Aloha Run for the Wall O’Hana
I cannot believe we are in March already! Time is starting to move faster for the team putting together the Run!
The Board of Directors (as well as Route Coordinators and Assistants) held our “Face to Face” Spring meeting (Via Zoom) this past weekend and worked out a lot of details for the Upcoming Run as well as overall RFTW policy and initiatives. We have finalized MOST of our preparations and only have a few minor details to work out.
Our State Coordinators are doing a fantastic job as always!
I am going to address quite a few things this newsletter (some repeats) and ask for your patience and that you read the WHOLE THING so you are getting the most up to date answers to the many questions you may have.
Pre-Paid Fuel
We are doing this again this year and it will be Pro-rated depending on your start and stop point. This will be based on the approximate ACTUAL COST of the non-donated fuel stops. So, this means I will not have a cost for you until the end of April. We will only be accepting Cash for the sticker beginning in Ontario.
FNG ride into Arlington
As you may have heard, we will have a very limited number of motorcycles allowed to ride as a group into Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday the 25th of May. We are still working on a fair and equitable way to determine WHO will be riding the (Roughly 20) motorcycles from Central Route allowed to go. It will likely be based on several factors (listed below).
- Distance traveled on the Run this year
- Date Registered (earlier the better)
- Ability to carry a passenger on the bike with you. (double the number of people that can attend)
- Luck
Ride into Riverside National Cemetery
(Copied from the President’s Message). As you may have seen in a FB post, Carol is working on the possibility of riders going to the March AFB museum following the ride the Riverside National Cemetery. This is a Tuesday event, with KSU tentatively scheduled for 0815 from the Elks Club. The Elks will be serving breakfast so our riders can stage, eat, and leave from the same location. Right now, the cost of entrance to the museum is $10, but Blaze is trying to get that lifted. If you are interested in going to the museum, please email Carol at carollolmstead@ymail.com so she can provide a head count. Rumor has it that the museum is planning to rope off a parking area for us.
You must be registered and CHECKED IN to go on this ride, so get to Ontario and get Checked In on Monday the 13th.
Registration
DON’T FORGET TO REGISTER FOR THE RUN! We need you to register as early as possible so we can plan for Meals, Hotel needs, Fuel stops, staging, etc.. Are you not sure if you are coming? If you are committed and are coming, get registered. Help our teams get the information they need to plan for a successful Run.
Fundraiser
We will be doing a 50/50 draw in advance of May. Proceeds will go to The National Veterans Wellness and Healing Center in Angel Fire NM.
https://veteranswellnessandhealing.org/
Donations made through the RFTW website and Earmarked for “Central Route 50/50” will receive the following entries based on donation amount. You can also Zelle the donation to Central.Route@Rftw.us and note that it is for the 50/50. If you don’t designate the donation as Central Route 50/50, you will NOT BE ENTERED.
$25 gets one entry
$50 gets 3 Entries
100 gets 7 Entries
The Largest Donor overall will get 2 extra entries into the drawing.
PHOTO OF HOW TO DESIGNATE THE FUNDS on the Donation Page Below.
Cut off for this fundraiser will be April 25th. A drawing will be held in Ontario CA. If you are not present we will either send the Money to you via Zelle or a check. We will notify the winner and ask for their preference at that point.
Communications
The initial testing of the GMRS radios is coming along well. A few (minor) glitches have been identified and we are figuring out workarounds. Thank you to Harlan and Kirk Olson and a few others in Colorado (including riders from other Routes) for taking the time to figure out this new system that is a much less expensive, easier to procure and BETTER way to communicate going down the road. If you are in leadership (Pack leadership especially) I encourage you to look into the system we will be testing and participate in the test this year. Advance teams will not necessarily be involved in the testing this year, as they tend to be out ahead of the pack anyway. More information can be found in the newsletter from early January. Link is below.
Below is the link for the Survey form for Pack leadership that plans on assisting in the test.
Survey
Important Links
For any questions you may have, check out our FAQs first. Then your next level of inquiry can be
directed to your platoon leadership or team leaders of the team you have a question about. We’ve got a strong cadre of leadership in the Pack Platoons and they are a great source of information, as is our FNG Liaison, Bernadette “Flat Tire” Staples, for our first-timers. All contact information is available in the Central Route Hub on the RFTW website. Additionally, familiarize yourself with our Rider Code of Conduct.
Upcoming Meetings
FNG ZOOM
We are having an FNG zoom meeting on Monday the 11th of March (time below).
1:00 PM Hawaii Time
4:00 PM CA time
5;00 PM Mountain time
6;00 PM Central time
7;00 PM Eastern time
The zoom invitation will be sent out on Saturday the 9th of March to all REGISTERED FNGs as of that day and Route Leadership, so if you have not registered yet you need to. Please note that in order to keep the meeting manageable, we will be following similar Protocol to what was used for the BOD Town Hall meetings.
All attendees are asked to remain Muted, unless asked by the Moderator (Me) or the ARC, to speak.
Questions should be addressed via the chat function and will be answered in the order they are received.
When the invitation is sent out it will have a brief agenda in the email as well so you will know what we plan to cover and have questions ready.
CENTRAL ROUTE TOWN HALL
We will be having a Central Route specific Town Hall meeting on the 26th of March at the below listed times.
1:00 PM Hawaii Time
4:00 PM CA time
5;00 PM Mountain time
6;00 PM Central time
7;00 PM Eastern time
The zoom invitation will be sent out on Saturday the 23rd of March to all REGISTERED personnel as of that day, so if you have not registered yet you need to. Please note that in order to keep the meeting manageable, we will be following similar Protocol to what was used for the BOD Town Hall meetings.
All attendees are asked to remain Muted, unless asked by the Moderator (Me) or the ARC, to speak.
Questions should be addressed via the chat function and will be answered in the order they are received.
When the invitation is sent out it will have a brief agenda in the email as well so you will know what we plan to cover and have questions ready.
CENTRAL ROUTE Communications Zoom
We will be having a zoom meeting on the 29th of March at the below listed times to discuss the GMRS Radio System Central Route will be trying out this year. The invite will go out in a separate newsletter as we get closer to the date..
1:00 PM Hawaii Time
4:00 PM CA time
5;00 PM Mountain time
6;00 PM Central time
7;00 PM Eastern time
Please note that in order to keep the meeting manageable, we will be following similar Protocol to what was used for the BOD Town Hall meetings.
All attendees are asked to remain Muted, unless asked by the Moderator (Me) or the ARC, to speak.
Questions should be addressed via the chat function and will be answered in the order they are received.
When the invitation is sent out it will have a brief agenda in the email as well so you will know what we plan to cover and have questions ready.
