Hello AHRMA Members and Friends,
AHRMA’s Board of Trustees has just completed a brace of consecutive video (Zoom) sessions that comprise our mid-year board meeting. Our executive director and executive administrator also attended. We went at it for three hours plus per night, for three consecutive nights. These sessions were business-like and cooperative, while retaining a sense of humor. If actions speak with authority, your trustees and staff are quite dedicated to our organization.
Evening number one was dominated by the usual and necessary business of running AHRMA. After concluding the routine business, we finished off the session by beginning the big task of weighing in on rules change proposals. Evenings two and three were exclusively spent making preliminary decisions on the remaining proposals. These will be shared with members for review and comment, then voted on decisively by the board at our October meeting.
I realize that many of our members are here to love and race classic motorcycles without becoming engaged in the nuts and bolts of running the club. Others are keen to at least observe, or fully participate in AHRMA’s operations. I have personally been in each of these categories for years at a time, over the years. There is something to be said for each of those levels of involvement.
Each year the rules change proposal period brings out dozens of proposals relating strictly to the bikes and competition. Historically, we receive only a few proposals of a more general nature. The motorcycle specific ones are dispatched to committees for review and opinions, then sent to the board for determination. The few general ones have been handled in a less structured manner.
This year brought us not only a bumper crop of bike proposals, but a larger than normal number of general proposals. Once immersed in the process of sorting through the general proposals, two things became clear. First, there were many member submitted valuable observations and opinions that did not fit into our normal process. Secondly, in order to honor our members’ input and take advantage of same, we needed to make adjustments to our existing proposal system. We established four categories for the general proposals with a plan of action tailored to each group.
Some proposals had high merit, but the wording was either lengthier than needed, or sometimes written so that it could be taken more than one way. We approved the good ideas, then sent them to staff for a wording tune-up.
Other proposals had good merit, but pertained to operations more than our actual rules. In an effort to take advantage of the input, we approved the intent of the good proposals and dispatched them to staff for incorporation into our handbook.
A third type of general proposal are ones whose intent is already in our rules and policies, but they have not been consistently followed. These were sent to our executive director with directives to improve execution of those existing policies.
The last group of general proposals were housekeeping in nature. An example is where the wording in our handbook contains omissions, potential confusion, or incomplete instructions. These were sent to the executive director with instructions as to repairing the issues.
In a few instances, we received several proposals that approached the same issue from differing directions. For the sake of clarity and efficiency we crafted one change that met those concerns.
This means that various proposals were addressed in differing manners, in order to benefit AHRMA in an efficient and appropriate manner.
All proposals will be noted as to what action will be taken, and those actions may differ.
We appreciate members paying attention and alerting us when they feel an improvement can be made. It is uplifting to participate in a member-owned organization where the members are so positive toward its improvement.
We have work to do, and motorcycles to race.
Thank you,
Arthur Kowitz
Chairman of the Board
