January 2023

by Gary Klinker

Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you all had a blessed Christmas. Since there is not much riding time to talk about this time of year, I’ll fill you in on the very busy off-season that Safe Rider is having.

It started already last summer when MSF announced a new curriculum that they were rolling out in 2023. We started to gear up then. Following that they announced in October that they would no longer process payments for classes through the RES System that we use for student registrations. We had to arrange for our own Merchant Payments. We have that set up now and think it should work out for us.

As I write this, we are a few days from our scheduling meeting and Christmas Party for the staff and Rider Coaches. Our three new prospective Coaches will also attend to meet everyone. Hopefully by the February Newsletter we may have the schedule available. Some of this will depend on preparations for the new systems.

Along with the new curriculum we needed new Range Cards and some required posters that have been ordered. In February we will hold our in-service training and annual BOD meeting. This year we all must re-certify for First Aid and CPR. Thanks to Vicki Sanfelipo and her great training program we have that covered.

The last pieces of the process are to re-write the information on the RES system that goes out to students, re-writing our brochures, and I’ll be working with Damon to get all the new information onto the website. Here I really need to thank Larry Geist, our Lead Rider Coach for all the help he is giving me to get all this done. I could not do it without him. He is saving my sanity and my marriage! Thanks Larry.

Just so it doesn’t sound like all work, I did have a pretty successful deer season. We have a week in June set aside for a Black Hills ride. Along with that I just got a text about a prairie dog trip to South Dakota. Get ready, riding season will be here before you know it.

Ride Safe,

Gary