Date: February 14, 2012      Location: Café Racer, Seattle      Time: 8 PM to 9 PM

Meeting sponsored by: Sounder SC – they bought the beer.

Officers Attending:     President: Rob Hodge    Secretary: Ed Rhine     Membership: Randy Agnew          Rides: Kelly Ward

Not attended:  Vice President: Victor Voris       Treasurer: Don Milgate     Historian: Bill Metteer    PR: Bob Brown     IT: Andrew Saturn       Newsletter: Vacant

Important information:

• See Randy Agnew to renew your membership.
• Next Officer’s meeting – Feb 27, 8:30 PM, at Cafe Racer
• Next meeting will be sponsored by the Catholic Scoot Troup (They’ll buy the beer)

Rides

February – Vegas – High Rollers Weekend

March –Spring Scoot; Bellingham – St. Patty’s parade and Pi ride

See Seattle Scooter Society webpage for other information

Meeting Discussions:

President Rob Hodge opened the meeting with some general comments.  He mentioned that Victor was not attending due to some major health issues.

Rob brought forth the Officers’ recommendation of establishing the Club as a non-profit social club. The driving factor in this is to get a tax number, so the Club can do financial dealings, like get a regular bank account and set up PayPal accounts.  Currently, the Club has an account with Chase, but it costs a monthly fee to maintain, and could be cancel at any time due to the lack of a tax number. Once established, this also limits the liability of the Club to the Club’s funds.   Rob explained the particulars concerning what the state and federal government required. This entailed some initial paperwork and costs, and some minor yearly paperwork and costs.  Changes are needed to the Club bylaws to match what is required. It was decided that at the next Officers meeting, a sub-committee would be established to review all this and work the details.

Insanity Rally – Micky gave a quick rundown – patches and posters in work. Sponsors are getting lined up. Rally set for June 30, 31.

Kelly Ward, Rides Officer, is working on assembling the list of rides/rallies for next year. These will be posted on the Events section of our website, and possibly, a post card will be created, printed and mailed. Kelly said she is going to plan two long summer rides with overnight stays – one to Ocean Shores and one to Leavenworth.

A door prize “raffle” was held at the end of the meeting. Thanks to Ed Rhine and Randy Agnew for the prizes.

Randy

Date: 24 Jan 2012           Location: Café Racer, U-district, Seattle            Time: approx.  8 – 9 PM

Attending Officers: President: Rob Hodge     Rides: Kelly Ward    Secretary: Ed Rhine   Treasurer: Don Milgate   Membership: Randy Agnew

Officers not present: Vice President: Victor Voris     IT: Andrew Saturn    PR: Bob Brown    Historian: Bill Metteer          Newsletter: Vacant

Others: Scott Randall

Topics Discussed:

• Don Milgate showed the suggested new format for the membership cards.
• Don stated the PayPal account was set up.
• After much discussion over several years, it was decided to proceed with establishing the Club as a no-profit, social club, i.e., obtain 501c7 status. Rob stated he would present this to the members at the February meeting.  Don stated he would check on the paperwork involved.  Rob stated one restriction of this status would be that we would need to switch purchase of the Insanity rally packets to having the money going to people becoming Club members.
• Don stated the brochure was ready to be printed.  The officers approved the printing cost.
• Kelly stated she would get to posting the 2012 Northwest rallies to the web site.
• Kelly said she plans to do two major summer ride – possibly to Ocean Shores in July, and the Cascade loop.
• Rob reiterated that we needed to determine a different time for the officers meeting so all the officers could attend, mainly because Bob Brown works Tuesday evenings.  Each officer is to e-mail him as to when they are available.
• The rest of the meeting was a discussion on how to make the members meetings less boring, i.e., less business, and more social and fun.   The following were discussed:
• Reach out to the other clubs requesting they come to the meetings
• Have the business portion be only 15 minutes –  a quick synopsis
• Have a ride before or after the meeting.
• Include entertainment – door prizes, trivia, scooter talk
• Have the meeting start as a social hour at some other place, and then ride to Café Racer for the meeting.
• Have the other clubs sponsor the meetings – the social hour location, the ride and maybe entertainment.
• For the door prizes, have good ones and really lame ones.
• Scott Randall stated the Sounders Scooter Club would sponsor the February members meeting.

