MRF Reports - March/April 2009

tive with your Board of Directors leading the organization, get in-volved at the local and regional levels both in your organizationand in the political scene, religiously read your organization’snewsletters and releases, attend your organizations Annual Meet-ings and Training sessions, attend one of the many Regional orNational Motorcyclists Rights Conferences held throughout theyear, foster personal relationships with your legislators and bu-reaucrats and regulators, attend your organization’s lobby day,support your organization’s members that travel to WashingtonDC to lobby, respond to all press releases and alerts calling forsome action on your part, and to support the motorcyclists rightscommunity.

I can bet that if New Hamp-shire HB95 would have passedthe bill making 50-75% of allmotorcycles in that State ob-solete, or if New York City or-dinance 416-A passes allowingfor the confiscation of manynon-stock motorcycles in thecity, or when the next federalmandatory helmet bill thatcomes up were to pass buriedin the upcoming Transportationbill or in another stimulus bill,or as we face another round ofextremely limiting technicalregulations, the fateful words“Had I known that was going tohappen I could have done that”will be spoken.

Here’s the take-away from allthis; let’s take action now tocontinually improve ourselves,and our organizations’ strengthand activity, all in an effort tomake certain that “I could havedone that” doesn’t become“had I only known, I wouldhave done that.”

WHATS INSIDE:

N.H House Bill 95 Fails

Page 3

Change is on the Horizon

Page 5

Colors Forfeiture

Page 6

Red Light Cameras

Page 8

May I Have Your

Attention, Please?

1

MRF A&E Update

Page 14

Tribute to Penny Schmidt

Page 17

ABATE of Wisconsin Takes

the Bull by the Horns

Page 28

The�MRF�does�not�endorse�any�products�or�services�other� than� i ts�own�product� l ine. �This�does�not�apply� to�pol i t ical �endorsements

Vol. �18, �No.�2� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �March/Apr i l �2009

I COULD HAVE,

I WOULD HAVEKirk “Hardtail” Willard

MRF President

At the most recent MotorcycleRiders Foundation (MRF) winterBoard meeting in Minnesota ourVice President “Boz” led a valu-able discussion around the prin-ciples and work practices of

Continuous Improvement and its relevance to the work we doevery day at the MRF. You may have heard of it as Lean, 5S,Kaizen, Six Sigma, Sustainability, or Change Acceleration in ref-erence to what is a Continuous Improvement Process. These areall simply methods and processes to get better at what we al-ready do, but regardless of what it is called, in today’s world theseare necessary programs for our survival, including the MRF’s.We are undergoing many changes in the MRF, some subtle andsome not, to insure we are as efficient and as cost-effective aspossible with our resources while maintaining the valuable serv-ice to our State Motorcycle Rights Organization (SMRO) partnersand members. That service, bottom line, is “Total Vigilance” ofCongress and on the Hill in Washington D.C.

The real reason I brought this up though, was something thatcame up in the discussion that really hit home. Many companieslarge and small alike often bring in a Continuous Improvementexpert in the form a consultant to kick start these programs. Aftermany observations and multiple meetings they’ll make their initialobservations about what is needed in the way of improvementsand they always start with fairly easy ones so success is seenearly in the process and ultimately gets the program moving sothey can show a return on the investment the company is mak-ing. Interestingly enough, when employees hear what these easychanges are towards improvement they often bristle and answer“well I could have done that”.

This relates perfectly to the world of “Bikers Rights”. If we wereto bring a consultant in to look for easy answers to our complexissues facing us as motorcycle rights activists it certainly should-n’t be a surprise for us to hear that we, meaning each of us per-sonally, should all join our SMRO’s and the MRF, get a fellowbiker to join up, regularly attend SMRO or club meetings, attendevents that financially support the organization’s cause, stay ac-

Mototcycle Riders Foundation March/April 2009

Providing a Service

Michael “Boz” Kerr

MRF Vice President

A long tome ago, there wasa radio commercial for ahigh-end men’s clothingstore. It went something likethis: while shopping in theirstore, an older man over-heard a much younger mantell a salesman that hewanted a suit that wouldmake him the next CEO ofhis company. The sales-man’s reply was “we can

dress you for business; the rest is up to you.” The implicationbeing of course, that creating corporate chief executive officerswas beyond the scope of a clothing store. They could providequality garments, however.

While not a precise analogy, one could draw parallels betweenthat salesman’s description of his store’s function and the mis-sion of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation. Most readers of MRFReports are familiar with the operations of the MRF. They knowthat the MRF is a Washington, DC based organization thatmonitors the United States Congress. We have a full-time gov-ernment relations professional in Washington, advocating forthe interests of motorcyclists. Not only does he lobby membersof Congress and staff, he works with federal agencies (such asthe Department of Transportation) as well.

Having such an operation in Washington, supplemented by alegislative team composed of several politically savvy MRFboard members, is a critical element of an organized effort bythe street bikers of this country to have an effect on public pol-icy at the federal level. The fact is that while the MRF is verymuch a motorcyclists’ rights organization, its function in theworld of motorcyclists’ rights is to provide a service. The con-sumers - if you will - of this service are our sustaining state mo-torcyclists’ rights organizations and our members.

Providing a service is not a substitute for activism. Having anoffice and a government affairs professional in Washington iscritical to keeping the federal government from bullying the

states into passing helmet laws. By themselves however, theydon’t stand a chance. To believe that the MRF can advance ordefeat legislation on its own is like the young man thinking thata high-dollar suit can make him a CEO.

In the current Congress, we are facing challenges that wehaven’t seen since the early 1990's. To be successful, grass-roots activism on the part of the street biker will have to in-crease. There are 535 members of the United States Congress.In order to advance the agenda formulated by the State Mo-torcyclists’ Rights Organizations who have elected to partnertogether with us; we will need all of their involvement, to reachthose 535.

As movements mature, they have a tendency to rest upon pastaccomplishments. We often speak of past efforts and victorieswith pride (as we should). But, have we maintained the level ofintensity that we had in the mid-nineties? With the nefarious“transfer penalties” being used as a battering ram againststates without mandatory helmet laws, we had a powerful mo-tivating factor then. We worked hard against them. Back homewe asked our Congressmen to oppose them. Many states sentdelegations to Washington - which has significant impact - tomeet with their Congressional members. It worked, with the fullrepeal - done deal on November 12, 1995.

Let’s get back to real time - Spring 2009. How many state mo-torcyclists rights organizations are sending (or have alreadysent) delegations to Washington this year? How many of usare currently advocating - writing letters, sending e-mails,making phone calls or making personal visits to members ofCongress - for our issues back home this year?

To kick back and think that the MRF (or the AMA, or NCOM oranyone else) has got your back covered is a plan for disaster.We can provide the tools; we can provide the services neededfor a top-notch lobbying effort. What we can’t provide is you.Congressmen get buttonholed by professional lobbyists every-day. They want and need to hear from constituents.

If you haven’t already, starting planning your trip to Washingtontoday. Give our office a call - we are here to help. Motorcyclistsfrom around the country need to come to Washington. Withoutthem the MRF will become empty suits on the hill. Paper tigers,with little to back us up (we sure don’t have much money topass around).

After all these years, the MRF remains an extension of the statemotorcyclists’ rights organizations. We were formed to be theirwatchdog in Washington, DC – providing them a valuable serv-ice. We weren’t formed to be their replacements. Come toWashington this year, your rights have never been more injeopardy.

Advertising in the MRF ReportsThe�MRF�Reports�reaches�approximatesly�5000

motorcyclists�six�times�a�year.�Even�more�visit

our�web�site�(www.mrf.org)�every�month�and�this

is�a�prime�location�to�get�the�word�out�about

your�product�or�service�to�motorcyclists.

Contact�Susan�Huttman�for�more�information.

[email protected]

March/April 2009 Mototcycle Riders Foundation

New Hampshire House Bill 95 Fails and

USTR Drops “Beef” with MotorcyclesJeff Hennie

MRF Vice President

of Government Relations

New Hampshire House Bill 95 introducedby Representative Day (D-North Hamp-ton) attempts to reduce motorcycle soundby prohibiting any and all motorcycle ex-haust system modifications; prohibiting allafter-market equipment that replaces themuffler; requiring all motorcycles to beequipped with a tachometer; requiring all

motorcycles to measure 95 decibels or less tested at 20 inchesfrom the exhaust system at a 45 degree angle; and would in-crease the fine to not more than $500 for a violation.

This legislation is opposed by the New Hampshire MotorcycleRights Organization and the MRF.

The legislation was voted on by the New Hampshire HouseTransportation Committee last week and was unanimously op-posed by the committee and recommended that the bill be ITL(inexpedient to legislate) to the full House. The full House fol-lowed the direction of the Committee and dispensed with the bill.

New Hampshire State Senator Bob Letourneau had this to say:“New Hampshire motorcyclists deserve better than what HB 95would have legislated and I am pleased to see that my col-leagues in the House chamber have defeated the measure”. Le-tourneau is Chairman of the New Hampshire SenateTransportation Committee and a past recipient of the MotorcycleRiders Foundation highest honor, the John “Farmer” Eggersaward.

With no mention of helmets, straight pipes or any of the usualmotorcycle targets, the legislation doesn’t raise red flags to theaverage person. However, any legislation that bans one form ofaftermarket equipment and in the next breath requires aftermar-ket equipment should be a red flag to anyone.

Perhaps the New Hampshire State House of Representative Re-publican Leader Sherman Packard summed it up best when hesaid “In my 35 years fighting for motorcyclists' rights this is themost anti motorcycling bill I have seen and I am pleased that theHouse took appropriate action."

The MRF applauds the New Hampshire House for standing upfor the rights of the motorcyclists of New Hampshire.

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) drops “beef” with

motorcyclists.

As previously reported by the MRF, in 1999 the European Com-munities (EC) decided to ban any importation of beef and beefproducts from the USA. The EC claimed that due to the use of

growth hormones being used in US beef production they wereunfit to be consumed by citizens of the EC, thus resulting in $116million shortfall for US beef producers. The US trade communitydecided to retaliate, not by banning items for sale in the US, butby increasing the tariff paid on specific items from specific coun-tries in the EC. The first list came out in 1999 and it containedmany beef and agricultural products, as well as a few non-agri-products such as hair clippers and small displacement motorcy-cles (50-500cc). The final list came out in 2000 and themotorcycles had been removed. The USTR recently announcedanother list that also contains motorcycles. The USTR had pro-posed to double rates of duty ad valorem, which translates intotwice the declared value of the motorcycle imported into the USAfrom Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spainand Sweden. So that means the price of a Vespa, Piaggio, KTM,and Husqvarna scooters and motorcycles would double.

The MRF is pleased to report that motorcycles have been re-moved from the list of items whose prices will experience a sig-nificant increase in this international trade turf war.

To view the list of proposed items and the comments visitwww.reguations.gov docket number USTR-2008-0036.

Contact Your Congressman

U.S. Senate:You may phone the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly withthe Senate office you request.

U.S. House:You may phone the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly withthe House Representative office you request.

Information about your Federal, State and Local Senate andRepresentatives is also available from a link at the top of theMRF web site’s home page (www.mrf.org). You will need yourZip+4 number when running this search.


Atlantic Sands Hotel and Conference Center101 North Boardwalk, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Call 800-422-0600 for room reservations. Room rate: $99.00 (single/double).

Rooms must be reserved by March 17, 2009. Includes standard amenities.

Seminar Cost: (before March 17, 2009): MRF members $60, Non-MRF members $70;

(after March 17, 2009): MRF members $70.00, Non-MRF members $80.

Chapter Group Rates: $100 fee per chapter (unlimited attendees).

