Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126986
hopeless association and therefore doesn't deserve your support. Whether anyone likes it or not we desperately need a strong, effective and successful AMA. On the national scene, it's still the only ball game in town, kinda like the NRA for the gun folks. There really is something you - yes. you the individual - can do to make the AMA as effective and responsive as so many other groups are for their constituents. In these times the last thing we can afford is infighting; the enemy. is not within. I'll be the first to agree that the AMA has not lived up to the goals and aspirations either they or you and I have desired. I belong to the AMA for the third time, having dropped out in frustration and rejoined in veined hope. In a few years I'll be an earned life member and not have to pay those silly dues anymore. Then I can continue b~tching about the AMA for free. As a member oE the AMA I've got the right to bitch and complain as well as compliment the association. But I have come to get really groveled by those who snivel about the AMA. yet refuse to join. It·s akin to rapping Ronnie Reagan or Alae Cran ton or Senator Danforth by people who didn't vote. Vou, non-member and non-voter , have the right to bitch. but I've got an authority to complain above that. o one on this globe has blasted the AMA over the years more than have I. The same goes for the local AMA district affiliate. I've usually thought I was a one person campaign and oItimes have been that. But sometimes, over the long hauL they've listened..A change here. an improvement there. The process and changes have been too slow to react to natural progress and endless unknown issues which crop up though. The one thing I've been able to key in on regarding the AMA, unlike the dozen or so other organizations I belong to, is its dreadfully poor input by members. former members and prospective members (that's everyone else in the sport). Media are deeply hesitant to write about the AMA because of the scolding they receive from the association's correspondence center. Member and clubs I've been with for over 25 years have typically expressed downright disinterest in approaching the AMA directly with their concerns because of anxiety about backlash or disregard they might receive, perceived or real. The AMA"has not done a thorough job of assessing its now and future members as do other national special intere t groups. I must get upwards of a hundred urveys along with solicitations for financial upport every year from the other ou tfi ts I belong to. I get half that many more (three are on my desk right' now) from off hoot associations who want my interest views andlor money. I respond to every single questionnaire becau e it does make a difference regarding the direction these groups take regarding my concerns. I also send off my fair share of "tax deductible" contributions too. There's really two thoughts here. One, is that I have never, ever received an questionnaire survey .(excluding the near invisible queries on the back of renewal forms) from the AMA. I could name you a dozen or a hundred or a thousands times when I've communicated with an AMA person on an issue only to discover that they know absolutely nothing about the matter. No one ever told d em. m . .1!" egg scenario, is that theirs? Secondly. I've heard more times "than memory serves about the castin-concrete, non-involved biker. He ·won·t join up. He won't get involved. He won't write a letter. He won't part with a buck. He won·t. he won't. This has corne from AMA hierarchy through industry management to imbecilic fair weather riders. Well I say that's bulJ hockey! Just look at what's happened with Cranston's Wilderness Bill and Danforth' Motorcycle Safety Act, just to name a couple. Hundreds of thousands of riders responded to politicians as well as to the media, in particular Cycle News. I see the demographic figure every day on the riding commu~ity. They're dropping thousands of dollars every year on bikes and parts and acc~ssories and service. This is disposible income, not someone's grocery money. There are no starving Ethiopians or war-ravaged Afgans or waterlogged boat people buying bikes in America. There are more than 100 magazines, newspapers and newsletters goi ng out to bikers in this country alone. By the national average, motorcyclists and ATVers and the like take home fully 50% more income than the national family average. We may well be the mo t media-informed special interest group in the U.S.A., possibly the world. We are comparably highly a££luent and literate. We're far more monetarily involved than, say, shooters or environmentalists. Guns only cost a few hundred bucks apiece and posey sniffing is free. There's possibly more bike publicatioos available than al] the gun and environmental media combined. This is all to say that the AMA needs input, yOUT opinion. After all, the AMA and its national programs represent us all whether you're a member or not. No other organization is, by design or accident. in that posi tio n. Your opinions and views, member or not, are what the AMA requires first and foremost in order to target its energies most effectively and most accurately. So instead of bitching to your buddies, sniveling at the races, complaining to your club or wh,ining to the magazines, send me a note about the AMA. Just a few words will do. What is it you want the AMA . to do for you? More political and legisJative action? More or less racing. professional and sportsman? Open an office in L.A. or Washington. DC, or ... ? Improve OUT image? Send out surveys? Open an 800 hot line? List in order, top to bonom, your priori tie . Let me know if you're an AMA member or not and if you used to be. Tell me briefly what it would take for you to join. And lastly. would you support financial contributions (tax deductible) for a legislative action division. I know it ounds like a lot. But for all of you that have bitched to me or listened to me carry on about the AMA, this may be a ripe opportunity. . You see, the AMA has asked me to get together with them. I'm not positive of their interests and motives, but I've certainly let it be known that there are lots and lots of vi tal matters regarding rider concerns we will discuss. That's where I need your help, your input. Send off your opinions and concerns to Cycle News, the AMA, PO Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90801. And keep writing to keep riding. Dave Holeman cycle prOductsWtFS5ir -~~1969 ~ ~ ~ LIMITED SUPPLYI WORLD FAMOUS CPW LOGO T-SHIRTS .-".. .-.. • ~' ".'1 , -"1 ,, ' .~~ ' Huge Inventory Of CR Parts!!!!! 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