Region 11 March 2008 Meeting Minutes

Meetings called to order. Guests welcomed. Pledge of allegiance conducted at all meetings.

Treasury Report: Given by Al.

Legistlative: Given by Terry. Our guest speaker from the Macomb County Commissioners is a no show tonight. HB 4749, helmet bill has not been given to Granholm yet. Jim Rhoades would like everyone to contact their house rep and senator to affirm their support on the bill. Once they've confirmed, then, ask them if they would support a veto override vote. Let Jim know your results, his number and email are in the rider. If you know that your rep or senator is a no vote, contact them anyway. Ask them if 1 vote was needed for an override, would they do it for you. Sometimes you'd be surprised at their answer, especially if they are term limited and are not planning on running for another office this November. New is HB 5794, which is a clean over 21 helmet bill. It's doubtful that the bill will go anywhere. If it does, we all know what Granholm will do with it. SB 104 still awaits a vote in the house. Bill has divided its supporters and opponents by the new language amendments added in the senate. Lil John told us of a few new gang bills that have been introduced. SB 291, 292, 660, and 661 all passed the senate unanimously, 38-0. HB 4459 and 4460 are still in committee. These bills if passed basically mean, 4 to 5 people in a group with the same logos would be considered a gang and the bills punishment refer to individuals knowingly or not committing a felony. Lil John says he has asked 2 lawyers to look over the bills for more clarification on their content. These bills will be discussed more at the COC meeting on 4-4 at the Road Angels in Milan. Info is on the memo.

Past Events: Chris discussed the details of the bike show held at Gibraltar. Overall, it was a good show, member Al took 2nd place in the bike show. New members and renewals were both signed up to abate. Debbie sold products and a few awareness signs were sold. We got the booth for free so it was a good show for us. Sounds like they plan on having it again next year. Gibraltar will also be starting their bike nights up again in May. Tiny introduced 2 people he met at the show, who came out to this meeting to see what we are all about. They are Jeremy and Cindy from a group called "respect the rider". They want to improve public awareness of motorcyclists.

Members Update: Jerry B had heart surgery and his doing good; he's been out of the hospital and is slowly recovering. Porky was doing well up until last night, he had a relapse and is back in the hospital. A fundraiser was put on by the highway men for Porky. It went great with members from our group, hog and other clubs all going out to show support for Porky. Cards were sent to both on behalf of the region.

Upcoming Events: Al went over the details for the 4-19 blood drive. We could use a few more donators; see Al to sign up for a time. Tammy went over the details for the 4-27 horseshoe tournament. All proceeds from this event will benefit motorcycle awareness. The swapmeet for 4-6 in Novi has been cancelled. They couldn't handle the parking and security very good at the February one so they decided to cancel this one for now. Our pool tournament/chili cook off has been pushed back till late fall due to scheduling conflicts and a fill in since we cancelled the Halloween party for this year.

MCA: Terry stated that due to the success of our 2007 events, we will have 14 total highway billboards across the metro area for the month of May. Two will be in Port Huron area and the other 12 will be spread all around. Please support the 2008 events. Their success will decide our billboard fate for 2009. Yard signs available to purchase for $5.00 each. Contact your favorite radio stations and ask them to plug motorcycle awareness through out the month of May. Alice stated that we may be able to pick up another location to demonstrate awareness in the driver's ed, but we need a few new instructors to do so. Contact Alice if you want to view what they do or help out either way.

New Business: Tiny has state raffle tickets for sale to win a new Harley. A couple members asked why they are being mailed raffled tickets to buy and what to do they do if they don't want them. Terry stated that in the state board minutes it was mentioned that this was going to happen. If you do not want to buy them, mail them back with a note. Further discussion continued and some members state that they do not like nor want to be solicited through the mail from abate. If they want a ticket, they can buy one at a meeting or mail in to the state for one as the rider already states.

There is a new state web master and she's doing a great job updating all the out of date info that was on the site. Check out the site if you haven't lately.

Anyone wanting to be on the region email list give your address to Terry.

With no further business, meetings adjourned by motion and support.