Names must be submitted by March 17, 2009. Chapter rate does not include dinner

(this must be paid separately – $35 per person).

For chapter registration please contact [email protected].

Registration is also accepted through the MRF website at www.mrf.org.Visa, MasterCard, AmEx and Discover accepted. Mail registration fee to:

MRF, 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510, Washington, DC 20002. Questions? Call the MRF at 202-546-0983.

Register Securely Online at www.mrf.org


Change is on the HorizonCarol Downs

MRF Conference

Director

The MRF’s winter BoardMeeting is behind usnow. It was a difficultone. As you are allaware the MRF’s finan-cial position has be-come very precarious.

We were able to find enough cost-saving measures to get usthrough this year’s Meeting of the Minds, but nothing more.Elsewhere in this reformatted paper (one of the changes) you willfind more details on the cuts and what they mean. I am onlygoing to discuss the changes to the Conference Department.

As the Chair of the Finance Committee for the MRF I reallywanted to go into the winter Board Meeting with lots of cost-sav-ing ideas from my department, Conferences. Unfortunately Icould come up with no cost-saving ideas. Even the ConferenceCommittee was unable to cut expenses. Conferences have acertain amount of fixed expense; meals have to be paid for; roomrental has to be paid, audio/video needs have to be paid. Cuttingany of those items would result in not having a Conference.These expenses have been continuing to increase over theyears while we have kept our registration fees the same. So theConference Committee had no choice but to raise more funding.

I can hear some of you now: “Let’s not use the fancy hotels.” Onthe surface this seems like a good solution. But unfortunatelythe smaller, less fancy facilities do not have the meeting roomspace we require for our Conferences. I can also hear somefolks saying: “Let’s just not do that hotel food. That would savemoney.” Again, on the surface that would be a good assumption.The problem with that is our meeting space rental would increasedramatically if we cut out the meals. Hotels are not willing to give

up meeting room space at a much discounted rate if they are notmaking their profit in some other manner.

While I generally sign contracts for Conferences well in advance,the one item I can never get written into a contract is the foodcost. We all go to the grocery store; we know how much foodprices can fluctuate. We pay whatever is the going rate for themeals we select at the time of the Conference. We have beencharging the same amount for registration for years. At the Re-gional Conferences where you can attend as a district or chapterand pay only for the meal (after the district/chapter registration)we haven’t raised the price for the meal either. That mustchange. The MRF must start covering their costs.

Effective with BEST of the West 2009 the cost of chapter/districtregistration will be increased to $125.00 per chapter/district.Based on current pricing structures the meal cost must increaseto $40.00 per person. Individual registration for BEST will alsoincrease by $10.00. After this year’s regionals the MRF will bedoing away with the district/chapter registration fee. The idea be-hind this registration method was to encourage more attendees.This has not panned out. The number of attendees has not in-creased since we implemented this policy about 6 years ago.But our costs certainly have.

Effective with Meeting of the Minds 2009 the registration cost willalso increase by $10.00. This just gives more incentive to getyour registration in early. Remember you can save $10.00 bypre-registering for Conferences.

Please understand none of these price increases were madelightly. But a careful review of the costs of the Conferences hasrequired we take action.

If you have any questions or comments do not hesitate to contactme at [email protected]. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing youat one of this year’s events.


Jeff Hennie

MRF Vice President

of Government Relations

14 February 2009

Friday the 13th is traditionally a dayknown for fright and bad luck. However,Friday, February 13th 2009 could be adeparture from that point of view, espe-cially if you are in the market for a newmotorcycle.

Congress passed a massive spending bill (HR-1), the largestever passed by any US Congress, February 13, 2009. The bill issupposed to revive an ailing economy and put out-of-work Ameri-cans back into a job.

There is one tucked away provision that should appeal to motor-cyclists, a tax break for purchase of a new – not used - motorcy-cle.

Here is the breakdown:

* From now until the end of 2009 anyone will be able to deductall state and local taxes from the purchase of a new motorcycle,so long as the purchaser makes less than $125,000 a year as asingle tax filer or $250,000 for those filing jointly.

* The deduction applies to new motorcycles with a purchaseprice of up to $49,500 and a gross vehicle curb weight of lessthan 8,500 lbs.

* This is what is known as an "above the line deduction" whichmeans all taxpayers are eligible whether the purchaser itemizesother deductions or not.

This deduction also applies to passenger cars, light trucks andrecreational vehicles so long as they meet the same qualifiers.

So what are you waiting for? Go do your part to jump start theeconomy and buy a new bike.

The bill has passed the US Congress and now heads to thePresident for his signature before becoming law. The MRF is nottaking an official position on HR 1.

Stimulus Bill Passes House and Senate

Out N About - Colors Forfeiture

Doc Ski

SSMRO Rep

On Wednesday 22 0ctober 2008 USDistrict Court Judge Florence-MarieCooper granted an injunction pro-hibiting members of the MongolsM/C, their family members, and as-sociates from wearing, licensing,selling or distributing items contain-ing the Mongols logo. This unprece-

dented move to strip a motorcycle club of their logo means thatmembers of the club can no longer wear or display their copy-righted logo depicting the profile of a Mongolian warrior wearingsunglasses. According to Assistant US Attorney Steven Welk, “Ifa Mongol is wearing a vest or jacket bearing the trademarkedclub logo, that item is pursuant to seizure according to thisorder.” In the words of one ATF agent ...law enforcement offi-cers can literally, “take the leather jackets right off of theirbacks.”

The injunction was granted in concert with a multi-state raidwherein more than 60 members of the Mongols M/C were ar-rested on charges under the RICO Act. In addition to the crimi-nal charges set forth, the government is seeking to forfeit theintellectual property of the club. Typically forfeiture proceedingsare used to force forfeiture of “ill-gotten gain” and alleged “actsof facilitation”. This may be the first time in history where thegovernment has sought to take control of an organization’sidentity through a court order.

The purpose of forfeiture proceedings is not to gain jurisdictionover a person, rather it is to seize property for forfeiture to thegovernment. Modern forfeiture doctrine finds its origin in theOld Testament and medieval standards where animals andeven inanimate objects involved in wrongdoings were sacrificedin atonement or forfeited to the government.

As strange as it may seem, civil forfeiture proceedings arebrought against the object, not against persons. Officials canseize a person’s property without notice or hearing by simplydemonstrating probable cause to believe that the property hassomehow been “involved” in a crime. Large sums of unac-counted-for cash and vehicle seizures are typical targets of for-feiture during common drug busts. If the club loses on thecriminal charges, they could be subject to the civil forfeiturelaws and lose any item that contains the logo. In the meantime,all objects containing the logo are subject to confiscation by lawenforcement.

In forfeiture proceedings, the legal action is taken against the“thing”. Charges against the property may range from; a beliefthat the property is contraband, that it represents the proceedsof a crime, that it is an “instrumentality” of crime, or that it some-how “facilitates” crime. Probable cause evidence is loosely de-fined and may take the form of innuendo, or even self-servingtestimony of a party with conflicting interests to the propertyowner.

continued page 8


SMROs in Action

ABATE of Wisconsin Officers holding the "one of a kind Green T-Shirt"that raised over $5,000 at Officer Training.

Rob DeDecker, Kirk "Hardtail" Willard, Dave Dwyer, Debbie DeDecker,Region 1J presenting their checks for renewing their sustaining mem-bership and an additional donation of $125.

Wisconsin

Howard Hill and Greg Rodd, our auctioneer, during the bidding war forthe "Green T-Shirt".

“Black Thursday” in Washington

Illinois

At the ABATE of Illinois, Inc Seminar held January 16-17, 2009 The VicePresident of the MRF, Michael "Boz" Kerr as a member of ABATE of Illi-nois received the highest honorary award, the Rich Neb award. Givingthe Award is Jim "Legs" Korte, State Coordinator.

Receiving a donation fron Rod Taylor for the MRFA&E of $6,000. Pic-tured are L-R Steve Zimmer, Michael "Boz" Kerr, Rod Taylor, PauletteKorte.

Mike Campbell and Steve H. with "George" (rub nose for luck)

Arizona

Arizona’s MotorcycleDay at the Dome was aresounding successagain this year as ap-proximately 1/3 of ourlegislators made it outto speak with us de-spite the fact thatObama was in townspeaking.


Out N About - Colors Forfeiture continued

Once the property is seized, it becomes the responsibility of theowner to prove the “innocence” of the property by a “preponder-ance-of-the-evidence” standard. Not only must the owner “provea negative”, he must do so against the unlimited resources of thegovernment. If perchance the owner may have been involved inactivity that might ultimately lead to criminal charges, he mustweigh the risk of self-incrimination against the actual value of theproperty. As a practical matter, the burden is often too high formany innocent owners who end up walking away from their loss.

The government simply demonstrated to the federal judge thatthey had a substantial likelihood of winning on the merits of thecriminal case, including the RICO charge. They argued that thepatch has value, and since they think they'll ultimately be entitledto a civil forfeiture, they want to hold on to that asset, the patch.

That is the grounds of their legal argument, though publicly andto the press the ATF has admitted they're doing this to “break theback of the club."

This “back-door” use of the law is being used to strip a club of itsidentity under the guise of civil asset forfeiture. This action setsan extremely dangerous precedent, and the ramifications of al-lowing this injunction to stand is that this could affect any organi-zation from ABATEs to Moose Lodges. All the government wouldhave to do is show that a few members of any organization wereinvolved in criminal activity and they could take away their nameand logo. When will they be coming after you?

Keep the Faith! Doc Ski

Federal Court Upholds Use of

Red Light Cameras for ProfitUS Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit finds no due processproblem with Chicago using red light cameras as a source of rev-enue.

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit yesterday is-sued a ruling in defense of the lucrative red light camera programin Chicago, Illinois. Mayor Richard Daley (D) has made it clearthat expansion of the existing 136 cameras, which so far havegenerated $110 million, is designed to increase the number of ci-tations issued and close a gap in the 2009 budget. The three-judge federal court panel found this to be a good reason to installcameras.

"A system of photographic evidence reduces the costs of law en-forcement and increases the proportion of all traffic offenses de-tected; these benefits can be achieved only if the owner is heldresponsible," Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook wrote for theunanimous panel. "That the city's system raises revenue doesnot condemn it."Lawyers for motorist Parveen Idris challenged Chicago's system,arguing that it violated the due process rights of vehicle ownersheld responsible for offenses they did not commit. The courtbrushed aside the concern by pointing out that the US Supreme

Court has already upheld the seizure of automobiles even incases where, "the owner may have nothing to do with the of-fense." Likewise, the taxpayer is held responsible for the matherrors of an accountant who files a tax return with mistakes.Given these results, the appeals court saw no need toprovide any due process protection in red light camera caseswhere the fine is comparatively small.

"The interest at stake is a $90 fine for a traffic infraction, and theSupreme Court has never held that a property interest so modestis a fundamental right," Easterbrook wrote.

The court suggested that a challenge to procedures used inChicago's administrative red light camera hearings would be bet-ter heard in state courts. The opinion cited the MinnesotaSupreme Court decision that found red light cameras in violationof the state constitution.

A full copy of the decision is available in a 100k PDF file at thesource link below. Source: PDF File Idris v. City of Chicago (USCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1/5/2009)www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2008/il-idris.pdf


Calling All State RepsTodd Riba

Director of State

Representative Program

At this time I would like to askall of you to do a quick gutcheck and ask yourself whyyou stepped up to be a MRFState Rep. I hope you signedon because you truly believethat the MRF is the best optionwhen it comes to your fight for

freedom of the road at the federal level. The MRF has a strongpresence in Washington D.C. and that presence can be evenstronger if we increase our membership and that is where thegut check comes in. We just have to do it, we need more mem-bers to help with the fight. I know it is a tough sell in today’seconomy, but the enemies of our freedom won't let the difficulteconomic times stop them, so we can't stop either.

