EDITION0509 H.O.G. Chapter Officers 2009 Director Kent Blackman Assistant Director Woody Simpson Secretary Janet Simpson Treasurer Paula Gunn Activities Officer Amy Both Membership Secretary Crissy Young Ladies of Harley Andy Wyckoff Editors Janet Simpson Jeff Holland Historian Mike Gilkison Chad Schmidt Safety Officer Bob Chadwick Remembrance Officer Donn Wyckoff Senior Photographer Mindy Gilkison Photographers Terri Tinker Steve Swinney Media Officer Jeff Holland Web Master Bob Ford Road Captains Jeff Blystone Craig Both Dennis Evans Mike Gilkison Bob Gunn Lehman Heaviland Bob Hyer Jimmie Loper Pat Neary Chad Schmidt Larry Southers Joe Tinker Jeff Weir Tex Williams Dinner Rides Dinner rides leave Hill Park, 23rd & Maywood, Independence, MO, at 6:30 PM. Hill Park is just east of I-435 on 23rd Street. If you can’t make it to the park, meet us at the restaurant at 7:00-7:15 PM. May 13 (Wednesday) HOG Night Worth North May 27 (Wednesday) Harley Hot Rods 1320 NW State Route 7 Blue Springs, MO 816-228-7722 June 11 (Thursday) Bandana’s BBQ 4140 S Noland Road, Independence, MO 816-373-7800 June 23 (Tuesday) HOG Night Worth North May Birthdays Ken DeMoss May 1 Stephanie Todd May 1 Will Box May 8 Kenny Berry May 19 Bob Chadwick May 28 Mary Booth May 28 Margaret Guerra May 29 Paul Stevener May 29 Glenn Ford May 1 Gary Cooper May 7 Jimmy Stewart May 20 John Wayne May 26 Clint Eastwood May 31 If you would like your special day posted in this column please send name, month and day to: Donn Wyckoff at hogon3@sbcglobal.net Calendar of Events Just Click on The Calendar to View and Print the Calendar of Your Choice. Meeting Minutes Click on the Scroll to View Meeting Minutes and Treasures Report. Print Version Click on the Printer To Contact The Greater Kansas City H.O.G. Chapter Kent Blackman Chapter Director 816-225-3241 Woody Simpson Assistant Director 816-560-9046 Amy Both Activities Officer 913-669-6139 For All Other Officers & Inquires, Contact Kent Blackman Listed Above Your Dealership Personnel For HOG Information is Jack Twibell North Store 816-420-9000 Tammy Edgmon Blue Springs 816-224-5005 For Pre-Recorded Information Concerning Upcomming Events 816-503-7267 HOG Information 24 x 7 DON'T FORGET To Make Plans To Participate With Million Mile Monday June 29, 2009 6609 North Oak Trafficway Gladstone MO 64118 Local Phone: 816-420-9000 Local Fax: 816-420-8865 Toll Free Phone: 1-800-799-BIKE 3100 NW Jefferson Blue Springs, Missouri 64015 Local Phone: 816-224-5005 Local Fax: 816-224-6656 Toll Free Phone: 1-877-4-RUMBLE What do you think of the HOG Knows new format?  I Love it  I Like it  I Dislike it  I'm Unsure Editors Note ; If you like what you see in this"new" electronic newsletter & updated website ; Please stop by the dealerships and tell them "Thank You For Their Support" because without our dealer sponsors, we don't exist. REMINDER! The Treasures Report & Meeting Minutes are PASSWORD PROTECTED. IT'S NOT TOO LATE! May 2 Harley's and Hash Browns BSHD May 2 Ladies Ride Worth North May 2 Walk to Remember Motorcycle Ride (non-GKC ride) May 2 Newsletters BSHD May 2 Special Olympics LSHS May 3 City Union Mission Ride (non-GKC ride) May 5 JDRF Benefit Dinner @ Mimi’s Zona Rosa Is This My “HOG Knows”? So you may be wondering what happened to the Greater Kansas City Chapter Newsletter. Where are all the cool graphics, nice paper, and colors? If you recall last month, we told you about some exciting changes with our Chapter website and the newsletter. The Chapter website has been revived and the newsletter is going electronic. Now wait, before you say I don’t want it electronically let me tell you why we’re doing this. First, we still want everyone to have all the information about our great rides and events, but all that color and fancy stuff costs money---not to mention postage is going up again this month. Our Chapter has been very lucky to have sponsoring dealers who provide support for our newsletter, but when we heard how much this was costing them—and believe me it was a lot—some changes had to be made. Beginning this month, every member who receives their newsletter via e-scribe will get their newsletter right in their email inbox. It will be a full-color newsletter with links, photos, meeting minutes, and lots of information. You will also have the option to print the newsletter, in full color. If you choose not to e-scribe, a paper copy will still be mailed to you, but it will be black and white and will not contain all the information that the e version will have. It is also our plan to have the e-newsletter to all the members BEFORE the mailed copy. If you don’t already subscribe to e-scribe, please go the Chapter website and sign up