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BMW Riders Association International
PO Box 120430
Melbourne Beach, FL 32912-0430
Phone/FAX 321.984.7800
Web Page Site at http://www.bmwra.orgOhio RA Fall 2001-Winter 2002 Update
Bob Wood, State Director & Trustee
4257 West 130th Street
Cleveland, OH 44135-4869
Phone: 216.252.7933 FAX: 216.251.5329
NEW! - Ohio RA eGroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ohio-RA
June 3, 2002
Dear BMW RA Ohio Rider,
A lot has, and is, transpiring as this update is being published. However, the hottest news for Ohio RA's at the moment is our upcoming summer camp out in Peebles slated for Father Day's weekend, June 14-16, 2002. There is mounting enthusiasm about returning to the "Appalachian Foothills" of Ohio for more good riding and rallying. The roads are exciting, the food is delicious, and the people are the friendliest in Ohio. If you haven’t called to reserve your dinner yet, pick up the phone right now and let Randy and Kris know you're coming this year. On Saturday before dinner there will be a RA and AMA membership give-a-way and door prizes supplied by our Ohio BMW Dealers. Dinner this year is salmon on the grill or BBQ chicken (your choice $5.00) with "bring a dish if you wish" potluck sides, followed by an evening bonfire. We'll also slip a 50/50 in somewhere to subsidize the Port-a-Potty fund and make someone's weekend. This is a free campout! All BMW RA members, and especially Ohio members, and their guests are invited to attend. You can't beat that! See the calendar for further details and RSVP instructions.
You haven't received an update since October so let me get you all up to speed with what Ohio RA's have been doing since then. The traditional Ohio RA November brunch, that is held in the northeast quadrant of the state was relocated last fall to the Atwood Lake Lodge. This turned out to be a great location for a couple of reasons. We had a well-attended Sunday brunch and regional meeting, and several members choose to camp out, while others rode in and stayed at the lodge on Saturday night. If we are again blessed with unseasonably mild late autumn weather, I can see this evolving into another camp out or camp in like Marietta in January. Twenty-seven signed in at brunch and I would guess about half of them were there on Saturday night. If you are new to the BMW RA Ohio District, our off-season regional brunch/meetings begin with the second Sunday of November and are held monthly through March. We averaged about 25 members per meeting last year. That's about 8% of our statewide members showing up at each off-season event. This is pretty good attendance figuring in that we each live in only one of the five regions within Ohio. It's really good to keep in touch with you all and talk about motorcycles when it is snowing outside. I am seeing more and more of the core group trying to make it to all the regional meetings or at least the closer ones. Thank you all for supporting the state effort.
Not all the news was good news during the off-season. On the down side, I must report the passing of two, revered BMW RA Ohio members. We will all miss Rex Ballinger of Athens and Bob Cooper of Norton. Rex was best known for being there whenever help was needed and was one of the mildest mannered riders I have ever met. Bob Cooper was a legend here in Ohio, known far and wide as a strong RA organizer and leader, and served as State Director in Ohio for many years. These RA members will be deeply missed.SPRING CAMP OUTS 2002 -- REARVIEW
If you didn't make it to the Ohio RA Spring Camp Out let me tell you we have got a new location that is a real winner. Lee Walker was the man behind the scenes who found the new location that is only about 14 miles east of the original site in Mount Vernon, Ohio. It is the Kokosing Valley Camp and Canoe near Millwood and it is a full-featured campground complete with hot showers, flush toilets, a camp store, laundry, and more. Good restaurants are only a short ride away and the area where we camped had a pavilion that proved quite useful when rain hit on Saturday night. Pictures of this year's outing can be viewed on the Ohio-RA Yahoo Groups site. (You must be signed up to access the features of this site.) Thirty-five members came out for some part of the weekend and the general consensus was that the new site is just what the members ordered. Many thanks to Lee Walker, Ron Pritchard, Merle Marietta, Rob Clendening, Mark Hoskey, and all the others who help put this early season camp out on and keep it a tradition for Ohio RA's. The Mount Vernon spring camp out has been running for more than 27 consecutive years. Incidentally, I tentatively reserved the same weekend for the 2003 spring camp out before I left on Sunday afternoon.
Although our April camp out was graced with mostly dry riding weather, this was not so for two Ohio clubs who planned their events for the weekend of May 17-19, this year. Both the Western Reserve Club and the Toledo Riders choose this date for their events and suffered in attendance due to the coldest and wettest weather I can remember. Record lows were set and I recall seeing snowflakes on the following Monday. Despite this adversity Toledo and Western Reserve still reported around 25 attendees each. We are a hardy bunch in Ohio, aren’t we?
