Meeting Minutes

The March 5, 2008 meeting was called to order by president Dale Steinborn at 7:00 p.m. at the Bonfire Grill in Hutchinson, Minnesota.

President: Dale Steinborn
Vice President: Jim Orn not present
Treasurer: Tammy Winkels
Secretary: Rebecca Martinson
Chapter Rep: Wendy Steinborn
Sgt. at Arms: Al Salisbury and Rich Winkels

We had three guests, and there were 35 members in addition to officers named above.

SECRETARY’S REPORT: a motion was made by Dan Schrader and seconded by Clarence to skip the reading of the minutes. The motion was passed by hand vote.

ELECTION: Chapter officer nominations were opened again, with Jim Orn, Galen Sundin, Tammy Winkels, Rebecca Martinson and Wendy Steinborn accepting previous nominations, as well as Al Salisbury, Richard Winkels, Joe Martin, Joe Westphal, Dan Schrader, Rich Peipus, Andy Bogatzki and Kathy Bogatzki also accepting previous nominations for Sergeant at Arms, as well as Lori Matter and Charlie Ardorf being nominated and accepting their nominations. The duties of the officers was read by the Secretary, ballots were passed out and the members asked to vote. The meeting proceeded while the votes were tallied.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Chapter Products by Tammy. Discussion about who wants South Central T-shirts.

Gambling by Wendy. At the March meeting, $250 was donated to the victim fund for the Cottonwood crash victims. She also talked about the chapters’ needs for Buddy Bears, the motorcycle donated for the rally, and better than expected advance ticket signouts. The next meeting is at Jim and Kristy Orns’.

Ways & Means by Al. Next meeting March 30 at the Ugly Bar in Montrose; still need new members. A question was asked what the purpose of the committee is, and Al explained that it basically audits the bookwork for the chapters.

Membership and Retention by Dale. Next meeting is April 11 at ABATE U. Dale and crew went to the bike show recently. Too many people are unaware of ABATE, Dial a Ride or other motorcycle-connected groups are. We need to attend more shows or other events to get more exposure.

State Rally by Dale. Reminder of the current ticket price for the rally; there will be no day pass prices except for Sunday, and that will be $35.00; the question was asked whether our chapter was going to sponsor the rally this year. Charlie and mark made a motion to, as a chapter, commit to a $250 sponsorship; Artie suggested we pass the hat, see what we get, and use chapter funds to complete the amount necessary. The motion was amended to so state, and passed by hand vote. We have a plaque for the second year in a row of being the sponsor leader – keep it up, let’s make it three. Noma sent out a letter to previous sponsors inviting them to sponsor again, but that will mean that there will be no individual or chapter credit for that particular sponsorship.

As to the bike run, there is a proposed new contract in the works for the Litchfield grounds; we don’t yet know whether we will be at Litch after this year. A reminder that it’s the 20th anniversary of the rally. There was a proposal that our chapter lead the Memorial Run this year, if the rally site changes, to the new site. The bands are lined up for the rally. We are going back to the tent for the music because of the smoking ban indoors. We again are doing front gate, and some security shifts. A reminder of the contest to design a 20 year pin.

Dial-a-Ride by Dale. We will need coverage for shifts for this summer; get out there to local watering holes and make sure they know about Dial a Ride.

Joe Matter Scholarship Safety Riders Course by Artie. Nothing now, but Artie thinks the first courses don’t start until June.

Food Shelf by Artie: Meeker county got the donations from last month. Artie proposed that we also pass the hat for donations from our chapter. March is the lowest public donation month.

Toys for Kids by Becca. A chapter sponsored garage sale was proposed to coincide with one of the local city-side garage sales, with all proceeds going to our fundraiser. Dan S volunteered his home in Hutch as the site, with the proviso that all donations that don’t sell are taken out of there immediately after the sale.

Buddy Bears by Charlie. We will be ordering 13 dozen bears; previous commitments to Hutch and Litch, as well as Atwater. Motion made by Clarence and seconded by Troy to take $900 out of our gambling fund to pay for the bears. A reminder that we can’t give any bears to police departments as it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.

PGR Riders by Galen. One mission for a WWII soldier.

STATE REP REPORT by Wendy. Still looking for bike and business of the month nominations; Products will need help at ABATE U; get local bars informed about Dial a Ride. Wendy proposed we offer to host the June meeting.

VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT by Dale. There were 4 or 5 chapter members out of 400+ at Biker Day and there were also a couple of other special interest groups there which evinced a lot of interest in ABATE.

OLD BUSINESS by Dale. Reminder to get rooms for ABATE U; South Central will host the Friday night potluck meet and greet at 7:00 p.m., which Peggy will organize. There was also a discussion about changing the dates and/or times of the meeting. There was not much interest in members present.

NEW BUSINESS by Dale: Ditch cleanup will be April 27, 2008 at 1:00 p.m., meet again at the Odd Fellows Park in Hutch; it was decided not to participate in the Chapter Challenge.

OPEN DISCUSSION: Dale thanked the officers and involved members he has worked with over his several years as president and praised our chapter for its participation. The new chapter has more than 200 members already. June 20-22 will be ABATE of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Vet rally is July 25-27. The limo will be going to Glacial Ridge’s March 22 fundraiser; and Rolling Prairie’s on March 29. April 4 there is a fundraiser in the Glencoe gym, with all monies to specific children, not a group. Challenged Children run will be May 17, with registration at 7:30 a.m. Are we going to road guard? It appears that we may be able to buy license tabs for two years at a time now.

Election Results: President: Jim Orn; Vice President Galen Sundin; Treasurer: Tammy Winkels; Secretary: Rebecca Martinson; State Rep: Wendy Steinborn; Sergeant at Arms: Rich Winkels, Al Salisbury; Joe Martin, Dan Schrader, Lori Matter and Joe Westphal. Congratulations to all, and thank you to the membership for coming to the meeting to vote.


Motion made by Lori to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Mark, passed by hand vote. The meeting was adjourned at 8:28 p.m.


Rebecca S. Martinson
Secretary, South Central Chapter

Meeting Minutes