right now. Besides if you haven’t been to the new website yet, you need to check it out anyway. The address hasn’t changed; you can still find it at www.gkchog.com.. We hope you will like the improvements and those e-scribe requests will start rolling in. Janet Simpson, Secretary/Editor H.O.G. History Women Riders As most of you know, Harley-Davidson has declared the month of May to be Women Riders Month. So, with that in mind, I started searching through our old newsletters looking for something that might fit that theme. I found something that I think is pretty cool in the May 1994 newsletter, so I decided to reprint it below for you. Hope you enjoy, Chad “Let’s Hear it for Bev Swartz: Bev Swartz, our first female Road Captain, led the way to Collins on our second Sunday ride of the year. We had a whopping 37 bikes! The day was simply gorgeous! There were so many bikes, Bev decided it would be safer into divide into two groups and start about 5 minutes apart. When the groups got together in Collins, they stopped at Peggy’s for a great meal and a giant slice of pie. Wow, what compliments I have heard about the ride. You did a great job Bev.” LETS GO RACING Springfield, Illinois May, 23-25, 2009 RIDE LEVEL:B I will be leading a ride to Springfield, Illinois, for a Memorial Day weekend full of racing. Departure on Saturday, May 23, will be from the Big Biscuit on 40 Highway in Independence. We will meet there for breakfast at 8:00 AM. There will be a short track race on Saturday and a mile track race on Sunday. We will have a relaxing ride home on Monday. We should be home by mid-afternoon on Monday, May 25. Rooms are reserved under GKCHOG at Comfort Suites 217-753-4000. Rooms will be held until April 23, 2009. There is a 24-hour cancellation policy. You can get your tickets in advance at Blue Springs Harley-Davidson. They are $25 a piece for each race and it is reserved seating. You can also get them at the gate for $30 apiece, but you will be seated in a different location. Jeff Blystone, Road Captain Rochester, Minnesota Saturday, May 23, 24, and 25, 2009 RIDE LEVEL: D Who: GKCHOG Members & Guests What: Weekend ride to beautiful SE Minnesota & SW Wisconsin along the Mississippi River bluffs. When: May 23-25, 2009 Where: Meet & depart from Worth H-D @ 7:30 am. Please be fueled and ready to ride. We will stop for a Mickey D’s breakfast in route. • Saturday – Ride to Rochester. See Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial. (Approx. 400 miles) • Sunday – Ride through the beautiful countryside. (Approx. 200 miles) • Sunday Night – Sit around the patio and the fire and enjoy the memories of the day with your friends! • Monday – Ride back home. (Approx. 400 miles) E mail me at seemyhd@aol.com if you are planning to make this trip! Thanks for your continued support of this ride! Jeff Holland Media Officer/Editor, GKCHOG 816-510-4321 LaMonte – Hot Shoe Races Saturday, June 6th RIDE LEVEL: A LaMonte – Hot Shoe Races Saturday, June 6th Want to see what Flat Track racing is all about but couldn’t make it to Springfield over Memorial Day. Then here is your chance to see some of the big name guys at a local track. LA Raceway, just west of Sedalia, will be hosting an AMA Hot Shoe series race. Come join us for some great racing and camaraderie. We will be gathering at Blue Springs Harley at 3:00pm. Be fueled up and ready to ride. We will have a quick meeting and then its kick-stands up at 3:15pm. It’s off to the AMA Flat Track races under the lights in LaMonte, MO. Races start at 7:00pm and will be over around 10:30pm. Tickets will be purchased at the gate for $18.00 per person. After the races we will head back to Blue Springs. If you have questions or need any additional information, contact Road Captain Jeff Blystone on his cell at 816-806-3574. Women’s Clinic of KC Benefit Saturday, June 20th Join me on Saturday June 20th on a ride to benefit the Women's Clinic of Kansas City. This is a 100-mile dice run. The ride starts from the Red-X in Riverside, Missouri, but I will be leading a ride to Riverside from Children's Fountain at 8:45 a.m. To learn about the clinic go to www.thewomensclinic.net/events. You can even register online. Donations are $20 for rider and $15 for passengers. This includes a lunch and live music with drawings for some cool items. When that ride is over, I will be leading the group to KCIR to join in the festivities hosted by Blue Springs Harley-Davidson. Any questions, contact me at 816-942-8665 or at kcultrahog@aol.com Tom Countryman Diamond in the Dirt Races Sat, June 27th to Sun, June 28th RIDE LEVEL: B Come join us for some car racing. We are planning on watching Modified Race cars speed around the