So how are we going to increase our membership? Well for

starters, you can make sure that you are getting your expiredmembership list from the D.C. office. Use that list to contact for-mer members; they made the commitment once, hopefully theywill do it again. Also, let's use the Reps list - when you havesome success or you come up with a great selling technique letthe Reps know about it. It is extremely important that we helpeach other with this; the MRF need us now more than ever.

We are going to have some time set aside for the Reps atBEST and BEAST, so if you are going to attend either of thoseconferences please plan on spending some time with your fel-low Reps to network. We will be conducting a Reps meeting atMeeting Of The Minds in Bloomington Minnesota this year, ifthere is a topic that you would like discussed at any of thesemeetings please let me know.

Communication will get us through these difficult times, so let’sstay in touch. Please feel free to call anytime. Also you cancontact Graydon Wheeler, State Reps Board Member or DaveCondon, Asst. to the State Reps Program Director. Our contactinformation is in the back of this fine publication.

MRF 2009 Winter Board Meeting

During a break from the Winter Board Meeting at the Berger home:Mike Berger, Mary Berger of Lakes Chapter ABATE of MN. CindyHodges of Raleigh Chapter CBA/ABATE of NC. John Pierce of TulsaChapter ABATE of OK.

Todd & Dawn Riba hosted the MRF Board members at their home afterthe grueling Board meeting. Eric Hampton laughs it up with Todd’s mom,Jane - and, no he never took his coat off all weekend.

Hardtail ponders Todd’s Minnesota Viking shrine in the basement...Todd Riba points out the finer points of ice fishing to twopeople who wish they could forget they are standing on a frozen lake,Southerner John Pierce and Ohio transplant Mike Berger.


Cindy Hodges

Member Representative Board

Member

There’s an old Chinese curse that,loosely translated, says “May youlive in interesting times”. It goesfurther to wish “May you come tothe attention of the authorities”.Well, here we are! No matter yourpolitics, there is no denying the

Chinese curse is living free here in the U.S. of A.

My mind reels at the minutia of the stimulus bill, and stricter fed-eral encroachment on the second amendment. I feel sad thatSouth Carolina has seen the need to pass a bill or resolution todeclare themselves a sovereign state and also reaffirm the U.S.Constitution, and proud that they did it. My politics are showingthough, and I do not speak for the MRF. Regardless of yourpolitics there is no denying that dang Chinese proverb.

I prefer to be positive. So to me, this is a time of opportunity.Time to renew our fire and determination. Time to be sure wetake up the challenges that face us. Time to be horrified at thethought of NOT doing so. Every single reader herein knowswhat it takes to be a part of a Republic form of government.Every single reader knows that “we” are the minority of theBiker Nation. Being ever vigilant takes drive, time, and voices.Also one other asset - - financing. Yes, yes I know many of usfund our own way completely and don’t we wish everyonewould? But no one who ever picks up these pages has anymisconceptions about the “what is”. The “what is” is that asmall minority of any group does the heavy lifting. Motorcy-clist’s rights groups are teensy next to other structured riding-

based groups. Yet, we move mountains!

Lately, I keep thinking of Karen Bolin. She would walk throughan auditorium or banquet hall and remind all of us that we areThe People Who Never Give Up. That’s my bottom line thesedays.

I wish you could have been at the winter board meeting held inthe frozen hinterlands of Minnesota. (The extra bodies wouldhave provided more heat!) There is never any doubt where ourpassion lies, at these board meetings. This time we did ourbest to cut costs everywhere we could while trying to move for-ward. We did have some guests, and one of them, AssistantState Rep Mike Berger, brought some very good ideas to thetable. You might be seeing them in this issue of The Reports.I’d like to thank Mike for offering up his professional expertise tothe creative and marketing betterment of the MRF. If you haveideas that might help the MRF grow and increase membership,please do contact me at [email protected]. I will see to it that yourideas get the attention they deserve from the MRF board of di-rectors. Not only is it my job, but one of my passions in life is tofacilitate positive change.

It is imperative that the MRF membership numbers grow muchfaster. We are the believers. We are The People Who NeverGive Up. Go. Seek members. Memberships can be taken inby anyone and processed on-line from the comfort of yourhome. Tell all your friends to pay attention, as the world truly isrun by those who show up.

Since penning this article, the writer has been told of otherstates also issuing Resolutions that reaffirm the U.S. Constitu-tion... Arizona, Washington, New Hampshire, Montana, andTexas reportedly have done such.

May I Have Your Attention, Please?

MRF Election Committee Report The MRF Elections Committee would like to congratulate thewinning candidates from this fall’s elections. Elections wereheld during the BOD meeting for the positions elected by theBOD, during the Reps meeting for those positions, by themembership at large for the Member’s Rep and by the SSM-ROs for their Representative to the BOD.

At the BOD meeting, Kirk “Hardtail” Willard was elected to atwo year term as President of the MRF. John Pierce was re-elected as Membership Director, Steve Zimmer retained his po-sition as MRFPAC Director and Frank Carbone was elected tohis first term as Treasurer. Deborah Butitta, Mark Buckner andChuc Coulter were all elected as Ex-Officio Officers.

During the Meeting of the Minds at the MRF State Reps meet-ing elections were held to fill the open Reps Representative tothe BOD. One position opened when Todd Riba stepped up tofill the Director of Reps Program position that was left openwhen Miles France retired. The other position had been vacant

since the State Reps decided not to fill the position at their2007 meeting. Lynn Oldenberg and Graydon Wheeler were thewinning candidates. Graydon was seated at the January BODmeeting, but unfortunately, Lynn has resigned for personal rea-sons.

At Member Rep position, Cindy Hodges was re-elected toserve the interests of the general members for the next twoyears. The other Member Rep position is now vacant due tothe resignation of Joel Arnoldi.

The SSMROs re-elected Dave Dwyer as Sustaining State Mo-torcyclist Rights Organization Rep to serve their interests onthe BOD for another two years.

The Elections Committee would like to thank all the candidatesand all the members who participated in the 2008 electionprocess.


SMROs in ActionWisconsin

Mike Richards, Manager Government Affairs at Harley-DavidsonMotor Company

Jim Miller sharing his experience organizing his region for the Feb-ruary 2009 Lobby Day

Rep. Scott Suder giving the closing talk

l-r Diane Rodd, Dave Dwyer, Rep. Suder, Greg Rodd, ABATE Ex-ecutive Director, Kirk "Hardtail" Willard

Massachusetts

Massachusetts Motorcycle Association Board Members in front of theNew Hampshire State House January 21, 2009. The MMA BoardMembers attended the hearing on HB 95 in support of NHMRO's ef-forts to have this bill defeated. Pictured left to right are Doc Derrico,Legislative Director, Dave Condon, Chairman, Bruce Arsenault, ViceChairman and District 4 Representative and Brian Clark, District 4Manager. Not pictured is Cheryl Frodermann Membership Manager(she's taking the picture)

Arkansas

Jim "Buckskin" Caldwell being presented ABATE of Arkansas' highesthonor, The Ray Gowen Award, by Stubby Stumbaugh

South Dakota

ABATE of South Dakota in Denver at Meeting of the Minds


Thoughts from the PAC ChairmanSteve Zimmer

MRFPAC Director

Now that the elections are over;the holidays have passed; gaso-line has seemed to be somewhatstabilized in price; and we are alllooking toward 2009 it is time tocatch up on some long overduerecognition. For the last severalyears we have had the energy of

Carol Simpson and numerous others that have brought the Kiltsand Bibs into fruition. The “squad leaders”, the judges, BruceDowns, and of course all the contestants that go about raisingsupport for their efforts (and those who support them) deserve atremendous thank you for all you do to aid the MRFPAC fund.

On my way home from the MOTM in Denver this year, I thoughtabout those that have helped the MRFPAC. Of course there arethe people involved in the Kilts and Bibs, and there are thosewho have donated individually or put forth challenges, but I real-ized there is a group of people who have not received the recog-nition they deserve. So I want to take this time to publicly thankthe ABATE of Illinois FEDPAC. The FEDPAC has been providing

support to the MRFPAC for years, I’m not sure exactly what yearit began but I know it is long overdue to recognize them. So, asthe Chairman of the MRFPAC, I recently sent an official letterand a Certificate of Recognition to FEDPAC Chairman Jim Con-nelly. It is always a pleasure working with FEDPAC as they al-ways have something for us that makes an incredible donationand raises a consistent amount for the MRFPAC.

Always keep in mind the MRFPAC is your Political Action Com-mittee. The donations raised help support motorcycle friendlycandidates, and allow our Vice President of Government Rela-tions Jeff Hennie access to fund-raisers where he can have per-sonal interaction with the candidates in a more relaxedatmosphere. Occasionally donations are made at the local level,back home in the district, allowing motorcycling constituents to il-lustrate the connection between Washington and the folks athome.

2009 will bring us new challenges and some of the old ones.The MRFPAC is dedicated to aiding in the fight to protect motor-cycling. With your help we can make the new year and the newCongress a success working the busy legislative agenda.

Steve Zimmer

Longtime MRF President receives the MRF Founders "Old Timers"Award for 2008 at Meeting of the Minds.

Membership Retention - Part IDave “Twit” Linberg

Membership Director

ABATE of Wisconsin

Looking over the data in our membership files right now we haveover 1,000 people that are first year members. Those are peoplewho at sometime in the last twelve months took a chance onABATE of Wisconsin, sent in their money and information, andreceived an ABATE of WI patch, membership card, and copies ofour newsletter in return.

I can only hope that they received other things of value with theirmembership and that we can convince them that we are worththe price of renewal when the time comes.

Another thing that we have to work on is to make sure that ourofficers at every level get comfortable with accepting all membersfor whatever degree of involvement they are willing to give us.Demanding more from a member than they are willing to giveforces them to leave their comfort level. If they aren’t comfortablebeing a member, they aren’t going to be a member at all… it’s assimple as that.

Professional Journals written by folks with a lot more learningthan I have like to focus on membership retention using bigwords. One of them that I just looked at put membership into sixcategories that make some sense to me after you negotiate thebig words. In short, the article says that your organization needsto make room for every member no matter which degree of in-

volvement the member is comfortable in.

The six degrees of involvement they use are (and I tried to addenough smaller words to help them make sense…):

1) Mailboxers™: These members primarily want involvementthrough mail, fax or computer. They pay their dues, but that’s asfar are you are going to get with them… and that’s OK. Somepeople are only comfortable at that level, and we can deal withthat, and we encourage you to renew and stay with us. If you

continued page 16


Hats and Feds John Pierce

Director

of Member Relations

I was recently part of an email‘conversation” where the veryable Pennsylvania MRF Repswere tossing ideas aroundabout raising MRF member-ship in their state. It waspointed out that 18 of Pennsyl-vania’s 47 chapters were al-ready sustaining members of

the MRF. If the other 29 chapters were brought into the fold, thatwould be an additional $2,900 for the MRF to use for federal ef-forts in Washington DC.

Well that sure got the MRF’s membership guy to thinking! Ifeven 80% the chapters of our partner Motorcycle Rights Organi-zations (MROs) were sustaining members, that would certainlyease the pinch the MRF has been feeling lately. And, being agood Tennessee boy, that brought to mind a story.

I was at a local chapter meeting once when a question of finan-cially supporting something or other was brought up. It involveda little over $150. The proposal was discussed and a vote wastaken. The chapter voted it down. In frustration, the person whohad brought the proposal took off his hat and told the membersthat it was a good cause and would people please donate intothe hat? Business went on and the hat went around. When itgot back to its owner, there was something like $280 in it!

