Well, the 2011 Region “A” Convention/Rally is over, and we feel it was a big success!  We rallied at the Lakepoint Lodge in beautiful Eufaula, AL September 15^th-17^th.  The venue was fantastic, the weather was perfect and everyone seemed to have a great time.

       We had the pleasure of hosting some 537 delegates and 14 good vendors.  We served a great Bar B Q dinner on Thursday evening, had a rock ‘n roll party, a fun talent show followed by a police-escorted lighted bike parade from the Lodge into downtown Eufaula with 54 bikes participating.

       We gave away lots of real nice prizes, offered 3 neat poker runs to ride and presented a wide variety of seminars and classes.  We also ran a well-stocked hospitality suite for our delegates.

       The staff at the Lakepoint Lodge, starting with our event coordinator, Sone Kornegay (the Sales Manager at Lakepoint) who made sure that everything ran smoothly.  Her staff was excellent; even though there were times we overwhelmed them with requests.

       We can’t begin to say enough good things about our wonderful Region “A” staff; Jim and Sue Jackson, Ed Porter, Bob and Karla Greer, Lynn and Lyn Edwards, Chuck and Anne Reed, Ray and Cindy Erickson, Dave and Sharon Aikens, Joanne and Jake Jacob, and Buddy Shirley.  All of these folks worked hard to make our rally the big success it was.

       Additionally, we had the invaluable assistance of the 5 Region “A” District Directors and their staffs; Alabama (Roy and Anita Fosnight), Florida (Bill and Gina Berry), Georgia (Tommy and Vicky Martin), Mississippi (Bobby and Lori Bryant) and South Carolina (Charles Coleman and his Assistant Betty Brady).  These folks and their staffs handled just about every job at the rally and we could not have done it without them!  Because of space limitations, we can’t list all the workers who worked so hard to do the hundreds of jobs that go into making a successful rally, but our sincerest THANKS to out to them all!

       We selected a new Region “A” Couple of the Year at the rally, Greg and Renee Dempsey from Alabama.  Greg and Renee are Assistant District Trainers for Roy and Anita Fosnight and gave a very impressive performance.  They will make an excellent Couple of the Year and we expect great things from them at Wing Ding in Ft. Wayne next year.  Our retiring Region “A” Couple of the Year was Ron and Becky Lees from South Carolina who worked tirelessly during their reign to represent the Region and the Couples program.  Ron and Becky will remain active in GWRRA in South Carolina and we THANK them for their efforts and dedication during 2010-11.

       Unfortunately, we had to cancel 2 of our scheduled Rider Education exercises due to the condition of the parking lot to be used.  We hated to disappoint our delegates, who had counted on the availability of the events, but safety had to be our primary concern and there was just too much loose gravel on the asphalt that we couldn’t successfully remove.

       Next years Region “A” rally will be held again at the Lakepoint Lodge, September 13^th-15^th.  Flyers are available on the web.  Room rates have remained the same for next year and our theme will be Mardi Gras.  We’re going to feature a Mardi Gras mask contest for Chapters, Districts and a masquerade party on Thursday evening. Come on out and rally with us; we’ll show you another good time.

       This edition of the Region “A” newsletter will be the last mailed in paper form.  We’ve mailed hard copies of our newsletter for many years, but the cost of continuing to do so have become prohibitive.  We have consulted with many of the folks to whom we’ve been mailing the paper copies and they have all told us that they can just as easily read the newsletter from the web site.  The Region and District officers’ lists that were mailed with the newsletter will be available to Region and District staffs on the web (but not to the public).  We hope you understand, but we’ve got to control costs and the luxury of snail-mailing these newsletters out to 70+ folks just became too expensive.  For those who do not have the ability to download a copy, if you will contact Ed Porter (Webmaster) he will arrange to mail you a copy.

       We were saddened to learn of the untimely death of Former Region “A” Director Charlie Davenport at his home in North Carolina this month.  Charlie was a driving force in GWRRA and played a major role in organizing the Region as it is now structured.  We wish his family the very best and extend our sympathies on the sad occasion of his passing.

       The last District rally/convention of the 2011 season will be hosted by the Mississippi District in Tupelo, October 13^th-15^th.  We look forward to seeing you there.

Bob & Nan

Hello Region 'A',

       And so the 2011 Region 'A' Rally slides into the history-book at this writing, but it was a bodacious rally.  I must say we had 537 excellent players having one heck of a good time during the Region Rally and please accept our appreciation for coming and supporting the rally.  

