Left side: Drew Nowasell, Doug Kuntz and Dave Funk

Right side: Price Moberly, Tom Domek and Jane Funk

Behind camera: Morry “Mo” Shaul

Drew says “Mine, All Mine” and Jane says “Oh my!”

Drew's goulash. No, really, it's not aftermath! I tried to get a better picture, but he was guarding it fiercely.

President's Corner

The February meeting was a small intimate affair held at Hessen Haus in downtown Des Moines. Club attendees were: Dave and Jane Funk, Tom Domek, Doug Kuntz, Drew Nowasell, Price Moberly and Morry “Mo” Shaul. Although a small group, it was a powerful meeting with several topics of discussion and a lot accomplished...or, at least planned!

Membership – As a group, we decided it's time to make this an “Active Club” again! Like all groups, the Bahnsturmers membership and level of people involved has ebbed and flowed like the tide. It's time we revved our membership up again and become an active riding, fun loving, community involved, gear wrenching, tee shirt wearing, card carrying, camping, growing, progressive, and dare I say it...organized group of motorcycle enthusiasts! And to accomplish all of this, we discussed how to grow our membership.

Personal contacts – We all know of, or ride with other motorcyclists. Let's start inviting our good friends to our meetings and encourage them to become involved with the Bahnsturmers. They don't have to ride any certain brand of motorcycle, just be someone who enjoys riding and the fellowship of the group...someone like you!

Bike Nights – Several of us attend bike nights around the state on a regular basis. This is an excellent opportunity to invite other “like” souls to come to a Bahnsturmer meeting. I've personally run into a bunch of people that had interest in our club, talked to about and invited them, only to not give them anything they could physically hold on to and remember. To that end, we're going to have club business cards for the club made up and get this...handed out at our next meeting!!!! ****see below****

Polk City Ride In (Sunday, May 2nd this year) – This is where hundreds of other motorcyclists see us and meet us every year, some coming in from a few hundred miles! This is an opportunity for us to promote our club and again, invite people to get involved with us.

Motorcycle Shops – We all visit them, so let's use this to our advantage. Perhaps leaving a poster or maybe some club business cards left on a bulletin board. Let's get the people we do business with and give up our hard earned cash to involved in the Bahnsturmers!

Bahnsturmer Website – Our website should be current and an open invitation for people to get a glimpse of what our club is about and where we'll be, including a monthly calendar. This shouldn't be a one man effort! Gene Merritt does a lot for our group, but needs all of our help to make this a viable endeavor (sorry for the big words...LOL). Let's get Gene the information he needs to keep our calendar updated and full.

More club events – As a group, we need to more events, be more visible and have more rides. This takes a bit of effort, but we certainly have the talent to do a bit more. We're looking at becoming involved with a charity. This is something we've talked about for years, but guess what...THIS IS HAPPENING NOW!!!! ***** SEE BELOW****

The First Annual Bahnsturmers Freddie Blasso Campout & Wing Ding

September 25th and 26th, 2010

This will be our 1st official and annual campout weekend. The Freddie Blasso tagline was suggested by Wayne Fuhlbrugge and brought to life via Tom Domek. A campout seems to be a natural fit for something like this and the date is set. Wayne has volunteered his daughter (a graphic artist) to come up with a fun design for this event for us. We'll use this on shirts and posters promoting this event. The First Annual Bahnsturmers Freddie Blasso Campout &Wing Ding (whew....that's a mouthful) is a work in progress and will likely be a simple campout, unless we decide to make it more. We're looking for suggestions as to where to hold this event. Suggestions thus far are either Yellow Banks or Jester Park. We'll be making a decision very soon, so give us your input! (We'll do whatever we want, but give us your suggestion anyway...LOL) It would be nice to snag a group camping location and make a solid reservation. THIS WILL BE FUN!

Other club business

Charity Involvement and Sponsorship – As a club, we're committing ourselves to community involvement and to a worthwhile charity. We've been invited to get involved with The B.A.D. Ride “Bikers Against Diabetes".

After mentioning this, I have had a few members tell me they have personal stories and involvement with diabetes. I (Mo) lost a brother to diabetes a few years back, so this hits home for more than a few of us.

We are going to have Don Moody, Kyle Lee, and Anne Drannen representing the B.A.D. Ride at our March 20th meeting. I've asked them to give us a brief history of the event and some ideas as to how the Bahnsturmers can get involved. I know Don personally and have spoken to Anne at other biker events.

***PLEASE CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR***

This is going to be good thing for the Bahnsturmers, so let's have a record attendance for our March 20th meeting and show The B.A.D. Ride we're serious about our club involvement!

Club Business Cards – We've talked about these for years and now we're getting it done! Tom Domek has volunteered to get these cards done for our meeting on March 20th. We'll be passing these out at the meeting. The cards will have our club logo, website and space for your name and next club meeting date. Let's use these to our advantage and promote our club to possible new members. Thank you Tom!

Club Shirts – Another longtime topic of discussion for the Bahnsturmers is going to be handled at March meeting. Drew Nowasell has stepped to the plate on making our shirt dreams happen! Drew will have information on how much these are going to cost and when we can get them. Our thoughts are to wear these while out and about. This will be good promotion for our club, whether at bike nights around town or en mass for the Polk City Ride In. We're looking for a good quality shirt that fits well and is comfortable in all weather. Once we have someone to make these for us, you should be able to go and buy whatever style of shirt you would like! Again, thank you Drew for getting this done!

- Morry