President's Dispatch Page for Rolling Thunder® Akron Ohio Chapter 2

PRESIDENT'S DISPATCH

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Bob "Gorilla" Fankhauser
President
Rolling Thunder® Ohio Ch. 2

Home: 330-773-1916
E-mail: gorilla1948@aol.com

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April 2008 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters

Well here it is - spring - and it is still snowing; will it ever end. We have a lot of new events going on this year so please read the Events Calendar on our web site (Click here to review our 2008 Calendar of Activities and Events) or call your squad leader to get all the new info.

We have our bike raffle going on now. If you know of any place that we can set up to sell tickets, let us know - we need all the help you can give us. In order to do the things we need to do for our VET'S, we need money and the only way we can get it is for every member to do their part in supporting our money making events. We cannot achieve our goals with only a handful of members supporting us. It's time everyone starts supporting our Chapter to achieve our goal's. Also, don't forget the Reverse Raffle on April 19th. We can make a lot of money at this event and have fun but we need everyone's help.

The Trailer was in it's first parade on March 15th in downtown Akron. We had 7 Junior members there. With their help and with the help of the members, we were able to carry all the flag's and the banner (good job everyone). Our events coordinator has a lot of new parades this year to put the trailer in so our mission and what we do can get out there to the public so they can start supporting our Veteran's.

Remember to tell your friends and business acquaintances of an opportunity to place their advertisement on our Thunder Trailer. For more information on placing an advertisement on our Thunder Trailer, please go to our Thunder Trailer Advertising Page (Click here to see our Thunder Trailer advertising page).

It looks like July this year is going to be the busy month; a lot of veteran related poker run's hope to see all of you there.

Please remember our POW/MIA'S and the Men and Women helping to preserve our freedom.

Your Prez,

Bob "Gorilla" Fankhauser
President
Ohio Chapter 2

January 2008 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Hope this letter finds everyone in good health. On December 15th, Doug Wisor and I picked up our new trailer, so please start selling the advertisement spots as this will help pay for all the lettering we need to place on the trailer. Remember, the spots are "two feet by two feet" and $500.00 for three years of advertising. Doug and I also took the trailer and got two estimates for all the lettering. We hope to have the estimates back by the next meeting. We are sending pictures of the trailer to our Web Master for all to look at. The pictures, hopefully, will be posted on our web site soon.

Here it is, all most a new year. We have a lot of new events coming up this new year and hope to see all of you at all of our events. Click here to review our 2008 Calendar of Activities and Events.

At our last Wade Park VA visit, we had a lot of bad weather, but some of us braved the weather and made it up there to serve our hospitalized veterans. Thanks to all who made the trip. One thing we all need to keep in mind: when our fighting men and woman from the past to the present have bad weather, they can't just say "I'm not going out today" and all you vets know this - so please keep this in mind next time we have an important Wade Park VA visit. Thanks.

Happy New Year to All of You and Your Families

Your Prez,

Bob Fankhauser
President
Ohio Chapter 2

November 2007 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Well here it is almost winter and another riding season down. Ty and I had a good president's conference this year - only changes in the constitution. Most of the changes were in the clarification of wording. National did make it very clear to me that there will be no changes in the Honorary Membership part of the Constitution.

It has come to my attention that some of the committee members are not following through with the job they volunteered for. We need your help from start to finish on these committees - that's why we asked for help; one or two people can't do the job.

We had a pretty busy year with all the event's we had. Thanks to all of you who did your part.

Please keep our troops and the POW/MIA's in your hearts and in your prayers.

Thank you Veterans and God Bless America

Your Prez,

Bob Fankhauser
President
Ohio Chapter 2

September 2007 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Well, here it is - the end of summer and election time. I would like to thank all of the "old" officers and board members for all their hard work and dedication to the Chapter. I look forward to working with all the newly elected officers and board members in hopes of making our Chapter bigger and better.

As some of you know, I wasn't planning on running for President again but I had several members approach me and ask me to reconsider. I thank you for all your support but this Chapter is a Chapter of team work. I alone could not accomplish all that this Chapter has been able to do - it has been with members doing their share to make us what we are today. So, I say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you and hope I can fulfill my position to the best of my ability.

