Bogieblog

2nd Day HOT Training

I realized I had neglected to post about the second day of HOT (Harley Officer Training), so I will rectify that here.

The second day started much as the first day, with a general assembly before everyone went to their respective classes

 

My first class of the day was "Welcome to the Family". This was a class aimed at inspiring ways to motivate new and existing members to participate in our Chapter. This was very informative as it gave us insight into what success looks like and strategies to that success. We broke into 3 groups (Dealer, Existing Members and New Members) to explore the expectations that different people had of the Chapter Officers. Then we also discussed concerns that Officers had in discharging their duties. Yep, I was the organizer and then 3 people immediately said, "you're the presenter".

 

The second class was HOG Talk where we discussed appropriate means of interacting with different people (those we have a background with versus people we don't know) and reading body language. However, our leader did stress that body language can be misinterpreted; arm crossed is very difficult as it can mean someone is closed off, comfortable, hiding tremors etc.so not to be quick to leap to conclusions based on body language alone. Somehow I neglected to get a picture of the intor screen, so just trust me when I say I was there :)

My third class was another Power Pack and I chose Risk Strategies 2. It was a class more geared toward answering questions that arose during the first Risk Strategies (More Fun Less Lawyers) and it was interesting to see what other chapters had for questions.

My fourth class was Creating and Delivering the Excitement which dealt with rethinking rides and activities that would entice more than the core group of the Chapter. The group activity for this class was to create a poster/flyer dealing with a theme that the instructor assigned. Our group did an okay job, and I, along with someone from another NH HOG Chapter presented it (I was the talker, he was the "billboard" - held the presentation sheet that was our "poster" so I could talk to the points. The best presentation was for "Hookers Wanted". this was a ride based on a final destination for fishing. Obviously they had a marketing guru in their group (literally - one of their group was in Marketing for their dealership) at at least one person with some artistic talent. The posters were created in 15 minutes!

 

Then there was the final class where we once again hooked up with our own Chapters and rehashed what we had learned. We then set a date and time for a debriefing so that we could share our learning and exchange ideas with each other as well as our HOG Chapter Director, who was not at the training.

After a final general assembly, classes were out and we got a group picture of our attending Chapter Officers in front of the HOG flag in the Lobby. Unfortunately we did not get our Dealer in the picture as she left for church before the final general assembly.

Left to right: Editor Dave, Safety Officer Bob, Secretary Darlene, me, Assistant Director Michelle and Treasurer Patty.

New Power Equipment

You might remember how my snow blower died in the middle of one of the biggest storms of this past winter - and how I was relegated to shoveling a wet, heavy 15-17" of snow. I was determined to take advantage of end of season sales, did research for weeks (I research everything to death), and on 4/11 found a deal I just couldn't pass up. Not only was the price right, but HD was offering free shipping too. SOLD!

Yesterday I got home just as the delivery guy was closing the garage door after depositing the pallet holding my prize. There is a slight bit of assembly to do - install the chute and the chute controller, but I have at least 6 months to do so. I am extremely happy with the heaviness of it - no plastic parts there. It is slightly bigger, a lot stronger, and can leap tall buildings, has a slightly larger chute rotation range, and should prove more capable chewing thru berms and heavy, wet snow than my broken snow blower.

I will have a whole new set of controls to get used to, but if that is my biggest issue I will be a happy camper. It is a SnowTek, which is an off-branded Ariens, and it is rated as one of the heavier duty work-horses in its class (and the reviews rave about it). About the only way I could have gotten better was to go to much larger.

And, you probably don't remember that I broke my mower at the end of last summer. I have been perusing CL the last month or so to see if I could find a good used unit. Last Sunday night I came across the ideal - the same size cutting width, somewhat larger motor, the same brand and type as my old mower, 2 years old and slightly used - at about what it would cost to bring the old mower back to fighting shape. I emailed the seller within 3 hours of his posting the ad and asked if I could pick it up that night. I explained I couldn't pick it up during the week because of working days and nights.

Seems he has a soft spot for people with multiple jobs since he has done that for a lot of his adult life. So, he offered to hold it for me until Saturday morning despite the fact that a lot of people were interested (he actually under priced it as far as I was concerned). I picked it up at 8 this morning and am now the proud owner of this mulching, FWD, self-propelled, one pull starting beauty

In talking to the guy his MIL bought it 2 years ago, used it a couple of times then hired a lawn service, who used their own mowers. She then moved to Florida over the winter and asked him to either buy it from her or sell it for her in the spring. He had already gotten a new mower, so it was spring and time to sell. It certainly looks as if it has only been used a couple of times, and we started it before loading it in the Explorer, and it did indeed start in one pull (as it should). The controls are exactly like the old mower, so no new thing-a-ma-jigs to learn on this one.

I will get the old mower fixed since I am reasonably certain I know what is wrong, plus it needs a new blade and tune up. The old mower is a 5.75 instead of a 7.25 but fully capable of performing back up duty and mowing in the areas where roots and rocks stick up out of the ground - what, if my diagnosis is correct, caused the issue in the first place.

Bike is Home for 2017 Riding Season

On April 12, Heritage H-D dropped off the bike.

