District Educator Article

ERC's & First Aid/CPR: Make plans now for the winter months
By David Dirig

As we prepare for our trip to Region and then on to District, Dori and I are really looking forward to taking our ERC's. We're especially looking forward to taking a 2-up ERC, now that we spent the last couple months riding 2-up. We promote the great prices and opportunities for courses at WingDing, Region, and District Rallies in our Chapter Safety talks and we encourage you to do the same. While Honda Riders Club will reimburse for ERC courses, who can argue with a $10 dollar ERC!!?? What a deal!! But only if you can make it to the rally. My point for this article is that we should not forget that we are charged with protecting ALL of our chapter members, not just those that can take time off to ride to Springfield or Pocatello or even Bakersfield. Dori and I rode with CA1F for over a year before we took time off to ride to District or Region.

What about those that can't make it to the rallies and take advantage of the ERC's and First Aid/CPR refreshers? What about those co-riders who want to take the Co-Rider seminar, but who won't be going to Bakersfield? Its easy enough to have a movie night, show the Co-rider seminar, and immediately enroll these co-riders as Level 2 in the Rider Ed Program. While we want everyone to take advantage of the great deals provided by National, we also need to take steps to provide the same opportunities for training and advancement within the Rider Ed program at the local chapter level.

As the riding season gets into full swing over the summer, its time to start thinking about training courses and seminars to provide in the fall. While your local MSF instructors are up to their eyeballs in RSS courses and filled ERC's in July and August, now is the time to schedule an ERC for the fall. The same could be said for First Aid and CPR training in your chapter. No one wants to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon in July breathing into a plastic dummy when they could be riding the Sierras (who would be the dummy then anyway? ;-) How about a cool rainy Sunday evening in October instead, do you think you could fill that class from your chapter? Now is the time to start scheduling these classes.

What if you can't come up with enough people to fill a First Aid class or provide a dozen bikes to get an MSF instructor's attention and block out a weekend ERC? Network! We have 28 chapters scattered across California from the southern border to Shasta Valley and Eureka. If you as an Educator/Director can fill half an ERC or a First Aid class, spread the word about the openings. Schedule it far enough ahead of time and advertise to fill the class. If you're going to put on a co-rider seminar, spread the word and maybe you can get some other chapters visiting you. I know for a fact that CA2N will be doing a co-rider seminar in the near future, and CA1F recently had one that we invited riders from CA1Z to join in. Spread the word and take advantage of email and the Internet. If you don't have access yourself, call Ron or myself, and we'll make sure that the information gets out to other chapters. You may surprise yourselves at what we can accomplish together. I encourage all of you to take advantage of every opportunity to increase the riding skills and decrease the risks to all your chapter members; this applies to going to seminars and classes at rallies as well as setting up the same type of courses at the chapter level. Have you considered other chapters in your area as another resource? If a small chapter has partial enrollment in a course, put the word out and see if you can get interest and enrollment from other chapters in your area.

On that note, I will take the first step and switch hats to take advantage of our networking capabilities. <pause> Okay, now I'm CA1F's chapter educator. Dori and I are not happy with the organization offering MSF classes in the San Diego area, and we're looking for other ERC's being offered in the southern California area. We would appreciate any input from chapters in the area as to a good experiences and recommended ERC providers. What we'd like to do is set up a weekend trip where we'd come north on a Friday night and do a Saturday ERC. So any of the chapters along the I-15 corridor or in the LA area, please drop us a line with ideas and input (phone numbers and recommendations appreciated). Who knows? Maybe we can get a multi-chapter ERC going!

Ride Safe and we'll seeya in Idaho and Bakersfield

D&D
ddirig@gwrra-ca1f.org