Passes & Canyons Blog

Riding along, with a thousand leather strips flapping in the breeze.

One of the biggest questions I’ve had since this whole brouhaha about ABATE’s financial crisis erupted was simply, “How the heck did we ever get to this point?”

Based on some information posted over on The Dandooligan blog and some materials Terry Howard sent me after the second of two charges against her were dropped, I feel like that question has an answer: No one was properly minding the store and when it could no longer be ignored it was too late to get a reasonable financial lifeline, so an unreasonable one was accepted. Terry arranged for the loan but she did so with the express thanks from the board of directors.

I think it’s really that simple. And by no one, I mean the board of directors and the officers. I largely exempt the general membership because we simply had no idea this was even going on, even those of us who attend meetings regularly. In fact, one of the documents Terry sent me was an email in which she told the board members, “Please keep this within the Board. We don’t need members panicking at this point.” I have no doubt her intentions at the time were good, and readily admit that hindsight is always 20-20, but gosh, maybe if the members had been made aware of the problem some other solution might have been found. There’s a saying I strongly believe in: All of us are smarter than any of us.

OK, so what’s done is done and can’t be undone. Now we need to move ahead, because Colorado motorcyclists still need some sort of lobbying group, a motorcycle rights organization (MRO) as they are known, standing up for our interests in matters of the law.

Clearly ABATE’s State Coordinator Bruce Downs believes ABATE should be that MRO. Not everyone agrees, however. Some believe ABATE needs to go away and a new MRO arise in its place. Making that happen would be a challenge, to say the least.

Anyway, backtracking just a bit, I want to refer you to The Dandooligan because Matt Wessels over there has put out some extensive information about this whole affair. I wasn’t even aware, because I hadn’t been following him closely, but that link above is to a piece written by Deb Craig giving a pretty deep inside look at ABATE’s inner workings. Supporters of Terry Howard–and I know there are a lot of them out there–will not like some of what she says because she does not paint a pretty picture of Terry, but at the very least the straight-out factual information she presents is quite interesting. Frankly, it doesn’t paint a very pretty picture of ABATE.

And that is the one thing that seems universal. There are the former rider training folks who dislike Terry Howard and ABATE for wrongs they feel were done to them. There are the Terry Howard supporters who don’t like ABATE because they feel the organization threw Terry under the bus. And there are the continuing ABATE members and supporters who nevertheless feel that the leadership has been, to use a very, very kind word, remiss in its duties. It makes it easy to understand the thinking of those who think ABATE needs to just go away.

I suspect that’s not going to happen. Let’s see what does happen. It’s going to be interesting.

Biker Quote for Today

Education is important, but racing is importanter.

At Saturday's state board meeting.

I want to start off by quoting this to you:

Whether you support ABATE or not, they represent you legislatively, in state policy making, and as a face of Colorado riders. It reflects directly on you whether you acknowledge it or not. At the very least, care about your reputation…

I’ve wondered in recent weeks if readers here groan when they see ABATE in the titles of these posts. If you’re not a member, why should you care. That statement, from a thread on the Colorado Sportbike Club forum, is the reason. So, proceeding . . .

So, I went to the ABATE state board meeting on Saturday as I said I would, and found both reason for reassurance and for doubts. State Coordinator Bruce Downs stressed one point he has made before, which is that lax practices of conducting business in the past make it hard now to reconstruct the events that led to the group’s current financial crisis. That laxity has been banished as of right now, he noted, and he proceeded to run the meeting by the book. This is definitely a good thing.

The end of the year balance sheet was discussed, which shows the group in the black for 2014, and members present made a point of asking that the monthly reports be made available to all along with other related information. That members are paying attention is also a good thing.

Of course then there’s that issue of that towering load of debt with usurious interest rates, and ABATE has simply defaulted on that. There’s still only one way to characterize that and that’s very bad. The lender will not be going away.

Gary Davis, the representative from District 5, asked if discussion of this whole thing was on the agenda, and when Bruce said it was not he asked if it could be added. That discussion ensued immediately. Gary proposed that ABATE contact the lender, Quick Bridge Funding, to see if any sort of accommodation can be worked out. Another member who has experience as a loan officer agreed that it is far better to be in communication than to not be. As a motion to that effect seemed to be moving to a vote, Bruce said he felt it would be best to consult with an attorney with experience in this sort of thing first. Motions for both those proposals were passed.

