|
|
THE AMA CORNER
|
 | Riasing funds to support district operations |
| Raising funds for the AMA Legislative Supporter Program |
| Raising funds for the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum. |
I think that our efforts to raise funds for the PAC could fall under district operations. I will try to find out if the efforts we have made so far could earn us a rebate there, already. We should all be thinking of some kind of fund raiser to benefit the Disrict’s general fund.
Under the program, the nmaximum rebate for a road riding event is $150 for under 200 participants, $250 for over 200 participants and maximum for an off road event will be $500.
On the legislative front, the latest session of the New York State Legislature has just begun. I have forwarded information on our “Yield the Right of Way” effort to Senator Owen Johnson and Assemblyman Ron Canestrari in the hopes they will sponsor a bill for us on this modeled on the New Jersey and Pennsylvania bills already introduced in those legislatures. As you already know from my past columns, this bill would stiffen the penalties for yield the right of way violations that result in bodily injury, serious bodily injury and fatalities, the latter being the stiffest penalty. I’ve also asked these two legislators to sponsor a bill that would allow motorcyclists to mount their inspection sticker on permenantly mounted plates on the front of the machine rather than specifically the fork tube. Let you know how things are coming as they develop.
I’ve talked to Senator Johnson’s office and will be meeting with them next week to start the work on an actual bill. Same for Canestrari.
I’ll be writing letters to the chairmen of both the State Thruway Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City about reduction of tolls for motorcycles. Both those bills passed the legislature last session, but were vetoed by the Governor for various reasons. However, in each case, in the veto messages, the Governor asked the agencies to find a way, administratively, to accomplish the toll goals because the reasons cited in the legislation, were “complelling”.
You now have a way to get hold of your state, city and county lawmakers and government officials without having a heart attack. All you need is a name and an e-mail address, which you can get with a simple phone call to city hall, county courthouse or state legislature. Some newspapers publish the information every day the state legislature is in session.
T AMA has expanded its Rapid Response Center that puts motorcyclists immediately in touch with federal lawmakers and government officials to include state and local lawmakers and officials.
Here’s a way to target your local or state officials with comments without leaving your home or even having to take on that onerous chore of actually handwriting a letter or card. We know how tough that is, right? Just get on your computer, to www.AMADirectlink.com
Click on the AMA Rapid Response logo and you’re taken to a site where you can send e-mail messages on current issues. You’ll find “legislative alerts and updates” in a special section to give you the opportunity to respond on local issues. All you have to do is enter a name and contact information, then click a button to send the message. For example, if you want to comment on efforts to restore the ATV Trails and Maintenance Fund, just enter the name of the legislator and his contact info, like an e-mail address and your message will be sent out.
Here it comes, as forecasted to you many times. The EPA wants to adopt California streetbike emission standards for all on road bikes. Under the proposed ruling, beginning in 2006, all new road motorcycles sold nationwide would have to meet the strict emission standards set by the state of California. As I’ve told you in the past, this is just the beginning of new, severely restrictive measures we’ll be seeing proposed by various “safety” and “environmental” agencies from around the world that threaten our right to ride.
AMA has announced its dates for this year’s AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days events. They’re really terrific. Vintage Days West will be April 26-28, 2002 at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, California. AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days will be held July 19-21st at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. If you haven’t been to one of these, you are really missing something. Sign up now!
On another important event, the AMA has launched www.womenandmotorcycling.com , the official eebsite of the third AMA Woman & Motorcycling Conference. It will be held June 29 through July 3, 2002 at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia. The site will give you everything you have to know to participate in this terrific event.
The Federation of European Motorcyclists Associations(FEMA) together with the Motorcycle Riders Foundation(MRF),the American Motorcyclist Association(AMA) and the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme(FIM) have combined efforts and set up a global cooperation of motorcyclists’ interests at the United Nations level. Through this, motorcyclists will be assured their voices will be heard before worldwide standards on a multitude of issues are established that could affect our right to ride, worldwide. Issues such as Daytime Running Lights(DRL), Intelligent Speed Adaptation(ISA), noise testing methodology, definitions of mopeds and motorcycles with arguments on stricter anti-tampering measures; just a few of the many that will be coming up.
Now, for those who wish to see what a year end report to AMA National looks like, I have attached as a Word document, my report submitted for the year 2001. It will give you some understanding of what District III is doing. For now, that’s it. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!! Drive free and most of all, drive safe.