Action Items:

• All officers – 1) collect good and lame door prizes; bring to next members meeting. 2) e-mail Rob concerning when you are available for the officers meeting before the members meeting
• Don – print brochures; bring to members meeting
• Randy – 1) contact Westenders Scooter Club about our new members meeting format, the concept of them sponsoring a meeting, and asking them to attend the next members meeting. 2) ensure the roll of tickets is available at the next members meeting for door prizes
• Scott Randall – coordinate with Sounders Scooter Club members on sponsoring the next members meeting
• Kelly – 1) contact Sirens Scooter Club about our new members meeting format, the concept of them sponsoring a meeting, and asking them to attend the next members meeting. 2) post NW rallies to the web site 3) start working on long rides for the summer.
• Rob – 1) inform Victor of the new members meeting format 2) provide Ed any notes from the January members meeting
• Ed – ensure the officers meeting minutes have specific action items listed.

The following were discussed at the previous officers meeting.  Further discussion and decisions need to occur.

• Each officer should have access to post information to the vespaclubofseattle.info website. Andrew requested the new officers send him an e-mail with an account name and password.
• Establish an alias e-mail link on the website for each officer.  Standardize it by listing the office, with the links diverting to the officers’ real e-mail.
• Re-energize the yahoo groups account for better communication amongst the officers. Follow up with Victor on re-establishing our apparent existing one.
• Membership signup form on the website.
• Work with the scooter-selling sponsors to provide information about the Club to scooter buyers.
• Request the sponsors to ask a scooter buyer if it was ok that the Club contacted them about the Club. Investigate the need for a signed release form. Possibly give each scooter buyer a coupon for a free year’s VCOS membership, which could be redeemed if they came to the members meeting.
• Follow up with Victor on the suggestion to have the scooter-selling businesses review their previous year’s scooter sales for potentially contacting those people about the Club.
• Discuss creating new VCOS memorabilia.
• Club liability form for someone having an accident on a VCOS ride.
• Follow up with Victor checking into liability insurance for the officers through the AMA.

Written by Ed Rhine, Secretary.

Location: Café Racer, U-district,Seattle

Time: approx.  7:30 to 8: 30 PM

Attending Officers   Secretary: Ed Rhine; Treasurer: Don Milgate; Membership: Randy Agnew

Officers not present: President: Rob Hodge; Vice President: Victor Voris; IT: Andrew Saturn;  Rides: Kelly Ward; PR: Bob Brown; Historian: Bill Metteer

Topics Discussed:

It was a bit of an unofficial meeting, considering the lack of attendance. The following were discussions that need the full complement of the officers to discuss.

Secretary Ed Rhine had stated at the last meeting that he was concerned about any old business that still needed to be addressed.  He reported the following:

• The 10 year patch had been in work  and monies allocated.  Status is needed.
• A $30 check was written to GoDaddy in May.  What that provided needs to be clarified.
• A Fallen Riders fund was discussed, but no concrete actions and decisions were made.
• The ride liability waiver was discussed on several occasions.

Treasurer Don Milgate said he would check into the status of the 10 year patch.

With discussing the GoDaddy payment, it seemed a good idea to have the IT Officer, Andrew Saturn, investigate and provide the officers the details on the websites, servers, domains, etc. to better understand if we need to change things.

Randy Agnew, Membership Officer, reported he had obtained the Club swag and that we had an ample supply of VCOS stickers and patches.

It was discussed that a new members packet should be created that has nominally 2 small stickers, one large, a patch, some information on the Club.  Don said he would put together a sample information sheet for the officers to review.  Randy suggested we start with using a simple ziplock baggy for the packet, but investigate what better options were available for minimal or no cost.  Possibly contact the scooter businesses for ideas.

Ed Rhine, Secretary, continued the discussion for the previous meeting of having a Chase bank account and what fees were involved.  If so, should we move the account to some
other institution that had fewer fees.  Don had been investigation this. It seemed that everyone required a tax ID number to set up the account. Don would continue to investigate.

At the November members meeting, it was discussed about having a VCOS Christmas party in December. Randy volunteered to make a contact or two.

The following were discussed at the previous officers meeting.  Further discussion and decisions need to occur.