prized “Diamond in the Dirt” track in Wheatland, MO. Lucas Oil has done a great job of improving the grandstand and concessions around one of the best high banked dirt tracks in Missouri. We will start out at Blue Springs Harley at 9:45am for a short meeting with bikes gassed and kick stands up at 10:00am. We will travel south winding our way through the country side stopping for lunch around 1pm. Then it will be off to Wheatland, MO and the Blystone Farm. We will drop our gear and set up camps at the farm house and then head to the track. Race tickets can be purchased at the gate for $20.00 a piece and dinner will be on your own at the concession stands – they have terrific burgers and outstanding funnel cakes as well as other tempting fare. We are planning on spending the night at our farm house. We have sleeping space for 6 with additional floor space for others. If you like to camp we have room for more. There are hotels also available close by contact Jeff for details on these if you prefer. We will have a relaxing ride home on Sunday and will arrive back in the Metro area mid-afternoon. If you have questions or need any additional info contact Road Captain Jeff Blystone on his Cell 816-806-3574 Photographer Snapshot Hello everyone, I would like you all to welcome Terri Tinker as one of our newest photographer officers, she has been taking pictures and doing an awesome job. Of course everyone is welcomed to submit their photos to Shutterfly. So take plenty of pictures we have the ability to store all pictures for a piece of history. A few photography hints: 1. Bring your subjects together and let personality shine. Be a director, move people if needed. 2. Move the subject just to the right or left of center and lock in the focus. Most digital cameras aim for center, so it may take a second to lock in. 3. Hold camera at subject’s eye level. If they are shorter (like sitting at a table) get down to their level. Until next month, thank you again for taking pictures. Keep posting to the shutterfly account. If you need access, please feel free to email me. Mindy Gilkison, Sr. Photographer fiacat@yahoo.com Left to Right: David Thompson, 2009 Sportster Custom; Greg Goold, 1998 Ultra Classic; Jane Hill, 2006 Softtail; Todd Miller, 2009 Night Train; Mike Schelp, 2006 883 Low; Mike Turner, 2009 Fat Boy Not Pictured: Cheri Venable, 2009 Street Glide Attention New Members! You just bought a new motorcycle and got a bunch of paperwork, including a National H.O.G. membership and a membership in the Greater Kansas City Chapter, but you wonder what H.O.G. is all about. What does H.O.G. do? What kind of rides do we ride? You don't know if you want to get involved or not. Well, here's your opportunity to ask all the questions you have and get the latest H.O.G. information. I will be at the Hooters Restaurant at 19850 E. Valley View Parkway in Independence at the following times: Friday, May 8 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Monday, May 11 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Bring all your questions and your appetite. I'll be outside with my motorcycle as long as it's not raining. I ride a Vivid Black 2008 Road Glide. If you get there after the end time I'll probably be inside enjoying some hot wings. Come on in! See you there! Bob Chadwick, Safety Officer Page, Arizona Adventure August 29 – September 7, 2009 RIDE LEVEL: D Here are the details for the Page, Arizona Adventure. If you plan on going make your hotel reservations now. You can always cancel the rooms if you end up not being able to go on the trip. Saturday, August 29 – Depart Blue Springs H-D at 8 a.m. and ride to Guymon, OK (461.4 miles, Level D Ride). We’ll stay at the Days Inn in Guymon, OK (Phone: (580) 338-8801). Sunday, August 30 – Depart Guymon, OK and ride to Grants, NM (455.8 miles, Level D Ride). We’ll stop and get the Q County in New Mexico for the ABC people in the group. We’ll also ride the twisties up to Sandia Crest and get a bird’s eye view of Albuquerque. We’ll stay at the Comfort Inn in Grants, NM (Phone: (505) 287-8700). Monday, August 31 – We’ll depart Grants, NM and ride to Page, AZ (417.1 miles, Level D Ride). We’ll take a side trip to El Morro National Monument and we’ll ride through Petrified Forest National Park. (That will be a good opportunity for the ABC people to get their National Park sign.) We’ll stop at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook and we’ll stand on the corner in Winslow on the way to Page. We’ll stay in Page for five nights (Check-in August 31 and check-out September 5). You can stay at the Quality Inn at Lake Powell (Phone: (928) 645-8851) or at the Travelodge (Phone: (928) 645-2451). I