Happy Holidays!
Our club is established to promote camaraderie and friendship of our members providing opportunities to meet, socialize and participate in motorcycle related activities. What makes this happen is the members. I am grateful for this club and the members I have met, rode with, and worked with to provide the opportunities to our club members. The foundation of these opportunities are the members who volunteer and help make all of this possible. I want to take this opportunity to thank the contributions of those volunteers and recognize, at least partially, what they did for our club.
Many people made or arranged for presentations at our membership meetings, sharing their experiences/expertise. First, in January was Daniel Degallier who shared his experiences taking various motorcycle skills training. In May the Vice Chair of the AMA board of directors told us what the AMA is doing for motorcyclists and what they can do for us. The July meeting was a picnic hosted by Chuck and Julie Bushnell. In August Tom and Renee Toland hosted the club's annual picnic at their house in Welch. In September, Chuck Banks arranged for an EMT-paramedic to talk to us about emergency services. Larry Fraser played his bagpipes in the tribute to Mike Lindstrom. In October Daniel Maki shared his solo trip to New Zealand. In November,Steve Ballantine shared his experiences riding in Morocco and the aftermath of his terrible crash. For the December meeting, Nancee Musto and Jeff Oden took care of the Toys for Tots collection and transportation.
Some of the many volunteers at the Hiawatha Rally were Daniel Maki and Owen Applequist, who were chair and co-chair, organizing this rally. Also volunteering at the rally was Kirk Brown, who kept the coffee, lemonade, and tea going. Joel Howard ran our rally registration. Robyn Hyde led the ride for pie. Phil Isaak led the GS ride. Don Kramber organized and supervised the field events. Jeff Oden helped with the Leo’s South demo rides. Many unnamed others helped set up, take down, and took care of the odds and ends that came up.
During the year, we had people leading/organizing rides and other activities too. Dan Elasky and Steve Handeland coordinated the mileage contest (Minnesota by the way completed more miles than any other BMW club). Phil Isaak organized and led several backroads rides and campouts.
Steve and Diane Handeland, plus Curt Henry, hosted and facilitated airhead tech days and events.
Phil Stalboerger and Daniel Degallier led our club campaign to promote and inform the public about the new lane filtering law.
Beth Forristall organized a pre-national rally campout in Illinois on the way to the Tennessee rally. Ron Bongard led a ride to Mondovi for burgers. Curt Henry organized the ride to Oshkosh for the Airheads@Adventure at the EAA Fly In. We had a nice ride to Watertown to see Atul Kumar’s extensive antique motorcycle collection. Steve Reese coordinated the Grand Marais campout. Robyn Hyde coordinated the accommodations and led the fall color ride in the Trempealeau WI area. Rick Thompson (a new member) organized a ride and campout in UP of MI and a few weeks later a similar ride and campout to Cassville.
Curt and Judi Quiner served the club as our sunshine coordinators, sending cards to club members in their time of need.
Also behind the scenes keeping things running are our webmaster and technical guru Thom Rieck. Steve Handelandis our membership coordinator and long-time member and advisor.
Our board of directors worked behind the scenes to provide direction and get things done so we can enjoy the socializing and wonderful events; Dan Reese, Terry Stirewalt, Thom Rieck, Chuck Bushnell, Steve Metz, Past President Tim Schwartz, Recorder Joel Howard and Treasurer Chuck Banks. A special thanks to Joel, who does a million things for the club that few see but keeps things organized and moving.
There are some people I’m sure I missed and I apologize for that. And some people who quietly just do what is needed without asking. It takes a lot of people giving us their time, skills, enthusiasm and good attitude to make a club like ours work for the membership. Volunteers are the key to a great club. If you don’t volunteer, I encourage you to try it next year -- you will meet people that you wouldn’t otherwise, add to the club, and I think you will get more out of it than the effort you put in. A heartfelt thank you to all of the volunteers over this past year.
Jeff Ricker
BMW Minnesota Club President
|