Auntie ABATE / “Cuz” Report

Hey Cuz:

A couple of years ago, my employer exiled me to 2nd shift, which eliminated my ability to attend my regional meetings and participate in other afternoon/evening biker activities. In the past year, however, circumstances have led me to attend a few monthly ABATE Board of Director’s meetings.

Listening to the committee and officer reports has been quite an eye-opening experience. The committees, officers and Board Members are doing a huge amount of work to keep ABATE running and to protect bikers throughout Wisconsin. Every ABATE member should try to attend a couple of board meetings every year just to get an appreciation of what is being done for YOU by these few people.

It shouldn’t be that hard to make a meeting. ABATE Acres is centrally located, and camping is free to ABATE members. I’ve included board meetings as a stop on my weekend riding around the state, so anyone can do it. Bring a friend, the meetings are not that long and would be a great opportunity to show a non- ABATE member what it’s all about.

js

Dear js,

My sentiments exactly. When I was first brought into the ABATE world, one of my regional members encouraged me to attend the board meetings. At that time, they were held on Hwy 10 just west of Thorp. Because we lived in the central-western part of Wisconsin those meetings were an all-day affair. We rode through some beautiful countryside and often on some rural roads during the course of the day and had some pretty good conversations as I recall. But were my eyes opened at those meetings and I was, for lack of a better words, “sucked in”. The quality of our board meetings still awes me. We have some very talented and intelligent, well-spoken, passionate members that work for ABATE of WI and motorcyclist’s rights on a daily basis. If you have ever seen or heard Hardtail’s analogy of a motorcycle rights organization, you would understand what I mean when you attend a board meeting. He says that on the surface of the water, everything looks smooth to a duck floating around but look underneath at that very same calm duck and you would see his webbed feet going a mile a minute to stay afloat and on top of things. That is a very accurate depiction of our organization. Because we currently have no major issue that fires up all motorcyclists in the state or country, some complacent riders think things are just as smooth as the surface of that duck pond. Come to a board meeting and you might have your eyes opened. Our officers are constantly fighting to keep things going smoothly for us, whether it be in the correct wording of the definition of a motorcycle, the correct wording in the definition of a driver, fuel choice, the reminder to all legislators that anything over 10% ethanol is illegal to put in our motorcycles and small engines, autonomous vehicles and their “ability” to SEE motorcycles, and profiling, etc. Your Board of Directors keeps track of what’s happening and what could be coming down the road while at the same time keeping our organization fiscally responsible to every member. Our committee members hash over minute details to try to perfect every aspect of their task in keeping the mission of our organization strong. These Board Members and committee members are vigilant in keeping our way of life strong. ABATE of WI is a Wisconsin corporation and must follow corporate laws. Those laws state that once a year we must hold a corporate meeting. Every October is ours. It’s impressive and everyone should see this board at work. Every member is invited to stay after our 50th Anniversary Celebration and Awards Banquet for the October Annual Board Meeting on October 13th and see how well we take care of business.

Your ever loving “Cuz”