picked two hotels that are close together to give people a little bit of a choice depending on how much they want to spend on a room. The Travelodge rooms are a little cheaper. Compare amenities and rates to see which hotel you prefer. Tuesday, September 1 – Friday, September 4 – While we’re staying in Page you can do whatever you want. I’ll have some pre-planned rides and will probably ride somewhere at least three out of the four days. Page is within easy reach of the Grand Canyon (both rims), Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and several other smaller National Parks. Also I-40 parallels or actually replaced Route 66, so you can explore a little of the “Mother Road” too. I plan on seeing Lake Powell and sightseeing around Page on one of the days. If you want to hang out at the pool all day one day, go for it! Just remember to use your sunscreen. Do some research on the Internet and plan your own personalized ride! If you have questions about different attractions and National Parks, e-mail me. I’ve been to quite a few of the National Parks in the area and have ridden Route 66. Saturday, September 5 – We’ll depart Page and ride to Alamosa, CO (456.1 miles, Level D Ride). We’ll ride through Monument Valley and stop at the Four Corners Monument. We may stop at Mesa Verde National Park depending on how long we spend in Monument Valley and at the Four Corners Monument. We’ll ride over Wolf Creek Pass and end up in Alamosa. We’ll stay at the Comfort Inn in Alamosa, CO (Phone: (719) 587-9000). Sunday, September 6 – We’ll depart Alamosa and ride to Garden City, KS (346.3 miles, Level C Ride). We’ll stop at Great Sand Dunes National Park and at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site on the way to Garden City, KS. We’ll stay at the Best Western Red Baron Hotel (Phone: (620) 275-4164). Monday, September 7 – We’ll depart Garden City, KS and head home (390.7 miles, Level C Ride). We’ll stop at Fort Larned National Historic Site. NOTE: I gave the phone numbers to the hotels so you can verify that you’re getting the right hotel. I make my hotel reservations on-line. I highly recommend that you join the Choice Privileges (Comfort Inn and Quality Inn) or Wyndham Rewards (Days Inn) rewards programs. The points add up quickly toward free night stays if you take a few long trips each year. Also, I recommend joining the AMA and AAA. AMA offers a special code that you can use to get a significant savings on Choice Hotel chain motels. AAA also gets you a discount on most chain hotel rates. As an example, for the Quality Inn in Page, Arizona (a Choice Hotel) the “Best Available Rate” is $94.99, the “AAA discount” rate is $85.49, and the “AMA discount” rate is $80.74 per night. That’s a total of $70 in savings for the five night stay. That covers the membership fee for the AMA and then some. Send questions, comments, or suggestions to solorider@sbcglobal.net Bob Chadwick, Safety Officer Primary Officer Training Recap Of P.O.T. 2009 The weather in Las Vegas was very un-Vegas-like Friday and Saturday during Primary Officer Training. The palm tree-lined pool looks very inviting, but if you notice there aren’t very many people in the picture because it was cold and windy during our stay, plus we were involved in non-stop classroom sessions all day Friday and Saturday. We arrived in Las Vegas about 6:45 p.m. on Thursday night; just enough time to get checked in to our hotel and find a place to have dinner. The alarm would go off early Friday morning so we could get to the Red Rock Hotel and Casino to register and eat breakfast before the Primary Officer Training kicked off. At 8 a.m. the Opening General Session started with motivational videos and music. The H.O.G. managers talked about what H.O.G. needs to do to increase diversity and continue its success at being the largest motorcycle club in the world. I always thought the 3 R’s were Readin’, Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic, but H.O.G. has a different 3 R’s. Their first “R” is Riding because that has to continue to be the first priority of H.O.G. The second “R” is Relevancy. Relevancy means that H.O.G. has to be relevant to what people want to do and what they are interested in. Part of “Relevancy” is figuring out how to attract minorities and younger riders with rides and activities that they are interested in. “Renewal” just doesn’t mean that members are renewing their memberships, but that Chapters are renewed with new ideas and new officer leadership. Benny Suggs, General Manager of H.O.G., gave an up-beat talk about his experience with the Tidewater Chapter in Virginia during his command tour on the U.S.S. America. A question and answer