Chapter of the Year - Lakeland Fireballs › Newsletters › 2020 April Newsletter.pdf · Greetings...
Transcript of Chapter of the Year - Lakeland Fireballs › Newsletters › 2020 April Newsletter.pdf · Greetings...
“The
Fireball”
FL
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April 2020
Gold Wing Road Riders Association
Monthly Chapter
Gathering
1st Saturday
of the month
Eat at 8am
Meeting at 9am
4705 US Hwy 98N
Lakeland, Florida
Chapter Directors
Ed & Dottie Bahrenburg
(607) 427-8777
2020 Couple of the Year
Kenny & Deb Weberman
April Events
The April events have been cancelled
at this time.
2017 Florida District
Chapter of the Year
National Director National Assistant Director Florida District Directors
Jere Goldman Bob Shrader Bill & Cheryl Smith
Friends for Fun, Safety & Knowledge
Rick & Madalena Buck
Assistant District Directors
District Contact for the Fireballs
TO ALL OUR FIREBALL
FRIENDS NEAR AND
FAR BE SAFE AND BE
WELL.
WWW.lakelandfireballs.org
Be safe everyone!
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I wish I could say that all
this virus stuff is one big
April Fool’s Joke but un-
fortunately it is not and is
a very dangerous situa-
tion.
For Dottie and me, it is so
unusual to look at the cal-
endar and have it blank.
In some ways I think I
can really get use to it!
As we said at our picnic,
all activities for the Chap-
ter and Florida District are
suspended at this time.
The Florida District Rally
will be held next year at
the same spot with the
same theme. Your regis-
tration can be either held
over or refunded. I know
the District has contacted
each Fire Ball member
about their registration.
National GWRRA has sent
out a recommendation
that activities be can-
celed.
I am writing this on March
20. At this time all restau-
rants are limited to take
out only until April 8. Al-
so, it has been highly
suggested that we limit
groups of people to 10!
This means that our Gath-
ering and all GWRRA re-
lated events are presently
suspended until at least
April 8. We will update
you on this as time goes
on. The situation seems
to be changing daily.
Watch for news in the
weekly Happenings.
As of now (3/20) I have
not heard of any of our
GWRRA family members
affected by the virus. All of
us have been affected in
some way from the disrup-
tion in our lives. Our Cana-
dian friends have left to go
home and a number of our
Snowbirds have also left to
head north where they can
be close to their health
care professionals. While
there have been no sched-
uled activities, work is still
being done (slowly) on
Chapter event planning for
rides and our Rally so we
will be ready to go once
the situation improves.
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Ed & Dottie Bahrenburg
Chapter Director
So until then, Wash your
hands, practice social dis-
tancing and relax with
your family.
Ed Bahrenburg CD for the
Fire Balls
The legendary Hurt Re-port (1981) listed the pri-mary causes of motorcy-cle crashes. The present-day MSF Courses still use the Hurt Report findings to develop the riding cur-riculum used in their clas-ses today. In 1981 there were less than 5% of mo-torcycle being rear end-ed. It seems funny that back then most motorcy-cles had only one small tail light but getting hit from behind was not a major issue. Today most motorcycles are lit up like a Christmas Tree but are getting rear ended more often. A recent study by the Virginia Tech Trans-portation Institute with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation shows there has been an increase to 7% for motorcycles being struck from behind. We all know the reason for the increase in rear end collisions, motorcycle or cars, and that is the use of cell phones. Florida recently passed a law that makes texting while driving a primary offense. Which means an Officer can stop you if he sees you using your cell phone. However, the way the law is worded there are loop holes in it. Most Police Officers are not enforcing the new law. It was a "feel good" law without any teeth, so don't relax
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green and immediately put their foot on the gas, striking the stopped mo-torcycle in front of them. Technology for cars is getting better with warn-ing collision sensors that will automatically brake for the inattentive driv-er. Don't rely on that technology just yet. It will take many years be-fore every car behind you has that type of sys-tem. Unfortunately, we must be more on guard today than ever before for distracted drivers. Ride safe,
Dominick & Diane
Dominick & Diane DeSiato Rider Education
Distracted Drivers your guard at all thinking the new law is helping your safe-ty. When you are coming to a stop look behind you to make sure the car behind you is also slowing down to stop. Leave plenty of space be-tween you and the car you are stopping be-hind. Position yourself offset left or offset right so you have enough room to es-cape to either side of the car in front of you should you notice that the car approaching you from behind is not stopping. Don't be in a hurry to pop your bike into neutral as you normally would at a long red light wait-ing for the light to turn green. If the car behind you does stop don't relax yet. Wait until at least one more car stops behind the car behind you, giving you an extra buffer should a third car strike the second car. You’re not done relaxing yet. When the light turns green quickly look behind you to make sure the driver of the car isn't looking down at their phone. I know firsthand of crashes where the driver who was texting at the red light, looks up just long enough to see the light had turned
Do you like being differ-
ent, from your bike to
your other vehicles or to
some of the things you
enjoy doing? Just doing
things your way. But that
is not what this month’s
article is about. It is
about GWRRA being dif-
ferent from other motor-
cycle organizations, or
clubs. One of my pet
peeves is when people re-
fer to their GWRRA Chap-
ter as “our club”. I know
they do it out of affection
and belonging, not under-
standing the organization-
al meaning of the term
“club”. But GWRRA is
“NOT” a club. The term
“club” refers to an organi-
zational structure where
officers are elected by
popular vote; one where
motions are made; debat-
ed and voted on, where
as many as 49% of the
club members are unhap-
py 100% of the time. This
is not the GWRRA way.
