Don’t Look Back, You’re not Going that Way

October and cooler weather are ahead. Hopefully the weather holds enough to get the bike out and get some welcome miles on. One place you need to be with your bike is the Annual Meeting October 8th, 9th and 10th. We have a few things scheduled on Friday, so arrive when you will and get a meal or check out the sites around town.

On Saturday, ABATE of Wisconsin will be organizing a group ride to the Capitol in Madison in an effort to protect motorcycling as we know it. Currently, discussions are happening about the future of transportation in the state without a clear path on how these plans affect motorcycling. JOIN US! The ride will leave the hotel at 1:30 pm and after circling the Capitol in Madison, will end at the CC Riders Clubhouse. This ride is open to all motorcyclists and the future of protecting our passion could depend on its success. You do not have to attend the Annual Meeting to join the ride, just show up at the hotel and be ready to go by 1:30.

Please Join us for the ride, then stick around for the evening banquet, listen to Rocky from the MRF. He will share what is going on in Washington, and of course we will be doing our annual awards. Sunday we will be having our Board meeting along with a vote on changing some language in our By-laws. These changes will clean up and clarify the intent of the laws that govern our organization. For more information check out your newsletter or talk to your Regional Representative or District Director.

I really enjoy getting together at events like our State Meeting, going to STEAM and Meeting of the Minds. Talking to different people, those you don’t always see or hear from, you get a lot of good input and are able get different perspective on how to do things. The important thing is to use this information in setting course for the direction you are trying to go, whether it is personally, for work, or running an organization.

I am sure most of you have seen messages of different sorts at workplaces, stores or even in a bar or restaurant. Some are common sense messages, some are inspirational, some just make you smile. I stopped at a business to do some work and saw this in a hallway as an inspirational message, “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way”. I thought that was a great thing to keep in the back of your mind when moving forward, but you also need to remember not to reinvent the wheel. When trying to plan or improve something we should remember what was done in the past. Look to see what worked, and why something didn’t work. If you held an event that did not go well figure out why. If the “bones” of the event was great and attendance was not good, but the idea of the event was a good one, and the planning went well, ask yourself what happened. Maybe the event needed better advertising to get the word out. If you analyze what went wrong, when you plan your next event, you know how to “fix it”. You don’t need to come up with a new event idea, you just need to give what you tried an honest assessment. Shortly after the event sit down, make notes of what worked and be honest about what didn’t work so you know how to make it better. Share these ideas with those that helped out with the event and those that attended the event to see what needs improvement

Hopefully, others in your region or group, help you plan, set up, and run your event. Ask people to help that you know are responsible and willing to give some of their time to make whatever you’re doing successful. Many of you heard Hardtail’s discussion about the potato chip theory. When someone that you are not familiar with asks to help, grab and use them quickly. Ask them to bring the potato chips, some pens or the sour cream to the event. Give them something to do that is not going to change the outcome of the event if that new helper doesn’t remember to bring those chips. Don’t have new volunteers reserve the hall or the band, unless you are willing to continually follow up. Otherwise, you may pull up on the day of the event and the facility is closed, or the band is booked somewhere else. When your new volunteers do follow through and bring the chips, the next time give them a little more responsibility. If they continue to be dependable, you probably have a great volunteer that you can trust to help your region or event be successful.

You just set up, in simple terms, a strategic plan. You want to do something, you set a plan on how to get there, have the event, and then follow up. What do you want to achieve? When do you want to achieve it? What steps will you take? What is the timeline? Who is responsible? What is the review schedule? Using steps like this will make whatever you do, whether it is an event or a change in meeting location, easier to accomplish. Follow up everything with an after-action report because if you are like me, you won’t remember everything that worked or didn’t work. An after-action report is something simple to do after the event to determine what worked and what didn’t work. Using these tools will easily set you up for being successful in whatever you are trying to accomplish.

Looking and planning ahead is also what you need to do to be successful when riding your bike. You need to plan where you want to be in 30, 60 or 90 seconds while riding your motorcycle, and you need to know how you want to get there. The key to riding and to events is in planning the next step.

Unfortunately, this last month we lost 2 members that were involved in ABATE of Wisconsin. Joe Hauser was involved in this organization and the MRF as a member and recently sat on the Board of Directors. We also lost RJ Rubel who was a longtime member, sat on the Board of Directors while Gary Klinker was Executive Director, and was our first Public Relations spokesperson. Keep the families of these people in your thoughts.

Ride your own ride.

John