We motorcyclists/bikers are amazing. People who just votedagainst $150 out of the kitty were nonetheless willing to drop 2 or5 dollars into the hat out of pocket.

Can you guess where I’m going with this? If your local MROchapter is not already a sustaining member of the MRF, howabout passing the hat for us in your next meeting? That sustain-ing membership will go a long ways towards keeping the feds offyour back. And remember, it only takes one person in eachchapter to make this happen.

Editor’s note: John would like to hear back from any of youabout your experience in passing the MRF hat. [email protected]

MRFA&E UpdateDeborah Butitta

Board of Director Chairman

Motorcycle Riders Foundation Awareness & Education, Inc.

Please take a moment and look at the new Motorcycle RidersFoundation Awareness & Education, Inc. (MRFA&E) web sitewww.mrfae.org and send us your comments. We are looking forappropriate material to post on the web site concerning eachstate in the motorcycle awareness & education category. Shouldyour state have material we have not posted please submit forreview to [email protected] and [email protected]. We look forwardto hearing from you.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Michael Hupy Esquirefrom Wisconsin for reaching out to his fellow attorneys to an-

nounce he is willing to match tax deductible donations made byother attorneys to the Motorcycle Riders Foundation Awareness& Education, Inc. (MRFA&E) up to $10,000.00. Mr. Hupy has al-ready donated to MRFA&E and would like to see other attorneypractitioners donate back to the riders they represent. I wouldalso like to acknowledge and thank Rod Taylor, Esquire from Illi-nois for his donation.

The YAS (Young Activist Scholarship) now falls under theMRFA&E. This means your donations to this fine program willnow be tax deductible. Please make your donations payable tothe MRFA&E and note the donation is for YAS.

Ride Aware,Deborah Butitta


September 24th–27th, 2009Sheraton Bloomington Hotel, Minneapolis, MN

Motorcycle Riders Foundation is proud to present their annual conferencefor politically motivated motorcyclists!

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7th, 2009

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PRESS RELEASE:

From the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA)

9 February 2009

FEMA presents: CIECA's BikeSafety 2009

Motorcycling should be functional, fun and safe. There are nowan estimated 313 million riders around the world who use theirbikes for commuting, touring, racing or for professional pur-poses.But how prepared are they to stay safe on the road?

A recent international conference held by the OECD (Organi-sation for Economic Development, Lillehammer 2008) notedthat "a lack of experience and inappropriate training for newriders were reported as major factors in crashes".

The BikeSafety 2009 survey of rider trainers takes a fresh lookat how training can address the main accident causation fac-tors of crashes involving motorcyclists.

Are you a rider trainer? Do you want to make a difference?And would you like to win a SUZUKI SIXteen 150cc scooter?

Fill out and return this questionnaire (in the language of yourchoice) by March 22nd and you could win the following:1. A Suzuki SIXteen 150cc scooter2. A guided tour around the MV AGUSTA factory in Varese,Italy (travel included)3. 2 tickets to the MotoGP event of your choice4. 2 tickets to the Superbike event of your choice

QuestionnaireQuestionnaire English: http://www.cieca.be/down-

load/20090203SurveyEN(3).docQuestionnaire Français: http://www.cieca.be/down-load/20090203SurveyFR(3).docQuestionnaire Deutsch: http://www.cieca.be/down-load/20090203SurveyDU(3).doc

A jury composed of CIECA, FIM, ACEM and FEMA will decideon the winners in early April.

Winners will receive their awards at CIECA's BikeSafety 2009workshop at the ADAC Rhein-Main training centre near Frank-furt, Germany on June 15 2009.

For more information:http://www.cieca.be/CIECARidTraSur_EN.PP (for English)http://www.cieca.be/CIECARidTraSur_Fr.PP (for French)http://www.cieca.be/CIECARidTraSur_DU.PP (for German)

Make a difference - be a part of BikeSafety 2009!

This event is kindly sponsored by "Motorcycle Art" and"Suzuki"

----FEMA - Federation of European Motorcyclists' AssociationsRue des Champs 62, 1040 Brussels, BelgiumTel: +32 2 736 9047 / Fax: +32 2 736 9401<http://www.fema.ridersrights.org>

Membership Retention - Part I continued

ever want to jump in at another level, you are welcome to give ita try.

2) Relevant Participants®: They attend relevant meetings andevents. These are the members that you see at a few meetingsand/or events. Their interest may come and go depending onwhether or not we catch their attention or motivate them intowanting more at the times they show up.

I have a feeling that most of our members would fall into this cat-egory. I also believe that this is the category from which most ofthe members who go on to become more and more involved spinoff from. So welcome to the team my friends. Stay and grow withus.

3) Status Conscious®: They join to add another layer to theirimage and self-worth. Membership brings them the privilege toassociate themselves with the accomplishments of the only or-ganization that has existed in Wisconsin for almost 35 years withthe sole purpose of protecting the rights, safety, and education ofour motorcycling public.

OK... at first read this category may sound a little vain, but sup-port is support. Their annual membership fee pays the bills hereas well as any other. I say welcome aboard, but keep the mem-bership behind that patch current. Don’t just sign up one year toget the ABATE Membership Patch as part of your display andthen wear it forever without paying the dues. That ain’t right.

In fact, I was privy to a pretty entertaining conversation thismonth between Dan Van Linn and Marlene Bautch. It was at abirthday party, and Dan was doing an unofficial poll to find out ifeveryone wearing an ABATE patch was a current member. Un-fortunately, not all of them were. So Dan and Marlene start brain-storming on what should happen to an ABATE Membership patchwhen a member did not renew.

The best of the best of the ideas would be to somehow imbed asmall explosive charge into the backing of the patch, with a smartchip that could be remotely activated by the ABATE Member-

ship computer when a membership expires.

continued page 28


Penny Walker Schmidt

The Passing of an IconBy Bill Gannon

As its last act of defiance, 2008 took the life of a dear friend andMotorcyclist’s Rights Pioneer Penny Walker Schmidt who died yes-terday, December 31st from Respiratory Failure.

Originally from Manchester, New Hampshire she lived the last fewdecades of her life in Kansas, with herhusband Glen and was active withKansas ABATE.

We all knew Penny as a legendaryfreedom fighter who was active in thefirst days of the Motorcyclists’ RightsMovement back in 1972. She andWanda Hummel were the only womeninvolved in the early movement. Andshe teamed up with folks includingWanda, Sherm Packard, CharlieSimon, Big Al Hogan and Ron Rolofforganizing at home & travelling backand forth to Washington D.C. to battleand overturn the nation’s first FederalHelmet Mandate. Penny went on to jointhe AMA as a Congress member andlater as Government Relations Liaison.I was fortunate enough to work with Penny from 1989 through1994 while Penny was on board with the Motorcycle Riders Foun-dation where, again, we overturned the second Federal HelmetMandate.

She was just a great lady,as kind and generous asanyone I ever met. I’llnever forget going to aweekend MRF meeting inJanuary 1992 at AMAHeadquarters in Wester-ville, OH. Penny madeeveryone’s reservationsand always put the meet-ing agendas together.She got us reservationsat the fancy Harley Hotel(no relation to the motor-cycle company but westill stole everything thatwasn’t nailed down thatsaid “Harley” on it). Thatwas also the same time that the AMA opened up their MotorcycleMuseum and Hall of Fame. We got an advance tour and one ofthe first exhibits to open the museum was entitled “Women andMotorcycling.” The exhibit included images and bios of womenrider notables including Wanda, also friends Cris & Jo, and ofcourse Penny. It was a proud moment for her to be recognized sohonorably--- and in front of her MRF peers that weekend.

In 2001 Penny was inducted into the National Motorcycle Hall ofFame in Sturgis, South Dakota.

I know so many of us have wonderful anecdotes about time sharedwith Penny. I have many, but today one stands out in my mind. In1990 the entire MRF Board and Officers were out at the Sturgis50th Anniversary Rally organizing the grassroots effort and raising

funds. Big Al & I were preparing forour 2,000+ mile ride back to the EastCoast and we were all saying ourgoodbyes. I was lamenting over nothaving procured a can of Sturgis 1990vintage Harley Beer for my collection (Ihad waited too long and even Harleyran out of it at their private events). Itwas all sold out. Penny told me shewould see what she could do. Sevenweeks after, we rode down to Carlyle,Pennsylvania for the MRF Meeting ofthe Minds. Penny was already therewhen we rode in and immediatelygave me a bag containing an entiresix-pack of Sturgis 1990 vintageHarley Beer. I am holding a can ofthat beer as I write this.

And that’s just the type of person she was--- totally dedicated to thecause and willing to go out of her way to be generous to a friendand colleague.

As Penny always madeour reservations for ourout-of-town trips, sheknew how I loved tobring home somethingfor my kids. Thus shealways scoped out sou-venirs for my little girlsand would even pickthem up for me if shedidn’t think my agendawould allow me the timeto do so myself. She al-ways knew what I wouldhave picked for my girls.That was Penny.

Funeral arrangementshave not yet been made

for Penny.

Sadly, Motorcycling has lost another Legend and Women in Motor-cycling have lost a precious role model on the last day of 2008.Ride in Peace my Dear Friend and my Love and Respect alwaysgoes with you. R.I.P. Penny Walker Schmidt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Name:__________________________________________________________________

Organization: ____________________________________________________________

Address:________________________________________________________________

City:_____________________________________State:______________Zip: ________

Email:____________________________________Phone:_________________________

Registration Costs:$50 per person before April 10th, 2009 $60 per person after April 10th and at the door.

Registration Options:Major credit cards will be accepted starting February 15th, 2009 at www.abatend.com.

Or mail this registration form with a check or money order to Heartland Steam Seminar.

ABATE of ND - 1001 S 22nd St Bismarck, ND 58504.

Questions?: ABATE of ND 1-800-726-4094 or email [email protected]

Join members of motorcycle rights groups from North Dakota, South Dakota,

Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois as we unite to keep our freedoms.

Best Western Seven Seas Hotel & Waterpark,2611 Old Red Trail, Mandan, North Dakota.

Directions: From: Interstate 94. Turn north at Exit 152. Turn left on Old Red Trail to the Best Western Seven Seas Hotel & Waterpark.

Single - Quad Occupancy will be $69 per night.

Mention ABATE of ND Heartland STEAM

Guest Rooms Include: Refrigerator, Microwave, Coffee/tea maker,

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Award winning restaurant - Casino Lounge.

The Seven Seas is a non-smoking facility.

For Hotel Reservations call 1-800-597-7327 or book.bestwestern.comApril 24th - Conference registration opens at 5pm. Hospitality Room opens at 7pm.

April 25th - Registration opens at 8am. Training and Workshops begin at 9:15 Conference fees includes Saturday lunch and banquet.

ABATE of NDis proud to invite you to attend the

20th AnnualHeartland S.T.E.A.M.

Seminar to Educate and Motivate

April 24th - 26th 2009

All profits from Heartland STEAM support the Motorcycle Rider Foundation (MRF).

Informative and Entertaining Seminars

Good ol’ North Dakota Hospitality with food and beverages

both Friday and Saturday nights.

ToFargo


111th Congress Commits Acts of TerrorismDavid Cazel

Idaho MRF State Rep

Yes you read the headline correctly. Within two weeks of theopening of the 111th Congress in Washington D.C. In the Houseof Representatives on January 6th, 2009, Representative Gal-legly (Democrat- Elton, California) introduced House Resolution140 (H.R.140) to withhold National Highway Transportation TrustFund monies “from states that don't comply with certain require-ments in issuing driver's licenses or identification cards and forother purposes.”