AMA DISTRICT III REPORT-2001
DISTRICT OFFICERS
President-Lawrence(Larry)Schwartz
15 Dawn Drive
Scotia, New York 12302
Phone: (518) 399-7406
Fax (518) 399-5987(must call first)
e-mail: lschwartz@webramp.net
Vice President-Robert Boellner
215 County Road 362
Preston Hollow, New York 12469
Phone: (518) 239-4560
Fax: (518) 239-4560
e-mail: rbprospector@webtv.net
Secretary-Althea Frier
P.O. Box 1124
Broadalbin, New York 12025
Phone: (518) 883-5028
e-mail: afrier@yahoo.com
Treasurer-Ed Downing
Downing Cycles
30 MacArthur Avenue
Cobleskill, New York 12043
Phone: (518) 234-7950
e-mail: edowning@midtel.net
AMA DISTRICT III-CLUBS AND PROMOTERS
ROAD DIVISION
OFF ROAD CLUBS
There have been no changes in by laws and constitution
There are no additional supplementary rules generated
A detailed financial report is enclosed as part of this year 2001 report
The event calendar for 2002 is set and the dates and sanctions requested are listed with your offices.
DIVISION CHAIRMAN REPORT-District III
President and Legislative Chairman-Larry Schwartz
The year 2000 was marked by the success of the PAC effort started a couple of years ago at the behest of District III President, Larry Schwartz
Schwartz has acted as the AMA’s legislative and lobby representative at the New York State Legislature for over three years and new Vice President, Robert Boellner lobbies with him . They are at the legislature every week that it is in session and sometimes before and after it. Boellner is also Secretary for the New York State ABATE organization and Schwartz is an ABATE and MRF member as well. AMA and ABATE have been trying to work closely together on road issues and have been successful at that.
The year 2001 saw District III proposing and supporting at least ten bills dealing with motorcyclists rights.
Because of the PAC, Schwartz and Boellner have been very successful at the legislature in getting access to legislative leadership. Being able to go to fund raisers in AMA’s name, has given us recognition and the kind of credibility that is hard to come by in one of the most political and contentious legislatures in the country. I have been able to cultivate excellent contacts among legislative leadership and have the deputy majority leader in the State Assembly, Ronald Canestari and the Vice President Pro Temp in the State Senate, Senator Owen Johnson, sponsoring many of our bills.
As of this moment, December 27, 2001, the PAC stands at a little over ten thousand dollars($10,000), which is still small compared to the “players” at the legislatures whose PACS contain hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. Nevertheless, with careful consideration given to what I attend, the most has been made of whatever money we have spent on fund raisers. Legislators recognize that I am an unpaid volunteer and that kind of commitment, when added to the PAC money, goes a long way in making a dent with them.
The PAC, of course, is now a statewide PAC with both Districts 34 and 4 saying they would contribute. District 34 has lived up to this promise and the Road Division there has given what money it could. There are a few very committed people in District 34 and my thanks goes to them for the work they are doing for the PAC in their area. Unfortuntely, the same cannot be said of District 4. While commitments have been made, verbally, there has been almost no follow-through on that despite all the good intentions.
I will work at better communications with Road Division leaders there to see if we can come up with some method of having them contribute to the PAC.
Now, back to the report on what we accomplished in the state legislature.
As I said, we sponsored a number of bills and supported others. A bill that mandates motorcycle awareness be taught in every AUTOMOBILE driver’s education class was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor. We had sponsored, also, a bill that mandates more thorough investigations of motorcycle, bicycle and pededstrian accidents. Now we have to develop a form for the police which will make sure that questions are asked that should be at motorcycle accidents. Unless you are a motorcyclist, for instance, you probably would not ask if an accident was caused wholly or partially because an insect or wasp or bee got inside the helmet. The Bill was signed by the Governor after legislative passage.
Two other bills we sponsored and worked for got legislative passage. One would have reduced tolls on the New York State Thruway for motorcycles. The Governor vetoed it on the basis that there could be abuses(using a motorcycle EZ Pass for a car) and because he said the Thruway Authority is the only one that has the legal right to set toll rates. However, he admonished the Thruway Authority to try and find a way to give motorcycles a reduced rate saying the arguments for it were “compelling”.
The Governor also vetoed a bill that would have given motorcycles the same break with an EZ Pass that cars get with it on the facilities run by the Triboro Bridge Authority, a division of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. His reasons were similar to the Thruway Authority veto except there was no abuse referenced, just possible revenue loss and the MTA’s toll setting authority. In reference to revenues, the Governor mentioned the September 11th tragedy and its costs making all revenue projections suspect. However, again the Governor asked the MTA to try and find a way to make this happen for motorcyclists if they could find a way within their financial plan.
