Help Protect Yourself
– Join ABATE in 2008
I’ve noticed in
conversations I’ve had with other bikers I occasionally come across those of
which I’ve asked, “Are you a member of
ABATE” to which I get a response of,
“Oh, I used to be but I really didn’t go to any meetings so I let my membership
lapse”.
Ok, I am proud to say that I
personally am a member of ABATE Region 1 – St. Joe County…but, because of some
of my scheduling conflicts, I don’t get to attend as many meetings as I would
like, or get to volunteer as much as I’d like either. Thank goodness we have a
great staff of officers and members who do dedicate themselves for our causes.
The bigger picture as I see
it with ABATE, is the involvement to which the organization was founded…to
watch out for the motorcyclists rights and liberties for riding. The ABATE organization is the ‘watch dog’
that looks after all motorcyclists rights, members or not. They are the
organization that keeps an eye on legislation going on both in
This year, for example,
there was a legislative event in our state in which a new funding bill
(introduced last year) was going to raise money for brain injury research.
Research is always a good thing…BUT…the funding was to be provided by taxing
the bikers in our state and additional $10 upon license renewal. This brought
ABATE into quick action as they were able to point out that only about 2% of
brain injury accidents are motorcycle related. Why should the bikers have to
fund the whole bill? In January the ABATE staff, along with a few hundred
members, made a trip to the state house to pay a visit to our legislators and
state their case for making the bill a little more even-handed. At this time the
bill has been amended to where a fee of 30 cents will be apportioned to all
vehicle registrations after
There is currently a
national concern regarding health insurance companies that have been excluding
injuries caused by accidents in riding motorcycles (have you checked out the
exclusions on your health insurance coverage lately?) and ABATE along with
other motorcycle rights groups such as AMA have been very involved in tracking
this and contacting our national representatives to get this situation
resolved.
The bottom line is, for
ABATE to be able to watch over our rights requires an amount of funding…and
that funding needs to come from the group of people for which they protect…the
bikers. So as an ABATE member I am
making an appeal to all bikers in
You can go to the ABATE of
Oh, and just to
clarify…ABATE does have a lot of great events too!
Bobby Caldwell
ABATE of
Region 1 –
.