The “I Got Mine” Campaign

by Bill Roberge

Believe it or not riding season is fast approaching. Soon we will be holding board meetings at ABATE Acres again. I always look forward to that and I encourage all of you to join us. Everyone is welcomed at all board meetings as well as committee meetings. You can make a day of it or camp over the weekend. When the riding season starts again, make sure you have trifolds or other forms of ABATE info to hand out to prospective members. Don’t be shy. You might be surprised at how interested fellow bikers are about what we do. I encourage you to read Steve’s article on Legislation – page one, above the fold. This will give you good talking points when you are approaching other bikers. It also helps to wear your ABATE gear. I have had many experiences when people have asked me what ABATE stands for. It can get the conversation started.

I anticipate many more activities being held this summer than last. That means more opportunities to recruit new members. Remember, even with the new computer system, we still sign people up as we did in the past. Whether it is a renewal or a new member.

My goal for ABATE is to double our membership within the next 3 years – by January 2024. Think about that for a moment. As far as I know, that has never been done before. You only have to sign up one person. I’m not that good at talking to people, but I know even I can do that. Let’s show everyone what a bunch of bikers can do. Can you get yours? “I GOT MINE!” The more people we have behind us, the more effective we are and the more we can do. There are many challenges coming our way and no one is going to help us maintain our way of life if we don’t help ourselves. We need numbers to have a voice in Madison and Washington. I believe we can prevail and if you bring in one new member you will have done your part in protecting our right to be on the road – When we want to be on the road, How we want to be on the road, and Where we want to be on the road. All Regional Reps should be talking this up at your meetings and stressing the importance of getting new members and keeping the ones we have. I know many of you do that now. Let’s really concentrate on this campaign.

I plan to have a meeting with all regional reps and membership officers in the future to share ideas and provide training on approaching potential members. We need to focus on membership now more than we ever have. As I said before, it’s the only way we are going to have a voice in the changes that are coming.

If you have any ideas of your own, reach out to me. Also, if you have any problems related to membership please let me know.

The new Wild Apricot membership computer program we are using allows all of you as members to verify the information we have listed under your membership profile. To check yours and set up your own personal password for access to your information go to: ABATE of Wisconsin, Inc. website. In the upper right-hand corner click on ABATE Account. The next page will ask you for your email address and password. If you have not established a password for this system contact Doris Weber at marketing@abatewis.org and she will talk you through it. Doris has also put out a short tutorial on the ABATE of Wisconsin Facebook page. To view it, go to the ABATE of Wisconsin, Inc. Facebook page. On the left under filters there is section for videos. Click on it and look for the ABATE of Wisconsin Member Profile Tutorial. Click on the tutorial and Doris will explain how to it works.

Hope to see you all at the Summer Hummer. Ride Safe. Ride Free. Ride with ABATE.