A Common Goal

Executive Report by John Reblin

As I write this it is Super Bowl weekend, zero degrees outside, and much to do before next weekend in Green Bay for Officer Training 2021. Hopefully, I had a chance to see you all there and we get to share some words.
When planning, I didn’t really give Officer Training at the Best Western in the shadows of Lambeau Field a lot of thought. We stayed there for the State Meeting and they treated us well. Rooms were good, the food was good, and the area for Officer Training will work well for what we want to do.
As we got closer to the event and football was going into the playoffs, I started to think of all the history going on in Green Bay involving the Green Bay Packers. These Packers are a very successful team in the smallest NFL market. A really interesting series that I watched on YouTube was about the Green Bay Packers and the first one hundred years they survived.
In the early years, the team struggled financially but they came up with a plan to gain some money to survive, with a stock option for people to buy that was not really worth anything as far as reselling or trade. It never gained in value or paid a dividend. They also had a player, Curly Lambeau, that soon was elevated to being the coach and general manager. Curly was able to get a group of players to play together with a common goal, to go on to win 6 championships before stepping down.
The team was not quite successful until the organization was able to get Vince Lombardi to come to Green Bay and take over the reins. Here again, he was able to take some players with skill, having names like Starr, Horning, Nitchke, and got them to work together and work toward a common goal, five more championships including the first 2 Super Bowls.
Next was Holmgren along with Reggie White and Bret Favre then McCarthy with Rodgers and others working together, creating a group of players with a common goal – focused, and working together to take the road to a championship.
Two weeks ago, Matt Lefluer got his group of players a few plays away from the Big Dance. They just could not get it done. Hopefully, he will be able to get the small details fixed so next year they will be in the Super Bowl.
All of these teams were the same as others, they had players with skill, and coaches that call plays. Getting to and winning the Super Bowl is not an easy task. It takes work, skill, and luck among other things. But they, I believe, were never a team working toward the common goal of winning. And winning all the way to the Super Bowl.
ABATE of Wisconsin, is a championship team. We have talented people from membership, regional level, and all the way to the Board of Directors. You are all part of this team and we have people that can make a difference to keep our freedoms as motorcyclists. But we all need to work together toward that common goal that we choose. Whether our goals are a profiling resolution, or language pertaining to autonomous vehicles seeing motorcycles before being able to operate on Wisconsin’s roads that we are taking to Biker Day at the Capitol, or something like a fundraising idea, or a new highway safety campaign, we need to be in it together to win.
We need to discuss these and any other issues, share ideas, and formulate a plan to fight for the win. We also need to remember we can discuss different points of view in private, but out in public we need to be a united voice. Will we argue and fight in private? Absolutely. Our history shows some pretty serious battles amongst our board members. But we were able to put our differences aside and get the job done.
One thing we all need to remember to make our job easier at the regional level all the way up to the board level, is that we need to focus on motorcyclist rights issues only. If we leave the other things out of the picture our jobs are much easier. Remember, our mission is to give the motorcyclists of Wisconsin a strong, united voice with regards to their future, their way of life, their safety and their legal rights as motorcyclists and citizens.
March 26th and 27th is the 31st Heartland S.T.E.A.M. Conference in Brookfield, Wisconsin hosted by ABATE of Wisconsin. It is being held at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel at 375 South Moorland Road. Jen Dewitz and the rest of the S.T.E.A.M. committee has been working hard to make this a great conference. Hopefully, we will see you there along with other freedom fighters from around the Midwest. If you need information got to www.abatewis.org or give Jen a call. Her number is in this newsletter.