SoCal
Chapter AMCA
September
Annual Meeting ‘05
I don’t have any recent “bad boy”
ride material to use in this article (except Kevin Spear) so I’ll review the
September meeting. We had a very good turn out of over twenty members and
collected two new ones, Vernon Krogh of San Marcos and David Williams of Torrance. The election of
the ’06 board was officiated by our Sergeant of Arms, Chuck Vernon. Marc Gallin
stepped down as Secretary citing a lack of perks, poor pay and retirement
benefits, but he will maintain the web. Our “Tired Tail” points leader, Dave
Cook accepted the nomination and election to Marc’s vacated post. We will
seriously miss Marc in this position. Tim Graber retained his grip on the
throne and made a princely decree that Marc Gallin and Tom Lovejoy would work
together on matters of historical interest for our club. Tom was so cute
declining the Tim’s decree, as if he really had a choice. I had to explain to
Tom the difference between being elected to a position he wanted to serve and
being ordered to do something by a person bigger than himself. We all remember
Tom’s finest hour on the campaign tour a few years back when he declared “If
nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.” All it took at that
time to convince Tom to accept was to suggest to him that there was a strong
possibility his prize Henderson might suffer a speed shift meltdown (at the
hands of another) if he did not comply. Jim Falk retains the VP position and
editor. Trash will keep an eye on Jim’s editorial work. I will continue to
count the beans for the club.
I’ll briefly recap some of the
finer points I put forth at the meeting. We pushed over $95,000.00 through our
treasury since 1999. 80% of that went to pay for club events. Borrego and Death Valley take most of the credit at a combined coast of
$11,000.00 to $13,000.00 per year. The balance of the expense monies (19 to 20
%) went to pay for administrative costs such as news letters, mailers, and
postage ($750.00 to $900.00) per year. The web site, another 10 to12 annual
rides, meals and supplies make up the remaining costs. We collect between
$1,050.00 and $1,350.00 from memberships each year. Other income comes from
donations at events we help sponsor such as Bob Stark ($190.00), Jerry Unis’
support of our web site ($200.00) and the sale of club items T-shirts, belt
buckles or whatever. As you can see, club dues pretty much covers newsletters
and a few other items which keep us informed on what we really spend the money
on...FUN STUFF. What all these funding and spending numbers tell us is that
those who play, pay and I mean that in a good way. This type of funding keeps
our treasury at a balance of around
$3,000.00 most of the time, which in turn, allows us to aid those members who
sponsor a ride for our club with supplies, meals, trouble trucks or whatever
else to make the event safe, enjoyable and not a financial burden to anyone.
Actually very few members ask for such financial assistance, but it’s there if
needed and we as a board strongly support its use. This brings me to my next
point, more ride venues. As always, we are looking for new and exciting places
to ride both locally and otherwise. Recently Mr. and Mrs. Dee Cameron sponsored
a ground shaking event at their Prescott,
AZ location. Craig Dillmann has
the Santa Monica Mountain ride, then there’s the four
chapter ride, Rainbow, Tom Lovejoy’s coastal event and so on and so forth. The
point is what? Who’s on first? I don’t know, I lost my train of thought.
Actually, the point I’m trying to make is that we exist as a club (especially
the board) to see to it that we enjoy ourselves at the various events we
attend. If you feel that you have a special or semi-special place to ride, we
would like to know about it. If it’s good...they will come, if not you’ll have
a nice solo run and time to meditate on the huge mistake you’ve made. The good
part about total lack of participation is that no one will be there to see your
embarrassment. Trust me, been there, done that. But even if you gather only one
or two members for a day ride, so what, maybe the next time more members will
show (if it’s a good ride). If not, refer to the above, suck it in, get over it
and move on.
Now back to the general meeting.
Larry Ramos’ shop was in great shape for our meeting and it worked out quite
well for the Bar-B-Q, hanging out and parking. Very nice job Larry. Steven
Sorensen did a great job at cooking assisted by Tim Graber and Tom Lovejoy. Tim
was cooking in an effort to redeem himself for forgetting to bring the meat.
It’d tough to fool a bunch of bikers with empty hamburger buns when all they’ve
had to drink is soda pop. But if anyone could pull it off it would be Tim.
Tim’s success might have something to do with the fact that he used cheese
slices as thick as a full deck of cards. All kidding aside, the Bar-B-Q, with
real hamburger meat, was great in all
aspects.
I was especially glad to see Ralph
Krogh up and about. He attended the meeting with the aid of his son, new
member, Vernon.
Also in attendance was Doc Sucher. Magic man Homer Knapp came to my rescue once
again by fixing the horn on my newly acquired 1930 Model A two door Sedan. And NO, the recent
decline in our club funds had nothing what-so-ever to do with the purchase of
said Sedan.
It’s just a coincidence, as always.
And finally, my hero of mishaps,
Kevin Spear. Kevin’s been working a lot and I’ve been out of town so we haven’t
been able to ride together that often. But that did not stop him from doing his
thing on the streets of Sturgis in front of God and everyone else. Well
actually, God would have nothing to do with Struggles as anyone who’s ever been
there would agree. Kevin was in the process of dazzling the million or so
scantly clad local loco girls on the main drag in Struggles with his special
riding skills when he lost control of his newly refinished Henderson four. He put it in an embarrassing
tailspin, right down to the ground. We all have witnessed how much Kevin likes
to scrap the floor boards during cornering maneuvers. He attempted to pull off
this little trick twice before giving up. He became aware that he could really
get hurt or at least have a really big repair bill and besides, the bikes hand
grips were wearing out from the road rash anyway. Kevin did not realize until
sometime later that he had also scraped off a plug wire in the process of said
tailspins. This resulted in less than expectable performance of his Henderson on a road run
later in the day. Once again, been there, done that.
Bet you’re glad I had nothing to talk about. Until later.
Treasurer, Fortune 500 member,
Tom Hart
P.S. Remember to send in the short member form, which will
be in an upcoming newsletter, with your dues payments for ‘06. Thanks.