Executive Report - October 2025

John Reblin

Reunions

I hope you all are doing well. The summer seemed to have left us for a few days, being replaced with cooler temps and swarms of “skeeters.” It has not been fun getting stuff done in the yard or in my little workshop in the garage. Seems like you spend more time swatting the little critters than holding a tool or part. But this is all part of summer in Wisconsin.

I was invited to my high school class reunion earlier this year. It was the first one I attended since maybe the 20th year get-together. I am not sure; the time is flying by. But this is a big one for our class. It is the golden anniversary of graduating in 1975. It was really well attended; you see, Cedarburg has what they call the Golden Bulldogs. The bulldog was the school logo or mascot that identified the teams in sports or academic activities. And the people in charge of the reunions heard of another school district that put together a get-together that honors all the surviving members of the classes and mates of those reaching 50 years or more.

It was a lot of fun seeing older classmates and the people in my class. Talking to them, many I have not seen in 50 years, seeing what they did and achieved over that time. It was good to catch up and talk about the stupid, fun things we did back then. The cars and motorcycles we had brought to school when we got our license. When going over to the smoking area, the students had to use and maybe come across some other items that we were not supposed to have. Mention was made to honor the classmates we lost over the years; I was surprised by how many of those lost were friends of mine, whose passing I did not hear about in the local papers. In the weeks prior, I was looking forward to connecting with them, but their passing was a dark spot in the evening. When they move away, you lose some of the connections. And of course, we honored those who served in the service. All during the event, efforts were made to share emails or other forms of contact and to stay in touch.

This month, ABATE of Wisconsin is having our own reunion, though we celebrated 50 years last year. We are having our State Meeting, and it is the time we get to talk to members and friends that we don’t get to see very often. We get to share stories of the past, of silly things we did, and of course, talk about the work we did, the accomplishments we made in protecting our rights, and, of course, we will discuss things that we failed at. Staying connected with the membership is important. I think of ABATE of Wisconsin as a big family that can work together and has done great things in the past and will continue doing them in the future. Hopefully, you are all joining us at this event so we can enjoy each other’s company, share stories, and make plans for the future.

We all need to make sure we spread the word on reducing motorcycle crashes and fatalities. People in high places in other states are seeing high numbers of crashes and trying to decide what to do to solve the problem. We all need to work together to ride within our skill level, ride trained and sober, and slow down. We won’t like what they are thinking if they start to focus on reducing crashes and fatalities.

By the time we get to the State Meeting, I will have returned from the Meeting of the Minds, a fundraiser for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation. Talking with others who are going, it sounds like there will be lots of good information to be shared that we will be looking at, and if it helps us, implement some of those thoughts as we work on our own motorcycle issues. We will also be setting the very important Federal Legislative Agenda for things that are important to all of us if we wish to be able to ride when we want, where we want, and what we want. As we look at what other states are looking at, it could easily come our way in a national trend. Pennsylvania is looking at a possible helmet law, and California is talking about pollution standards for classic vehicles that could maybe spill over to motorcycles, as they still push an electric mandate. And let’s not forget the autonomous vehicles and what havoc they could cause us. The weekend will have lots of information and discussion on what to do and how to achieve our goals. But to get the win, we need to have our membership involved. Make sure you sign up for the legislative alerts and follow through to email or call and tell your representatives your thoughts. Ask that they protect motorcycle-related issues. To sign up for the alerts, go to abatewis.org. There is a banner there to take you through the steps. It is easy to sign up and to send your representatives an email to ask for their support on things we are looking at. They want to know what is on our mind, and hearing from you as a constituent reaching out for something. That is who they want to hear from.

That’s it. Ride safe, ride lots. The white stuff will be here soon enough.

John