Dear All:
Sorry I haven't written in awhile, yes, I can hear you say, yeahhhhhhhh.
AB1047 the Motorcycle Checkpoint funding bill & AB1890 the transponder location bill are now both on Governor Brown's desk to be signed into law. He has 2 weeks from last Thursday to sign the bill. If you aren't a member of COIR, which many of us are now, or of the US Defenders, a call to action was asked for letters to be written & sent, hand delivered, faxed or emailed to Governor Brown for his support of these bills.
Prior to contacting Governor Jerry Brown, please review our FAQ section – there you’ll find answers to common questions asked of the Governor. gov39mail/mail.php When you fill out the form, only AB1890 will be in the drop down menu today, so on the 2nd page please type in that you are also in support of AB1047 authored by Kevin Jeffries.
You may contact Governor Jerry Brown by mail at:
Mailing address:
Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Due to limited resources, responses to inquiries via mail may take up to 90 days. If you would like a more timely response, please use the email form below.
Here is the Governors contact info: http://govnews.ca.gov/AB1890 is the Transponder location bill authored by (Jose Solario) & AB1047 is the Motorcycle Checkpoint funding bill authored by (Kevin Jeffries). Both are assembly bills which made it to the Governors Desk.
PLEASE SEND A LETTER OR LETTERS TO GOVERNOR BROWN in support of these two bills. Please include in your emails, or letters or the form page your name, address, telephone # & email address so that you can receive return letters from the Governors office. If you have letterhead, please by all means send your letters with letterhead.
Each individual can represent themselves as well as the amount of family members or club members in your organizations.
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Damsels in Defense are planning on returning to our next meeting on July 19th......Trish Romandia will be talking about their products, and will have stuff to sell.
Thank you to all members who joined COIR at the last meeting.
Thank you to all of you who got donations for our membership raffle. We collected $148 & money has been received at the state office. We have some pretty good fast talkers who do a great job of marketing ABATE for us.
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Last weekend, or I should say for 5 days, Lenny, Ron Delano & myself were security for the Elk Grove fireworks display. Ron received a free MMA membership by coming out to help us out.
On our first night there, Gus Alvarez, came by to say hello & he & I discussed working together as a team for both ABATE & MMA on putting together a local joint effort fund raiser. He also suggested I contact one of the clubs to put on a fund raiser just for ABATE. Gus & I would like to do some type of a run where there's a party at the end of the run.
I also spoke with Rod Grenier about legislation, and he came up with a good idea about contacting Caltrans to run an ad twice a day during each rush hour & state that motorcycles, hybrids/electric/gas vehicles are also allowed to be in the HOV (diamond) lanes and for all vehicles to allow them access to these lanes, not to forget looking out for them as well.
You can send the information to their website: http://www.dot.ca.gov/compliment.htm Type your information in the square & you will receive a response if you enter your name & email address & telephone number as well. Ruby, please forward me the other contact info so I can forward it on to our members.
Rod & I discussed other issues he'd like to work on as a joint effort as well. Rod Grenier will soon be the new acting lobbyist for MMA, taking over Jeff Rabe's position. Rod is now a certified lobbyist and wants to work with ABATE as much as MMA can.
Over the past year I was told that MMA was to work with us on legislative processes. Well, to start with I received most of the signatures of support from MMA when I went to the meetings. Many people do not like writing letters themselves, but are willing to sign a petition or signature of support as we call them. MMA supported us with over 700 signatures of support for our bills this past year. Division 10 members who never knew me that first night I got up to speak, all now know me as the person with the pen & forms. I would say that 85% of those members came forwarded and signed the forms without me guilt tripping or begging anyone to do so.
This is MMA's way of supporting our bills. It might not be the type of support many want, but it's a start. Plus at the rally, both ABATE, MMA, independents, and club members got up to speak in January in support of several bills. We packed the assembly transportation room with bikers. MMA helped make our presence known.
