Announcements
September 2007

New Rider Education Directors

It seems that every few years, things all around us change. Over the past year, we have had many changes in the ranks of our Volunteer Officers and now I have another one to announce.

Bob and Sue Lorenz have decided it’s time to retire from the Rider Education Division. Bob has been the Director of Rider Education for seven years and has been a part of the Rider Ed Program for 12 years. He has worked hard at building a relationship with GWRRA and SMSA, improving the Rider Ed Classes, and has spent many hours building and coaching a team of great educators to provide our Rider Ed Classes at Wing Ding and elsewhere. As you probably know, whenever Bob came up against a challenge, it was not a matter of “can it happen,” but “how it is going to happen.”

Thank you Bob and Sue for your years of hard work and dedication to the Members of GWRRA. You have saved more lives than you know!

Bob and I looked very hard for a new Director for the Rider Ed Program, and I am happy to announce that Mark and Mary Zingery have decided to lead our program to the next level. Mark and Mary purchased their first Gold Wing and joined GWRRA in 1993. They quickly became involved in Rider Ed. Mark has been a Chapter Educator, District Educator and an assistant to Bob Lorenz. Mark started riding motorcycles when he was 14 and is now a Master Instructor Trainer for GWRRA.

I know Mark and Mary will do a great job for the Members of GWRRA.
Please wish them well and help them as you helped Bob.

Congratulations, Mark and Mary!!!

New Region A Directors

Larry and Patricia Lingo have decided to step down from the position of Region A Directors, effective September 15th. Larry and Patty have worked hard for GWRRA for many years. They also formed a team at Wing Ding that broke records for Ticket Sales.

I would like to introduce to you the new Region A Directors, Bob and Nancy Shrader. Bob and Nancy have been married 13 years; They both ride 1800’s and are active participants in the Master Level Rider Education Program. Bob is a member of our Hall of Fame program with 105 recruits.
They have been GWRRA members since 1993 and started actively participating with Chapter FL-1A. They eventually became Assistant Chapter Directors and then Chapter Directors in 1999. In 2000 they were appointed District Directors and have taken care of Florida ever since.

New Tax Form requirement

Some Chapters have received a notice for a new electronic form that may need to be filed. This letter is only a Notice. The IRS is developing an electronic filing system and will publicize filing procedures when the system is completed and ready for use. There will be no paper form. Nothing needs to be done NOW; but the chapters MUST KEEP A COPY OF THE LETTER. If and when they need to file, they will need the information that appears in the upper right corner of the letter. We will update you when more information is available.

SIG Coordinator Changes

To all MED SIG Coordinators,

First, I would like to thank each of you for all the effort you have put into the Special Interest Groups. Your work (the help at Wing Ding, efforts in promoting the SIGs and your efforts to get people interested in the SIG and message boards) has been greatly appreciated.

As you know from our discussions and conversations, there is a great need within GWRRA to simplify and streamline our operating procedures as well as our structure. With that in mind, we have taken another very careful look at the overall MED structure. Based on that review, we would like to streamline the SIG hierarchy. We have seen their numbers grow to a very substantial number and these participants should be acknowledged as “GWRRA Members”, not a “Special Interest Group”. With this in mind we will be discontinuing the role of SIG Coordinators at all levels of the Organization (MED, Region and District). This does not mean the SIGs are being disbanded, just that we will no longer have Coordinators at the different levels. Let me reiterate, we are not disbanding the SIGs, we are softening their focus and streamlining the hierarchy. For instance, the voice of the Trike owners and the Classic Wing owners will still be heard, but now it will be due to their greater numbers so they don’t need a Region, 6 District and 35 Chapter coordinators to speak for them. They will better serve themselves by becoming more active within their Chapters and Districts instead of trying to stand alone as “Special”.

Previously, SIGs had the message board for communication. They had their seminars, rides, games, etc. at Wing Ding. This is not changing. The SIGs will continue to have their designated space on the message board to share information and use as a communication link, they will also be able to continue with seminars, games and rides as has always been the case at Wing Ding. One minor change here will be: the SIGs will be allotted a page (to share) on the MED web site with a link to the message boards and other sites of interest to their SIG. There will no longer be space allotted for each separate SIG web site.

As for the existing MED SIG Coordinators, I will be calling each of you individually to see if you would be willing to stay on the MED staff as “MED Special Projects Representatives.”

With your help we can make this a positive change that will strengthen our organization, not fracture it.

Warmest regards,
June Agee

Announcements

August 2007

Family Member Cards

We are pleased to report we’ve made progress on being able to print optional co-rider cards within a family membership (-02s, –03s, –04s, etc.) The cost of these additional cards is a modest processing fee of just $5 each. Although Family Members have always been able to participate without a card of their own we recognize that some GWRRA Members value having their own “proof” of membership. Let your Members know to call 800-843-9460 or 623-581-2500 (Phoenix) to order or send a written request to 21423 N 11th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85027.

