February 2013 SWAP MEET! SWAP MEET! T—Minus TWO Months and Counting! SWAP Meet The ABATE of Georgia State is coming to Griffin Ga. April 6th and 7th (more information on pages 32-33) Fighting for the rights and education of every Georgia motorcyclist February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER STATE OFFICE ADDRESSES Advertising Fees www.abatega.org (Mailing Address) ABATE OF GEORGIA, INC. Website 115 1 Month P.O. BOX 116 Newsletter Austell, GA 30168 Phone: (770) 881-7438 Fax: (770) 234-4177 Business Card ABATE OF GEORGIA STATE OFFICERS 2012-2014 Term Black & White Term in Months State Director (404) 324 –2037 $ 40.00 1 Ned Williams E-mail [email protected] $ 110.00 3 $ 200.00 6 Legislative Director James F/ Trucks E-mail [email protected] 1/4 Page Treasurer Black & White Term in Months Gary Bonds (404) 915-8778 Email: [email protected] $ 70.00 1 $ 200.00 3 Membership Director (706) 217-8317 Heidi Stockwell $ 360.00 6 Email [email protected] $ 660.00 12 Asst, Membership Director $ 1 One Month Member Memorial Ann Crenshaw (229) 924-7449 Email [email protected] 1/2 Page Black & White Term in Months Sgt. At Arms Dave Woodruffe 678-778-9646 $ 125.00 1 Email: [email protected] $ 360.00 3 Activities Director POSITION OPEN $ 660.00 6 $ 1,200.00 12 State Secretary Ann Turner (770) 881-7438 $ 2 One Month Member Memorial Email [email protected] Full Page Black & White Term in Months Director of Education $ 225.00 1 Dr. Sue Duggan (706) 333-3171 $ 660.00 3 Email: [email protected] $ 1,200.00 6 Webmaster $ 2,200.00 12 Bill Mattison [email protected] $ 3 One Month Member Memorial A.B.A.T.E. Legal Advisor Steve Murrin (404) 221-0777 Ads Must Be Received in digital format or ready to scan by the 10th of the month, accompanied by full payment, to be printed in the next issue. Credit card payments are welcome. Ads must be paid in advance to receive the multiple ad discount rate. If you wish, we can lay out your ad for you for an A.B.A.T.E. State Chaplin additional $25 charge plus any reasonable costs. Additional charges and services offered at the discre- Wade Warnock (CMA) (678) 271-2860 tion of the editor. Please allow additional lead time for all ads that we must lay out. Payment must be received in advance for ad renewals. If not you will lose the discounted multiple ad rate and the account will revert back to monthly prices. Make your check or money order payable to A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia, Inc. Send to: A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. P.O. BOX 116 Austell, GA 30168 Call the State Office @ 770-881-7438 for more info. A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia, Inc. All rights reserved. This newsletter is published monthly and distributed throughout the state of Georgia as well as to other motorcycle organizations nationwide. A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia accepts no re- sponsibility for the comments or opinions from reprinted materials contained within this publication. We welcome your news, opinions, comments, com- plaints, and suggestions on Motorcycle related issues. All articles must in- clude your name and address. We do not accept slanderous, accusing letters; profanities (photographic or written); non-A.B.A.T.E. related letters. A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia reserves the right to refuse or edit any article, photo, letter, or advertisement that is decided is not in the best interest of the organiza- tion or its members. 2 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER ATTENTION ABATE OF GEORGIA MEMBERS If you have had trouble with your member card, a pin or a patch A new hotline has been set up to make sure your issue is addressed Please call the membership hotline At (678) 753-6018 (The hotline is monitored during business hours 7 days a week. Calls made after hours will be returned the next business day 3 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER Some of A.B.A.T.E.’s accomplishments over the years: WHAT IS • Successfully lobbied for legislation that created the Georgia A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, Inc.? Motorcycle Safety Program (GMSP), our state’s rider education program that is available to all. • Lobbied to have legislation passed to modify the existing manda- The letters “A.B.A.T.E.” stand for tory helmet law to allow adults age 21 and older freedom of choice as to the wearing of a helmet. American Bikers Active Toward Educa- • Successfully lobbied for legislation leading to the repeal of the tion. A.B.A.T.E. is composed of motor- Georgia law prohibiting use of speakers or headphones while riding a motorcycle. cyclists from all areas of the state, from • Fought and stopped legislation introduced in the 1992 Session of the Georgia