From: | Hodge | e-mail: | myemail |
Subject: | AMCA National Presidents News Letter received; 1-10-12 | Date: | Sat Jan 14 12:08:20 2012 |
All, Letter from Richard Spagnolli to all Chapters. Hodge AMCA President’s Newsletter Dear Chapter Presidents and Newsletter Editors, 2011 was another exciting year for the AMCA with the Club maintaining its 10,000+ membership in spite of a weak economy. This is a real tribute to the Membership and it's dedication to the antique motorcycling sport. The Chapters sponsoring National Meets saw strong vendor support and continued large numbers of enthusiasts attending meets. National Road Runs were also well attended. I appeal to those Chapters that have never sponsored a Road Run to give it consideration. There is something special about showing off your area of the country with the camaraderie of a group of members who just like to ride old bikes. If you need help, call someone in a Chapter that has sponsored a Road Run or feel free to give me or Board Member Rick Najera a call. To follow through with my request in my Wheels In Motion column in the Winter Issue of the magazine, let me be one of the first in 2012 to thank all those volunteers who made these National events a success. The Membership truly appreciates your efforts. With criticism coming from some quarters about the relationship between the National Board and local Chapters, I would like to relate a recent experience of how this relationship can be a positive one if the dedication and respect of the parties is mutual. I received an e mail from Chesapeake Chapter President Scott English that his Chapter, after a close vote, decided to host a regional meet rather than a National Meet in 2012. I called Scott and after a discussion, I offered to attend his Chapter November meeting and he extended an invitation. For over two hours, more than twenty Chapter members and I discussed a variety of issues including a problem the Chapter was having securing commitments from people to judge bikes on Saturday meet days. I assured the attendees that I would take this matter up with the Judging Committee and the Chief Judge and to have a solution in place for the 2012 meet. I was impressed with the candor of the discussion and the mutual respect. We discussed Club finances, past Board decisions, future plans for the Club and other subjects. At the end of the meeting, the Chapter voted unanimously to reinstate a National Meet in 2012. We were all pleased. This is just a simple example of the positive effect of cooperation based on mutual respect. If any Chapter has concerns that it believes deserves National Board attention, please give me a call. I can't promise I will attend all of your local Chapter meetings but I will do my best to answer your questions or take them to the Board for consideration. On the judging front, the number of members participating in the AMCA Judging Program and the number of motorcycles judged this past year approximates those of past years. Carl Olsen was appointed Chief Judge and he and Don Dzurick, Assistant CJ, will continue with the program this year. Judging seminars will continue at all National Meets. Nancy Davis was appointed to handle judging preregistration. The procedure will be the same. Nancy takes over from Brenda Teel Lash who resigned. Thanks to Brenda for doing an excellent job during her tenure. In order to determine how the Judging Program performed in 2011, the Board prepared and sent a questionnaire to all members who entered bikes to be judged. There was an excellent response and the results and details will be published in the Spring Issue of the magazine. Preliminary results indicate satisfaction with the Judging Program. Carl and Don are working to update the judges data base and open e mail communication with existing AMCA Judges. A long standing problem with the system is the Chapter sponsoring a National Meet never knows how many or what judges will show up on Saturday or Sunday to judge. An effort will be made to ask potential judges to at least indicate in advance if they may be available to judge at a National Meet. To all members who have judged and continue to do so, thanks for your time. The Members appreciate your efforts. We are also considering recognizing all Members who judge at a particular meet in the magazine just like the owners and their bikes are recognized. We understand the sacrifice judges make to keep the system going and they deserve not only our thanks but our recognition as well. You will see an article in the Spring Issue about judging at the Chesapeake Chapter National Meet in 2010. If you know anyone in your Chapter who is interested in becoming a judge, please have them contact Carl or Don at the contact information in the magazine. I would appreciate if the newsletter editors would include this request in their Chapter Newsletters. I assume all of you have received the 2011 Winter Issue of the magazine. In my opinion, this is one example of the commitment the publisher, DGB, has made of the past few years to improve the