Our officers are volun-
teers who are selected
based on qualifications
and desire, not “elected”
by popular vote or by
campaigning for office.
Decisions are made based
on the desires of the
Members, with input from
everyone. We don’t have
“power struggles” or
“empire building”, rather
we base what we do on the
wants and needs of “ALL
“of the members. The
GWRRA Chapter format is
more flexible and less for-
mal than a club format. It
is part of something big-
ger, international in scope,
with common purpose
throughout, where clubs
are more local and their
purpose or vision “blurry”
at best. GWRRA Members
are free to participate
where, and as much as
they like. Club members on
the other hand are often
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told where they can be-
long and frequently told
they must participate in
“X” number of events to
remain as members.
Sometimes, less informed
Chapter participants will try to lead the Chapter into the “club” format of operation. It is the re-sponsibility of GWRRA OFFICERS to work to-
gether and retain the non-political, non- club envi-ronment in the Chapter.
Yes, GWRRA “IS” different and I (for one) like it!!!!The more you know, the
better it gets!!
BEING DIFFERENT
Membership Enhancement
Jim & Alice Bontrager
I went cruising the internet
to see what ideas I could
find for an April article. I
decide it would be fun to
get some trivia about April
and April Fools Day. Who
knew there were 30 differ-
ent special theme days to
celebrate. Here goes;
April 1: April Fool’s Day
April 2: PB&J Day
April 3: National Chocolate
Mouse Day
April 4: World Rat Day
April 5: Caramel Day
April 6: Hostess Twinkie Day
April 7: National Beer Day
April 8: Draw a Picture of a
Bird Day
April 9: Cherish an Antique
Day
April 10: National Siblings Day
April 11: National Pet Day
April 12: Grilled Cheese Sand-
wich Day
April 13: Scrabble Day
April 14: National Pecan Day
April 15: Glazed Ham Day
April 16: National Eggs Bene-
dict Day
April 17: International Haiku
Poetry Day
April 18: Pet Owners Inde-
pendence Day
April 19: National Garlic Day
April 20: National Garden
Month
April 21: 60 Days Until the
First Day of Summer
April 22: Earth Day
April 23: National Picnic Day
April 24: Pigs-In-A-Blanket
Day
April 25: World Penguin Day
April 26: Pretzel Day
April 27: Independent
Bookstore Day
April 28: National Blueberry
Pie Day
April 29: Peace Rose Day
April 30: Adopt a Shelter Pet
Day
Here is a little trivia about
April Fools Day;
1) Which American city has an actual parade on April Fool's Day? The April Fool's Day Parade, founded by famous prankster Joey Skaggs in 1986, is now organized annually by the New York April Fools' Commit-tee.
2) Which American sitcom once aired an episode enti-tled "April Fool's Day" which was actually about Tax Day? Roseanne
3) Which famous publica-tion received a backlash for publishing an April Fool's article entitled "How to Beat Your Wife Without Leaving Marks"? the Romanian edition of Play-boy
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Rita Willis
Newsletter Editor’s March Message
30 Reasons to Celebrate in April
4) Which restaurant chain fooled the public on 1 April 1998 with the intro-duction of a fictional sandwich specifical-ly for left-handed people? Burger King released an ad for the fictitious "Left-Handed Whopper" on April Fool's Day of 1998, upon which reportedly thousands of customers went to their stores re-questing the sandwich.
5) On 1 April 1996, American restaurant chain Taco Bell tricked outsiders into believing it had pur-chased which histori-cal monument? On April Fool's Day 1996, Taco Bell put out a full-page advertisement in a number of leading newspapers to announce they had purchased the Liberty Bell (in name of reducing the nation's debt) and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell".
6) When was the last time Easter Sunday and April Fool's Day occurred on the same day? 1956 it won’t happen again
until 2029
Happy April Fools day Fireballs!
Greetings Fireballs from your chapter
Ride Coordinator.
There are no events planned for April
at this time.
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Ride Coordinator
Riding Adventures:
GWRRA Anniversary
Congratulations to
Frank & Debbie King 2005
Sidney & Monika Flood 2006
Sue Prentice 2011
Leo Soucy 2011
Rich Baxter 2013
Sidney Flood April 2nd
Eric Easton April 6th
Monika Flood April 14th
Leon & Kathy Rumohr April 29th
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In honor of Earth Day 2020
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There are lots more Photos on our
website www.lakelandfireballs.org.
Mike and Sue do a wonderful job as
our photographers, so take a look.
Now I wonder what they could be talking
about!
Now what am I suppose to do?
All kinds of goodies in that game bag!
The BINGO Master
Fireballs at our second annual spring picnic. We
had a great time at our last official Fireball
event until the restrictions are lifted.
Kenny & Debbie new trike!
Jim, Sandy and Susan were the big
winners at the March Gathering.
Visitors from Pennsylvania down for
the great Florida weather.
The prices for advertising in our Monthly Newsletter are as
follows:
(Yearly Rates)
$25—business card
$50—1/4 page
$100—1/2 page
$150—full page
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Ed & Dottie Bahrenburg
Chapter Directors
2448 Snowy Plover
Lakeland FL