Being on the subject of weather, I need to mention that all the rumors you have heard about it raining constantly for the Cass Rally aren't true. I attended this year (first ever) and enjoyed the best weather I could have imagined. It is my strong feeling that the Mountaineers have such a good thing going with this rally that they just tell us it always rains! It is a select collection of the nicest folks, a great rally site, and the best roads in West Virginia. Despite what they tell you the weather was perfect -- in the seventies during the daytime and upper fifties overnight for sleeping deeply. Some tell me the deep sleep is due to the Jaguer. If you have never been to Cass make it a point to go next year.ON THE NATIONAL SCENE
In case you missed it, the national elections were skipped last year because only enough people accepted nominations for offices, as there were positions available. I was asked to run and waselectedappointed to a Trustee post. I will do my best to represent the traditional ways of the RA, as I have seen it work in Ohio. I for one would like to see the local districts become active again, but find this concept financially infeasible for the national group at this time. This also means that things will be changing a little bit here in Ohio (economically), but hopefully not too much. After several E-mails to Headquarters, I still haven't received a straight answer about reimbursement for our state newsletter expenses, so I have to assume this funding has dried up for now. This shifts the burden to the district members if we are to continue. We could probably do it on our own from the sounds of some of the generous offers proposed to me already, but it hasn't come to that yet. However, in the interest of conserving our local treasury, hardcopies of this and future newsletters will only be distributed to people who are not Internet enabled or specifically request hardcopy. Everyone else can go to the web site or Yahoo Group to read or print it and conserve postage costs. If you are receiving this newsletter in your (snail) mail and are Internet capable, please E-mail me a quick note to be taken off the mailing list. I will send an E-mail notice each time a new newsletter is uploaded to the web sites.
I have listened to differing arguments about these and other national level changes from many of you and will be letting the council know how you feel and how things are done here in Ohio. If you have an issue you would like put to the board, please feel free to contact me with it. I will gladly be your spokesman.
If your local club has not renewed their RA charter please make it a point to do so. If you don't know if they have, ask at your next meeting. Despite the negative tone of parts of the message on the BMW RA national web site regarding chartered clubs, it really is important for our local clubs to be on the roster as active and viable with the national association. Within the message written last December by George Young, Clubs Coordinator, he points out that in the early years of the national clubs, drawing in established local clubs helped to build strength in numbers for the new organizations. The RA could use all the strength it can get right now to get through these turbulent times of restructuring, so please renew your charters.
I am still waiting to see a published referendum and/or explanation of the By-Laws changes that were described by President Gordan Boltz in the December 2001 OTL. This is in fact, what the old By Laws prescribed to do as soon as possible after adopting amendments to them. As a new Advisory Council member I am still unclear if the proposed changes were ever even voted on and accepted after being revised and rewritten post Morganton meeting. I expect this and other questions will be cleared up at the annual council meeting in Red River or sooner.
I'm sure you know by now that the RA's big event this year will be held at Red River, NM on August 15-18. The sentiment from headquarters is; they are just hoping to break even. In the past, RA rallies held out west have not done well. The current board seems to be comprised of realists, not optimists, and from the sounds of things, a bad year could really change the way our national events would be done in the future. There have been suggestions to combine future RA nationals with other established events such as the AMA's Vintage Days or Americade. A change like this would certainly create a different flavor to our event and chip away at BMW RA's uniqueness. I'm hoping for a really good Ohio turn out in Red River this year because our members, in the tradition of the RA, are serious riders, not just motorcycle owners. Isn't this one major distinction between the two national organizations?
Regarding Headquarters, Linda Gotcher is doing a super job filling in for Ed Jorgensen as association administrator while he is on active military duty. If you have any questions about your membership, Black Eagle Shop merchandise, or the RA in general she is able to help you. Linda seems to be holding the helm "steady as she goes" for now.OHIO DISTRICT NEWS
I finally got the word from the Motorcyclists Memorial Foundation confirming that Sam Hill's spot on their wall would be completed by this past Memorial Day's Ceremony. Being at Cass this year prevented me from checking it out. If anyone is in the Hopedale, Ohio area and has the time to stop in, let me know if it is truly done. We will hold the 3rd annual Sam Hill Memorial Ride on October 26th from the campsite at the Halloween camp out near Cadiz this year and see for ourselves.
Several of our Ohio dealers have had open houses, special sales, and other incentives, but the overall tone of sales has been reported as flat this spring. Dealers blame too much rainy and cloudy weather to prompt interest. I would speculate they will be doing the same numbers or better than last year, but will have to do it in a shorter time period. Don't forget about our Ohio dealers. They are here for us and have always supported the Ohio RA generously.