This is the same stuff they pulled in the ‘70s with the national hel-met bill. This amounts to kidnapping and ransom demands likethose of the Somali high seas pirates. We as buyers of gasolinepay a federal tax on each gallon of gas that we buy. Now thegovernment is trying to withhold the distribution of these trustfunds back to the individual states if they don't comply with thisedict. This is just the “nose of the camel under the tent.” If we asbikers and citizens in general let this happen then we're a realsorry lot. Those are our dollars not the Fed's monies. NOTE:Well, actually the act of purchasing something we know is taxedwith dollars going to the Fed means that we do agree that is theFed’s money. But it is money that we spend expecting our stateto get a portion of back. Just like they spent the social securitytrust funds on things other than social security, the anti-tobaccofunds that were to be used for health care were spent on otherthings, these Highway Transportation Trust Fund dollars will bespent on other things as the Feds see fit. It’s just another exam-ple of the Federal government suckling on the festered teat ofthe States. They're so broke that they'll try anything and use anyfunds for anything they like. They give away trillions and trillionsand keep coming back to the public trough for more and denyingus the dollars we have forwarded to them.

You have to fight for the rights of bikers. If you don't then theseacts of terrorism will grow into ransom demands and intimidationof states the likes of which we haven't seen, in addition to EPArequirements for motorcycles, noise limitation requirements formotorcycles, helmet laws for motorcycle riders, and health insur-

ance deniability just to mention a few. If the states don't complythen the Feds will threaten to withhold the highway funds. Why isit that the Feds always proceed on a negative bent? They don’tsay, ”Raise the level of safety education, the level of publicawareness, the level of highway design, the level of rider train-ing.” No, they just continue to hammer us with fewer freedoms.Will the states comply? Absolutely they will because the statesget more than 85% of their highway funds from the federal gov-ernment. These are our dollars. These acts of intimidation andransoming will be even more successful that the high seas pi-rates because the states can't say NO! This has to be stoppedat the Federal level. Fighting this at the state level will fail.ABATE at the state level will be met with refusal because thestates need their funds for infrastructure or to be more blatant,added to their general funds. The MOTORCYCLE RIDERSFOUNDATION is the organization to lead the fight in D.C.

The MRF is a grassroots organization that fights for your motor-cycle rights in Washington D.C.

We need your membership. The annual dues are only $30. Yesthat's all, less than a do-it-yourself oil change or a couple oftanks of gas. Not only does the MRF need your $30, it needsyour membership. The greater the membership numbers, themore attention they will get in D.C. There are millions of regis-tered motorcycles in the United States with the potential to tellthese terrorists in the Federal Legislature that we've had enough.If we don't come together and stop this intimidation we will alllose our freedoms and be subjected to much, much more of thishooliganism. JOIN NOW TO STOP THESE ACTS OF TERROR-ISM. STAND TALL AND SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITHTHE MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

Go online to www.mrf.org or e-mail me [email protected] to sign up today.

Thank you for letting me serve the State of Idaho as it's Repre-sentative to the MRF.

David Cazel


Around the StatesArkansasConnie ShepherdMRF State Rep

I would first like to start out by say-ing "Congradulations" to Jim"Buckskin" Caldwell for winningABATE of Arkansas' highest honor,the Ray Gowan Award. Buckskinwas presented the award at theJanuary State Board Meeting.

I would also like to congratulate the2009 State Board electees, Don"Cloud" Davis, Chairman, Jim"Buckskin" Caldwell, Co-Chair,Melli Sandmon, Secretary, HelenWesson, Treasurer, and Rodney Farley, Sgt @ Arms. I look for-ward to working with each and everyone of them!!

SB29 was filed by Senator Kim Hendren on December 17, 2008.This bill in effect puts a personal insurance protection on motor-cyclists who want to ride without a helmet. It was scheduled forbeing heard in the Senate Transportation Committee January 26,2009. Possibly due to inclement weather, Senator Hendren wasnot at the committee hearing, and since he had several bills forthe committee to hear, the meeting was adjourned after 15 min-utes. Rodney Roberts along with Tom Wewers was present totestify against the bill, as was someone representing TheArkansas Parks and Tourism Board. Other ABATE members thatwere present were Sherry Wewers and Helen Wesson. Rodneyand Tom spoke with several members of the committee and fourhave expressed a solid No for the bill. We believe that we haveenough support to stop this bill in committee!! Thanks to Rod-ney, Tom, Sherry and Helen for making the trip to the Capitol.

SB106 was filed by Senator Whitaker on January 14, 2009. Thisbill in effect proposes to improve motorcycle safety by requiringtraining and testing materials pre-pared by the Motorcycle SafetyFoundation. After sources with theArkansas State Police and ABATEmembers contacted SenatorWhitaker on what this bill would ac-tually do, she pulled this bill. As ofthis print, no plans are being madeto re-submit this bill. AMSAC,Arkansas' motorcycle safety council,will discuss this more at their nextmeeting. So as of now, Arkansas'Freedom Fighters have managed tomaintain our right to RIDE FREE!!Please note that we will still be watching for either of these situa-tions to change until the session has officially ended!! Thanks tothose who took the time to contact their Legislators on these is-sues!!

ABATE's motorcycle awareness program, Safer Streets forEveryone, was launched on January 24, 2009. Patti Elzey,SSFE Program Coodernator, held a meeting with ABATE volun-

teers to hand out materials and goover general guidelines for takingthis material into classrooms andmeetings. Approximately 15 peo-ple took part in this orientation.Thanks to Everett and Patti Elzeyfor their efforts in getting this pro-gram off the ground.

Ride Free, Ride Safe,Connie

ColoradoMiles France

MRF State Rep

Well here we are in another challenging year and this is provingto be one rough one. I've received responses from folks I've sentMRF renewal information to that they have just been laid off andsuch things such as the MRF, ABATE and any other organizationthat needs to be set aside to survive will follow from here on. Thisis the first time in ten years where someone has actually playedthe I really can't afford this anymore and it's the reality of ourtimes. Those of you doing your best to hang in there "Thank-You"for your support for the MRF in these times of life changing timesand "Good Luck" with your futures.

Legislation that is being considered here Is HB09-1026 Con-cerning the application of vehicle laws to low-power vehicles thatoperate with less than four wheels in contact with the ground,and, in connection therewith, defining "Low-Power Scooter". Re-places the current catagories of self-propelled vehicles of "motor-driven cycle", "motorscooter", and "motorized bicycle" with"motorcycle" and "low-power scooter". HB09-1094 ConcerningWireless Telephone Prohibitions for Drivers Prohibits operators

of a motor vehicle who are under 18years of age, operators of a schoolbus, and motor vehicle carriers reg-ulated by the public utilities commi-sion from using a wirelesstelephone while a motor vehiclethey are operating is in motion. Oth-erwise, permits operators of a motorvehicle who are 18 years of age orolder to use a wireless telephoneequipped with a hands-free acces-sory. Deems the use of a wirelesstelephone by an operator as a classA traffic infraction. SB09-075 Con-

cerning the operation of low-speed electric vehicles on roadswith a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less.

This last bill is truly an attempt to rise to the "Green Level" that


Around the Stateseach state is tryingh to reach. Credits a $25.00 registration fee toa fund that will provide grants to local governments to install"Recharging Stations". HMMMM starting to look like the Jetsonsaround here.

No "Helmet Law Modifications" beingheard at this time but May is still aways off so everyone needs to re-main "Vigilant". Will let you knowhow these play out as this legislativesession finishes up.

Colorado folks you can soak upsome heat this year if you attend the"2009 June Best of the West" since itis being held in Phoenix, AZ. A niceride from Flagstaff the back way into Prescott, it makes you feellike you're in any of the western states rolling hills with all thetrees and bending corners. Put this on your calander of must doroad trips for this year.

ConnecticutRon TroiaMRF State Rep

Greetings from snowy Connecticut. Like most of the countryConnecticut is being severely impacted by the financial crisis weare all facing. For the motorcycling community the result couldgo either way in terms of negative legislation or letting us be.With no money to spend some folks up in Hartford may try to filltheir time looking at us. As of right now it is too early to guesshow things will go. Be assured that we will be keeping a watchfuleye on the proceedings and if needed contacts will be made tomobilize for a trip to Hartford. It most likely will be on short no-tice, probably less than a week and on a Monday so be ready totake a day off and go and protect your freedom. We are awareof a prominent Connecticut doctor who is compiling statistics toinitiate a helmet law proposal. This is also the long session thisyear so we must all be vigilant in guarding our freedoms.

We all know that our good friend andSpeaker of the House Jimmy Amannleft the legislature this year to pursuethe governorship. This means wemust now work with the new SpeakerChris Donovan of Meriden. All mem-bers are urged to contact Mr. Dono-van and convince him that we do notwant to lose our freedom of choice. Itis important to be polite and brief. Weneed to win his friendship and not turnhim against us. It is going to be up to us to win or lose on thisissue. We must all pull together and preserve our freedom ofchoice.

On January 31st CMRA staff members came out to support

some of our own strongest supporters, The Bridgeport Motorcy-cle Association at their annual awards banquet at Aldario’s in Mil-ford. Congratulations to our own Sandra who won the 50/50raffle as she walked away with $116. Don’t worry Sandy, we

won’t tell Neil!!! The BMA did agreat job with the party and wethank them for their hospitality andfor all they do for the CMRA. Youfolks truly are a tremendous help tous.

Speaking of Aldario’s, the CMRA willbe having their Legislative Banquetthere on February 21st and I will re-port on that the next time.

Stay warm and safe as we await springtime which is right aroundthe corner now!

Ron Troia

MRF Connecticut State Rep

GeorgiaEd “Yankee” AndrossMRF State Rep

On January 22, 2009, Linda Allen, Joey Brush, and I met with theChiefs of Staff for the Senate and the House of Representativesto apprise them of our legislative agenda for the 2009-2010 ses-sion.

Our four bills 1) red light proceed, 2 )enhanced penalty right ofway 2nd offense, 3) anti-discrimination,4)and freedom of choice,all received favorable acceptance (with a few clarifications) for fil-ing during this session. We still need to get sponsors and Sena-tors and Representatives to carry our bills. I am contacting Repsand Senators who have worked with us before; this is a timewhen it would be helpful for you to speak with your district Sena-

tors and Representatives to see ifthey would be able to sponsor orcarry any or all of our ABATE bills. Ifyou get a favorable response in yourarea please contact me with the nameof your rep or senator so I can contactthem at the Capitol.

Joey Brush is the new DC for District8; he served in the General Assemblyof Georgia (10 years in the House ofRepresentatives, and 4 years in theSenate). Joey arranged for our meet-

ings with the chiefs of staff and has contributed many sugges-tions for effectively proceeding in our efforts under the GoldDome.


Around the StatesJust received a phone call from Sen. Ed Tarver (D), D-22 Au-gusta, he is going to carry our Freedom of Choice bill in TheSenate. He has also submitted our proposed anti-discriminationlanguage to legislative counsel for examination. THIS IS GREATNEWS!!

yankee

IowaJodi CainMRF State Rep

For most folks, temperatures below0 (before calculating the wind chill)coupled with roads covered in snow& salt or ice & sand (or all of theabove) means no riding. Since thelast MRF Reports we have beendoing a lot of planning for upcoming events to get our businessdone now so we can play later.

Our State Legislature went into session the 12th of January. Inthree weeks they have introduced over 200 bills. While none aredirected at motorcycles we are being diligent and watching forthose pesky amendments as well as unintended consequences.

The last week of February is our annual lobby trip to WashingtonD.C. We are finalizing appointments and scheduling flights. Wewill have constituent from each of our five Congressional districtsso the Congressmen have no excuse not to meet us in person.We have also confirmed our meeting with Senator Grassley andtickets to the Constituent breakfast with Senator Harkin. Againthis year the trip is being paid for by fundraising outside ofABATE’s PAC funds allowing that money to be used locally.

