Blue Ridge Beemers

All,

Received my MOA Anonymous Book yesterday and noticed that our club information appears to be out of date. This prompted me to look at our listings with the national organizations online. Here is our listing from the BMW MOA web site's Chartered Clubs section (http://www.bmwmoa.org/club/chartered_clubs):

club: . . . . .Blue Ridge Beemers, #173 founded: 6/1/1987
contact: . . Chuck Auckerman (BlueRidgeBeemers@aol.com)
. . . . . . . . .PO Box 8081
. . . . . . . . .Charlottesville, VA 22906-8081 US
. . . . . . . . .hometown.aol.com/blueridgebeemers/
meetings: . 1st Sunday rides each month, see club website for time and location.
events: . . . Easter on the Blue Ridge, Easter weekend. Contact Steve Coburn for details 434-974-7069

Our club listing on the RA site (http://bmwra.org/clubs/) appears to be up to date.

Is it time to update our club listing with the MOA? What about charter renewal and associated fees for MOA and RA? I'll be glad to handle the MOA renewal/update, if necessary. Please let me know if our charter is up for renewal and hasn't been done yet. If someone has already taken care of it, I will gladly chip in to help cover any renewal fees. I don't know the renewal process for RA, but I'm willing to help with that as well.

I think we need to update the web site URL (change to blueridgebeemers.org since AOL Hometown has been shut down) and the "events" information, at minimum. Sadly, Steve Coburn is no longer with us according to this thread http://blueridgebeemers.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=153 (R.I.P. Steve - never met you, but wish I had). Also, I'm not sure if Chuck's contact info is correct, but it doesn't match the BMW RA listing, which appears to be more current.

Since we need to update our MOA listing anyway, I propose that we rename the event: "Easter on the Blue Ridge - Coburn Memorial Ride" and update the contact info (maybe put "see web site/forum for details" or I'd be willing take this on and we can list my phone and e-mail). We should also consider adding the ride down to Willville as an annual event since we had such a great time last year (see http://blueridgebeemers.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=325).

So, did anyone ride today? Not me. Too sloppy out there. I don't mind the cold, but draw the line at snow and ice...

-MTS

Good catch and thanks for your initiative, Mike!

I'd be in favor of an annual Willville "event" but I would defer to the more experienced (I was going to say "older") members...Chuck, Butch, etc.

I've given the MOA Chartered Club liasson the correct information with two recharterings and with e-mails each time they've put out the wrong info in the Annymous Book. I don't know what the problem is. I assume they know Steve Coburn is no longer associated with the club actively. At least the BlueRidgeBeemers@aol.com still works, but they haven't contacted us through that. I'll call the national office on the phone and see what happens.

John's suggestions for modifying Easter on the Blue Ridge sound good. The Canadians that used to organize their end no longer come down, though there are a few that do still come from Toronto. The last couple years when I contacted them, they either thought Easter was too early or were snowed in.

An annual overnighter sounds good, too. We can go to Willville or Blue Ridge Motorcycle Compground (or whatever Buzzrd Brent is calling it). Maybe two nights out and hit both.

Discuss over lunch March Second Sunday?

I think I was tempted to change some of that info when I moved to VA but didn't want to step on anyone's toes. The RA being up to date should come as no surprise.

We can give out @blueridgebeemers.org email addresses if there's a benefit. We could make the admin contact flow through that and then redirect to whatever address we want. Anyone who wants one just let me know.

AntonLargiader wrote:We can give out @blueridgebeemers.org email addresses if there's a benefit. We could make the admin contact flow through that and then redirect to whatever address we want. Anyone who wants one just let me know.

We can change the contact e-mail to admin@blueridgebeemers.org, at least. Becky the membership person at the MOA headquarters was out when I called Friday, so I still need to talk to her about updating the BRB information and can include that an e-mail change.

Late to this thread, but appreciate y'all taking care of this.
Very willing to pitch in $$ for RA and/or MOA club renewal fees.
Hope you've been able to get it corrected without too much hassle.
Thanks again.

I haven't had much success updating the info with MOA. I called the MOA national office recently and the membership coordinator there wants to wait for the renewal to make the update. I'm not sure how well that will work since I've given them updated information the last two recharter events, in addition to e-mails with corrections to the chartered club coordinator. But, I'll try again and put in a note that new club info is included.

Contribution to MOA renewal is appreciated. RA doesn't charge a charter fee if names and RA membership numbers of some BRB's are included. Maybe we can sell BRB stickers for enough to cover the stickers, MOA charter, and help with the web site hosting expense. But then we would need a treasurer!

There is a lot going on with the whole club chartering thing. BMW AG wants the umbrella clubs (the CCA, MOA and RA) to agree to some rather disagreeable terms (none have agreed yet) and then all chartered clubs will be required to use the name BMW in their own name and use the corporate-designed logo, even if they have no visual affiliation with BMW right now. Like the Blue Ridge Beemers, for instance.

For now, it's clear to me that any club which is lucky enough to not have the roundel in its logo or the term BMW in its name should refrain from chartering under these terms. There is absolutely no benefit, and the detriment is that we would get pulled into a trademark usage agreement with BMW which tends to be unilaterally rewritten every few years.

So for now, I ask that no one pursue a club charter with either the MOA or the RA. Any charters we have should be allowed to lapse before the end of 2010, which is when the new restrictions would take place.

Thanks for the update, Anton. I totally agree!

We should allow the club charter to lapse because there is no real benefit and many disadvantages with the way things are going lately. Hell, I'd much rather be out riding than dealing with the logo and trademark police. It boggles the mind that BMW AG doesn't realize that their gestapo attitude actually drives regional clubs away from the marque.

Thank god we don't actually use "BMW" in our club name or the exalted roundel in our logo. Besides, "Blue Ridge Beemers" is much better than what they would force us to use, which would probably look something like this:

• BMW
  Motorcycle Club
  Blue Ridge

Yuck!

-MTS