State Meeting in Shawano

by John Reblin

It’s time for the State Meeting! Throughout the year this is one of the most fun and most important events to go to. So many things are going on, and many of them this year will be happening in the Shawano area. The location for this year’s festivities will be The Four Seasons Hotel, 201 Airport Road. Shawano, WI.

Pauline Forrest, along with her helpers, have been working hard to get this up and running in her neck of the woods and I don’t want to disappoint all that are working behind the scenes to make this happen. From finding a location, planning the event, and lining up food. A lot of work goes into this.

Friday evening the casual get together, with some food and beverages to start the evening along with a lot of jokes, laughs, and some serious discussion. Saturday, an organized ride through the heart of Wisconsin. Pauline is combining it with their region’s annual ride.

Later Saturday, we will have the banquet and the recognition for those going above and beyond to move this organization forward. I think it will be very interesting to see who is winning what. Along with the awards we have scheduled a guest speaker from the American Petroleum Institute.

Sunday brings us the results of the election and the Board of Directors meeting. This is the primary reason behind all of the things going on this weekend. Your new Board of Directors and Officers will be seated, and we will hit the ground running. There are some serious discussions coming up about the budget and our legislative agenda. We also have some discussions on other topics to keep the organization moving forward and protecting our right to ride free. I am looking forward to all of this and know we all have the organization’s best interest at heart.

We also will be helping Steve Panten set the organization’s Legislative Agenda for 2023. Give some thought to what you would like to see accomplished and be at this meeting. If you cannot make the meeting for some reason, send your thoughts to myself or to legis@abatewis.org. If you don’t let us know what you want to see addressed that is motorcycle related, well, how can we see if we can help you.

But we are also celebrating the birthday of ABATE of Wisconsin. The organization been around for 48 long years, and it will be around a lot longer, I am sure. Hearing the stories from the people that were around then, people like Tony Pan, Hoggie, Polack, Egor and others is just amazing to me. I was not around at the very beginning, but I remember going on the Pony Express Rides to the Capitol, and the large wind shear that came through the Capitol while we were there. On the ride home we saw all the debris, siding, shingles, and trees, among other things that were damaged. Then, pulling in my driveway, seeing the siding and shingles off my house.

I remember one of the first things I did was volunteer at Butler Biker Days, helped build the stage, and met Wall and Animal, among others. It was a lot different then. Not a big fancy stage with lots of lights like we have at the Hummer that Patrick, Worm, and others built. It was just some plywood and 2x4s to give the band a “level surface” on the grass. I remember generators running and power cords laying on the ground. We had a lot of fun then at that event, and we still have fun at our events.

But while these were major things, they are not the back story on the start of the organization and why things were done they were. If you run into any of the people that were there in the beginning, talk to them. Thank them for what they did. Hear the stories from them firsthand. If Tony Pan gets out some of the items from back then, look at them and be sure to ask him questions. His memory is full of stories from back in the day.

One of our goals is to someday build a building at the land to house all of the artifacts we have making displays that we can rotate, that tells the story of how we started and where we are going. Along with these artifacts, Hoggie is working on interviewing those early members so they can share their stories before those stories are all lost.

But enough on the past for now. We will be starting to plan for the 50th Anniversary soon. I asked Tony Pan about it, and he said with that twinkle in his eye, that it should take about a week to plan. I don’t think we could hardly do all the memories justice in the two years that we have to plan it, but we will try. Stay tuned and if interested in helping or if you have any ideas let us know.

As the riding season slows down a bit, we are having some conversations with the Wisconsin DOT and what we can work on for next year to keep the trend of crashes and fatalities going downward. How can we influence or educate riders to not ride under the influence, make sure they are properly licensed, and that they are not over driving their skill level? We are looking at social media being a key role in this. It seems that this is a platform that a lot of the younger riders look at rather than television or posters. There is nothing like a quick message on Facebook in a group that can circle the internet hitting many different markets. It seems older, less social media savvy people like me, don’t understand it all but the weather is getting colder, and the darkness is coming earlier so it may be time to learn more about the mysterious social media and become more comfortable using it.

Hopefully, I will be seeing you in Shawano.

 Ride Your Own Ride.

John