publication. You may have noticed the magazine increased in size. This was due to the efforts of Advertising Director, Paul Holdsworth, who sold additional advertising which resulted in the additional pages at no cost to the Club. Because of printing efficiencies available to the Club, the revenue from the additional advertising paid all the production costs. Thanks DGB (Greg Harrison, Bill Wood and Denny Thrush) and Paul for the excellent effort. The 2012 AMCA Policy and Procedures Manual was extensively revised and updated through December 31, 2011. You should have received an electronic copy from Bill Wood, AMCA Operations Manager. Please download it and keep it for future reference and provide electronic copies to your members if requested. If you have not received a copy or have a question, please call or e mail Bill. The Club's Old Iron Volunteer program has had limited success. There are two areas of immediate of concern. Although we have a temporary volunteer accountant to fill the position in the Internal Audit Committee, we still need a member accountant to volunteer for this position. The position involves committing twice a year to approximately three hours to review Club financial records. The other position involves several volunteers who want to help with the Virtual Library. The Board has made a commitment to keep this project active even though it has languished the last few years. It is worthy benefit to the Membership. Because of the nature of the project, the Library is labor intensive. We would like to keep the project run by club volunteers if possible. We need people with computer experience to set up a scanning program to copy and upload antique motorcycle literature for the Library. Matt Olsen has agreed to be the point person on the Board for the project. Again I would appreciate if the newsletter editors would advertieg these two positions in their Chapter Newsletters. After an unfortunate delay, we were able to publish the Club financial statements. The statements for 2009 were last published in the Summer Issue of the magazine by then Treasurer Raymond Dhue. The updated statements for 2010 most likely would have been published in the 2011 Summer Issue if Raymond had not passed away unexpectedly in January 2011. Current Treasurer Jim Graulty was able to review all financial records for 2010 and made the 2010 Financial Statements available to the Board in Davenport in September 2011. These statements were then published on the Club web site in early November and in the Winter Issue of the magazine. Future Statements should be timely published. Thanks for your patience and thanks to Jim Graulty for his efforts. If you or any of your members have any questions about the statements, please e mail Jim. The Club continues to add new Chapters. We welcome the Heritage Chapter located in central Arkansas. Just think of the new Road Run possibilities! Sam Gregory is the President. We are working Chapters in Southern California and hopefully will have a Chapter sponsored National Meet there soon. The New Chapter Development Committee will continue efforts this year to "fill some of the big holes" in the AMCA National Chapters on page 96 of the Winter Issue. And there are some really big ones! On the National Meet scene we welcome the long standing Yankee Chapter and it's National Meet in Hebron CT July 22-29. Let's all make an effort to attend this meet if we can and continue the AMCA tradition of supporting Chapters sponsoring National Meets. Thanks to Dan Margolien and his volunteers. The Chapter Presidents' Meeting, an AMCA sponsored event, will not be held in Davenport in 2012 because the Chief Blackhawk Chapter decision not to sponsor a National Meet this year. We're making tentative arrangements for the meeting to be held at the Wauseon meet on Saturday July 21. The date and place will be finalized soon. On a warm note, this past year Matt Olsen started a Youth Field Games Program at National Meets with great success. The program involves young riders on bicycles performing field games similar to those of adult members on old motorcycles. The program will continue and all Chapters sponsoring National Meets in 2012 are encouraged to advertise this event and work with Matt to make the necessary arrangements. Finally, you received a copy of the Chief Blackhawk Chapter December Newsletter recently. The Board will issue a response to each of you shortly. As always, I encourage each of you and your Chapter members to call (EST) or e mail me if you have any questions, concerns, criticisms or just want to talk about the Club or old bikes. I am pleased to have received this past year numerous calls from Members who had concerns. The calls have been civil, respectful and for the most part, both the caller and myself came away with a better understanding of the issues raised and the concerns expressed. Board members are also accessible through their contact information on page 97 of the Winter Issue of the magazine. Thanks again for listening. Richard 724-861-4681 rspagnolli@aol.com |