It has been a cold April so far, so I've only ridden twice; to the debriefing of the group that went to HOT training the following Saturday (mine is the one on the left - the other bike belongs to another Officer that attended the training)

and to work on the 17th

Hopefully it warms up soon (today was in the low 40's) and riding to work will become a regular thing.

1st Day of HOT Training

They kept us pretty busy thru the Harley Officer Training (HOT).The Introduction to the training was held in an auditorium with all attendees.

This year's theme of the training was "No Boundaries". That was in reference to the boundaries that we, and our groups place on ourselves that can limit chapter growth, member retention and yes, even the riding and fun.

Sometimes I felt like I was back at high school changing classes every hour or so. The first class for everyone was Building Strong Foundations. Although these classes went on in several different rooms, each chapter was placed at one table. We were lucky and our Sponsoring Dealer attended training also, so we could all discuss what we wanted out of the training and preliminary planning for putting that in action

 

After the planning stages, the schedulers had broken up the Chapters by placing members in different classes. Somehow they knew that I was the one that am not comfortable with other people, so they managed to always place me in a class by myself (except one class on day two). Most of the other Chapter members got one other familiar person in their class.

My second class was Inspire thru Leadership where we were introduced the reason for HOG, what rules the Company institutes for HOG Chapters and ways that leaders handle challenges.

My 3rd class was a "Powerpack" or bonus class that we got to pick from and I chose Using Social Media. I learned a few things about posting picture do's/don't's and a few things to put into action for emails to new members.

 

My 4th class was Forging the Dealer-Chapter Relationship. We broke into groups and were asked to think as  a sector of the Chapter - Sales, Engineer, Designer, Production/QA (this coincided with the 4 types of people that started the H-D brand/company). The groups were self-determined thru personality types and my group was "William - the Production/QA person who listened and didn't talk a lot. Each group was given an exercise and to share results with the entire class. Once again I became the organizer. My work experience with leading meetings was certainly coming in handy by keeping group members on task and leading them thru the different aspects that we were asked to consider.

That evening HOG hosted a dinner with entertainment. I was not originally planning to go as I was all peopled out, but decided to attend the dinner. The had screens set up where pictures taken thruout the day were presented on a slide show. Much to my surprise, my mug was captured.

While everyone else stayed for some of the entertainment (a cover band, alcohol and dancing), our dealer and I headed back to the hotel as neither of us drink (okay, she doesn't drink at all and I rarely drink), nor fully appreciate bashes with all kinds of strangers. After a full day, it was nice to curl up with the Kindle and just decompress.

Buffalo Side Trip

On the way to Harley Officer Training, we took a small side trip to a Buffalo Harley-Davidson dealer. They had an area that showcased some old bikes, which was the best thing about that shop.

Silence Please

3 more days of this person and her non-stop talking. the 8 hour drive out here was bad enough, but we also share a hotel room. The 8 hour drive will be a contest of my willing myself not to strangle her.

It will be a miracle if I'm still sane after this.

April Fools - I Wish

The March 30-April 1 snow storm dumpe about 16" of wet, heavy snow in my area. It was great that it didn't start sticking to the roads until I was almost home. I shoveled the first 3" Friday night, but the real accumulation didn't start until later that night. By 8:30 I measured 12".

I got the driveway snow blown, then started on the berm from the road plows

It was hard going and I was thinking how I loved that old snow blower for soldering on only asking that I put in gas and watch the oil level. Well, I'll bet you can guess what happened - I died. Oh, the motor runs great, just engaging the auger kills it. I can't find any reason so suspect either the clutch blew or some sort of bearing froze. The blessing is that it waited to die until I had the berm done. The bad news is that I had to hand shovel a path to the propane tanks and all the way to the back door. I declined to shovel the path to the front door or from the ramp to the mulch pile and where I dump ashes from the pellet stoves (and I have wasded thru the snow 3 times today to go out to that corner of the yard).

I also had to dig out the truck since the snow was over the bottoms of the doors. Also, I need a place for the snow that I pushed off the truck to land - otherwise the snow would have been window high.

I finally got to the point I could pull the truck into the driveway - I needed to load up the trash and do the dump run. I started the windshield wipers and the driver's side wiper shredded itself. So, on the way to the dump I had to stop at AutoZone and get wiper blades. The back wiper was in sad shape so I went ahead and replaced all 3.

April Fool's Day was not very kind to me, but I just had to laugh at everything anyway.

Patches and Pins

I am going to Harley Officer Training in Buffalo, NY soon. As an officer of our Chapter, I am expected to proudly represent my chapter - and let others know what chapter that is. Up until now, I have worn a leather vest with verious patches - 2A, 9-11 memorials, travels map, a Lady Rider and LOH Patch (national group). That vest is quite full (and I have lots of patches/pins that sit in a box).

I happen to have a HD denim vest given to me by a coworker who used to ride with her ex. She no longer had a use for it and gave it to me quite some time ago. I have never used it, but no am putting it to good use by placing Chapter as well as National patches on the back. Oh, and please notice that Rita was helping so had to photo bomb - at least her chest and legs :)

On the front are featured my officer patch and pin (on the left as you look at the picture), and on the other side are the chapter pin, the national LOH pin, and the national HOG pin for the current year.

1 day of driving there, 2 days of classes, then another day of driving back. My butt is going to be telling me all about the sitting I will be doing.