On March 13th the Iowa Department of Transportation will holdthe 2009 Motorcycle Safety Forum. The subtitle is “Gear Up 4Safety” and the theme is conspicuity. The three breakout ses-sions are 1) ABATE – Share the Road, 2) GWRRA – Two Equalsa Group and 3) MATAI – Crash Reconstruction and Motorcycles.

On March 25th ABATE of Iowa willbe having their annual lobby dayand hosting a breakfast for our legis-lators in Des Moines. While our lob-byist does a great job keeping ontop of things, it’s a day for the mem-bership to get a chance to speakone on one with their legislators.We are fortunate to have good rela-tionships on both sides of the aisleand lobby day helps reinforce them.

ABATE of Iowa is still teaching Riders Ed in cooperation withcommunity colleges as well as running our own classes with ourfour mobile units. Class dates for the upcoming season have

been set. March 28th is Riders Ed Day at Freedom Park to getthe our fleet of over 60 bikes ready to teach both new and return-ing riders.

Share the Road is still growingstrong with their next out of stateshowing at the MRF’s own Beast ofthe East.

And that’s what’s going on in Iowa.

Respectfully submitted, Jodi Cain

MichiganFizMRF State Rep

ABATE of Michigan has made many accomplishments for themotorcyclists of our state in the past legislative session. We havemoved HB 4749 our Helmet Modification bill through the Houseand Senate in two weeks. There has never been a bill moved thisfast in the past. Although for the second time our GovernorMrs.Granholm vetoed the bill. On a higher note we defeated 2Night-time motorcycle bans in Oakland County. ABATE visitedWashington DC to fight for federal legislation that affects motor-cyclists (HIPAA, NHTSA). ABATE submitted a formal complaintregarding NTSB’s promotion of helmet laws. We were instrumen-tal in passing the Justice for All bill (SB 104). ABATE attendedboth Democratic and Republican State conventions to representMichigan motorcyclists. We promoted motorcycle safety throughthe Ride Straight program, Motorcycle Awareness and Motorcy-cle Training programs, and fought to restore funding for Motorcy-cle Safety Programs.

ABATE of Michigan does not publish what we are doing legisla-tively as we have found in the past that our legislators and adver-saries watch our websites and newsletter. We know this fromcomments that have been made while at the capital and argu-ments given in committee hearings.

From Rusty "Thorsblood" BongardMichigan Asst. State Rep. MRF

I sent a letter to Rep. LeBlanc herein Michigan (Editor’s note: I didn’t in-clude the letter due to space restric-tions). He has already sponsored aCLEAN helmet law repeal bill for the2009 legislative year. While weknow we have two more years ofGovernor Granholm, who has ve-toed fully passed helmet law modifi-

cation bills by the house and senate the past two years, we won'tback down from making her do it again. We are pushing civil dis-obedience and constitutional court challenge of the helmet law


Around the Stateson a more vigorous basis in the interim.

MinnesotaMike BergerAsst. State Rep

Minnesota’s main legislative push in2009 will focus on our Failure to Yieldbill, otherwise known as HF0045. We’vebeen trying for a few years now to getsome form of failure-to-yield legislationpassed, and this year looks extremelypromising. While we’ve had to dropsome of our original language thatcalled for (among other things) amandatory felony conviction againstanyone who kills another or causesgreat bodily harm through a failure-to-yield violation, this bill is agood start towards getting something decent on record, andgives us a jumping-off point in the future for stiffer penalties.

HF0045 basically imposes a gross misdemeanor penalty and re-vokes the driver’s license of anyone who kills another by failingto yield the right of way. We’d like to thanks Reps. Bigham,Welti, Garofalo, Morrow, Olin, Emmer, Kohls, Morgan, Brynaert,Kiffmeyer, Gardner, Tillberry and Bly for authoring and signing onto this legislation, and we remain confident that this is the yearthat we finally get this passed.

On other fronts, the Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Advisory Com-mittee (MMSAC) is currently examining the exemption that cur-rently exists which allows some to operate a motor scooter that’sunder 50cc in engine size without an endorsement or training.Because of the rapid growth in this particular segment of the two-wheeled population, MMSAC is considering making a recom-mendation to the Commissioner of Public Safety that Minnesotado away with this exemption and require anyone who rides anymotorized two- or three-wheeled vehicle to obtain a valid motor-cycle endorsement. This change would also effectively end theability of 14- and 15-year-olds from operating these types ofmotor scooters, as you must be 16 years of age to receive a dri-ver’s license (and to then get a mo-torcycle endorsement). And whileMMSAC – a volunteer committeemade up of motorcyclists from allover the state – has no direct powerto enact any legislation, its recom-mendations are taken very seriouslyby the Commissioner.

Plans continue to move along forhosting the Meeting of the Minds inSeptember, and we’re sure you allwill have a great time here in the Great White North. And yes,the temperatures should finally be above zero by the time theconference gets here!

MissouriKathy GarverAssistant State Rep

Missouri has had an interesting year sofar. In November we had a huge gifthanded to us that was totally unex-pected. We had a senator, Chuck Gra-ham, who did or threatened to filibusterour helmet modification bill every year.Senator Graham is a Democrat from avery strong democratic area. In fact itwas so strong that the Republican partyhad a candidate but didn’t want to putany money into their candidate becausethey didn’t feel he had any chance towin the election. Senator Graham was

involved inan alcohol involved motor vehicle accident last year and as a re-sult of this incident, received what amounted to a slap on thewrist. FORR decided that even though we probably couldn’t de-feat Mr. Graham we had to do something. So we put an ad in alocal paper in his area that said “You drink, You drive, You lose,Unless your Chuck Graham. How Can We Elect a Man to theSenate to Make the Laws That Doesn’t Live by Them?” Well tomake a long story short. Election day came around and much toeveryone’s surprise, Mr. Graham is now ex-Senator Graham.The new senator during his victory statements to the pressstated that he contributes his success to a third party who ran anad in the local paper.

We were also successful in keeping many of our supporters in of-fice for another term and getting some new positions filled by in-dividuals who will support motorcycling in the state.

We have filed our helmet modification bill in both the House(HB165) and Senate (SB27) to allow those 21 and over choice.Plus our comparative fault bill (HB486 and SB202) to try to put astop to unfair claims practices of alleging that a person is partlyat fault for the accident or their injuries based solely upon thetype of vehicle being operated. In addition we are carefully

watching several other bills. HB114would require completion of a manda-tory rider education class for all mo-torcyclists; HB438 is a stunt ridingbill; HB253 would allow modulatingheadlights; HB175 prohibits childrenunder the age of 10 from riding on amotorcycle.

We have a lot of work ahead of usbut with some hard work and a littlebit of luck 2009 should be a good

year for Missouri’s motorcyclists.


Around the StatesNevadaDale Andrus & John BlandMRF State Co-Reps

We have a helmet repeal bill being introduced this legislativesession. Don Gustavson, assembly-man from Sparks has introduced thebill. When we have a bill number, wewill have a call to action for support byway of letters, emails, phone calls, andthe legislative opinion poll. We willhave all the communication informationat that time. For the first time, we haveABATE of Northern Nevada, ABATE ofSouthern Nevada, BOLT of Nevada,and COC of Northern Nevada workingtogether. These groups have hired apolical consultant to work with the leg-islature and media to get information to those representativesand committee members who will be considering the change inthe law. Chuck Miuth when asked to help his reply was.

“A number of years ago, I did a campaign training seminar for"bikers" at a conference in Denver. I think it may have beencalled "Meeting of the Minds"? While I didn't win the raffle for thehunting knife, I thoroughly enjoyed buying the tickets. And anygroup of people who use the bathtub to ice down their beer aremy kind of people! So, yes. Absolutely, let's talk. It's a great billand I'd love to help if I can.

We will be presenting information regarding the benefits and in-crease in tax dollars from motorcycle sales, and the increase intourism to Nevada. We are also getting support from ElkoCounty Commissioners, Elko Area Chamber of Commence, Cityof Elko, and Elko Visitors and Convention Authority. We are net-working with as many organizations, clubs and, of course, politi-cians who will speak at the committee hearings in support ofour cause. Our main thrust this year is to give documentationon the financial benefit of having a helmet choice in the area oftourism from neighboring states (California). We are citingFlorida statistics that show dramatic increases in sales tax rev-enues as well as registration fees.John Bland and I will be going to theLegislative lobbyist orientation on Jan-uary 28. We will talking to as manyrepresentives as we can pin down. Weknow that we miss a lot of motorcycletouring dollars because riders wouldrather ride around Nevada than buyand or wear a helmet. ( or be forced to)We will also be talking with Don Gus-tavson to get a plan of action and todiscuss our strategy as well. We havea great feeling of confidence in gettingthis law changed this year. There have been changes in the rep-

resentatives that give us a sense that the time is right and wecan prevail. We have current and very persuasive statistics anddocumentation that we will be presenting, and we will insist thatour opponents provide factual documentation to support theirhysterical testimonials. Much of our information is current and

very dynamic and could give seriousdoubt regarding the actual safety ofwearing a helmet. Nevada, like manyother states is looking for dollars, ourinformation could provide a way to ac-cess revenue without raising or imple-menting new taxes. It may not pay thewhole bill but it is a more positive wayto raise money and it is voluntary, likewearing a helmet should be. John andI will be going to the Legislature on aregular basis to lobby.

North CarolinaCindy HodgesMRF State Rep

The 2009-2010 session of the North Carolina General Assemblyconvened on January 28, 2009. Bikers across the state used toconvene on Opening Day to welcome our legislators back towork and to make a big show of the fact that we ARE watchingand paying attention. We’ve learned, however, that in North Car-olina, there are better ways to make that point. Opening Day is aday of ceremony and more than that, office jockeying. There isnot a lot of time for the visits we like to make with our legislatorsso we give them a little bit of time to settle in.

Regardless of the date that CBA/ABATE of NC chooses for thefirst Lobby Day of the session, it is a rite of Spring that is as fa-miliar to us as frogs singing in creek beds along our favorite backroads. Ahhh. Opportunities abound.

On Wednesday, February 11, some 75 biker constituents walkedthe halls of the Legislative Plaza. Troops on the ground. What afine job they did, too. At the end of the day there were severalreally good possibilities for sponsor of a clean helmet bill and 14co-sponsors lined up to get on board. There were many also

prepared to go back to work and putmore teeth into the ROW law wepassed a few years back. We haveother issues too, of course. There aretexting/cell phone use bills we will sup-port, an ATV bill our off-road friendshave asked us to support, and numer-ous bills we will move against. As Isaid, Opportunities Abound.

Where will the MRF members of NorthCarolina figure into this state-basedwork? Many of them are involved at the

state level but not all. Many of them do not belong to any sort of


Around the Statesstructured motorcycle rights organization. We had a great oppor-tunity several years back with Vinny Neumann’s idea of a get to-gether for all of North Carolina’s MRF members. We are going todo it again and the focus will be three-fold: Distributing informa-tion about issues at the state level in addition to the informationthe MRF provides for the federallevel, growing the MRF member-ship in North Carolina, and get-ting to know one another. Oh,and one other thing… We aregoing to plan to ride! I’ve gotsome ideas on how this meetingmight go but would love someinput so please, send me a note– [email protected]

OhioBarbara TittleMRF State Rep

Ohio has a long and strong history of supporting motorcyclists’rights.

