Minutes, February 10, 2003
John McGinn, Vice President of the MooCow Bikers, opened the February 2003 meeting at 7:35 PM. Over 80 people attended this month's meeting. We had a surprise visit from several members of the Fayetteville Gold Wing Riders Association. John welcomed them and said we were glad to see this great group of folks. He invited them to continue to come to our meetings and participate in our monthly rides.
Chris Franklin gave an update on B&F facilities. Chris stated that they have about 136 "permanent" residences in the facility, and another 100+ on the emergency side nightly (because of the cold weather). They are also feeding between 150 and 200 people a day. B&F continues to be thankful for our support and asks that we help them meet some current needs with donations of: blankets, towels, hygiene products, and normal every-day stuff we all usually take for granted. He gave heartfelt thanks for the groups support, and announced he and his wife are expecting a baby boy.
Mark Trail presented the planned ride schedule for 2003. You can get a copy of these events on the website.
The next scheduled ride is March 15, 2003. Come ride with the herd to the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, Warner Robins, Georgia (just south of Macon). The ride will include a tour of the museum, the forth-largest aviation museum in the country, and lunch at a local restaurant or the museum's café. See the museum's website at http://www.museumofaviation.org for additional information.
Rex gave us a tantalizing teaser about his "mystery ride" scheduled for April. Plan on taking a picnic lunch and joining the herd for a short warm ride south. More details to be announced via Email by the Vice Cow.
If you have any suggested ride "ideas" provide the information to one of the officers or the Vice Cow at jcmcginn01@aol.com. Mark Trail remains our chief Ride Captain and primary organizer for rides. Give any info to Mark at mtrail@dch.state.ga.us.
- Next meeting dates for Calendar Year 2003 are March 10, April 14, May 12, June 9, July 14, August 11, September 8, October 13, November 10, and December 8.
The minutes for January 2003 are posted on the website at http://www.moocowbikers.org.
a. Membership: Yearly dues were due in January. All members or wanta-be members need to see John Pekarskae (jpep1977@att.net). Dues are still a low, low $15 dollars a year. John McGinn announced there is a new "three-year plan" for dues at $40 dollars, or you can obtain a "lifetime membership" for $100 dollars. Lifetime memberships are non-transferable and expire on the demise of the owner.
b. Budget/Funds: John Pekarskae provided a printed budget report for the period January through December 2002. Total donations to B&F (which includes the 2002 motorcycle raffle) were $28,531.86. January 2003 donations totaled over $1,325.
Nolan had the unique MooCow motorcycle cow helmets ready for those that ordered them last month. See Nolan if you want to purchase these one-of-a-kind items for our parade and other special event rides. He also announced the motorcycle horns can be ordered for $160. These horns promise to be the loudest available on the market!
Wayne Farr gave an update on the new 'MooCow Catalog' items soon to be for sale. You can order leather jackets or vests with the logo now. Additionally, long sleeve and short sleeve t-shirts should be printed soon. Other items include a black collar dress-type shirt, a no-collar shirt, MooCow patches, and hats. Sign-up at the next few meetings for any of these items.
No safety brief was given this meeting.
Ride Captains are reminded they are responsible for a Safety brief before each scheduled group ride. Everyone should check out the website for safety information on riding in groups, hand signals, etc. http://www.moocowbikers.org/handsignals.htm
Dan gave us a quick update on the Retreat Conference Center being built at Rome, Georgia. He hopes to have nationally known marriage movement leaders (like Dr. James Dodson, from Focus on the Family) come to speak at future planned conferences. Dan stated the center has three primary target audiences - (1) marriages in crisis, (2) marriages that want to improve the relationships, and (3) building legacy marriages (marriages that want to be more effective in their church ministries or communities). Dan asked us to keep this new endeavor in our prayers. He also asked we keep the 2,395 Chick-fil-A operators-family in our prayers as they meet in Orlando, Florida, hoping to positively impact peoples' lives.
John closed our meeting by thanking our Gold Wing guests for their visit, and reading to us from an Email he had received from a 'TQSlaughter.' It was a "God I prayed for…" poem reminding us that God is only wanting us to love others as He loves us.
_____________/signed/_________________
Dan Cathy, President