ABATE Removes State Coordinator
Sad. That’s the word that, for me at least, sums up this bit of business.
My ABATE D-10 patch.
Not surprisingly, the state organization is being pretty close-mouthed but they did prepare an official statement. Here is that statement.
In September, 2014, the ABATE of Colorado Board of Directors was made aware of discrepancies in one of ABATE’s bank accounts. At the September BOD meeting, in keeping with the fiduciary duties of the Board of Directors to the membership and the organization as a whole, a committee was formed to investigate these issues.
Although the investigation is far from being completed, by the end of two weeks, the committee had found enough evidence to support the allegations of Breach of Fiduciary Duties the State Coordinator. An emergency meeting of the Board of Directors was called for Saturday, October 4, 2014, at which time the decision was made to terminate the employment of [then] State Coordinator, Terry Howard.
The future of ABATE, and where we go from here, will be formally discussed further at the November (and future) board meeting(s). Don Enninga, assistant State Coordinator, will be acting as State Coordinator while we transition.
One plan at this time is that ABATE will be going back to a volunteer State Coordinator position. Interested parties should submit a Letter of Intent to the Board of Directors.
Please be assured, the Board of Directors and the ABATE office staff are working diligently to prevent future issues and will be keeping you, the membership, updated.
At this point that is all I know. Obviously, I’ll try to learn more and will report on what I find.
But again, the whole thing, to me, is very sad. I’ve known Terry for a number of years now and I like her and I’ve always thought she was doing a heck of a job as state coordinator. Regardless of what the facts of this matter are, ABATE will no longer have her there doing this job.
Let me give you an example of her efforts.
A number of years ago I unknowingly set some wheels in motion. I was doing a lot of work at that time as the National Motorcycle Examiner for Examiner.com. I was (and am) an ABATE member and I got to wondering why it was that the sportbiking crowd and the various state ABATEs were generally unfriendly with each other. So I posted on some sportbike forums asking opinions of ABATE and the reasons.
Boy did I get a response.
It turned out that the sportbikers, who for the most part are ATGATT folks, dislike ABATE because they saw these groups as being anti-helmet. Perhaps some state groups are but in my experience they are more anti-helmet law, which is to say, they prefer to have government stay out of it and let the rider decide. I know ABATE of Colorado strongly encourages wearing helmets, but is against having a law requiring them. That’s my own personal opinion as well.
But in the course of all the discussion there was a comment from someone in the Colorado Sportbike Club who said his group was not down on ABATE the way so many groups in other states are.
Terry Howard was reading these articles and the discussion they were generating and when she saw that statement she immediately contacted that person and when the dust had all settled ABATE of Colorado and the CSC had formed an alliance and the two groups have been working together on issues of concern to all bikers ever since. I may have set the stage but Terry was the one who made that happen. Colorado may be the only state in the country where these two groups are united. And I hope this relationship weathers this storm. I don’t see why it shouldn’t but you never know.
So yes, I think it’s incredibly sad. I don’t know what Terry has or has not done and I don’t even know what she is accused of having done. But I do know that ABATE is a loser in all this. There are no winners. It’s just sad.
Biker Quote for Today
If people focused on the important things in life, there’d be a shortage of dirt bikes.
Tags: Terry Howard
October 21st, 2014 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for looking into this and posting the information you found, however vague it may be.
I sure would like to know exactly what’s going on. This must at least partly explain the weird vibe I’ve been getting from the Colorado office the last couple few years. Sad is right. A great organization might never recover from the apparent dishonesty of just one person. It’s a terrible shame.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:31 am
[…] Rocky, our newly drafted district rep, was to inform the membership of the issue that led to the firing of Terry Howard as state coordinator and read a prepared statement from the […]
October 27th, 2014 at 1:10 pm
I think we will end up finding that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Terry was abusing her position and power for a long time. I filed a grievance against her 3 years ago for violating the written ABATE policy manual on more than one count, and I’m not sure anyone on the Board ever saw that grievance except a few in the inner circle, as I received a letter saying it had been dismissed because it was “groundless and without merit”, even though I had concrete proof, including a really ugly gender discrimination issue about pay…. which was totally illegal. No one was interested in hearing my side of it. Whenever someone who DOESN’T RIDE is in a position of power at a motorcycle rights organization, there’s something just not right. And yes, I know she “owns” a trike but in 6 years I never saw her ride it once.
December 22nd, 2014 at 11:57 am
[…] out to and drew into alliance with ABATE. I said when I first reported on this whole affair that I hoped the relationship weathers this storm. I’m not sure it is going […]