Meeting of the Minds

by Gary Klinker

Safe Rider is a wrap for the 2022 season. By the time you read this the bikes will be in the shop for next years’ service. The good news is that we have three new prospective Rider Coaches we are working with. They will attend RC Prep class next Spring to get certified. With mentoring and help from us they stand a good chance to pass and join us for next season’s classes. It is not an easy process, but they are all motivated and enthusiastic. Good luck to all of them.

I just returned this week from the 38th annual Meeting of the Minds. The weather was excellent for fall riding, and I enjoyed going down and back with Jay and Shannon from our neighboring region. As usual, Wisconsin had a big part in the events with Hardtail and Dave Dwyer as MRF board members. Our own Cathy Dial and Jennifer Abraham received awards for being in the top ten membership recruiters. Wisconsin has the most Sustaining Members of any state, but Iowa has passed us in individual memberships. Hardtail was inducted into the MRF Freedom Fighter Hall of Fame.

As usual the conference started Thursday night with reports from all the states on the success or failure of their legislative agendas for the past year. There were many highpoints. Friday morning starts early with a motorcycle safety round table-kind of a breakfast meeting before the regular session. It is mainly attended by Rider Ed coaches and other interested people. It seems the recurring theme for all the states is a lack of new coaches. Demand for classes is still high everywhere.

I’m sure you will get lots of information from other attendee reports, so I’ll focus on some of the high points for me. As always Hardtail and Rocky had a lot of fresh information from Washington and on the topic of autonomous vehicles and electric bikes. Iowa assembly rep Zach Nunn gave a keynote address that helps explain why Iowa is such a free state. We could all use more like him! Following that Chopper Charlie Gilmore, Slider’s brother, gave an amazing talk on “The Price of Freedom.” He talked of his Viet Nam experiences as a platoon leader and compared those with him to the freedom fighters of the MRF and SMROs. It was an intense presentation. I’m not sure if it was recorded, but if it can be found on You Tube or somewhere, make sure to watch it.

One of the breakouts I attended was about using the MRF federal Political Action Committee to help get friendly candidates elected to Congress or the Senate. There are an awful lot of rules and laws regulating the PAC, but Ryan Hubbard does a good job of chairing the committee.

Another breakout concerned organizational continuity or finding your replacements. Mark Buckner from Colorado along with help from our own Seven presented the topic. There just happened to be about six of us from Wisconsin at the same table in that session. I was very proud when Mark recognized ABATE of Wisconsin as having done this very well over the years. Many states have had very good years followed by several down years followed by rebuilding. We have remained strong, active, and at the top of the SMRO list for many, many years. Since we had a group of us at the table, at the end I turned and said that I may have helped get good people in place, but I pointed to Polack and said he was the one who got me in place. Polack ran 1H for many years as one of the most effective Regional Reps in our whole history. He got so many future state officers started with his leadership and mentoring. We all owe him a huge debt of appreciation.

The banquet and awards ceremony were especially fun seeing long time (I didn’t say old) friends Gary Sellers from Ohio, Jay Jackson from Indiana and Hardtail inducted into the Freedom Fighter Hall of Fame. The auction and raffles were profitable so we can keep the MRF working for our issues and keeping the communication between states strong. If you are not an MRF member you should be!

Enough about motorcycles for now. October and November are for deer hunting-with riding in between.

Ride Safe,

Gary