I am currently looking for an assistant to keep things rolling smoothly here in Ohio. It appears that things are starting to pick up momentum within the RA Advisory Council and I'm finding it challenging to direct the state and actively participate effectively on the Executive Board. It is my intention to use the success of our organized state district structure as a template example for the council to study as they restructure the national organization. So, if need be, I will continue to do both for now in hopes that someone would like to take on the State Director responsibilities soon. I called it responsibilities and not a position since it is allegedly no longer a recognized position by the BMW Riders Association's new By Laws. I am hoping this bare bones structure will change in states or regions that chose to become pro-active. The Powers To Be could then create additional recognized positions.
Talk of bringing back the old Ohio RA fall camp out has again resurfaced. The Ohio RA's used to hold a fall outing in the Hocking Hills area during late September or early October. If anyone is interested in bringing this one back contact me for assistance with the project and I will do what I can to resurrect it. One of the reasons it was abandoned was the already numerous state events on the calendar around that time of the year. For now, it will remain on the back burner until someone steps up to the plate.INTERNET NEWS
I read a rumor about Ohio hosting another RA national soon. At this point it is only a rumor, but we all know how these things can gain momentum. So take it for what it is for now -- a rumor. I'll keep my ear to the ground and let you all know if anyone is really serious about it. Our state sure is putting a lot of effort into looking good for its' Bi-Centennial next year and it certainly could be a good time to show off our state. The big question would be, "By who"?
All Seasons in Wooster has fired up a new web site that can be found at http://www.motorcyclesohio.com/ that is quite an improvement over their initial site. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to function correctly using Netscape, so use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to view it properly.
Mathias Cycle in Dover has posted a site and is also preparing to move their dealership to a new location this summer. Surf to http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/s02.mrobinson/ to view it. It has the same personable feel as the dealership has. They feature links to their new and used bikes as well as BMW financing info. It looks like a good start for them that I'm sure they will build on.
Friend of the BMW marquee and previously franchised dealer, Schiets Motors in Freemont, also has a cyber-space presence at http://www.schietsmotors.com/. Although they no longer sell BMW motorcycles they still stock BMW parts and have one of the states foremost BMW mechanics on staff. Their site is worth the time to see and hear.
Sign-up for the Ohio-RA Yahoo Groups site has been a bit slow and disappointing so far. Of the 320 members across our state I still have only 42 members subscribed to the eGroup at present. If you are not presently subscribed and are on the Internet I urge you to sign up today. You are missing out on quite an entertaining and informative site. I currently send important notices about the Ohio RA events to a mass mailing list that still contains about 44 people. Our Yahoo Group features an automated messaging service that generates those same messages from events posted on the groups calendar and is automatically sent to all member subscribers. It's a "no brainer" for me. If everyone on the mass mailing list were on the Yahoo Group, I wouldn't have to duplicate the process. Also on the Ohio-RA Yahoo Group site you will find all my past newsletters, photos albums of our current events (camp outs, eating-meetings, and more), interesting bookmarks, fellow RA member message postings, our calendar containing Ohio RA events, a chat room, polls, and more. We are currently running a poll to see who is going to the RA national. In the voting section of the poll you can actually see the real time results of who is going and who is not and a list of their Yahoo ID's. Pretty cool, aye? I would appreciate it if you would take the time to sign up so I can whittle down the mass mailing list and be able to eliminate it altogether by the end of this year. If you don't like the Yahoo Group you can always unsubscribe.
I am inviting each chartered RA club in Ohio to assign a co-moderator to the Ohio-RA Yahoo Group site who will be able to add; events to the automated calendar, photos, files and more to the site. If you are interested in representing your local Ohio club on the state level, please contact me and I will arrange it.
As time goes on, more and more information is being made available on the Internet about our motorcycles and motorcycling events. If you want to be in the know, you have to keep up with this new technology or you will be left in the dust. There is no question about it, this is the Information Highway and there is no reason not to ride it.
LOOKING AHEAD
My next newsletter will likely contain a summary of the Advisory Council's actions at the Red River meeting and it's impact on Ohio. I am hoping the news will be positive and I will have captured the attention and support of some of the other board members by then. For the present, let's just keep chiming along here in Ohio, enjoying our many statewide activities and true RA style camaraderie.
So, plan on attending the summer and Halloween camp outs, the RA at the Red River, and perhaps the new Atwood Lake outing in November. All the events that are on our Ohio 2002 calendar will be firmed up as their dates draw nearer and updated on the Ohio RA web site and Yahoo Group calendars, as they are confirmed. Also, plan on renewing your RA membership when it's time. Your continued support is key to retaining the first-rate events we have going in Ohio. Remember, you are always welcome at any of our events.
It would be my pleasure to see you somewhere on the rally trail this year. Don't be shy. Grab me and introduce yourself. I am your voice to the Advisory Council.
Ride with the RA,
Bob Wood
Bob Wood
Ohio State Director & Trustee
BMW Riders Association, International