I'd like to see for the next session, more attendance by MMA members as well as ABATE members at the Capitol. One MMA member can represent 7,000 MMA members I was told. And one ABATE member can represent 2000 members. I most recently represented 9,000 bikers from the state of CA at several hearings.
Both organizations work on legislative issues. Since MMA does support our efforts, we need to show that we support theirs as well. We need to keep our personal differences out of politics and work together for the good of all bikers. Because isn't that why we have these two MRO's in the first place?
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Our next meeting will be July 19th, 2012, at Denny's restaurant. 7:30p.m. sharp. Don't forget our raffle prizes for gifts. And I am asking now for $1 donation each week to go into our treasury from each member. Not a mandatory thing, mind you, just a donation to build up funds for a Local 25 campout.
ABATE is an organization that represents all types of motorcyclists whether you ride a motorcycle or not. We fight for bikers rights for our Freedoms as adults. We also have a Junior program for 15 year olds to adulthood, sponsored by Richard Lester, Attorney at Law, AIM/NCOM.
Membership is not necessary to attend our meetings, but for benefits you will need to become a member. In order for your vote to be valid, you must also be a paying member. $40/single/yr.-----$60/couple/yr.
This newsletter by email is free to all who attend our meetings. We also have products that we sell, and they can be purchased from our main office. I will soon post pictures of them in the upcoming newsletter. In order to buy newer & more different products, we need to sell the ones we already have.
The next state meeting will be July 21 in Hesperia. It will be at this meeting that the $250 raffle ticket will be drawn from the membership raffle.
The state party will be in September in Kernsville & we will be donating, 5 items from Local 25. So let's decide at the next meeting just what it is we want to donate. I say we donate the Local 25 Capitol tee shirts, not the state shirts. And not the toys either.
However we can donate other products instead. We have someone who works for Campbells who we could pay to get us a case of energy drinks to donate to the raffle; or our very own jams & jellies lady to make up batches of her different products & pay her for her time & effort; but these are just a few of my own suggestions.
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We also need to nominate & elect an events coordinator. I'd like to nominate Linda G for this position. She has already taken it upon herself to try to find places for our events. She has great enthusiasm & lots of help as well. Another position needed is a products coordinator. Someone to promote our products & sell them at our meetings or swapmeets. This person would work with the treasurer on collecting and banking the money.
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One more bill that has passed the Senate is AB2405 this is the bill that states that Hybrids/electric/gas vehicles are also ok to drive in the HOV lanes & HOT lanes with only one person in the vehicle, unlike most vehicles need to have 2-3 persons inside of them, except for motorcycles. This bill has also gone to the Governor's desk for approval. So we need to start sending more letters so that Motorcycles are ok is added to these signs again.
Assemblywoman Shannon Grove has told one of our members she has in her possession close to 1000 copies of tickets from bikers who have ridden in the HOV lanes. Tickets given by CHP who should know very well that motorcycles are still allowed in the HOV lanes. Our lobbyist Jim Lombardo was supposed to look into this at her office. I haven't heard back from him on that as of yet.
I have contacted Mark Temple, from BOLT, about this & to let him know I will try to find out any information I can so that he & BOLT can work on getting these tickets dismissed.
BOLT = Bikers of a Lesser Tolerance. If you get helmet tickets or HOV lane tickets, BOLT is the organization to contact as they will fight to get these tickets thrown out of court for you.
Hoping to see most of you at the next ABATE meeting. Remember, you don't have to belong to ABATE to come to our meetings.
The July Bailing Wire is online this month at http://abate.org/Newsletter.aspx/
Rebel Ruthi Ranting & Raving............
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"Rebel" Ruthi Wolfson, RN, BSN, TNS, LNC
Legal Nurse Consultant
President
ABATE of CA - Local 25 - Sacramento
Meetings 3rd Thursday of each month: 7:30 p.m.
Denny's Restaurant
3520 Auburn Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95821
https://mail.google.com/mail/h/bgi9yorcojjb/?&v=b&cs=wh&to=abate.ca.local25@gmail.com