In another success, I strongly supported the bill proposed by Asssemblyman Felix Ortiz for barring hand held cell phone calling while driving. I testified at the legislative hearing on it. The bill passed and was signed by the Governor.
Our bill that would have barred any community from banning motorcycles from any road, street or highway that got state funds for design, construction, operation or maintenance, made it through the Assembly and to the Rules Working Committee in the Senate where one Senator stopped it on the basis that he thought it was a mandate. We’ll try to change his mind, this session.
The helmet amendment, allowing choice to those over 21 is and continues to be stuck in the Asssembly Transportation Committee because of adamant opposition to it by the Chairman of that Committee. There were several other bills, too, but there has been no movement on them.
This coming year, in the 2002 session we will get sponsored the AMA based “Motorcyclists Matter” yield the right of way bill. It will probably be based on bills already introduced in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania legislatures, but I think will ask that the provisions of the bill include bicyclists and pededstrians. We hope to get organizations representing those groups behind our efforts. We also hope to introduce a bill that would allow the ever annoying inspection sticker to be placed on a permanently mounted plate attached to somewhere on the front of a motorcycle rather than on the fork tube.
On the Off Road side, we will again be working at some kind of bill to restore the ATV trails and maintenance fund. The so-called “environmentalists”, successfully scuttled a settlement that had allegedly been reached on that bill, last session.
NEW PROGRAMS FOR 2001
There is just one new program suggested for the coming year and it has to do with the PAC. As everyone knows, it is difficult to get people to actually do the work that is necessary to have any program become successful. I am asking all the clubs to appoint a PAC representative for their club and hold what I call the “Pass the PAC Hat” program as a routine part of their meetings.
It is simply exactly what the words say. Sometime in the meeting, the rep takes a hat and walks the room, asking for voluntary PAC contributions of a dollar or two, that’s all. Obviously, if every club did this at their monthly meetings, at the end of the year, we would have a quite substantial sum of money with which to fund the PAC.
COMMUNICATIONS
It is still my opinion that ALL paperwork that has to go to national AMA headquarters, whether it be event material or applications or whatever, should have to be sent by certified mail. This would avoid all arguments over whether paperwork was either sent or received. I re-emphasized this at the District III Sanction Meeting in Cobleskill, New York. I reminded all clubs that the District, several years ago, approved in a formal vote this requirement.
On another matter, I believe that Eddie James, whom I admire greatly, may have been put out somewhat that we held our District III meeting before his Risk seminar. Last year at the Sanction Meeting, we voted and approved this agenda: that the District III meeting would be held in advance of the Risk seminar because some club representatives do not have to take it every year and this method would allow them to leave sooner rather than later. Many have long trips to make it home. My apologies to Eddie for any inconvenience to him. We will be holding the District III meeting in advance of the Risk seminar in December of 2002 as well. I want to thank AMA for its work in setting up of the Sanction Meeting.
Another problem that came up was that someone, I do not know who, ordered some extra food or coffee during the meeting and it ended up, naturally, on the hotel bill. That never should have happened and I will make sure next December that it does not. However, it would be helpful if AMA, in sending out its notices on the Sanction Meetings, makes it clear that nothing extra can be ordered for these meetings without the express consent of National AMA as well as permission from the District Chairman in whose District the meeting is being held.
On the topic of communications, I would like to commend the Government Relations Department on its improvement in communicating with me on New York State legislative matters. I have received several calls from Imre in the past couple of months and this has been a source of satisfaction to me. I am continuing to promote the AMA’s Community Council concept and make sure to write my legislative correspondence on Council letterhead supplied to me by Terry Cook, who is a real jewel in Government Relations.
INTER DISTRICT PROBLEMS
The only problem I have encountered so far is with the lists supplied to me by national AMA. I realize that the folks there work very hard with mountains of material, but it’s extremely important that the computerized lists of clubs in a District be absolutely accurate. There have been times when I have received reprimands to clubs for one thing or another that aren’t part of my District.
ADMINISTRATION
My suggestion for this is simple. It is not justifiable for overall District reimbursements to be held up because one or two or three clubs in the entire District have not gotten some paperwork in or haven’t paid an insurance premium. If discipline is needed, then take it up with the club as I have tried to for you. Do not penalize the entire District because of some mistakes by a few. We still have not received this quarter’s check and I would like it sent out without delay.
Attached, please find the financial report and budgets.
Submitted by: Larry Schwartz
President, District III
15 Dawn Drive
Scotia, New York 12302
|
|