Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

,; C,,-cle News Ogles Indus try Trade Associa tion and Hard Time~ By Chuck Clayton L as t week it was my privilege to sit in on a meeting of the Moto rcycl e, Scooter & All ied Trades Ass~ciatio~. 9ycle e~thusiasts ,may not know that this natio nal trade publi c relations, lobbying and deliberati ng organ i zatio n does exist. Its annual budget would about pay the o ver he ad of a small deal er' s store. 1<.,. Brother Can You Spare $60? 2 In recent years that have seen eno rmous growth of1 the motorcycle market the association's membership has decl ined to the point where thi s ye'ar it had to soli ci t deal er membe rs for a pi ti ful $60 annual d~es. It is significant that 267 motorcycle dealers across the ,U nit ed State joi ned up, knowing that they would not have, any sayso In the association, but just to help it along. Cle,arly America needs a ~ower ful voice in the behalf of good moto rcycling. All we have now IS the skeletal foundation of the MS&ATA. P a rt of the blame for this sorry state of affairs rest with the association itsel f for not being more positive and aggressive in its programs. But it' s ve ry hard to be when you know the cupboa~d ,i s bare. F a ce d with its own poverty in this time of plenty, the asso ci ation manages to take care of essential busi ness and that's about all . Keeping the Pilot Lit :: The meeting, I found out, was convened to discuss the cu rrent operating budget of the association. B ad news. At fir~t the on ly person who seemed to be enjoying the subject was Ea rl Miller, boss ,o f the e as tern Triumph operation . As the pro j ec ted ac c rual s a nd ~efic its unreeted I s ensed that , Miller, a noted accountant, was excited by the chall en ge o f this pove rty-stricken organi~ation an d confident that his a ctuarial genius woul d somehow budget It through another year. To. gether, he and Mike Bondy (BMW impo rter) dissected the costs. Walte r Da vidson look ed gl um. 'As the on l y s uc cessful Ame ncan man ufa c turer, his compan y had financed the associati on a lmost s.ing l ehand edl y through the lean pre- honda yea rs. H e woul d proba bly pi ck ~p the budg e tary t ab for another 20 years i f it meant keeping the pilo t Ii t unde r the as so ci ati on. T he re were th re e ne w face s aro und the executi ve committee table: P ete Colm an bos s of John so n Motors and BSA Weste rn, who is hiHi.ng hi s stride no'w in hi s thi rd year o f policym aki ng for the tra de aSSOCIati on, and Rox y Rockwood a fo rmer Cycle News c o lumnis~ .who no w heads up the Yama ha P ub li c Relation s de partment. 'In addi tion , Ivan Wager sat in for Cycle W orld magazine. ruary, 1969, Washi ngton, D.C .) and decided to postpone reconsideration of the deal er-associ ate- member pro gram until then (they'd optirni sti cally figu red 1,500 would have joined by now and were disappointed by what I considered a very encouraging 267) . They'd directed the association's only paid employee, P aul McCrillis, to deposit the $15,000 sent in by 'the dealers in an interest-bearing account until they decided whether to call the program a failure and send the money back,or whateve r. 'And McCrillis was to lobby in Washington to try and get moto rcycle dealers included in the same incom~ benefit package that the powerful automobile trade recently won for ItS dealers. Self-Interest Forgiv e Us Our Crudity Prospective new members should be warned that their trade associates might take some getting used to. Some swear a lot. They'll pro ba bly te ll you what they don't like about you when yo u fir s t meet them. But after a while you'll find them (most of them) reasonable men . When the great day happe ns that Honda ~ t. aI . queue ~ p ~o~ membership applications at the MS&A TA o ffice, thi s c~mpany Will lOIn. too. Meanwhile, everybody who has been touched re ading these ha rd times of th e moto rcycle tra de associ ation s ho uld please send a donation to the " Keep up the Good Work Fu nd", c/o Moto rcycle, Scooter, and ~l lied Trades Assn . ,: Wo rthington, Ohio 43085. If everybody readi ng this sends one dollar, the 1969 budget deficit will be wiped out. ' II ~ . .. ~ ~ ~AkTlt4, r~ ROJf' ON .:r W/~ JItJU W' UJ.lJN7- Bf/y O N Inter - Am. M oto-Cross Westlake VilIage , Calif. Nov. 16 & 17, 1968 lsi Sieve G oldberg - Ho daka 41h Jim Cooke - Hodaka KAWASAKI 175cc Heavy duty Fork Springs designed f or PLUS - 6 of the first 10 were riding Hodaka " WR ITE 223 W, CAMI NO REAL , MONR OV I A , CA LIF. 9 1016 <>:> ~ ..... ~ ;:; ~ al t::l t3 G Light Response, Heavy Responsibility Vb¥/~ "'I,ily A(O,fE VAP.4KESE. BEC7tJ,e S£7;S/ ~ Q" And so ou r gallant trade association struggled another step along

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