session followed with Jim McCaslin, President and Chief Operating Officer of Harley-Davidson. One Chapter officer asked a particularly good question about why Harley Motorclothes are predominantly made in countries like China and Bangladesh and whether Harley-Davidson is working on getting them made in the U.S. Later in the weekend, Karen Davidson replied that she understands the concern of customers about foreign-made clothing and that she is working on changing where Motorclothes are manufactured without increasing the prices significantly. H.O.G. management took the opportunity during this opening session to push participation at the National H.O.G. Rally in Oklahoma City (June 26 – 27) and for Million Mile Monday (June 29). The class schedule started at 10:15 with a “Leadership Workgroup” session. This session gave the Greater Kansas City Chapter officers the opportunity to focus on what challenges we wanted to find possible answers for that apply to our Chapter. We could then focus on these challenges during the classes we were taking and hopefully get ideas for possible solutions. My Friday schedule consisted of sessions called “Officer Idea Exchange,” “Understanding Risk,” and “Keys to Successful Group Riding.” The “Officer Idea Exchange” allowed officers in the same position to exchange ideas about how they do their job and to get new ideas for improving how they serve their Chapters. Since this was my first time at Primary Officer Training, I took all the “Risk” area classes that were offered. These classes deal with legal challenges that different Chapters experience and how H.O.G. legal policies apply to those challenges. The alcohol policy seemed to be a major problem with some Chapters. One major change in the “Risk” area is that parades are not automatically insured by H.O.G. as of January 1, 2009. Chapters have to apply to be insured for parade participation on a case-by-case basis. Friday evening consisted of a Dinner Party with more motivational videos, speeches by Harley-Davidson executives, and a visit from Willie G., Nancy, and Karen Davidson. After dinner a band took over and we departed to take a drive to Downtown Las Vegas and a little shopping at a Harley-Davidson shop there. We couldn’t stay up too late because classes started up early on Saturday morning. My Saturday classes were “Solving Risk Challenges,” “Group Riding Challenges,” “Risk Management Forum,” and “Reaching Out to New Riders.” The “Risk” classes focused again on alcohol policy and how to determine whether your event would be insurable by H.O.G. Insurance. The main “Group Riding Challenges” that most Chapters seemed to have were how to convince older riders that their skills were making them unsafe and where to place new riders in the group during group rides. I haven’t noticed these problems in our Chapter. The key to the new rider challenge is to let the new rider ride where they are comfortable and for Road Captains to help the new riders with questions that they have about group riding procedures. It seems like most Chapters have a much more focused Group Riding Training program than we do. I don’t think we have a problem, but we probably need to start some more formalized Group Riding Training. The last session on Saturday was called “Leadership Workgroup – Taking Action.” This session focused on writing down what we had learned during our classes that related to the challenges that we had written down at the first session on Friday morning. Some of these ideas will be implemented in the future. After a short closing session with everybody present, Primary Officer Training ended at 5:00 p.m. After dinner, some of us went to the Stratosphere to go to the top of the tower and see the amazing view of Las Vegas. Woody Simpson and I rode the “Big Shot” ride which shoots you up in the air and lets you free-fall back down. The two other rides at the top of the Stratosphere hang you out over the edge of the tower. Neither of us was interested in riding them. We didn’t stay out very late because some of the officers had very early flights on Sunday morning. Primary Officer Training was a good opportunity to meet other Chapter Officers and get ideas on how to make our Chapter a little bit better. There were about 650 Chapter Officers in attendance, mainly from California. I came away from Las Vegas with new ideas to get new members involved and how to improve our Road Captain corps. Hopefully, I’ll have another opportunity to attend in the next few years. Bob Chadwick, Safety Officer GKC Hog Chapter www.gkchog.com Click here for store hours and map. To subscribe to this newsletter, click here.

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