NAHA Spring 2003 Newsletter

 

Hillclimbers- As you all know the last news letter carried with it a ballet that was use to finalize a few issues brought up at the NAHA riders meeting last fall in California.  The results concerning your choices for new board members and the actions you wanted to see take place concerning timing lights, promoter contract, pro-class restructure, and numbering systems were posted through a message on the MSN community web site.  There are three members that have excepted your votes as board member and are willing to sit on a board to help put into place and take actions needed to address the items you’ve voted for. 

 

Just to recap these are the results from the elections and survey: 

§         Jordy Smith, Jeff Barger, and Kevin Bromenshenk have accepted seats on the board in response to your nominations. 

You voted in favor of:

§         Buying timing lights with membership dues.

§         A Contract/questionnaire between the NAHA and Promoter as a written agreement.

§         Reducing the 250X class to an Amateur class only and run the 0-600tire, 601-Open old timers on Saturday and 0-700Exhibition, 701-Open Exhibition, 701-Open Old Timers, and seniors on Sunday.  This could very at each event per promoters program agenda.  Bottom line we don’t have to ride a 250ex bike for overall points.    

§         Keeping the numbering system that changes your placement at the end of every year and has three categories, Professional Competitor, Old Timers, and Seniors. 

 

With that said we are pursuing the purchase of timing lights that were recommended by Pete Loomis.  Attached are the specifications on the lights and a cost break down.  To cover these costs, we will each have to absorb a small amount through our membership fees.  The timing lights with a carrying case and upgraded batteries are $3,839.00.  We have roughly 85 members.  We will use the $20.00 from the dropped 250ex class that we all paid for last year and put that towards these lights.  It will take (2) years at that rate to pay off the timing lights.  The other 1919.50 would come from the NAHA checking account this year and be reimbursed by the membership fees next year. This doesn’t address a computer system to gather the data.  

 

Membership Dues are as follows:

§         $40.00             Associate Members (Applies to those who want voting rights but don’t ride and for riders that participate in non-point trophy events only) 

§         $50.00             Senior Pro-Members (Applies to Seniors over 50 years of age) Seniors is not limited to receiving points in Seniors classes only.              

§         $60.00             0-600 & 0-700 Pro-Members (Applies to riders that are under 50 years of age and choose to only ride and receive points in 0-600 & 0-700ex classes)

§         $80.00             All Class Pro-Members (Applies to riders that are under 50 years of age and choose to ride and receive points in 0-600 & 0-700ex, 601-open, 701-open ex,) Please fill out the attached form and check a membership category that fits you.

Membership Dues received at or after the first event, will have an extra $20.00 added to your total.  So get your membership dues sent back ASAP.    

 

Members will not receive the chrome 6” numbers from the NAHA this year as the board has decided that it wasn’t a good value for our dollar.  Most of the time the numbers would come off and we would have to spend more replacing them.  All members will purchase their own numbers and will run them on all three numberplates.  The numbers should all be black on white or (polished metal) backgrounds.  Riders with one digit numbers are encouraged to purchase the 8” super cross pro-style numbers.  Riders with two digits run 7”and riders with three digits run 6” numbers.  We still want to look professional and unified.  Therefore, this is not a license to create new fonts or choose not run numbers at all.  The requirements are that you run 3 numberplates on each bike, purchase black super cross pro-style numbers, from a dirt bike graphics manufacturer, in a size that fills up your number plates.

 

So what do you get for being a member of the NAHA?  That’s question that seems to come up frequently.  It may not seem like much but you do get the something for your membership fees. 

1.                    You are a part of an organization that contains the world’s best hillclimbers.  If you’re a competitive hillclimber who thrives on competition and likes to see how you measure up against the best around, the NAHA is a good organization to be a part of. 

2.                    Your money goes towards the promotion of hillclimbing the way we like to see hillclimbing done…. On naturally steep hills with difficult ledges, jumps, and bumps, mixed in with speed to promote riders' abilities beyond their imaginable limits.  That’s done in the form of paying people from Fox, Cycle News, and Dirt Rider Magazine to come see and report on our events to give it exposure.  This hasn’t been the most popular form of hillclimbing but more and more each year these types of promotions help motivate new people into the sport in some way shape or form.  As a result of investing money and contacting Fox Sport last year, they have already expressed their interest in coming to (3) hillclimbs this year and making (2) ½ hour shows. 

3.                    Your points are tallied and are kept track of all season long by the NAHA and you get to see results on the web site and through mailers.  The following year you run a number you know was earned riding against the best riders around.  It’s the intent of this board to report points on the web site no later than two weeks after the last event.  It’s important that you may see your progress through out the season.  Along with that you will have newsletters sent to you twice during the season to keep us all informed.     

4.                    This year your money will go toward buying a new timing light system, which will have a reader board for your pit crew and all the fans to see as your ride is taking place.  There won’t be any question on the validity of any time, as all will see it as it happens. 

5.                    Also this year it is the intent of this board to reinstate the issuance of numberplate awards at the end of the 2003 season.  There are basically six achievements we have the opportunity of working towards.  We think it’s important to most that at least the top ten in each category be awarded with a commemorative plastic number plate signifying how you placed.  The categories are as follows: Overall, 0-600 rubber tire, 0-700 Exhibition, 601-Open Rubber Tire, Open Exhibition and (Seniors top 5).  It’s not much but at this time we don’t have much.  For now it’s better than nothing.

