First, let me start with some of the great things that have been going on within Rider Education.  I think one of the highlights is the redesign of the Rider Education website, which is currently up and running and will be announced to the educators at Wing Ding.  There are more drop down menus, and it is easier to navigate.    Rider Course Instructors will be able to download the most current version of the training material along with all the forms and handouts that they will need.  The list now consists of the GWRRA Trike, Trailering, Sidecar and Advance Riding course.  Soon to be released will be the Trike Trailering course.  There is information on how to become a Rider Course Instructor and what the current instructors need to do to maintain their Rider Course Instructor status.

We now have a training guide in place for our Master Instructor Trainers to teach Members who meet the qualifications to become GWRRA Rider Course Instructors.  This is a forty-hour course in addition to an eight-hour Leadership Training module (CIDM).  This year we have added 12 new GWRRA Rider Course Instructors, with two more classes being offered; one in Region D and the other in Region F.  Region K will most likely be offering a class either late this year or early next spring.

In this past year, we have made available the Parking Lot Practice Guides for two-wheel, 3-wheel, sidecar and 4-wheel bikes, and I believe all are available on the web page. We have been talking about training Chapter Educators to be PLP Facilitators to conduct these events.  Again, at Wing Ding, we will be providing the Region Educators with the material that they will need to certify PLP Facilitators in their Regions.  There will be a course offered at Wing Ding this year for Members.  They will need to work with their District Educators to fulfill the requirements to be a facilitator.  Once we have PLP Facilitators in place, Districts, with the approval of the Region Educator, may offer the PLP as way for a Member to maintain their current level in the Rider Education Program for at least one additional year.

All of the Rider Education Seminars are now available on the web to our Seminar Presenters.  All have been updated so that they can be used as a Power Point presentation.  The Seminar Presenters, who have maintained their certification and their Seminar Presenter card is up to date, will be receiving a password that they will be able to log into this website to obtain the seminars.  Region K has translated the Road Captain Seminar into French and that will also be available.  As more seminars become available or translated, we will continue to add to our list.

The Motorist Awareness Program has not gotten off to a very good start.  I do need to find a replacement Director for the program soon.  I am planning on meeting with three Members at Wing Ding who have applied for the position. I hope that we can find some time to meet with the current MAD coordinators, and as groups decide what they would like to see in the Program.   We all realize that the current presentations need to be changed/updated before we can use them.  I am currently working with a couple of the Region MAD Coordinators who have something in place for us to review at Wing Ding.  One thing I would like to see is for our MAD Coordinators to become Rider Education Seminar Presenter certified. 

Last year at this time, it was our intention to have the Rider Education Levels Program database online; linking to the membership database by the first of the year (2008).  I am sorry to say that this has not happened yet, as you all are aware.  It became more challenging than what we had anticipated.  I am hoping to get an update on the progress next week, and will be able to share this update with the Region Educators.  Meanwhile, I am trusting that each Region is keeping up with their own databases either at the Region level or monitoring it at the District level.  Once we have the database program working on the home page website, we will be asking for each Region to forward to us their current REP Level database.

This past year we have seen changes to the approval process for Educators.   Officer (Educators) approval is now through Rider Education.  There is still some confusion and overlapping between Operations and Rider Education regarding the approval process.  This will be better understood with the next Rider Education project.

The final project is going to be the Rider Education Handbook.  The majority of the book still contains useful information, but there is a lot of outdated material.  The Officer approval process needs to be updated, and we are looking at the Levels program.  We are also trying to find ways to get the training and information as close to the Chapter level as possible.  We need to have an informed network of Chapter Educators, with a common source for them to find answers to questions that they may have.  We need to come up with ways to get more Members involved in the programs we offer.  Most all of the forms need to be updated now.  We have begun this process starting with the rider training courses, now it is time for the rest of them.  I would like to have it set up so that the whole manual does not need to be printed or downloaded each time you want to look up something, but rather having it available in sections on the web page.  This is not an easy project nor is it a one person project.  I am going to be asking the Region Educators to talk to their Districts and hear what suggestions the Chapter Educators may have; after all, they are the front line of the Program.  We need to be supporting them in whatever they may need.  They are the ones getting the information and training to the Members.