General Assembly that would have made it illegal for all walks of life, and who ride all makes kids age 10 and under to ride as passengers on motorcycles. • of bikes. A.B.A.T.E. is not a club, it is a Established May as “Motorcycle Awareness and You” month through a proclamation signed by the Governor and through non-partisan politically active organiza- resolutions passed by the Senate and House each year. This is an annual effort that raises public awareness of motorcycles. tion working on motorcyclist’s rights. • Successfully lobbied legislators to approve increased funding for We are affiliated with national rights the Georgia Motorcycle Safety Program, in the amount of $170,000 after the license tag rate was raised on all vehicles to groups like the American Motorcy- $20. • clist Association (AMA), the Motorcy- Successfully stopped proposed legislation that would have increased the size of motorcycle tags. cle Riders Foundation (MRF) and the • Successfully lobbied for handicapped tags for motorcycles without further enabling legislation, by bringing it to the attention of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists Department of Revenue that the code section was written in such (NCOM). a way that it was already authorized. • Successfully lobbied for antique tags for motorcycles in the 1998 legislative session. • Our main focus is to keep motorcy- Established a 15 District organization that has led to more participation locally, while raising our membership statewide. The cle legislation in its proper perspec- more members we have, means the more clout we have at the State Capitol. tive. Many restrictive laws are enacted • Sponsor and promote the largest Swap Meet/Bike Show in by uninformed legislators. A.B.A.T.E.’s Georgia, 5 times a year. • Successfully forced prosecution of a trucker who, while making an goal is to keep our lawmakers informed illegal turn, killed fellow motorcyclist Mark Bonner. • of our members collective position on Successfully lobbied to pass the “Frank-Lee” (ROW) bill to enhance penalties to those who cause death or serious injury to a Motorcycle related legislation. motorcyclists by failing to yield the right of way. • Successfully lobbied to pass the “Tag/Title” bill SB-437 that allows Preventing unfair legislation from be- for registration of kit/assembled bikes. Signed by Governor Purdue coming law is easier than fighting to get May 14, 2008. the law repealed. Your benefits as a member of A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia: Organized lobbying of State and Federal legislators to make your Rider education and public aware- views on motorcyclist rights known to your Representatives. ness of motorcyclists are goals of Current information on all motorcycle related legislation and where your legislators stand on the issues that affect your motorcycling A.B.A.T.E.. We are not against the rights and freedoms. Monthly newsletter with legislative updates, event dates and wearing of helmets, and we encourage places, and information Membership card, patch, and one year pin for new members. all riders to ride safely. An informed and Yearly pin for renewals. educated rider is a safer rider. Helmet Admission discounts at most A.B.A.T.E. events around the state, including ALL State Swap Meets. laws do nothing to prevent an accident, Discounts at many motorcycle shops and dealers around the state Personal satisfaction of joining your brothers and sisters in pro- and a helmet only provides the illusion moting the great sport of motorcycling while supporting your right to ride by participation at State and District meetings, toy runs, blood of safety, while rider education is drives, camp-outs, bike shows, swap meets, etc. proven to prevent accidents and save Spiritual consultation with the Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) for ride prayers, weddings, and visitation. lives. A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, Inc. IS A TEAM EFFORT WE WELCOME ALL RIDERS, ALL BRANDS 4 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER Ned Williams, State Director It’s February now and we are already tracking legislation motorcyclists in Georgia need to be aware. Informa- tion will be coming out as quickly as we get it but the fight for equal treatment on Georgia roads as already back in sessions at the State Capital.. That said I am sure many are asking one question…”WHERE WAS MY JANUARY NEWSLET- TER?” In short we were unable to print them. Last month, ABATE began an effort to distribute our newsletter at 65 locations through out the state in hopes of exposing Non Members to both ABATE of Georgia and the State Swap Meet which will continue to reside on the front page of the newsletter until we make this event a total success. The increased load on