6.                    Last but not least you get a very nicely laminated membership card.   

 

The board has met a couple of times prior to this newsletter and the community web site came up in our conversations. This could be its final year.  So consider the community web site on probation.  First of all, up to this point there have been some rather dramatic exchanges on this site.  Please remember anyone and everyone views the community web site.  It doesn’t do you or the person your trying to address any good to air grievances in a forum where many others can read and form uninformed opinions on the situation.  If someone says something that offends you, reply or talk to that person directly and settle your differences one on one. Second, because of the alias nicknames, a lot of the time, most of the readers don’t even know who you are as they read your thoughts.  It seems the alias names are a bit of screen for people to hid behind while saying what ever comes to their mind at the time.  Try and write as if you had to look that person in the face as your saying it.  If you don’t have a problem speaking face to face to someone, then clearly identify yourself beyond just you nickname.  It’s not that we don’t want people to voice questions, come up with solutions, post news, answers and other interesting information.  But I think most would agree we don’t like reading arguments between members.  It boils down to two requirements 1) identifying your self clearly by changing your profile which will clearly identify yourself  2) treat others with respect.  If those two small standards can’t be up held, the community chat on the web site is gone next season. 

 

Schedule is as follows pending questionnaire results: 

§         California State Championship, Tracy, California April 5 & 6

§         Widowmaker Hillclimb, Croydon, Utah June 21 & 22

§         Great American Hillclimb, Billings, Montana July 26 & 27

§         Montana State Championship, Billings, Montana September 20 & 21

§         Skip’s at Carnegie Fall Event Tracy, California October 18 & 19

 

The board will be working on updating the NAHA rules to reflect the changes you voted on.  The rules will be posted on the web site.  We are open to any volunteers to help get this done.     

 

It’s also time to post our top riders’ information on our web site.  Please send to Ken James as he is in charge of the web site.  If you’ve done this before, please follow the same procedures as last time to get this information to Ken.  If you haven’t, call another rider that has and get help from them.         

The NAHA rules currently state that it recognizes Amateur classes.  However, we haven’t been keeping track of the points.  Is there someone else out there that would like to pick this ball back up and run with it? They would join the board and their task would be to promote and keep track of points for Amateur classes.  If not, we shouldn’t say we will in the rule book and that statement should be removed.  If you are interested please contact Jordy Smith, Jeff Barger, or Kevin Bromenshenk.

 

Last we are developing a questionnaire that will quiz the promoter on their event.  There will be key items on that questionnaire that will determine if the NAHA will issue points for that event.  Key items being:

1.                    Must come up with fair negotiated pay out to the riders.   $10,000 isn’t enough.  However, in the best interest of the riders we are not setting a minimum.  Potentially if a minimum is put into effect, all hill climbs could in fact only have to meet that minimum and never exceed it.  Each hill climb will be reviewed by the board and decided among the three to five whether or not its becomes a points event. The board’s decision will be weighed on how many years the event has been in place, location of the hill, and the condition of the hill.  The following will also assist in the board’s decision.  

2.                    Is the promoter going to advertise their event?  If so how?  Radio, TV, flyers, bike shops, word of mouth, billboards, remotes?

3.                    Are there facilities near by to accommodate the riders?   

4.                    What is the potential draw for spectators?

5.                    What will the Entry Fees be?

6.                    Will the flyers have the purse amount clearly written on it? 

7.                    Will the payout be broke down and show exactly how each place will be paid at the time entry forms are sent out?

8.                    Will they agree to use our timing light system?

9.                    Will they share a percentage of the gate moneys towards pay out?

10.                 Will they use the NAHA rules to govern their event?

 

The board will weigh out the answers to these questions and will decide which of the above events will be NAHA points events. We are not a union so nobody is asked to boycott events.  However the less we band together to on this issue the more we will have to swallow from what is handed to use at future events.  Local riders can make up there own minds on what to do for hillclimbs in their back yards.  However its not fair to tag all events as NAHA points and virtually force riders to travel for a chance at such small pay backs.  Remembering back on what was said at the meeting last fall?  The majority of us wanted a means of monitoring us going to quality events.  It is our hope that we can preview ever promoter’s event before it happens in order to give us all that choice. 

 

Please do what you can to encourage promoters in anyway possible.   The NAHA members should not be above taking an extra step to help promote events. Some ideas that come to mind are:

1.        Local Members could hit the bricks and hand out the promoter’s flyers in your area.  To motorcycle shops, car dealerships, grocery stores, convenience stores, etc….

2.        If the questionnaire meets the NAHA needs they should guarantee the promoter a good turn out of riders from our club.

3.        A local NAHA representative could personally visits the promoter and talk about the riders in order to promote the value NAHa riders can bring to their event.

4.        Any NAHA member with a contact should approach large sponsors to sponsor events and promote their product.  This could be used as the NAHA’s sanctioning body in a sense.  A big sponsor willing to be a part of an event, who has some stipulations, will be the leverage the NAHA needs to force promoters to put forth the effort to have a successful event.  

 

Other ideas on how to do this are always welcome…

 

Best of luck to everyone this year.  Look forward to seeing you at the hill.

 

Your NAHA Board.