Over 30 years ago, ABATE of Ohio was conceived. Like someother ABATEs in the country we also started out with the idea ofA Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments. Over the years,the “anger” subsided and we became American Bikers AimedToward Education, of legislators, riders and the public. In Ohio,various forces caused a rift in the organization, so long ago andso many people ago, that few people remember the details. Atthat point, a new organization formed, CMRO/ABATE, Con-cerned Motorcycle Riders of Ohio. Both groups separatelyworked toward the same ends for too many years. In the lastcouple of years, both groups realized that unity of purposecould assist us more than old grievances. After much consider-ation and negotiation, the two groups decided to merge forcesand work as one under the ABATE of Ohio banner. Each groupis helping the other to develop a better organization for all.CMRO members are filling needs which ABATE had and vice-versa. We look forward to a prosperous and productive newera in Ohio with the strengths of both groups combined to moveforward for our mutual benefit. With the combined pool of tal-ent, our prospects are good and lookout for the best from Ohio.

Ken Perkins, "Perk", past Region &Deputy Direct of ABATE of Ohio, isvery pleased to announce that aproject he worked on for the pastthree years, to get the MotorcycleOhio Basic Rider Course to onceagain have a class located in Jeffer-son County, Ohio has succeeded. Inthe past this course was offered at Jefferson Technical Collegeand then moved and then dropped from the area due to the lack

of a suitable facility. Perk had been in contact with MotorcycleOhio trying unsuccessfully to find suitable locations. With theresurfacing of the parking lots at Jefferson Community Collegethis class will once again be offered there.

Registration for couses begin onFebruary 2, 2009 and you mayregister by contacting MotorcycleOhio at:

Ohio Department of PublicSafety

Motorcycle Ohio P.O. Box 182081Columbus, Ohio 43218-2081

Toll Free: 1-800-83-RIDER

Please remember when register-ing that this program is part of the MO Mobile program and youwill need to register as such when contacting them.

The MO Mobile Program provides training in the rural areas ofOhio. Two truck and trailer units deliver motorcycles and allother course supplies to mobile training sites.

South DakotaLarry NielsonMRF State Rep

South Dakota held its annual Legislative Days Convention Jan22-24 at the capital building in Pierre, SD. We held a very pro-ductive Legislator Meet and Greet Thursday evening. We spentFriday Morning at the Capitol building interacting with legisla-tors, witnessing the process, and educating our members. Aftera group photo we attended a presentation from the HighwayPatrol about Accident Scene Management. After lunch we wereintroduced in each legislative chamber during their respectiveopening ceremonies, complete with our own members providingthe invocations.

Friday afternoon continued with our leadership sessions, start-ing with Todd RIba’s MRF update.Next we had a session where wecreated a “Policy Statement” for SDABATE. Our youth activist winnersthen shared their experiences aboutstarting a new chapter.

The evening consisted of a Banquetand Awards ceremony, followed by asocial.

The weekend closed with our BODmeeting Saturday morning.


Around the StatesLegislatively, SD ABATE is working some old business, allowingorganization plates for motorcycles, and some more significantissues also. HB 1220 addresses traffic signals that don’t recog-nize bikes. We also are watching bills that address primaryseatbelt enforcement and smoking bans. SD has a budgetproblem so multiple fee and/or tax related issues are also onour radar. Future business, we havemade contact with organizations inthe off road arena to address the un-conventional vehicles that get taggedas motorcycles, planning for legisla-tion in 2010.

TexasRobin Warfield & Revvv KeiffnerMRF State Co-Reps

Texas Legislative Day was held Mon-day, January 26th at the State Capitol in Austin with between1,000 and 1,500 Texas Bikers in attendance. These Bikerswalked the halls of the Capitol visiting the offices of their Sena-tors and Representatives. House Resolution 159 was read be-fore the house, recognizing Texas Bikers for the occasion ofLegislative Day by Representative Norma Chavez of El Paso.Rep Chavez rode to the Capitol on her Harley Davidson 1500Sportster, where she recognized Texas Bikers as “defenders ofthe constitution and working families" and for being "proud Tex-ans.”, with the gallery filled to capacity with Bikers.

Senator John Carona from Dallas has professed to reinstate thehelmet law to save lives. As of now, he has not introduced ahelmet bill and probably will not have time this session. Hiscommittee took dedicated motorcycle safety and educationfunds, which only motorcyclists pay into, and moved it from the402 status to the 601. This allows DPS to take 25% of ourbudget for their use and amounts to a $250,000 loss to ourtraining budget.

We all know that a person who fails to yield right of way causinga collision resulting in bodily injury ordeath generally serves no jail timeand only pays a small fine. This isnot acceptable for anyone. Thereare already 3 bills filed, but we wanta bill that includes use of a cellphone at the time of a collision todouble the minimum penalty if itcauses a collision and double themaximum penalty if the collision re-sults in injury or death. Sputnik, theChairman of Texas MotorcycleRights Association (TMRA II), has asked Representative ChuckHopson of Jacksonville to author such a bill.

Texas Bikers let their Representatives and Senators know that

we are opposed to the Road Block Bill, SB298, which is beingcalled Alcohol Checkpoint this session. There is no difference inthis Bill and the ones called Road Block Bills during the previ-ous two sessions. Once a motorist is stopped at a Road Blockor Check Point, whichever you choose to call it, the officer is atliberty to charge anyone in the vehicle with any crime they

choose. A drunk passenger could becharged with Public Intoxication despitethe driver being sober thereby nullifyingthe designated driver plan.

Please visit

http://sudsandbutterfly.homestead.com/BikersInTheCapi-tol2009.html for photos, videos and the media coverage on ourLegislative Day 2009.

On March 18th, Texas ABATE will be hosting BBQ with the Bik-ers on the Capitol grounds in Austin. This event helps TexasBikers connect one on one with our Legislators, while we fillthem full of great Texas BBQ. On this day, we show our appre-ciation for those Legislators who do support our issues and ithelps us get to know our Legislators on a more personal basis.

WashingtonMichael CampbellMRF State Co-Rep

Washington just completed its annual trek to Olympia, our statecapital for "Black Thursday". We were a week later this yearbecause the Capital was being decorated for the Governor in-auguration. We had 300 plus members show up along with alarge group of COC members (approx. 80) to meet with Legisla-tors. We had many new faces in office this year we needed to

start educating about Motorcyclingand Motorcycling issues. We are notrunning legislation this year for the"Left Turn" Bill or malfunctioning trafficlight as we have in the past 5 years,but will instead support a "BicyclistBill" that is requesting ALL traffic sig-nals recognize bicycles.

A list of the items we are looking atthis year:

In coordination with the COC (Washington State Confederationof Clubs); Motorcycle Profiling in Washington State--a problemin need of Legislative relief.


Around the StatesIn coordination with the Bicycle Alliance of Washington (BAW);All legal vehicles deserve the same recognition at traffic lightscontrolled by activation sensors.

Toll Rate Reduction: Tolls on Roads and Bridges are collectedon the basis of number of axles.Motorcycles are green housefriendly transportation, are theoriginal fuel efficient vehicles,wear and tear on roadways bymotorcycles is practically non-ex-istent (and do not weigh 4,000lbs), motorcycles use reducescongestion.

Helmet Law Repeal: Self protec-tion should be a choice, caseshave been made in courts thatMandatory Helmet Laws are a violation of the 14th amendmentof the constitution (People v. Fries-Illinois ""beyond police powerof legislature""), 4 states are 100% Helmet Law Free (Illinois,Iowa, Colorado, New Hampshire) 19 states exempt the majority(those 18 and older), 7 states have laws that exempt those 21or older, Let those that ride DECIDE.

One final note of warning to our Legislators: Please do not letthe Governor raid our education and training funds which comefrom our endorsement fees. Raiding these funds would effectour education and training courses which could effect our Safe-tlu funds from the Government.

Michael CampbellABATE of WashingtonAmbassador at LargeWashington MRF co-rep

WisconsinDave DwyerMRF State Rep

On January 10th and 11th ABATE ofWisconsin Inc. hosted their annualOfficer Training seminar with 170 Re-gional and State Officers in atten-dance. This is the event where ourRegion Reps and their supporting Of-ficers learn how to make ABATEfunction smoothly. Covered topics in-clude; bylaws, legislative agenda,treasury requirements, events andtheir reporting and insurance requirements, membership growthand retention and products sales and reporting.

The event is capped off with a banquet and auction Saturdayevening. This year, as in the past, the banquet costs were cov-

ered by Attorney Mike Hupy. The highlight of the auction wasthe battle for bragging rights for the group lucky enough to raiseenough money to buy the “One of a Kind” Green ABATE 1995State Party tee-shirt. The past winners have always donatedthe shirt back to ABATE for the next year’s auction. This year

the battle for supremacy wasfierce. One District stood againstthe rest of the assembled biddersin their attempt to “buy” the shirt.Every time the District bidderwould raise the bid, the rest of thebidders would pool more of theirmoney to be able to raise the bid.One person even donated hisnewly acquired skunk skin cap tohelp raise money. The skunk hatwas carried around the room to thechant of “Feed The Skunk” to en-

courage donations to counter the tenacity of the District 4. Inthe end, a truce was called and more than $5,000 was pooledto “buy” the shirt, with it being donated back to ABATE for nextyear’s auction.

Following our BOD meeting the next day, 1J Region Rep andBOD member Rob DeDecker, along with his wife Deb, pre-sented Wisconsin MRF State Rep, MRF BOD member, DaveDwyer and MRF President Kirk “Hardtail” Willard with theircheck for renewal of their Region’s Sustaining Membership andan additional check for $125. The additional check was the pro-ceeds from Region 1J’s January 50/50 raffle. The winner of theraffle donated the winnings back to the Region for their dona-tion to MRF. Currently Wisconsin has 23 Regions as SustainingMembers; 1A, 1B, 1E, 1F, 1G, 1H, 1I, 1J, 2B, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2H,2J, 3A, 3C, 4A, 4B, 4C, 6A, 7B, 7D and 8B, along with the StateOffice.

Our Governor’s State of the State address on January 28th wasattended by 28 ABATE members as “Guests of the Legislature”.This was quite impressive in that very few tickets are given to

the Legislature for them to distribute.ABATE members occupied one-quarter of the available seats in theGallery. The speech is held in the As-sembly Chambers with the membersof the Senate, the Supreme Courtand all the Constitutional Officersseated amongst the members of theAssembly. There is only one galleryopen for Guests of the Legislature;the other two galleries are reservedfor Guests of the Governor. The fact

that we can put on a showing like that on a weeknight is not loston the full Legislature and the Governor.

Dave DwyerMRF State Rep.


ABATE of Wisconsin

Takes the Bull by the HornsDave"Chubby"Charlebois

Public Relations Director

ABATE of WI Inc.

It’s been said, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Inlight of difficult financial times for us all, ABATE of Wisconsin hasdecided to increase our support of our MRF brethren to the nextlevel and urge every SMRO in the nation to follow our lead.

ABATE of Wisconsin has always supported the MRF with an an-nual donation per member written into our corporate policy andgiven at the Meeting of the Minds. When the recent call went outto help our brothers in this time of financial crisis a proposal wasintroduced at our board of directors meeting to make a $2500 do-nation to offset a month’s expenses of the MRF. After discussionour board decided to offer a solution that will benefit both theMRF and Wisconsin ABATE members.

Working with our membership director it was decided to attach a

coupon good for a one year MRF membership with each newABATE of Wisconsin membership processed. This limited offerwill be good for the first one hundred memberships to return thecoupons to us. If a couple joins ABATE of Wisconsin, a couponfor a joint membership in the MRF will be sent with their initial in-formation. An individual MRF membership coupon will be sent tothose individuals signing up as new members to ABATE of Wis-consin. Our state office staff will then forward the returnedcoupons to the MRF along with payment. It is our hope that thisprogram will not only help the MRF this year, but with the poten-tial for one hundred renewals (up to five thousand dollars); helpsustain the MRF for years to come.