our printer of printer newsletters for distribution and for our members caused our printer to fail in such a way that our printer vendor, Konica Minolta took from December 17th until Janu- ary 8th, as a result we were able to print the newsletters for distribution, but as we began to print the newslet- ters for members the printer failed and we were unable to print newsletters until January 8th, we did manage to print flyers for the Swapmeet but the success rate of any print jobs before the final repair was hit and miss. However the printer has been serviced and we are functioning at full steam. As many know we are working full steam on getting ready for our state swap meet, by now each district has in its possession the first package of swap meet flyers and vendor forms. Please do you best to distribute the fly- ers around your district. The Swap meet Volunteers headed by Frank Hapgood(D6) , Don Whitlow(D6) and Paul Kerr(D6) are working non stop at this point signing up vendors, lining up entertainment and working with the Fairgrounds to make sure everything is on track. On top of their efforts, there were 25 attendees at the first Swap Meet Organizational meeting where many details of the swap meet were discussed. Please if you as a member of ABATE and you want to volunteer, please contact Dave Woodruffe our State Sergeant at Arms, as he is organizing personal for the Swap Meet, we need everyone to make this event a success. Also, we hope to soon begin getting answers back from our elected official survey to see who at the state capital is ready to work with ABATE of Georgia as well as show us which of the people at the capital stands with Georgia’s mo- torcycling citizens. To recap last month, since most did not see the newsletter, the survey of ABATE members was completed as follows: The results were as follows, On the question of should ABATE of Georgia continue to fight against Motorcycle only Checkpoints, 100% stated yes we should. On the question of should ABATE continue the fight for House Bill 161, commonly known as the red light bill, 68% said yes we should On the question of should ABATE fight this year for increased penalties for drivers who injure or kill a motorcyclists, 95% said yes we should On the question of should ABATE work towards legislation to allow Lane Filtering in our state, 73% said yes we should We will be using these results to direct our legislative focus in the coming Legislative session. 5 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER (770) 979-7999 HTTP/www.garage71.com (770) 979-7999 6 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER Closed Districts are a complete loss to ABATE of Georgia. Districts 10, 12 and 14 need to be reopened and made productive once again. These Districts closed for different reasons and for the most part they still have a membership base. If you have friends or family members in those areas please talk with them about reactivating the districts so we can continue with the growth we need in order to accomplish the fight for our rights. I have made an effort to contact those that have an e- mail address however a friend’s request is much more likely to have an impact in getting this done. It only requires 3 officers to open a district. One must be the District Coordinator and the other must be a Treasurer and the third can be any position. Make the phone calls and see what we can accom- plish. District Coordinator Contact Information District 1st Name Last Name Phone # EMAIL 1 Heidi Stockwell 706-217-8317 [email protected] 1W Terry Simmons 706-313-2006 [email protected] 2 Anthony G Love 706-754-8517 [email protected] 3 Dave Woodruffe 678-778-9646 [email protected] 4E Paula LaValley 678-231-9942 [email protected] 4S Rod Hargrove 770-363-4515 [email protected] 4W Jon Lambert 404-3682093 [email protected] 5 Michael Mustain 404-229-4022 [email protected] 5/N Joe Harris 770-921-5238 [email protected] 6 Don Whitlow 770-294-7640 [email protected] 6-2 David Putnam 678-481-4124 [email protected] 6-3 Jim Blessitt 770-235-9642 [email protected] 7 Lay Jester 478-319-4013 [email protected] 8 Nancy James 706-592-1015 [email protected] 9 Ronald Foxworth 706-681-1694 [email protected] 9-2 Al Harper 706-884-9498 [email protected] 11 David Jackson 912-441-7586 [email protected] 13 Joseph Neese 229-567-0973 [email protected] 15 Stephanie Cruwys 912-269-6500 [email protected] 7 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia District Boundaries 1W: The Fourth Monday of each month at the 1:1st Tuesday of the month at the 2: 1st Sunday of the month 2:00pm, Location Dari Dip on Villanow St. Lafayette. Meeting Logan’s Roadhouse 2140 East Walnut alternates every other month: El Jinete Mexi- starts at 6:30pm Avenue Dalton, GA can Restaurant in Clarkesville, GA or