Area Report Changes

We are making some changes to the reports you get monthly to help make things easier for everybody. We will no longer be sending out a full Area Report. In many cases it made things more difficult when trying to figure out what was what. We will now send out a New Member listing, Expiring Member listing and a listing of Prospective Members. We anticipate that this will make things easier and expedite contacting people to participate in the local activities. We also want to make things easier for the District Director when trying to decide if a new chapter is needed and where to place it. So, we will be sending out a Zip Code list that will show how many Members are in a specific zip code. This will help the DDs when assigning a zip code for a new chapter Member.

Updates: Some of you may wonder how you are supposed to update your Members’ information if you don’t receive the full Area Report. Well, effective immediately, we will no longer be accepting any updates to a Member's record from anyone except the Member. We have had many circumstances where the information given to us was the wrong information. The Members must update their own information on line, by phone, email, or snail mail. A few might feel they are being inconvenienced, but we really are trying to make sure their private information is secure and accurate. (Remember all the identity theft problems that have recently become so rampant?)

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Here is a letter of explanation from Bill Dodd, GWRRA Recruitment and Retention Coordinator

Greetings everyone,

I hope that all those traveling from Wing Ding have made it home safely. It was very good that I had the pleasure of meeting some of you. I would also like to thank those that helped me man the Recruitment and Retention Table. Without your assistance, we may not have recruited as many new members as we did and it was without a doubt due to your efforts.

During the rally, I have given three seminars and attended one “Meet the International MED Staff” forum. Throughout it all, there was one common theme; the Area Run List (ARL). Some of you have commented on how you can no longer do the job of Recruitment and Retention without this list. You can still perform this task by using your last copy of the Area Run List, the Hot List, New Member and Expiring Members Report, and by creating your own Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

The Area Run List was never intended to be used as a Chapter Roster. A Chapter Roster is something that the Chapter Director creates for himself from the sign-in sheet. The intention of the Area Report was to let the Chapter Director know what Members lived in his/her geographical area. Also, Chapter Directors could coordinate with members about errors found in the report and make necessary changes back up the chain. While some worked hard at making this list work for them and their members, too many others complained that it was too much work and cumbersome. It’s true, the ARL requires a dedicated person to work the list each month. I’ve put in many hours each month for my district, so I know first hand on how much work is required. It did become one huge headache for the District and many errors would go unreported if the report updates were not done on a monthly basis.

Therefore, it has been decided to not send out the ARL and Chapter Directors are no longer tasked with correcting errors. The new plan is to send out a monthly Hot List, New Member and Expiring Members List. Now the only tasks that Chapter Directors and/or their appointees need to do is contact, either through email or a phone call, any new member that lives in their area and invite them to their meeting. Then, in your working copy, annotate the date and time the new member was contacted for your own personal records. No other work is necessary. If there are errors, then the Member themselves must make the correction, either by a phone call to the Home Office, or on the GWRRA Web Site. Many of you still have your most recent copy of the ARL. I would encourage you to hold on that and use it as your baseline. When you receive your copy of the Hot List, New Member and Expiring Member Report, make yourself a working copy of this list and file the original in a safe place. Include the members from your old ARL that live in your area so that you can keep track of those members.

Another suggestion that would be very beneficial was for Chapter Directors to create their own Chapter Roster by using Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. Design it in the same format as your current sign-in sheet, but with members names already entered. But now include a new column for the members to make a check mark by their name indicating two things; one: That they were present at the meeting and, two: That they can see if their info has any errors. This will alleviate members having to fill in the same information each month during a meeting and allow Chapter Directors to see at a glance if a member has missed three or more meetings. He then can initiate a phone call to let the member know they were missed. Also, if the members find any errors in this list, they can contact the Home Office and make a correction. It is also obvious that this list would contain sensitive member information so it must be safeguarded.

You can still perform the job, but with less work involved. I’ve always said, “work smarter, not harder”! We are trying to make this job easier for everyone and make this work for our members. Breakdowns can still occur and one could be the dissemination of the Hot List, New Member and Expiring Members Report. It is very important for these reports to reach the Chapter Directors and their Recruiter/Membership Enhancement Coordinators so that they can make contact with new and/or expiring members.

Remember, Recruitment and Retention is the lifeblood of our great Association. If there is a break in communication at any level, many Members are affected. In the end, it is our Members who suffer the most. Please help me with this task.

Thank you,
Bill Dodd
Membership Enhancement Division
Recruitment and Retention Coordinator
678-230-9800
We Are Listening…What Is Your Solution!

Officer Title Changes,

Getting back to the basics

After 30 years, its time to go back to the basics and simplify some of the titles in the field. Over the past several months, Members and Officers have gotten confused as to who works in the Phoenix Home Office and who doesn’t.

To help clear up the confusion, we have removed the “International” and “National” designation from the volunteer officer’s titles. The program directors will be called just that - "Directors." For example “Rider Education Director”. Only those that work in the Phoenix Home Office may have “International” or “National” in their title.

Rescue Plus

For a limited time Members can receive a discount on Rescue Plus by renewing their GWRRA Membership and Rescue Plus for three years. They will receive $5.00 off per year. This is a savings of $15.00. Imagine for the peace of mind a Roadside Assistance Program for $60 for three years. Be sure to pass this on to your Chapters. We suggest putting this in your Regional, District and Chapter Newsletters to get the message out to the Members.