Region 11 June 2009 Meeting Minutes

Meetings called to order.  Guests welcomed and pledge conducted.

Treasury Report: Given by Al. 

Past Events: Attendance down at freedom rally.  Speakers informative and motivating.  Fieldmeet was good.  Friday it soaked the place.  Members did not like the band on Saturday night.  Felt they were offensive and should have kept politics out of the entertainment.

Upcoming Events: July 5^th is our observation run.  Terry will send an email to AC’s asking them to check with their bike shops about possible door prize donations.  Proceeds from the run benefit legislative actions.  New state awareness director Kathy Lotz has proposed an idea of a chili cook off between bikers and cops.  Still working out a lot of details but is interested in any regions helping, suggesting ideas or assisting them in the event.  Looking towards September or October to hold the event.  Our region should have a spokesperson to coordinate with them to see where help is needed.  Will ask Al if he’ll represent the region and then go from there as far as where help is needed. 

Legislative: Guest speaker, state legislative director, Jim Rhoades.  Four helmet type bills have been introduced since January.  Jim explained the confusion by the sponsor LeBlanc who took it upon himself to introduce a couple of them in the form he thought we wanted.  We wanted clean bills, therefore 2 more were introduced.  House rep Kim Meltzer might introduce a 5^th bill.  The newest and only bill abate is concerned with is HB 4747.  Granholm has already stated that she would veto the bill.  Everyone should still be pushing their house rep and senator to support in case an override is suggested to do.  Senate votes are fine for an override.  In the house we need 74.  Set up a meeting with your legislator either in Lansing or the home district to discuss HB 4747.  If you’re unable to make the meeting or want assistance, let Jim know.  He’ll make sure someone attends with or for you from the legislative committee. 

The hippa issue passed federally but now the insurance companies are pushing for individual states to introduce bills to add fines for helmetless riders, additional insurance and to deny coverage for particular recreational activities.  Chair of the insurance company, Diane Byrum has stated that no insurance bill introduced and designed to hurt or deny coverage to bikers will pass through her committee.  That’s a huge plus for us.

As of now, all candidates for running for governor support abate except Terri Lynn Land.  She wants to change the motorcycle education curriculum to a way that is not beneficial for riders or instructors.  She told other legislators that we were behind her bills that were introduced to get them to support them, when in reality we did not support them.  The bills are on hold for now but may get reintroduced in our favor instead.

Next session there will be 38 new senators.  Members need to start attending fundraisers and helping out the various house reps running for senate.  By helping, the supportive ones will gain extra ground and hopefully win the seat.  Purpose of our lobbyist is to manage the issue and work with the committee head.  Our job is to contact each legislator and report the result back.

Abate will be readdressing the gang bills in the future.  Lawsuit was filed against the state police stating that they do not have the authority to inspect helmets or write their own version of the legislative bill, or interpret the law, only enforce the law as stated.

Jim gave Russ awards of support to get to our retired house reps.  Some were already given them in Lansing.  Catastrophic fund has gone up by $20.00 a vehicle.  Will be on your policy renewals.

New Business: Chris volunteered to help Tina with the region website if needed.  Stated a lot of outdated material is on it.  Russ will pass along the info.  He knows she’s been busy with family life. 

State board voted down an ongoing membership discount.  The 1 they did was thru the mail only to past members.  Do we as a region want to offer $5.00 off to new members and pick up the tab for the $5.00 to send to the state?  Meeting attendance was low but Russ asked for a consensus of those present what they though.  All was in favor of trying it for the month of July and see how it goes.  Russ will contact the 4 region officers not present to get their vote.  If majority favor and with this meeting consensus, membership drive will proceed for the month of July.  (Russ did contact the remaining 4 officers who did support the idea.  He then emailed Chris to let him know it was a go so it could be used at the bike night in Gibraltar and proceed for the remained of July.  All memberships to be turned in to Terry to record.)

Possible to not use the attendance sheet at the meetings anymore.  We used it prior for contests and to judge which months were better for guest speakers.  It doesn’t seem necessary anymore so it will probably be omitted for the future.

Meeting adjourned by motion and support.