Text Box: Participating in the 5 rallies we have attended since May has been a rewarding experience and gives us an up-close view of how our Education program is performing. One thing that has stood out the most is the willingness of the District Programs to continuously make adjustments to their programs to meet the need of the members. This positive “Can Do” attitude from our District Leadership has been appreciated by the membership. We have had hundreds of members give us positive feedback about the Education program and the numbers reflect what we are hearing. Participation in the program is outstanding and continuously growing. During the Master Breakfast at the Region Rally we awarded the 2006 Region D Merit Award to six very deserving members. Each District Educator nominate two individuals/couples from their District to receive this award. The purpose of this award is to recognize their outstanding achievement to the Rider Education Program. This year the recipients of this award were: John and Laurel Kuehl, Indiana Assistant District Educators Frank and Kathy Case, Chapter Educators of IN-O2 Al and Louella Adkins, Chapter Educators for MI-G2 Dennis and Gayle Jisa, Chapter Educators for MI-E Brian and Loretta Richards, Chapter Directors for OH-Z2 Robert and Angela Williams, Chapter Educators for OH-T Congratulations to all of these recipients. We started the year by reviewing our program and looked for ways to make things easier and how to have more “Fun” participation in our program. The first thing we addressed was the paperwork and renewals. Working with the International and Canadian Rider Education Staffs, we reviewed the amount of paperwork that was being generated and how effectively it was serving the membership and program. Questions like “Why is it necessary for us to send in a renewal form for our levels when the requirements are current and no changes have been made to our information?” or “Why can’t the renewal automatically occur if the requirements are current at the 1st of the year? I found myself unable to give a good answer other than “That’s just the way things are done”, which of course is a bad answer. So the wheels started turning and changes started coming. Bob Lorenz, your International Rider Education Director, heard your concerns and in one sweeping move put the entire paperwork process on the table. Working with the Canadian Leadership and his International staff, major changes were instituted. First and foremost, all annual renewals for the levels program were suspended (dropped) Secondly, if a members requirements for his/her levels are current at the 1st of the year their status is automatically current for the entire year. Thirdly, all renewal information was dropped from the Level forms and the Update form (N.10) was redesigned to be a catch all form regarding updating the requirements for all levels. Lastly, to make all forms more electronically user friendly so they can be filled out, saved and printed from a computer. I volunteered my time to help with the solutions by recreating all of the National Rider Education forms. Thanks to Bob, his International Staff and the Canadian staff for simplifying the paperwork process. It is making our Educator’s lives easier and is greatly appreciated. One of my personal goals is to see members having fun participating in our Education program. As an Educator, MSF Instructor and avid motorcyclist, I have spent my motorcycling life promoting safe riding in GWRRA and the community. Whether it is to tune your skills in the spring after a long winter off the bike or to learn to ride for the first time, all motorcyclists can benefit from a riding course and educational seminars. My goal as the Region Educator is to touch every GW member with our riding program. I firmly believe that as Educators we are Dream Makers. We provide the opportunity for our members to get the needed instruction and training to travel the open road with confidence. Our GW ERC, Trike, Trailering and Sidecar riding courses are excellent programs and will teach individuals the mental and physical skills to minimize their risk while enjoying their motorcycling adventures. However only about 1/3 of our members actually take one of these riding courses. There are many reasons for this level of participation. Bottom line is that we need to think “out of the box” and find ways to encourage all of our membership to participate. With this in mind we decided to use the Ohio “Skills Days” this spring as a beta test for what we are calling a “Sanctioned Parking Lot Practice”. Using the “Cornering Practice Guide” for two wheels and a new GW Trike/Sidecar PLP furnished to us from National, we put on this one day event in four separate locations over a two weekend period. The results were outstanding with over 200 participants. An added benefit was that we allowed the participants to use this riding course for their level requirement. The feedback was very positive with everyone feeling like they either picked up new skills or refined their existing skills. On the 21st of this month I will be

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