Long Island Abate membership meeting, February 8th, 2022 Elks Lodge, Centereach, NY.
7:30 meeting began.
Pledge of Allegiance. Moment of silence. Welcome Members, new members and guests.
Swearing in of Board members for 2022 by Anthony Piccirillo
Motion to accept. Seconded. All in favor
Treasury report by Nick in Bill Quinn absence. Detailed income and expenditures were reported. Motion to accept Treasurer’s report. Second, all in favor.
Business
Debbie brought up lottery tickets. The amount that was taken in so far. Announced 5 winners. We are still in a positive Cash flow and the tickets are still available to the end of February for purchasing. The drawing ends June 30th. See board members to purchase tickets before the end of the month. Last year we had an almost even profit margin.
We received a check for the Veterans Fund in the amount of $250 from the AMVETS post 48 in Ronkonkoma and the Nassau County Fire Riders also donated a check in the amount of $2000 for the Veterans Fund.
Chris to members; Recap of the Christmas party at Red River. Everyone was happy. We all had a good time. One minor situation, but in the end it all turned out good.
Election results. So, everyone is aware Suzanne now is membership, and is still working alongside Nancy, who will gradually step back. Margaret will be handling the minutes tonight. She also is a new member and handling our website and login for electronic membership. We still need a Sergeant of arms. We still need a recording secretary. Recap on the car donation, we netted a profit to Long Island ABATE. We may look into doing this again.
Fundraiser events. Debbie brought up paint night. We all decided, by a show of hands, to do the Beer mugs and wine glasses. It will be held at the Bohemia American Legion and Debbie also brought up a possible chartered fishing trip for Long Island ABATE members, which would be a non-fundraising event.
Chris to members; Ron and Margaret will be working on new PSA’s for ABATE. We also have, as a reminder, the rider training classes, it’s $100. We’re hoping to find a location by April 1st of 2022 there are only 8 spots. It is for advanced riders. Diane from Big Apple is also donating a class. For every $100 donation to Long Island ABATE, you will get a certificate for the Big Apple School. We need people to write articles. About their writing experience. Also, any ideas that you may have please submit them. If any merchant members would like to be in the spotlight section of our newsletter, you will get a free ad. It’s good exposure. We have approximately 1500 active members. We would love to promote your Long Island events, so share them on our group page on Facebook. ABATE Events for 2022 are as follows – May 1st. The safety ride, June 12th the veterans run, Saturday, August 27th, is the ABATE campout and November 6th is the run to Saint Mary’s. Gary is handling the awareness run and is looking for volunteers, Josephine is handling the arrangements for the camp out and is also looking for volunteers. Please, any Long Island ABATE members who wish to volunteer at any events that we will be attending, we certainly could use the help. The handbook. We are renewing ads and the cut off for all advertisements and payment, as per Josephine is March 31st. She is also selling lottery tickets. April Bike night sponsorships will resume by Motorcycle Mayhem Radio. ABATE went to Pennsylvania and attended the seminars for the Mason Dixon chapter. It was very interesting and informative. Getting insight from other members of ABATE chapters in the United States. Rocky was there, Tiffany from AMA. Discussing the E15 gasoline issues, which does not affect New York State right now. But it eventually will. They want pumps to be labeled better for motorcycle riders. They also discussed the anti-profiling and Autonomous vehicles and how they do not recognize motorcycle riders. California has outlawed small engines. Landscaping lawn mowers, gas leaf blowers etc, New York will implement this same in 2025- a small engine ban.
Nick to members; announced the final practice locations. Again it is for licensed motorcycle riders. They will most likely be at Heckscher Park Field 7. Still setting it up with the state parks for use and also looking into SUNY Farmingdale College parking lot. He will inspect and update. Filing application for the campout.
Chris to members; is recommending and requesting volunteers for locations. Please help out and reach out to either Gary, Josephine or myself to help promote. You are all member officers, so spread the word for Long Island ABATE and the safety issues that motorcycle riders are having.
