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THE CHAPTER DIRECTOR’S VIEW by Lee Fortier

      Only a few days after receiving our Chapter Director (CD) patches, Sandy and I found ourselves heading west to attend our first GWRRA Annual North Carolina Operations Meeting in High Point, NC.  We had attended this function previously as Chapter Educators, but this year we got to sit in the Big Room with the other CD’s.  Joining us at the meeting were the NC-E2 Couple of the Year, Ron & Billie Johnson; Chapter Educator David Squires; and Treasurer Wanda Squires. 

I will attempt to spare you all the gory details, and instead focus on a few topics of general interest.  FYI, the Operations Meeting is where all the “behind the scenes” stuff takes place; Wings Over the Smokies assignments and rally changes are discussed; there are separate breakout sessions (e.g., training, planning, etc.) for the Chapter Educators and Couples of the Year; and the CD’s get to hear from the District Director (DD) what policies, procedures, and philosophies he is bringing to North Carolina as the “new” District Director.  A huge amount of material gets discussed and considered in a single seven-hour session.  Three items that you might find interesting follow:

             Wings Over the Smokies 2008 looks like it will be a fantastic rally.  Many activities and events are planned, loads of vendors with way too much chrome to sell, etc.  So far we have at least twelve folks registered, and hopefully more of you will decide to attend.  NC-E2 will have the same work assignment this year, selling 50:50 tickets on Saturday.  A big change is that this year, in addition to a brand new Gold Wing being raffled off, there will also be a raffle for a brand new Silver-Wing.  Our Chapter’s “scooter-riders” are to say the least, veeeeeery excited.

             A discussion was held concerning whether chapters should raffle door prizes at their monthly socials.  Most do, but apparently a few don’t, and the DD encouraged all NC chapters to participate in this activity.  His personal experience, however, was that many chapters were handing out very low-quality prizes, and his guidance was to perhaps hand out fewer door prizes, but door prizes of a higher quality.  His exact words were, “bring a door prize that you would like to win.”  I thought this was good guidance, and we will attempt to adopt this philosophy.