Auntie ABATE / “Cuz” Report

Dear Cuz,

As a newish regional rep, I’m wondering what to expect from Officers Training and who and what should I bring along.

Newby

Dear Newby—

The best thing to bring is your ideas and a willingness to learn. Recently the state office sent out a mailing to all the regional reps and state officers with more information and full registration materials for Officers Training.

A great place to start is by talking to your District Director. All of them have been through Officers Training a few times and the basic structure hasn’t changed that much from last year. Your District Director will be an excellent resource for helping you to figure out who should attend. A lot of that depends on how many regional officers you’ve appointed and what you are asking them to do at the local level. It’s not only who has the desire to go but also who has the time to go and what jobs they have taken on. We’d be lying if we said it’s a “work only weekend.” ABATE officers always find a way to have fun whenever they gather no matter how much work there is to be done. However, we ask that you only send people who really want to learn and are willing to take advantage of the full schedule of learning opportunities/sessions.

Sleeping rooms are also a consideration. By far, the most expensive part of providing this training is the cost of the sleeping rooms. In order for the entire room charge to be picked up by ABATE of Wisconsin we ask that a minimum of two officers be in each room—any effort your region can make at getting more than two people in each room will be most appreciated. Your District Director can also help you work with neighboring regions to share rooms if needed.

Here are some of the topics on the schedule to be covered:

Friday evening: Meet & Greet – Meet your state and regional officers within ABATE of WI. This is followed by a Question and Answer discussion held at various roundtables separated by topics. For example – Legislative – Newsletter – Treasury, etc. Here you can ask questions in a smaller group setting and get details you might be looking for.

Saturday is a really full day – some say it’s enough to make your head spin… so we end the day with food and some fun. We follow the banquet meal with a pretty entertaining live auction that helps offset some of the costs associated with this training session.

During the day we will be holding District Meetings—ABATE of WI Districts will have meeting rooms in which the District Directors will lead the discussion based on the needs of the regions in their district. There will be specific meetings for regional treasurers and regional products officers and for Share The Road instructors. There will also be an array of breakout sessions you can choose from to attend, depending on your interest and your responsibilities within your region.

On Sunday morning, Hardtail will enlighten us again, with one of his excellent motivational topics. Pay attention – he knows his stuff. This will be followed by a DC update – what’s happening in Washington? Then it’s on to the nuts and bolts of our Wisconsin Legislative committee meeting with the discussion being led by Steve Panten. The weekend training will finish with the monthly meeting of the Board of Directors at 11:30 am. This lets everyone see how the business of ABATE is handled. I am continuously in awe of the talent on our Board and the discussions they get involved in.

Officers’ Training is also an excellent time to save ABATE of Wisconsin a lot of future postage by picking up a good supply of membership trifolds, the summer cash raffle tickets and other forms your region may need. The Highway Safety Committee also will be distributing their motorcycle awareness and safety materials on Saturday afternoon.

If you have an officer’s manual (many people call them the red book) you should bring it along with you to be updated. If you don’t have one, make sure that you let the state office know so they have one available for you when you register.

Regions that are having treasury issues will have time to work with Laurie one-on-one if needed.

How do we pay for all of this? A lot of the cost ends up being covered by raffles and auctions that we hold on site at the event. There will be 50/50 raffles, a raffle for a life membership and as mentioned before, the Saturday night entertainment is a live auction. Regions are asked to bring along donated items for this auction. Please use donations and do not use ABATE funds to purchase any auction items.

ABATE of Wisconsin is proud to be one of the (if not THE) best SMROs in the country. We know that a lot of our strength comes from the talent and commitment of our regional officers – so thank you and this training is important to make sure that everyone is working together for the common goal.

Thanks for asking….