With the need to have a national motorcyclists’ rights organiza-tion present on Capitol Hill more important now more than ever,ABATE of Wisconsin would like to strongly urge other SMRO’s tofollow our lead and devise a program that will be beneficial toboth your state and the MRF. This is no time for apathy. Whenthe going gets tough, follow the leaders.

Membership Retention - Part I continued

Without causing bodily harm, the explosive would cause thepatch to disintegrate taking along with it the leather it was sewnon to. Yes, alcohol was involved at the time of the discussion.

The final three categories that follow here can all be lumped to-gether somewhat. These three categories are the members thatwe consider very involved. They are the categories that our offi-cers are most comfortable with because our past, current, andfuture officers come out of these categories...

4) Shapers™: They are most active and want to shape organiza-tional policy. You see these members at meetings making sug-gestions and joining committees. The entry-level Shaper is the“worker bee” of this organization. Put out the call and they willrally and get the job done.

5) Cognoscenti®: They want the organization to add to their fundof knowledge. These are the people you hear about going to con-

ferences, meeting with other groups, and working for ABATE withagencies at the Federal and State Level.

6) Altruistics®: They share the values of the organization. Theseare the members who automatically renew because ABATE ofWisconsin is part of who they are. You’ll hear them talk abouttheir ABATE Family; and like a family they will not always getalong, but they will stay to argue another day. Thank you towww.suefroggatt.com for the free bulletins that contained the sixcategories that I have used here to demonstrate the levels.

By the time our Officers’ Training rolls around, I will have evenmore information like this about membership retention to sharewith you. If your region does not already have a “Membership Of-ficer” I encourage you to appoint one.

Stick with us... all of you… from every level. You are all importantto the mix.


SMROs in Action

Georgia

On the road with Ed “Yankee” Andross

Connecticut

The staff of the CMRA supporting our supporters, The BridgeportMotorcycle Association.

Wyoming

ABATE of Wyoming riders on the road in Nevada

South Dakota

Todd Riba, MRF Board Member and Minnesota MRF State Rep wasa guest at ABATE of South Dakota's Legislative Day. Todd is picturedhere with members from his ABATE of South Dakota Chapter, SiouxRiver.

Back Row Left to Right, Cal Stainbrook, Bill Wellnitz, Todd Riba, RodHersrud. Front Row Left to Right, Cindy Stainbrook, Janelle Wellnitz,Trudie Hersrud, and Jason Kidd.

Texas

Texas Legislative Day was held Monday, January 26th at the StateCapitol in Austin with between 1,000 and 1,500 Texas Bikers in atten-dance.


SMROs in Action

Wisconsin

ABATE of Wisconsin members - guests of honor at the Governor’sState of the State address

Ohio

MRF President Kirk “Hardtail” Willard and the AMA’s Imre Szauterworking together before presenting sessions at ABATE of Ohio’sState Seminar

Ohio

ABATE of Florida State President "Doc" Reichenbach, newest mem-ber of the FHWA Motorcycle Advisory Council

The MRF was afforded the opportunity to address the V-Twin Industryin Cincinnati

PANELISTS left to right: Ted Sands of Performance Machine andGrady Pfeiffer of GH Marketing representing the MIC-AftermarketCommittee, Seth Doulton of Horse Power promotions to discussSEMA, Hardtail of the MRF, and host/facilitator Keith Ball of Bikernet


PRESIDENTKirk “Hardtail” [email protected]

VICEPRESIDENT Michael “Boz” [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT OF GOV’T RELATIONSJeff [email protected]

SECRETARYPaulette [email protected]

TREASURERFrank [email protected]

Eric HamptonCommunications [email protected]

Carol DownsConference [email protected]

Dave DwyerSSMRO Board [email protected]

Cindy HodgesMember [email protected]

Jay JacksonMotorcycle Safety/Rider [email protected]

Steve ZimmerMRFPAC [email protected]

Todd RibaState Reps Program [email protected]

John PierceMembership [email protected]

Graydon WheelerMember [email protected]

Thomas “Doc Ski” WasileskiSSMRO Board [email protected]

Tiffany LatimerDC Office [email protected]

MRF A&E Board of Directors

Deborah Butitta, Chair928-308-1117 [email protected]

Carol Downs, [email protected]

Chuc Coulter, [email protected]

MAIL TO BOARD MEMBERSmay be sent to the MRF office and will beforwarded. If you must mail time-sensitivematerial to a board member, contact thatperson by phone or email first to makearrangements.

Motorcycle Riders Foundation Board of Directors

Board Assistants

Chuc Coulter

Asst. Treasurer

[email protected]

Susan Huttman

Assist. Communications

Advertising Manager

[email protected]

Tiffany Latimer

Assist. Communications [email protected]

Helen Wesson

Assist. Products

[email protected]

Polly Schoeller

Assist. Membership

[email protected]

Sarah Muckenhoupt

Assist. [email protected]

Michael McGuire

[email protected]

Dave Condon

Asst. to the

State Reps Program Director

[email protected]

Mike Berger

Editorial [email protected]

For your convenience, we

can accept memberships,

donations, conference

registrations and product

orders by phone or fax, or

via our website, using

VISA, MasterCard, Discover

or American Express.

ExOfficio Board

Mark Buckner, [email protected]

Deborah Butitta, Arizona928-308-1117 [email protected]

Chuc Coulter, [email protected]

MRF Reports EDITOR

Eric Hampton, [email protected]

Send all submissions for publication to:

[email protected], 602-367-9524

DEADLINE

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ADDRESS CHANGE

Please send in writing to:

Motorcycle Riders Foundation

236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510

Washington, DC 20002-4980

[email protected]

MRF Office

236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510

Washington, DC 20002-4980

Phone: 202-546-0983

Fax: 202-546-0986

[email protected]

Website: http://www.mrf.org

Mission StatementTo continue developing an

aggressive, independent nationaladvocacy for the advancement

of motorcycling and itsassociated lifestyle, which is fi-

nancially stable and exceeds theneeds of motorcycling

enthusiasts.

It’s

tim

e yo

u d

id

som

eth

ing

mo

re to

p

rote

ct y

ou

r ri

gh

ts!

Join

and

Sup

port

Mot

orcy

cle

Ride

rs

Foun

datio

n… R

EGIS

TER,

VO

TE, A

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RID

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Ind

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.....$

30

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......

....$

80

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Jo

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Mem

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ship

.....

......

......

....$

50

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ship

.....

......

......

...$1

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....$

100

Fr

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om

Fig

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$10

$

25

$ _

____

____

____

____

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PLE

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PR

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INFO

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Cit

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Pho

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New

R

enew

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emb

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____

____

____

__)

Are

yo

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mem

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of a

sta

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rcyc

list’s

rig

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o

rgan

izat

ion

? Y

es

No

If

yes,

nam

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____

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____

____

____

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FOR

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confi

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Refe

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____

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___

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_

MRF�Reports

MRF Committees

COMMUNICATIONS: Eric Hampton (Chair),

Jeff Hennie, John Pierce, Michael “Boz” Kerr,

Paulette Korte, Cindy Hodges, Jim “Legs”

Korte, Tiffany Latimer, Susan Huttman, Debo-

rah Butitta, Mike Berger, Mike McGuire

ELECTIONS: Dave Dwyer (Chair), Cindy

Hodges, Thomas J. “Doc Ski” Wasileski,

Graydon Wheeler

BYLAWS: Michael “Boz” Kerr (Chair), Carol

Downs, Kirk “Hardtail” Willard, Paulette Korte

ALCOHOL AWARENESS: Steve Zimmer

(Chair), Jeff Hennie, Lynn Oldenburg, Susan

Huttman, Carol Simpson, Thomas J. “Doc Ski”

Wasileski, Jay Jackson

MRFPAC: Steve Zimmer (Chair), Chuc Coul-

ter, Dave Dwyer, Jeff Hennnie, Michael “Boz”

Kerr

FINANCE: Carol Downs (Chair), Kirk “Hard-

tail” Willard, Chuc Coulter, John Pierce,

Paulette Korte, Frank Carbone, Graydon

Wheeler

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: John Pierce

(Chair), Tiffany Latimer, Sarah Muckenhoupt,

Cindy Hodges, Polly Schoeller, Todd Riba,

Eric Hampton, Mike Berger

CONFERENCE & EVENTS: Carol Downs

(Chair), Kirk “Hardtail” Willard, Jeff Hennie,

Cindy Hodges, Todd Riba, Steve Zimmer,

Graydon Wheeler

PRODUCTS: Carol Downs (Chair), Polly

Schoeller, Helen Wesson, Frank Carbone

FUNDS STEERING: Todd Riba (Chair), Kirk

“Hardtail” Willard, Cindy Hodges, Jay Jack-

son, Mark Buckner, John Pierce, Jim “Legs”

Korte, Graydon Wheeler

RESEARCH & STATISTICS: Thomas J.

“Doc Ski” Wasileski (Chair), Paulette Korte,

Jeff Hennie, Kirk “Hardtail” Willard, David

Tuschel, Jay Jackson, John Pierce

MRFA&E: Michael “Boz” Kerr (Chair), Susan

Huttman, Jeff Hennie, Paulette Korte, Jay

Jackson, Thomas J. “Doc Ski” Wasileski

MRF REPS &REPS GROWTH: Todd Riba,

Cindy Hodges (Co-chairs), Polly Schoeller,

Tiffany Latimer, Carol Simpson, John Pierce,

Dave Condon, Graydon Wheeler

STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE

AWARDS:

Dave Dwyer (Chair), Thomas J. “Doc Ski”

Wasileski, Jeff Hennie

AWARDS:

FARMERS: Kirk “Hardtail” Willard (Chair),

Mark Buckner, Deborah Butitta

FOUNDERS: Kirk “Hardtail” Willard (Chair),

Mark Buckner, Mark Falsetti, Steve Zimmer,

Gary Sellers

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Kirk “Hardtail”

Willard (Chair), Deborah Butitta, Paulette

Korte

RON SHEPPERD SAFETY RECOGNITION:

Jay Jackson (Chair), Carol Downs, Chuc

Coulter, Paulette Korte, John Pierce

THOMAS PAINE: Kirk “Hardtail” Willard (Chair),

Sarah Muckenhoupt, Tiffany Latimer, Eric Hamp-

ton, Graydon Wheeler

YOUNG ACTIVIST SCHOLARSHIP: Carol

Downs (Chair), Cindy Hodges, Jeff Hennie,

Steve Eggleston, Susan Huttman, Tiffany La-

timer

MRF CHAMPS: Jeff Hennie (Chair), Kirk “Hard-

tail” Willard, Michael “Boz” Kerr, Dave Dwyer

Mission Goals* Maintain and improve our ability to act as anadvocate before national, state and local legislative, executive and judicial bodies, andwith private or public entities, regarding issuesaffecting motorcycles, motorcyclists or motorcy-cling.* Maintain and improve our financial base andensure financial stability.* Maintain and improve our capability to meetand exceed the needs of our membership baseand all state motorcyclists’ rights organizations.* Maintain and improve our capability to be thenational information center for motorcyclists’rights information.* Enhance the training of national, state andlocal motorcyclists’ rights activists.

This newsletter is an official publication of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510, Washington, D.C. 20002-4980; phone(202) 546-0983; fax (202) 546-0986. All rights reserved. Portions may be reprinted with proper attribution. MRF Reports is published six times a year and distributed

nationwide. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation,

its officers or representatives. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation will not knowingly contract with or do business with any entity that discriminates against motorcyclists in any way, shape or form.

Motorcycle Riders Foundation236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 510Washington, DC 20002-4980

Attention�Postmaster:�Time�Dated�Material NONPROFIT

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