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The month of August in South Texas is a good month to park the motorcycles in the garage and use 4-wheeled, air-conditioned transportation for a while. This gives me a chance to take care of things on the bikes that I’d been too busy riding to get done, like free up the accessory port on the BMW by getting that GPS mount hard-wired, and adding a powerlet port to the FZ. It’s also a good time to reflect a bit. I’d been so busy “doing,” I’d not had time to process all that has happened in the last nine months.

Early in the year, the Board of Directors had enough faith to appoint me to the position of Acting Director of Promotions. It’s been a rewarding, though busy time learning about the areas and committees that fall under my responsibility, including the MTF Tourers Assistant Program, the Library, MTF Safety, the newsletter, and many small, but equally as important services to the MTF such as the monthly calendar, Gold Dealer Awards, and some other things I no doubt haven’t discovered yet. Thanks to the great volunteers and committee members who were already in place when I took on this job, the guidance of Alan Leduc, and to the patience of Kevin Lechner and Jason Jonas, the transition has gone reasonably smoothly. I confess to being severely HTML challenged, so Kevin’s continued work getting the newsletter built and maintaining the various web pages has been greatly appreciated.

I now get an insider’s look at the tremendous amount of work that goes into this remarkable organization – one that appears to function so effortlessly on the surface, thanks to all of the volunteers on the various committees. I’m also getting out to more MTF events and lunches and meeting many more members than I had an opportunity to, prior to this year. Finally! Faces and personalities to go with the names! Meeting the members in person adds depth and dimension to the MTF experience. Posts on the forum, while informative, educational, and very often entertaining, can also be so one-dimensional!

In less than a month, I will be asked to present a report at the annual Board of Directors meeting. In that report, I’ll be setting some Promotion objectives for 2008. One of these will be to draw more people out of “lurker” mode and into active participation. I’ll be working on several strategies to accomplish this, but why wait until January? If you’re one of those “lurkers,” help me get started.

Come out and be counted! Post an introductory message and tell us what you ride, or what you’ve always dreamed of riding. If you’ll fill in city and state on your Delphi Profile, we’ll know what part of the country you’re in. Join the Tourers Assistant (TA) Program and offer your knowledge of the area to others who may be passing through and are seeking guidance. No need to have mechanic skills or tools, just an interest and willingness to meet other MTF members on the road. An added bonus of being an MTF TA is access to the on-line library, where you’ll find an excellent selection of motorcycle and non-motorcycle related books and videos. Watch the Lunch Bunch folder on the forum for a get-together near you, and plan to come out and join the group.

But no matter how much or little you choose to participate, at least let us get to know you. In March 2006 I rode to Jacksonville FL on the MTF IBA Ride-In knowing absolutely no one, just forum names, and by the end of the weekend, I had a new circle of like-minded friends. I can guarantee that if you come to just one MTF event – a lunch or a weekend event – you will leave with a brand new circle of friends, too.

SR 25 to Fort Spokane WA
Photo by Claye Curtis

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