Your Prez,

Bob Fankhauser
President
Ohio Chapter 2

June 2007 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Hope this finds everyone in good health. Well here it is June already and now it's time to let all members know about the upcoming nominations of officers. During the month of July and August, nominations will be taken for President, Secretary, and three Board members. At the end of the August meeting, all nominations of officers will be closed. During September's meeting, the election of these officers will take place at the end of that meeting and all new officers will immediately take their new positions. Remember this is your Chapter so please try and make the next two meetings so you can vote on the persons who you want to help run the Chapter in the next two years.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL

Your Prez,

Bob Fankhauser
President
Ohio Chapter 2

April 2007 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Hope this dispatch finds everyone in good health. Summer is on the way and when you look at all our events coming up, you can see it's going to be a busy summer.

We now have a new starting point for our trip to D.C. in May. We will meet at the Bob Evans Restaurant on Gilchrist Rd. (exit #27 off of I-76 east of Akron). You will find a gas station there so please fill up bikes / vehicles before we depart. Pullout time will be 7 AM sharp. If we don't pullout at that time, we will run into a lot of traffic jams in D.C. and we don't need that. The reason for the change in our starting point is the fact that our former departure point was very difficult to get all of us out of the parking lot and on the road at the same time. Most important is the safety factor. I want all of us to arrive in D.C. safe and all together.

Get ready for D.C. - Run to The Wall.

Your Prez

Gorilla

March 2007 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

On Feb. 11th, we had a visit at the Wade Park V.A. Hospital. We gave out ninety eight toiletry bags to the Vets. I want to thank all the members who showed up and helped passing out the bags.

March 10th is the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Weather permitting, you can ride your bike's and, as always, the Thunder Truck will be there for this annual event.

We had more new members last month thanks to all of you. Our Chapter is really growing now so keep up the good work and remember there is no "I" in team. It takes all of us to make the Chapter strong. At last month's meeting, the Krumroy VFW hall was almost full. It's a good feeling to see a full house again.

Your Prez

Gorilla

January 2007 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Well here it is February already and spring is just around the corner. We will be back on two wheels again real soon.

There are already some changes on our events calendar so please check out the events page on our web site.

We now have a new platoon leader, Bob Daniel, and three new squad leader's Pam Murray, Barb Henry, and Jon Woods (Woody). Thanks for all your help.

For all you members who haven't been able to join us in a while, we have a lot of new people in our Chapter. So try and make the next meeting and help us make all the new people feel welcome.

Your Prez

Bob (Gorilla) Fankhauser

December 2006 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Here we are getting ready for a new year. We are going to have some new events this year thanks to our Events Coordinator who is working very hard on them.

We have a lot of new members in 2006. Let's hope 2007 brings in just as many if not more.

For those of you who haven't heard yet about the change in the way the Squad Leaders are calling, the new process is as follows: if you miss a meeting or forget what is going on during the month, YOU MUST CALL YOUR SQUAD LEADER. If something comes up during the month that was not discussed at the meeting, your Squad Leader will call you. If you don't who your squad leader is, call me and I will inform you.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you January 7, 2007, at the next meeting.

Bob Fankhauser
President
Ohio Chapter 2

October 2006 DISPATCH from the PRESIDENT

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

I hope this letter finds everyone in good health. At our September meeting the members of Chapter 2 voted in some new Officers and Board Members. Here are the people you picked to help run the Chapter. Ty Geiser- Vice President, Doug Wisor - Chairman of the Board and Barb Henry- Secretary. Your new Board Members are Ron Mani, Doug Porter, and Danny Griffin. I know all of these members will do a good job at helping with the everyday operations of Rolling Thunder Ohio Two. I am looking forward to working with all of you.

With all of the new people means we lost some good one's too. I want to personally thank Bill Orem, Randy Shrader, Jim Sheets, Danny Woods, and Dick Hummel. Without all of your support and help this Chapter would not have gotten this far. Thanks all of you very much.

For those of you who did not make the meeting, try and make the October meeting and meet your new Officers. Our raffle on the TV, DVD player, and IPOD is not going so good. We need your help selling tickets. When we talked about this in the meeting, I did not see any hands in the air when I asked if there was anyone against this so I took it as all of you were for it. Now we need help selling so please give it your best shot, that's all we ask of you.

Bob Fankhauser
President
Ohio Chapter 2

03/23/2008 23:09:05