That’s the bare bones of it; what was interesting was the discussion.

Early on, Bruce said that the loan was in default and, as for the lender, “they’re gonna play their hand.”

In what I thought was a very perceptive question, D-10 rep Rocky Wood asked if that meant that the group was just sitting back waiting to see if perhaps the lender would pursue Terry Howard, the former state coordinator, rather than ABATE, with the expectation that they would have a better shot at getting their money from Terry. Terry, of course, personally co-signed on this load and thus is liable if the group defaults.

The former loan officer spoke up at this point saying that considering the loan was to ABATE, and Terry was only the co-signer, they would definitely be coming after the group, and probably Terry as well. But no hope that all eyes would be turned toward Terry. So if the answer to Rocky’s question was yes, well, too bad. Ain’t gonna happen.

Several board members asked questions about how all this came about and I was struck with two thoughts. First, it’s extremely interesting to see board members, who were presumably there when this all occurred, asking the same questions I’ve been asking. Maybe that means those questions will eventually get answered. Second, however, is the disturbing thought that the people who were there when this all happened were apparently not paying enough attention to know what was going on. That seriously tempers the confidence the first point starts to build. What were you guys doing?

In the meantime, support for ABATE is diminishing, largely because a significant portion of membership feels Terry Howard has been thrown under the bus while another officer who would seem to have been every bit as much involved in the situation has felt no repercussions. Rocky’s question about ABATE waiting to see if the lender would go after Terry instead of the group goes straight to the heart of that thinking.

So I return to that quote I started with: “Whether you support ABATE or not, they represent you legislatively, in state policy making, and as a face of Colorado riders.” Can this group be saved? Does this group deserve to be saved? There are a lot of people asking these questions and they’re not finding any easy answers. I’m not finding any easy answers. I did just renew my membership but I know others who have not. ABATE of Colorado is facing a tough road going forward.

Biker Quote for Today

Never spit at a competitor when you’re wearing a full-face helmet.

The ABATE booth at the 2010 Show And Swap

I was asked by a contact with the Colorado Sportbike Club about my thoughts regarding ABATE of Colorado going forward.

Do you think ABATE should continue/survive? If so, do you think the changes that need to happen could be executed? Where do we go from here?

I didn’t answer right away because I had to do some serious thinking. When I did reply, this is what I said.

Tough questions, which is why I didn’t reply immediately.

I do think we need some sort of lobbying group down at the capitol. And at this moment, ABATE is it. I heard from Terry that the legislators have made it clear that if ABATE ever got too chummy with the Confederation of Clubs that ABATE’s credibility would plummet and our voice would not be heard as welcome. So it’s not as if we could expect the COC to pick up the slack. An organization such as the Sportbike Club might be able to build a favorable presence down there but that would take time and I’m not aware of any such effort as of yet. So ABATE is what we have.

I just renewed my membership with ABATE. I joined years ago at the Last Brass Monkey Run so I’m always up for renewal at this time of year. I wondered about it because there are so many questions I, as a member, want answers to and haven’t gotten yet. But for only $30 I figured I’d go ahead. If dues were $100 I’m not sure I would have made the same decision.

I believe that Bruce Downs, as the new state coordinator, is sincerely interested in resolving a lot of the issues that lead to the group being where it is today. Bruce strikes me as a competent, intelligent person and I agree with him that looking forward is more important than looking back, though we definitely need to do some looking back.

I really don’t know the other people on the board and some of the negative things I’ve heard leave me less than totally confident about what we’ll see from there. I absolutely think ABATE needs to broaden its outreach beyond just the Harley crowd and I always applauded Terry’s work with the Sportbike Club and the MRA. From what I hear, some of the board members have a very different opinion in that regard. If that’s true I think those people need to ask themselves the question, do we represent all motorcyclists or just a certain group? And what are they, themselves, doing to bring in more members?

At the very least, it is my intention to get more involved either until I conclude it’s hopeless or–preferably–on an ongoing basis. I’ve always been moderately active and involved. That is, I at least come to meetings regularly and to some events. This coming Saturday (Jan. 17) I intend to go to the state board meeting, which will be at 11 a.m. at Mickey’s Steakhouse up at 72nd and Broadway. My impressions from that may have a significant influence on my hopes and expectations.

So we’ll see.

And so we will see. I’ll have more to say after the meeting, obviously.

Biker Quote for Today

If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is deadly.