 
 Deputy Director Report
By John Reblin 
I went to the Waverly Beach Swap meet put on by
"Those Guys" from 2E and was asked at
the door for the non-member admission unless I had
an ABATE card. I pointed to my Deputy Director pin
and asked if that was enough or if I needed to dig
in my wallet. The person looked at me blankly and
after a while said, "Well, I guess so."
Obviously, I thought I needed to get a better
picture in the newsletter. I had a good laugh and
decided that I will be better off to start
spending more time at events around the state. I
did just that with about 20 members along with
others around the Midwest at Heartland STEAM.
I last attended STEAM about five years ago and was
impressed with the information then and was again
now in Peoria. One of the first people I talked to
when I arrived was Mike Meyers, the State
Coordinator from ABATE of Illinois. Mike had a
very interesting breakout session planned that
involved what they are doing to lower motorcycle
fatalities. Last year as the warm spring got us
all on the road, the fatalities went up quickly.
Mike got a call from the State of Illinois to see
what was going on. Long story short he was able to
see all the information for all motorcycle
fatalities for 2011 and 2012 to see if he could
try to figure out what was going on. When I say
all, I mean everything: pictures, interviews with
witnesses, family history, everything. Some of the
files were one inch thick, and to go through these
took him almost a month of eight-hour days to compile
information.
From there he was able to take his notes, copies,
etc and try to figure what was going on. He was
able to break down the crashes by type, time, day,
and causes -- all kinds of details -- and try to find a
common theme. He is still working on it, but he
found in Illinois impairment of the motorcycle
user and ROW violations were the top two reasons
for the last couple of years. So, now, how do we
stop the impaired riding along with the ROW
violations? He is working with the DOT to raise
awareness on both of these subjects and is hoping
for an effective campaign to help lower their
fatality rates.
The next breakout was by Mike's brother Bob
and how they run their Lobby Day. As I understand
it they have an effective Lobby Day, but I
don't think they get the large numbers like
we do. Illinois is also active in off-road
motorcycles and ATV's and also has a paid
lobbyist that sits in on sessions to hear what is
going on and is ready to meet with the
representatives as needed. One of the things they
do is to make a folder of the representative and
put in it their office, what committees they sit
on, and their interests, where they went to
school, and all kinds of other details and turn
the crowds loose on the representatives. After the
day at the capital they have a debriefing session
and get the feedback on what the officials are
thinking. Are they for or against? And the
legislative committee plans another visit. Later
that day they host a popular reception for the
lobby group and the representatives and
assistants. This includes food and beverages and
gives everyone a chance to visit and discuss the
issues pressing one more time. This is costly, but
they feel it is an effective way to discuss one more
time in a relaxed manner issues. Personally I
think I prefer to spend our money on busses to get
our members to Madison to discuss the issues
one-on-one.
Having not heard either session before at Officers
Training and Chubby wanting some help, I went to
his workshops on membership recruitment and
holding effective meetings. I found both of these
helpful and entertaining. Running a meeting is
hard, and you need to prepare for it, knowing the
material, gathering information, and keeping it
entertaining so people come back. Anyone that
wants to do more in our organization should attend
this session wherever it is held. I attend a lot
of meetings outside of our group, and some people
do not keep the meeting on point and run too
long on different subjects. That is when everyone
will start losing interest. Recruiting members for
attending these meetings is the same across the
Midwest. It is hard to motivate the young people
to get interested in our message, but we need to
keep trying, and we will get some to hear our
message.
I enjoyed all aspects of the conference and the
opportunities to learn are there from going down in
the morning and talking with others while getting
coffee to socializing afterwards in the
hospitality suite along with the information given
out at the breakout sessions. Many discussions are
held, and it is easy to join in sharing information
on what works and what doesn't work and why,
in this state and their state. I look forward to
next year when Wisconsin hosts the event, being
able to help show off our state.
Reblin, John. "Deputy Director Report." ABATE of Wisconsin Newsletter May. 2013.
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