By Brad and Margi P.

I joined H.O.G. in January 1986 and Margi joined a couple months later. We sought out the Capital Area Chapter to become more involved in H.O.G. We soon became tired of the long compute to attend events. I found out how to start a local Chapter and took that information to Town & Country and John Petitto. John told me he had already been approached to start a Chapter and that person had the paperwork, too. After some trouble getting the other person to get started I again talked to John but after that conversation the other guy filed the paperwork. The Chapter was certified in October 1987 and we started having meetings. Since the other guy had brought in most of his friends they voted him in as Director. ( I later found out most of those people weren't even H.O.G. members ). We bumped along trying to find places to meet and figure out what we wanted to do. After the first year the other guy said he was too involved in B.A.M. and turned the Chapter over to me. His wife remained as Secretary/Treasurer for another year or so before Margi took over there. Anyone joining the Chapter in the first year was considered a Charter Member. Right now that only leaves Margi and I plus Mark and Lynda Little. Now we started to grow. Our biggest problem was still finding a place to hold our meetings. At the time, the dealership was no where as big as it is now. We tried a township hall, that worked for awhile. We wanted to use a meeting room at a local restaurant, who's owner was a personal friend, but he flat told me he didn't want bikers in his business. It took a long time to set the third Saturday as our regular meeting day, too. We spent a number of years out at Bartlett's at Pleasant Lake. Again the owner was a personal friend and he was thrilled to have us there. When the business closed we moved to the dealership and held our meeting a half hour after they closed on Saturday. We sat on the bikes since there wasn't any thing else, yet. The dealership added the west end of the building which included a meeting room for us. We had to give that up when they needed it for office space. We now have our current home in the Wells. In the early days the dealer gave us names of local people who bought cycles from them. We sent out tons of postcards every few months inviting them to join the Chapter. The dealership would pay for the first year, they just needed to attend a meeting to sign up. We did pick up some membership from that but most new members came to join because of loyalty to T&C. Current members were always bringing in friends and word of mouth work well, too. After a few years we stopped advertising for new members, we just let them seek us out. Over the years we've found this brought in a better quality of members, not just "joiners". The thought was we don't want a huge group of mostly inactive members. We have tried putting on Charity rides with limited success. When the Harley boom came along we really got active. The dealership held two "Lottos" per year. The Chapter provided all the workers to run the parking, food and entertainment so the dealership could concentrate on selling bikes. We even put on a fashion show one year. When someone registered for the Lotto they paid a dollar, that dollar went to MDA. The Chapter gave that money at the telethons and they were pretty healthy checks. In those days most of our Chapter business centered around putting on the Lottos. For a few years the Chapter had an "Out of State Ride", usually the weekend after Labor Day. We've gone to Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The Chapter had a week long ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. We spent a day at Gettysburg that trip, too. Of course we've been having our holiday weekend ride over Memorial Day and Labor Day for some time. You might have noted that Margi and my Chapter Chevrons say Jackson, Michigan. When the Chapter was Chartered T&C had just bought the local HD franchise which was in Jackson. It was HD of Jackson therefore Jackson was used for the first couple of years until I changed it to Cement City.

In October 2007 Margi and I stepped down as officers after 20 some years. In November of 2008 we were basically told our participation was no longer needed.

As you have just read we have put a great deal of love and effort into starting and operating this chapter. At times Margi and I were doing six different jobs in a effort to keep the chapter going. Click on the archive link above to read old ride reports and see my blog on what happened to cause the change in our status.

Last update - 11/08