Chapter Meeting

Join us for our monthly chapter meeting.

Location: Steel Horse Harley-Davidson

Time: 9:00 am, come early drink coffee and talk trash

Steel Horse HOG Meeting Summary

January 6, 2024

Welcome and Pledge

Introduction and welcome of a new member, John Lo Re.  He previously was a member years ago, but has now rejoined Steel Horse HOG.  Current membership is at 39.

Emma Rayne, the new dealership Service Manager, shared that ALL members that attended the Jan 6 meeting will receive a 15% discount on parts and labor purchases made at the dealership until March 31st 2024. 

Everyone is encouraged to share their ideas about rides and events that you would like to participate in throughout the coming year.  David Bradley, our new Assistant Director, is excited about assisting with coordinating any activity for our members that will increase our riding pleasure and corresponding participation.   Keith Smith, Head Road Captain, provided his phone and email address (804-895-5031 and [email protected]) so anyone can send him any ideas about rides. He would also appreciate any help from others who can volunteer to assist with leading rides.

The Virginia Coalition of Motorcyclists (VCOM) and Tom McGrath's Motorcycle Law Group invite all interested motorcyclists to attend this year's Motorcycle Lobby Day Meeting.  This year it will be held on Sunday, January 21, 2024.  Beginning at 1:00 p.m., Virginia Coalition of Motorcyclists lobbyists will lead an informational meeting at the Courtyard by Marriott Scott's Addition, located at 3800 W Broad St, Richmond, VA 23230.  The dealership will display a poster about this event, if one can be provided. More information on this event and how to register to attend can be found here:  https://www.steelhorsehog.com/events/vcom-lobby-day-2024

John provided an update on the financial status of the chapter.  Currently we have about $6000 carried over from 2023 in our account, $3000 of which is seed money. We are projecting reaching a membership level of 80 this year that will result in additional revenue of $2000.  Projected revenue from providing volunteer support throughout the summer at events is $3000.  We have a budget of approximately $4000 for our Christmas event, which leaves us another $4000 to spend for other fun events and activities.  We encourage ideas and volunteers to organize other chapter events so we can use the money we earn for our enjoyment.  Please email any of you officers with your ideas.

Make sure you download the Harley-Davidson App to you phone and begin collecting your activity points.  You earn 100 points for checking into dealerships.  The points are worth REAL cash as you accumulate mileage for rides and dealership check-ins. 

Don’t forget to get your riding mileage recording at ANY Harley-Davidson dealership. This will allow you AND the chapter to earn recognition and rewards from HOG.  This will be the ONLY way the Chapter is tracking your mileage for the year and will be used to award riding awards at the end of the year.  This system will replace the previous years’ method of manually tracking mileage and awarding monthly gifts cards.  Emma has indicated they will make every effort to make this process easy for us.

End of the year Chapter mileage rewards will be given as follows: 1st place - $75 award to the person with the highest mileage in each of our riding categories (Male, Retired Male, Female); 2nd and 3rd highest mileage riders in each of those categories will earn $50, the next 6 highest mileage riders overall will receive $25.

We will no longer use the old HOG Bucks method for accumulating points and handing out Christmas awards.  For 2024, we will use HOGSCAN to track your points earned for participation in Chapter events and rides.  Points will be accumulated as follows:

Each ride you join earns you 10 pts – for riding on your bike (driver or passenger) or in a car
Volunteering to help out with any SHHOG activity or event will earn you 20 pts.  Examples include stepping up to be a discretionary officer, joining or leading an event planning committee, helping out with Friday Cheers, River Rock, Folk Festival, etc.
If you join/renew your SHHOG membership by 2/3/2024, you will earn 20 pts
If you attend the Chapter Challenge or attend a HOG Rally, you will earn 20 pts
End of the year awards and gifts that were previously awarded by raffle ticket drawings will be awarded to those members who earn the with highest points determined in a similar method as described by awarding mileage rewards.

John Forbes has also created a HOGSCAN tutorial video for Road Captains (Members can’t create events) to follow that will help them better navigate the system.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-y6vn2CUCw

It was confirmed that the most desired meeting time for our monthly Chapter membership meeting would remain 9 am for 2024. 

Everyone was encouraged to sign up for one of the Chapter meeting “Christmas Basket” giveaways.  The months of June, July, September and October remain available.

Reminder of upcoming Valentine’s Day dinner, scheduled for Feb 16th, 6pm to be held at Dante’s of Ironbridge Road, 10348 Ironbridge Road, Chester, VA.  Cost is $20 per person (payable to the restaurant the night of the event) and includes buffet dinner of pizza, pasta, salad and a drink.  Alcohol is available at an extra cost.   There will be BINGO and prizes!!  Sign up by 2/3/2024 to we can get an accurate count to inform the restaurant of how much food to prepare.  Please sign up only if you are POSITIVE you can attend.  If you’re unsure, just mark the date and come if you can.  We can adjust food upwards as needed, but if you sign up in advance, food will be prepared accordingly and when you don’t show up, it results in wasted food AND chapter funds because we still have to pay for projected attendees.

The 2023 Christmas party at American Legion Post 186 was a great success.  Unfortunately, to return to that site, the only available December Saturday date in 2024 is the 21st.     While this is not an ideal date, most present agreed we would like to keep the event in December vs moving earlier to November or later into January.  Once a Christmas Planning Committee is formed, they can look for alternative venues and begin more specific planning.

A list of Officer Duties, Primary and Discretionary, have been added to HOGSCAN to website under the “About Us” tab.  You are encouraged to review and consider volunteering now or in the future for a position.  We have several vacant positions for 2024 including Activities Officer, Photographer, Newsletter Office. The following positions are filled for 2024: 

Mike Currier, Director
David Bradley, Assistant Director
John Forbes, Treasurer
Kim Allan, Secretary
Les Allan, Safety Officer
Eric Patterson, Webmaster
Keith Smith, Head Road Captain