12 July 04 General membership meeting. 

Started with introductions around the table 12 – 14 people in attendance, of that all officers present except the Secretary, too include the Safety officer Mr. Steve Reed. 

  1. Discussed the webpage and that Mr. Carl Brown has started a site for the ORA at www.2accs.com/ora.htm It is under construction and any inputs as to what would be nice to have on the site is appreciated. Some things desired (but not limited to) on the site are areas one can go to sell/buy things, ask/answer technical and/or technique questions, a forum where opinions can be posted, rides area where the Club sponsored rides will be posted and you can post when/where you are available to ride and someone can join you.
  2. Meeting schedule was discussed and we realize not everyone heard of this meeting due to growing pains in the notification process and the fact not everyone has Saturday morning free. If the club decides to have the meetings during the week during dayshift, so be it. Future meetings will be held with the idea of keeping the meeting to a minimum and the riding to a maximum. Also, the email notification is being improved almost daily and with a website running that will be a good place to see when the next meeting will be. Check the Marquee, Roll call, Base Paper and the Stratcom newsletter for meeting place and time.
  3. Another way to get the word out is to utilize frequently used entrances that have bulletin board space. We can put posters there with flyers underneath that let people know where and when the next meeting will be. If you know of such a place, i.e. Pass and ID let us know and we’ll try to get permission to use it.
  4. A meeting with General Koziol was discussed and it was agreed that it is needed and should take place soon. Hopefully that face time can be used to get the General a membership in to the ORA and make him one of us! I believe the more people that go to the meeting to show exactly how many riders we have on base the better. In fact rumor has it that a couple of Group CC’s just bought bikes, hmmm.
  5. Beginner/wannabe riders were also a topic of discussion. We know that some people are interested in the motorcycle world but don’t want to or simply can’t afford to buy a bike just to take a class and find out that this isn’t for them. There is an intro to motorcycling course downtown for $60 that gives people the chance to see if riding is for them without too much outlay of cash. It was offered up that perhaps the base could do the same thing for people using the same course, bikes and instructors used for the BRC/ERC. But that would have to be negotiated through another contract and that would probably cost the base more money. Subsequently it was brought up to invite future riders to attend one of our rides as a passenger on someone’s bike to see if the riding bug still bites.
  6. Our Safety Rep Mr. Steve Reed of Stratcom will be attending a Safety conference at the end of July, where he volunteered to retrieve some information for the club. One piece of info is names and numbers for other base riding clubs so we may contact them for get togethers, etc. Also, Mr. Reed will pose a question concerning our Private Organization Charter, please see the next entry.
  7. Finally, the status of the club was briefed; the Treasurer, Mike Haro, has a savings and checking account set up, with checks even. The club also has an EIN number from the IRS giving us a tax exemption status for the account. The Secretary, Mike Wangberg, has set up two email accounts on the Offutt Global network. They are Offutt Riders Association for the general membership and Offutt Riders Association 2 for the Leadership. Feel free to email the leadership when you feel the need to do so. Or email the membership to get together for a ride or important info needs to be shared, HOWEVER, don’t abuse the priveledge. The other item that still needs attention is the Private Organization Charter. Two things with the Charter, one is the Legal office is short handed so it will be a little while before our document gets reviewed. Second, when it does get reviewed there may be a problem with our club being mandated AND a Private Organization. If this is the case it will effect ALL base motorcycle clubs, hence Mr. Reed getting the skinny while at the conference.
  8. On a sad note, recently one of Offutt’s motorcyclists was cut off by a vehicle and was killed. His name is Phil Rogers and he worked in Comm. Apparently Phil has been in the area for many years and is an experienced rider. (Director’s note: There is an article on Phil in the 14 June Roll Call but I could not open it, I’m sure there is info in there if you wish to help Phil’s family in some way. In the future how do we as a club want to handle the loss of a fellow Offutt Rider?)
  9. It was determined that enough talk was heard and it was time to ride! So the meeting adjourned but not before we set up a ride for Saturday the 19th of June meeting at Cal’s gas station at 30th and 370, near the Runza. Meet time is 0930 with a 1000 take off to Glennwood, IA for brunch. The poc for this ride will be Chaplain Clouse and he can be reached at 294-6051.