter what level the officers are at, whether it’s Chapter, District, or Region, there is so much interest in the information that is being provided. You can tell by the number of questions that are being asked during the modules that are being presented. It is very exciting to see the light bulbs go on in the various modules amongst different people.
Now it’s time to get Minnesota up to speed. We are in the process of booking 3 different locations in Northern MN, the Twin Cities, and Southern MN during April. Please make every effort if you are a current officer or going to become an officer. An officer is defined for this course as the Directors and Assistant Directors. If you think you may become a Assistant Director next year, I would encourage you to attend one of these sessions as well. We need to have all the current officers trained prior to August 31, 2010. After that we will be offering new upcoming officer sessions in November of each year of course location TBD.
Thank you to all who are helping to support these efforts, we look forward to bringing you this fantastic new program!
District MEC
By: Jerry & Ann Rigney
As the new District Membership Enhancement Coordinator, I would like to see each and every Chapter in Minnesota District fill the position of Member Enhancement Coordinator (MEC). I believe an MEC is beneficial to have as part of your staff. What they can do to promote fun within the chapter?
I like to think of the MEC as the one with the fun job...we get to go out and have fun and find new ways to help others have fun. You also get to meet the new members and invite them to join in and have fun by participating. We enjoy the get together, rallies, and events if we become active.
I would like to suggest and challenge each member to try and to see if you do enjoy yourself more. If anyone has any questions pertaining to MEC please call me and if I don’t know the answer, I will get you one. I believe with all my heart that if we all get involved that we have the best district in GWRRA.
My phone number is 605-321-4324 do not hesitate to call
S