       We had a fantastic sit-down dinner Thursday night and ice-cream on Friday night just before the Lighted Bike Show which was police escorted along a 6 mile beautiful ride into downtown Eufaula, with all the bright LEDs and others shining like the stars in the sky. Wow, what a beautiful site as the bikes rode across the river causeway going into town.  

       We had 14 very quality vendors that had almost anything that one could desire for a Gold Wing or person.  The bike show was well represented by approximately 30 bikes producing an excellent show.  This year we had room for four small vendors inside our registration area and the delegates responded with very good support of them.  The 10 vendors outside had excellent weather and a little cool snap arrived Friday morning with much appreciation to Mother Nature.  Hey, if one wanted tires we had them, if one wanted safety-chrome it was available, shirts, jackets, trailers, CBs, MP3 Players, helmets, pin-stripping, trikes or trike kits, Thorough Bred trikes, wind-wings, Butler Cups and badges..........Yep we had it all and we appreciate the vendors that supported our Region 'A' Rally year after year................we love ya'll.  By the way, the Region 'A' Rally will return to Lakepoint Lodge & Convention Center in 2012, Sep 13-15.

       We also have a new Region 'A' Couple of the Year with Greg & Renee Dempsey (From Alabama) taking over the reins from Ron & Becky Lees.  All I can say here is "Kitty, kitty" and if you attended the COY Selection then you are probably laughing and rolling on the floor.  If you didn't attend, then you missed the best question and comeback of the century by Renee.  That's about all I should say about that...heee ROFL. 

Jim & Sue 

The 2011 Region “A” Convention was FUN FUN FUN !!!!

A big congratulation goes out to……  

2010 GWRRA International Chapter of the Year  

&  2010 Region “A” Chapter of the Year  

FL1-L2 Wesley Chapel, FL  

2010 CDs – Rick & Madalena Buck  

2011 / Current CDs – Jeff & Lisa Duffey

Other Region “A” 2010 Dist Chapters of the Year & Dist Chapter of the Year Coordinators were:

Ø      Alabama Chapter A                       Mobile, AL                   Lynn & Lyn Edwards

Ø      Georgia Chapter D                        Cumming, GA             Bob Hickly

Ø      Mississippi Chapter L                  Laurel, MS                  Jane & Lemuel Jones

Ø      South Carolina Chapter S           Newberry, SC             Buddy & Kim Summers

Mascot

Ø      1^st Place                 FL1-D, Pensacola, FL

Ø      2^nd Place                MS-M, McColm, MS

Banner

Ø      1^st Place                 GA-E, Thomaston, GA

Ø      2^nd Place                MS-F, Jackson, MS

Scrapbook

Ø      1^st Place                 MS-M, McColm, MS

Ø      2^nd Place                AL-W, Mobile County, AL

Newsletter  

Ø      Color 1^st Place                GA-D, Cumming, GA              Connie Woodmansee, Editor

Ø      Color 2^nd Place               FL1-D, Pensacola, FA             Mike Walker, Editor

Ø      B&W 1^st Place               FL1-W, Apopka, FL                 Patti Sloat, Editor

Ø      B&W 2^nd Place              GA-S, Wider, GA                     Eric & Donna Wolbach, Editors

Special Recognition goes to…..

Ø      GA-D, Cumming, GA won the 2^nd Quarter 2011 June Agee Chapter Newsletter Award.  Connie Woodmansee is the Editor.

Ø      Karla Greer, Region “A” MEC, was inducted into the GWRRA Hall of Fame for recruiting over 100 new members.

Ø      Denis & Darla Turcotte of FL2-E, Miami, FL won a 1-year renewal on their GWRRA  Membership 

GO MEC Contest Winners

Ø      Chapter MECs,  Denis & Darla Turcotte,  FL2-E Miami, FL won 2 Free Registrations to the 2012 Region "A" Convention.

Ø      District MEC, Jane & Lemuel Jones were presented with a Certificate of Appreciation and a $25.00 Cracker Barrel Gift Certificate.

Membership Enhancement Seminars

Ø      Chapter of the Year Seminar had 19 attendees

Ø      Chapter Membership Enhancement Seminar had 17 attendees

               Thanks to all that attended and participated in the discussions.