Lo- rena’s in Dawsonville 4S : Solutions Bar and Grill, 2040 Sylvan Rd, 4E : 1st Wednesday of the Month 7PM, Con- Atlanta fetti’s Bar and Grill, 6470 Spalding Dr. Norcross, GA 30092-4656 5N: third Tuesday of the month 7PM at Cycle 3 The Watering World 4225 Atlanta Highway ,Athens hole ,Tri County Ga Plaza 451 W Bankhead HWY Villa Rica 1st 5 : 7:00PM 2nd Tuesday Sunday of each of the Month at 5 O’Clock month at 2:00 pm Somewhere 7189 Turner Lake Rd Covington Ga 4W :1st Sunday at 12:30pm at Red’s 8: Last Sun- Timbers, 730 Con- day of the cord Rd. Smyrna Ga. month @ 2pm at Road Runner Cafe, 2508 Peach Orchard Rd. 6/2: the 1st 6 :1st Tuesday (Rt. 25), Thursday of of the month Augusta the month at at 7:00 PM at 7PM @Jekyll The Grove Bar and Hyde's, and Grill, 7: 1st Sunday of HWY 29 4681 Bill the month at 2:00 North, New- Gardner PM at AP's Hidden nan Pkwy., Hideaway on Broadway in 9: 1st Tuesday 9/2: 3rd Mon- Macon of the month at day of the 7:30 PM at Month at 6 Player’s on 54th pm Los Na- St. Columbus. opales Res- 11: 2nd Sunday of taurant 382 the month S. Davis Rd. at 3:00 PM Lagrange, Ga at The Redleg 6/3: 1st Monday of Saloon every month at Savannah, 7pm at Big Daddys GA Oyster Bar,101 Crossings E # 3, Peachtree City, GA 15: 1st Sunday of every month at 2PM at Toucans Ale House 2450 Perry Lane 13: Meets 1st Sunday of Month Road Brunswick, GA 31525 @2PM at The Henry T. Elrod Welcome Center 100 Washing- ton Ave. Ashburn, Ga 8 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER 9 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER Motorcycling and the Law In this new twelve part series, ABATE of Georgia General Council, Steve “Irish” Murrin will be examining the current state of the law and how it effects motorcyclists. Check in each month as Steve provides insight in to this sometimes murky subject relationship between bikers and the law. Episode One State of the Helmet Law in the US and Georgia - Part II Steve Murrin, Esq.-American Biker Lawyer General Counsel to ABATE of Georgia, Inc. I write this text free of a helmet, my head un cluttered (in and out) but for woolen driver’s cap, a Christmas gift from my wife Yvonne. I’m not traveling by bike but by Amtrac, “Empire State Line”, running 75 miles an hour along the east banks of the grand Hudson River. So be- gins Part II of the HELMET LAW series for ABATE readers. As the train rushes north towards the blue hew of distant mountains we leave the big apple behind and things slow down (and get cheaper)! I’m heading to my summer place and I have a few relaxing days of ‘writing time’ to extrapolate the definitive explanation of “Georgia’s” helmet law development and status. I take my studies from my collection of Georgia legislative notes, personal interviews, internet research, The Official Code of Georgia and its Annotations and Georgia case law as well as from what memory I can conjure. In a contrived effort to be overly dramatic, I must state that as with all things sans the creator we have not always had a helmet law. We have had a helmet law here in Georgia now and have had it since 1962. That’s older than me, but not by much! Our current helmet law in Georgia was introduced to the House as Bill number 713 by a repre- sentative ‘Kidd’ in 1961 and it read “No person shall ride upon or operate a motorcycle on the highways or roads of this State without wearing upon his head a crash helmet of a type desig- nated by the Director of the Department of Public Safety of this State.” The bill also pre- scribed specifics on seating for motorcyclists and their passengers. I do not know this “Kidd”, but I can state with clarity – I do not like him!! The law passed the Senate on January 24, 1962, was signed by the Governor in March and went into effect July 1 of that year. The odd part is that the law as written had no provision for penalties for violating it and was basically ignored by law enforcement. It was not until ’69 that it was amended to include penalties and money got involved. That’s 7 years of inaction. You know what happens when money gets involved? Yea, you guessed it, enforcement began! Then between 1969 and 1982 there were few adjustments to the helmet law in Georgia, nothing earthshaking. Substantive changes came after ’82 and before then not much more than safety ‘declarations’ and public service an- nouncements from the Governor and the Legislature. Some amendments stricter and looser all died on the vine before passage. Much of the records evidencing these minor machinations have been lost to time as this was before electronic data storage. Needless to say, the period of 1969 to 1981 was one in which my lovely 13 year old daughter and scholar Brenna would de- clare to be that of internet ‘immigration’ 10 February 2013 A.B.A.T.E. OF GEORGIA, INC. NEWSLETTER