Legislation Debbie reports. We have a lot of legislative bills. She printed out a transcript of the bills and handed them out to all Long Island ABATE members in attendance of tonight’s meeting. She will also email Margaret a copy so she can post on the website. These are all the bills to date and she’s recommending that everyone when they go online to sign up to receive notifications to follow the bills. Anything to do with motorcycle safety and road safety. Also, the upcoming bikers in the Beltway…Will be May 16th and May 17th. With the help of the MRF, (the Motorcycle Riders Foundation) we will be there to help lobby on the federal level. Bills that will help the motorcycle riding community. Please, if you haven’t done so already, become a member of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation. Nick, Jim, and Chris went to the meeting last year in 2021 and we’re hoping for a better turnout in New York State as there are only a little over 30 members for our state. Debbie did a drawing for a free membership for one year to the MRF (Pat won later that night)
New products report in Kathy’s absence. We are all stocked up and ready to go. With T shirts, sweatshirts and long-sleeved shirts. Kathy is also looking into mugs and magnets and more signs.
Chris to members; We are passing the jug around for the Veterans fund. As a reminder. Long Island ABATE raised over $1,000,000 to help support our Long Island veterans’ organizations. This year’s fundraising event will only have two matching donors. So, we have to work a little harder for donations.
Nick reports on safety. He attended the New York State DOT meetings on zoom representing Long Island ABATE. He brought attention to the autonomous vehicles not being able to see motorcycle riders. He also brought up newer vehicles with the built in sensors and cameras and questioned- Why do they not see a motorcycle? Especially when they are coming to a stop at a red light and the bike is stopped in front of them. He asked the board – Does anyone have any data on that? and he was informed that they will look into it and get back to him. Everyone on the call also asked about the potholes. It was previously brought up at a news conference where Mark Wolf attended. Our New York senator was there and he got his picture taken on Mark’s bike by Ron. It was a press conference. The senator has a bill amending the potholes reporting regarding filing a claim for damage. Apparently, you can only file a claim for pothole damage to your car (or bike) if the damage happened between April and November 1st. Alexia (not sure if this is the correct name mentioned) stated she would like the current bill to be inclusive of year-round, it’s not not just problems for motorcyclists, it’s also with vehicles. December through March no claims are allowed, ironically. So, we’re pushing for support for a year-round bill. And as recent as this meeting I was at the 6th Precinct at Selden, and met with officers Pat Riley, D’Agostino and some patrolmen. The 6th Precinct patrol officers are Mr. Tedesco in car 603, Mr. Riley in car 616. Also, Nick is recommending people go to Nixle and enter your ZIP code and you will get updates either to your phone or your email. About all criminal incidents happening within your zip code. The next meeting at the 6th Precinct will be March 8th at 7:00 PM. This is an in-person meeting. It is public. If you would like to attend, please show up. The Six precinct also gave one friendly piece of advice. Do not leave keys in cars or on your motorcycle. Obviously, the new message of choice is “lock it or lose it”. There has been a huge increase in stolen vehicles in 2021. Please see Josephine as she has the handout for Nixle.
Chris to members; On a side note. I wanted to remind people that the camp out is going to be dedicated to Rosie, who recently passed away and who was instrumental in making our campouts the best. We will also be having a fundraiser in the future to honor her. So please check your emails. She had a large number of fund-raising baskets prior to her passing.
Suzanne Introduced herself. I am Handling membership and she will take care of your needs. She also has nothing else to report. Margaret updated on the website. It is still in progress. Looking for a goal to have the member login finished by the end of February.
The 50/50 raised $90.00 to the winner.
Nancy reports; Regarding the database of our membership total. We have 2706 Members in our database. Some obviously have passed and may have moved out of state, but even if you live out of state, you can still be a member of Long Island ABATE. She was very thankful to the board for all the years that she has been a board member here. She advised that she will still be on hand helping Membership and helping out sporadically when she can.
Anthony Piccirillo picked the winning 50/50 number 63027.
Chris to members; We collected from the vets jar and the car donation jug $189.00. Chris asked if any Members would like to speak.
Open Floor; Duke, who is a lifetime member, came up. Brought to the Members attention about the Ottawa truckers’ convoy in Canada. And stated maybe we should join bikers against mandates and show our support. Pat from Long Island Hog reported on their toy run and they had over 144 motorcycle riders. And $1800 went to Little flower. Also the fundraiser they did for the Stonybrook Veterans Home and thanked Long Island ABATE for our donation. And mentioned that Bill Stewart was also instrumental in helping to raise over $7000 for the Veterans Home in Stony Brook.
Motion on February 8th, 2022 to adjourn, seconded, all in favor.
Meeting adjourned around. 8:40