• Each officer should have access to post information to the vespaclubofseattle.info website. Andrew requested the new officers send him an e-mail with an account name and password.
• Establish an alias e-mail link on the website for each officer.  Standardize it by listing the office, with the links diverting to the officers’ real e-mail.
• Re-energize the yahoo groups account for better communication amongst the officers. Follow up with Victor on re-establishing our apparent existing one.
• Ways to reinvigorate the club meetings, get new members and retain the current members. Possibly have a membership signup form on the website.
• Setup a means to accept online dues paying. Don Milgate is checking.
• Work with the scooter selling sponsors to provide information about the Club to scooter buyers.
• Complete the review of Don Milgate’s suggested VCOS club information brochure and get it out to the scooter businesses.
• Request the sponsors to ask a scooter buyer if it was ok that the Club contacted them about the Club. Investigate the need for a signed release form. Possibly give each scooter buyer a coupon for a free year’s VCOS membership, which could be redeemed if they came to the members meeting.
• Follow up with Victor and Rob on their suggestion to review their businesses previous year’s scooter sales for potentially contacting those people about the Club.
• Re-establish the free raffle at the members meetings.  Follow up with assigning someone to contact scooter businesses for possible prizes.
• Discuss creating new VCOS memorabilia.
• Club liability form for someone having an accident on a VCOS ride.
• Follow up with Victor checking into liability insurance for the officers through the AMA.
•  Follow up with Bob Brown, Public Relations Officer, about contacting Tom Mehren of Sound Rider magazine, to see about having our brochure (see above paragraph) at the Sound Rider booth for the December 16-18 Motorcycle Show.

Written by Ed Rhine, Secretary.

Time: 8 PM to 9PM

Officers Attending: President: Rob Hodge; Vice President: Victor Voris; Secretary: Ed Rhine; Treasurer: Don Milgate; Membership: Randy Agnew; IT: Andrew Saturn; Rides: Kelly Ward

Not attended:  PR: Bob Brown; Historian: Bill Metteer;  Newsletter: Vacant

Important information:

• Time to renew your membership  $20  Contact Randy Agnew
• Nov 13 – Firkin SC rally – see www.firkinscooterclub.com
• Friday, Nov 18 – Happy hour at Capitol Hill Mod Pizza -1302 6th Ave
• Sunday, Nov 20 – ride to Vashon Island to join up with the Firkin SC
• Christmas party in work, no date yet
• Yulescootrally – no date yet

Meeting Discussions:

VP Victor Voris opened the meeting with some general comments about the officer’s meeting, and then President Rob Hodge took over.

Rob talked about what was discussed at the officers’ meeting.

Mostly, it was about how to get new members. One idea was to coordinate with the sponsoring businesses about giving new scooter buyers information about the Club at the time of sale.  Maybe include an offer for first year’s membership free, if the new scooter buyer showed up at the VCOS meeting.  Also, do an out-reach to the old members.

Don Milgate had prepared a brochure about the Club and how to join, this was handed around for comments. Eventually, the officers would work on getting these distributed to businesses.

The officers also discussed setting up an on-line method of paying dues. Don Milgate’s investigating.

The discussion turned to the swag that the Club had and where the container was that had our existing stuff. Kelly mentioned she knew where the container was.  The topic was mostly brought up by Randy Agnew, the new membership officer, who was concerned with what swag was to be given to new members and how much stock we had. Originally, it was a VCOS patch, VCOS sticker and a lapel pin.  We’d determine what needed to be replenished, and the officers would work on getting new inventory.

The officers had discussed the possibility of VCOS items for the existing members – coffee cups, scarves, big patch for the back of a jacket….finances, and ensuring we had enough money to cover the Insanity rally, would dictate what we could do.

The social night was discussed.  It’s been after the officers’ meeting, which is a Tuesday. The Monkeys have their meetings Tuesday night.  Kelly stated that the LGG meetings are Wednesdays, and Mopeds are Mondays. West Enders is also Wednesdays. No long term decisions were made, but the group in attendance decided to do Happy Hour at Mod Pizza on Nov 18.

Mickey, the Insanity rally chair for this year, talked about the concept of rally – get back to the basics – have the rides in Seattle, keep it cheaper, and less work. He mentioned Georgetown would really like us there. Victor’s shop has a brewery next door. Rob mentioned Ducati Seattle had a big garage. People suggested don’t put crap in the raffle.

Treasurer Don Milgate stated we had $4500 in the bank.

Rides reports

Sept 30, etc. – Festering Oktoberscoot rally – good times riding and sampling; Safety Ed showed up Saturday wearing an Oktoberfest costume. Shorts, bare knees – not too safe.

Oct 28, etc. – Los Gatos Gordo’s Paseo Con Los Muertos rally – 30 some people; weather held off, so good times. Thanks to Felix for the Friday night “murder” ride. Graveyard tours on Saturday.

Ride Coordinator Kelly Ward wants to do a ride right after each members’ meeting.  The ride after the meeting went over to, and up and down Phinney Ridge. A really steep downhill was accidently found. AHHHHHH!!!  Ride ended at the Tin Hat on 65th. ^.

Itinerary:
11am The Swiss Pub 1904 JEFFERSON AVE + TACOMA, WA 98402
Meet up for food, Bloody Marys
12pm Leave for ride.
Stops include:
The Steilacoom Pub, The Goldfish, 5 mile DR. Nearly Naked ride (IF YOU DARE!) The Parkway, and the New Frontier Lounge…

FYSC

Anyone interested in riding down from Sea-Town?

