Membership Director Report

by Dave “Twit” Linberg

You (every member out there) can help us keep our membership strong and our costs as low as possible. How you say?  

While not nearly as drastic as has occurred in some SMROs (State Motorcycle Rights Organizations) our membership totals have slipped down a little in the last few years. By losing a couple of more members a month than you take in new members and eventually those “few a month” add up to a number that starts to make a difference financially. Membership dues is the major way we fund our programs and run our organization. It’s what gets us to Madison and Washington, DC. to monitor legislation affecting our right to ride. Each regional rep has access to a list of those lost few members each month. We need some of you to work with your regional reps and form a team that will be a local contact to politely ask these members to come back to ABATE. Sometimes it’s as simple as that. When you deal with membership in the thousands like we do at the state office there isn’t the time for the personal touch that could make a difference in membership retention. Our hope is that breaking this down to the regional/county level will make the job small and do-able. Are you the right person to help in your area? Give your regional rep a call. Next month many of our regional officers will be fresh out of Officers’ Training and full of new ideas – grab them while those ideas are still fresh and offer to lend them a hand.

Another easy way for us to balance our budget and provide us with more income is to reduce our expenses. Sometimes it’s as easy as to ask ALL our members to renew their dues with the first reminder they get in the mail. The month your membership is going to expire the office staff sends out a reminder postcard. If you renew with that first notice, there is only one time that we pay the postage and the hourly rate of the office mouse to send it out keeping the mailing expenses as low as possible. Some people even save us more by keeping an eye on their membership card and renewing early (using the form on the back of this newsletter or on-line) so we don’t even have to send them out a renewal notice. Food for thought.

Welcome to all the new Regional Officers that we’re seeing listed in the regional reports. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at Officers Training and sharing ideas with you. We are very happy to have you on the team and we look forward to meeting many of you at Officers’ Training to show you the ropes, and maybe even learn some new tricks from you that we haven’t thought of before. That is the great thing about ABATE of Wisconsin’s Officers’ Training. It’s not a preachy sort of thing. It’s more like: here are the basic rules that we must follow… and now let’s talk about what would work best based on this framework. Bring your ideas along with you. When you get there, don’t stay in the tight little group of people you know. Move around tables and groups. You can talk to the other officers in your region all the time. Use this weekend to connect with people from other regions and share ideas – make new friends – build a network that will help and entertain you for years to come. We will have stick-on name tags available throughout the weekend, please use them. It’s not always what you HEAR at a training that is the biggest help. Many times, it is WHO you meet that makes the biggest difference. If you’re new to your job, we’ll try to connect you with people that have done that job for a while and know the basics clearly. If you’re a long-time officer, please be prepared to share what you know… and be open enough to ask for more information from others for the blanks that you might still need to fill in. One of the biggest strengths of ABATE of Wisconsin is always knowing that you’re not in this alone, that there is always someone there at your side and someone willing to watch your back. Officers’ Training is one of the places you’ll meet these people who are working with you to make it easier for everyone. If you are new to a regional office position, we have all been there. You will find that the State Officers and other Regional Officers that have been around for years have made it through all those years because they are open to conversations and ideas from other people. Every ABATE of Wisconsin officer is “just a volunteer.” The difference between them is only defined by what job they need to get done… and how long they have been doing it.

Biker Day at the Capitol is February 28, 2019. Talk about it at your meetings. Have people that have been there before talk about it… now is the time to reinforce to our membership that anyone can take part in lobby day. No experience is required… why? Because for years ABATE of Wisconsin has worked with our members who had an interest in learning the ins and outs of grassroots citizen lobbying to help them become experienced leaders for Lobby Day. When our members get to our “command center” we will be set up and ready to go… one of the things that can be obtained there is help. If you’ve never been to lobby day (or even if you have but are not comfortable with it yet) we will have people available to go visit your legislators with you. Most of our regions will be setting up group meetings with legislators that you can sit in on without saying a word (unless you want to). This issue of the newsletter has the bus routes printed in it. Each bus route has a Bus Leader. If you have questions, they can be a good contact for you. Mark your calendar, take the day off from work if you can, and plan to jump on a free bus ride with your ABATE Brothers and Sisters and help show the Wisconsin Legislator that ABATE of Wisconsin is committed to motorcycle rights and safety. Remember that winter doesn’t last forever… spring will come and I’m already thinking Summer Hummer.

Officers’ Training and Biker Day at the Capitol are our two biggest expenses each year: and they are both the most important things we do. Well trained and knowledgeable officers make an effective Lobby Day possible. How do we pay for all this? We couldn’t do it without YOU! THANK YOU to every member reading this (and even the ones who don’t read their newsletters.) Your membership dues and your commitment to working at and attending ABATE of Wisconsin fundraisers generate the funds to keep ABATE of Wisconsin strong. Let’s every member think about bringing in one new member this year. It would be awesome to double our membership numbers and our income at the same time. I know we can do it if we try.