Recruitment & Retention Table

Two GWRRA Memberships were renewed

Ø      Dick & Peg Hopkins,  GA-A

Ø      Walter Gersch & Frances Neal,  AL-B

Three New Members were recruited during the convention

Ø      David & Martha Pate,  by Al & Peg Rogers,  GA-L, Rome, GA

Ø      Jim Jankowski,  by Denis & Darla Turcotte,  FL2-E, Miami, FL

This could not have been done without all the volunteers that helped out at the Membership Enhancement booth all weekend. Thank you.

            •Dale & Charlie West              •Bruce Griffing                  •Phil & Joyce Piotrowski

            •Steve & Dottie Fagan             •Bill & Margie Miller        •Dewey & Alice Cole

            •Denis & Darla Turcotte         •Al & Peg Rogers

Georgia District Team

A very special thank you to Tommy & Vicky Martin, Georgia District Directors, and all the volunteers they rounded up to help out with all the Membership Enhancement activities and awards.  Thank you.

            •Sid & Donna Cohen               •Ron & Susan Larsen                •Tommy & Vicky Martin

Judges

Another special thank you to all the judges Thursday night at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Party. Thank you.

            •Dennis & Anne Greer             •Bill & Cheryl Smith                 •Woody & Debbie Jones

Ø      Hula Hoop Contest Winner                                      Trina Barden, AL-Y

Ø      Twist Contest Winner                                               Lori Bryant, MS District Director

Ø      Best Individual Rock & Roll Costume                    Bill Berry, FL District Director

Ø      Best Couple Rock & Roll Costumes                       Phillip & Terri Kozlowski, GA-D Chapter Directors

Ø      Best Group Rock & Roll Costumes                        Alabama Chapter B

Ø      Best Jitterbug Couple Winners                              Gerald & Deborah Russell, AL-N Chapter Directors      

Thank each and every one of you for attending the 2011 Region “A” Convention this year.  We are looking forward to seeing you again next year.  Please tell others how much FUN you had this year and let’s try to break 1,000 attendees next year.

We hope to see you in a few weeks in Tupelo, MS.

Bob & Karla 

       Another Region “A” Convention is over, and it was a great one.  There wasn't a person I have talked to that didn't enjoy themselves.  I want to give Rick Buck, Florida District Trainer, a big thank you for assigning instructors to teach the three classes that were scheduled for Friday of the convention.  It seems he had three new instructors that needed to be observed teaching a class to receive their instructor certification.  Florida now has three newly certified Leadership Training Instructors.  Susan Larsen, one of Georgia’s LT instructors, presented the class on Friday. Thanks again.

       One great thing about attending the various conventions that are held throughout our region is the opportunity to talk to other folks and gather ideas.  This convention was no exception.  After we got home Sharon asked me why we have to wait for such an opportunity to share ideas.  Why can't we use our extensive technology in computers to share these ideas?  So, to better facilitate this sharing, I'm asking each of you to dig through your brain cells for some "neat" ideas you can share with the rest of us.  Then write it up as you would a newsletter article and email it to me for review, and then I'll forward it to Ed Porter, our Region “A” Newsletter Editor and webmaster.  He will then publish it on the Region “A” Leadership Training web page for all to take advantage of.  The types of things I'm looking for are things to add some fun to gatherings to making our classes more fun and interesting; what do you do to make our members want to attend.

       See you all in Mississippi.

Dave & Sharon

       Have you ever been having a great time only to wake up to an alarm clock ringing and realize it was all just a dream? Well, we keep expecting an alarm clock to go off, or someone to shake us and shout, “wake up, your dreaming”. It’s still hard to believe that Greg and I were selected from such an outstanding group of couples. We had the opportunity to get to know each of the District Couples and knew going into the Region Convention that whichever couple was selected Region “A” would be well represented.

       We are proud to be in such a distinguished group of representatives for their states and our Region. We are proud to call you our friends. We would like to thank Ron and Becky Lees for all of their hard work and outstanding representation of GWRRA, even though they did have to expose themselves.

       Our adventure as the Region “A” Couple began with a visit to the North Carolina Convention, we thought we would surprise them, (we thought work might get in the way), but we were surprised instead; they had an enlarged picture of us. They sure know how to make a person feel welcome. We felt even more welcome when they tried to give us the Gold Wing. Unfortunately they missed us by one number. We’ll be sure to go back and visit them.

       Next we head to Virginia for the Rally in the Valley and then to Mississippi for Wings over Tupelo Hillbilly Style. We hope to see you at one or both.

       Let the fun began!  

Greg & Renee