Date: 25 October 2011   Location: Don & Nancy Milgate’s home – 8030 21st Avenue NW, Seattle

Time: approx.  8 PM to 9 PM

Attending:

2010-2011 Officers

President: Brandon Ortiz                      Vice President: VictorVoris
Secretary: Nancy Milgate                     Treasurer: Don Milgate
Membership Angelika Niewierkowicz – not present
IT: Kelly Ward
Rides: Chuck Pefley – present; Paul Felix & Randy Hicks – not present
PR: Frank Cardoza – not present       Historian: Bill Metteer
Newsletter: Vacant

2011-2012 Officers

President: Rob Hodge              Vice President: Victor Voris
Secretary: Ed Rhine                  Treasurer: Don Milgate
Membership: Randy Agnew    IT: Andrew Saturn
Rides: Kelly Ward                      PR: Bob Brown
Historian: Bill Metteer                Newsletter: Vacant

Others: None

Topics Discussed:

Andrew, the new IT officer, revised the website [www.vespaclubofseattle.info] and had it up and running on 18 Oct 2011.  He sent out an e-mail requesting suggestions and comments. Victor said he would get the VCOS logo artwork e-file and send it to Andrew.

It was discussed that each officer should have access to post information to the website. Andrew requested the new officers send him an e-mail with an account name and password.

A suggestion was made to establish an alias e-mail link on the website for each officer.  Standardize it by listing the office, with the links diverting to the officers’ real e-mail.  The e-mail Don Milgate sent out for this officers’ meeting had the new officers’ e-mail addresses, so Andrew wouldn’t need to request them.

 For better communication amongst the officers, it was suggested that we set up a yahoo groups account. Victor stated that we had one and he would re-establish it.

 The discussion moved to how to reinvigorate the club meetings, and get new members and retain the current members. It was suggested to we put a membership signup form on the website. Also, setup a PayPal account to accept online dues paying. It was given to Don Milgate to check into the PayPal details.

 To gain more members, it was suggested that we work with the scooter selling sponsors to provide information about the Club to scooter buyers.  Don Milgate suggested that we create a VCOS club information brochure and get it out to the scooter businesses.  He volunteered to create the artwork. It was requested that the brochure include that the club is open to all scooterist.

Another idea was to request the sponsors to ask a scooter buyer, if it was ok that the Club contacted them about the Club. A signed release form of some sort may be needed.

 A suggestion was made that we give each scooter buyer a coupon for a free year’s VCOS membership, which could be redeemed if they came to the members meeting.

 Victor (owner of Vespa Seattle) and Rob (employee at Ducati Seattle) said they would review their previous year’s scooter sales for potentially contacting those people about the Club.

 To re-invigorate the club meetings, it was suggested we reinstitute the free raffle and its prize(s).  Victor suggested that the sponsors should be approach for the prizes – Vespa Seattle,
Ducati Seattle, Scoot About, Vespa Lynnwood, etc.

Randy Agnew was concerned about what was to be given to the new members, besides just the membership card.  Previously, a VCOS patch, sticker and a metal lapel pin was provided.  It was stated the residual VCOS swag is in containers in the Café Racer office.  It was suggested Randy get the containers, do an inventory and report back.

The discussion turned to doing VCOS swag. Several ideas were suggested – a large VCOS patch for the back of a jacket, scarves, beer mugs, leg shield banners, metal VCOS badges.   It was recommended that we discuss prioritizing the list – starting with the inexpensive items, especially the new member items.

 Several times during the history of the Club, Club liability for someone having an accident on a VCOS ride was discussed, but it never “went too far”.  Don said he had worked with a lawyer on this issue and already had a disclaimer. It was suggested we post the disclaimer to the web site as a legal item.  It was peripherally discussed about needing to have a copy of the disclaimer available or read at the rides. This was not decided one way or the other. Victor stated that the Vintage Motorcycle Enthusiasts have liability insurance for their
officers through the AMA.  We would need to become members of the AMA to get the insurance. Victor said he’d check into the details.

 A question was raised about VCOS involvement with the Motorcycle show, Dec 16-18.  It was tentatively decided that Bob Brown would contact Tom Mehren of Sound Rider magazine, to see about having our brochure (see above paragraph) at the Sound Rider booth.

 Ed was concerned about any outstanding old business that should be addressed.  He volunteered to review the previous meeting minutes and added them to the next meeting’s agenda.

 As a reminder, Club dues are due in October.

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