At the GR3 BMW rally a couple weeks back, we we’re treated to a strident exhortation on why we’d best not vote for some of the over a dozen candidates for the BMWMOA board. That suggested I should study up a bit on the candidates, and I tried… But while BMWMOA  had given them an online forum to strut their stuff, despite being a member in good standing I couldn’t access said forum. So I dug out the candidates statements buried in the collection of travel porn and farkle ads that has become the official BMWMOA magazine. Hmmm… Agreed, most of the candidates seem to support the status quo of what BMWMOA has become, a travel agency and glossy directory of luxury baubles to BMW’s favored demographic, of which I am not a member. And given that the exhorter has been an advocate of the mis-direction  BMWMOA has taken, I took care to pick candidates who will hopefully lead BMWMOA back in the direction us cheapskates who camp and ride decades old bikes can afford. After reading the candidate’s statements I wasn’t enthused enough to invest the price of a stamp in such a poor selection of candidates… But noting that the ballot was prepaid reply mail I finally managed to find 4 I could stomach. That’ll probably be my last vote in a BMWMOA election, with a year left to run on my membership and the nearest BMW motorcycle dealer 150 miles away now, no point in my renwewing… Better to spend the $$$ on renewing my Airheads membership and Motorcycle Consumer News subscriptions.

On to the other form of politics, the kind most everybody gets to vote on, and I wish more did. Regular readers will have noted that I’m a low level democratic party official out in rural Minnesota, and with that turf comes a fair amount of travel to meetin’s and such. I don’t mind and it’s nice ridin’ out here, but I tire of long trips to the city for daylong meetings that seem to accomplish nothing. Especially when they’re on the same weekend as a rally! Well, I’ve been shepherding a small grant application through a couple previous meetings, keeping it safe from metro area democrats who think that grant money is rightfully theirs and how dare this moderate from the sticks ask for her district’s share. Sure ‘nough, this saturday’s meeting doesn’t have the grant application on the agenda, so I’m going to a rally! I’ll phone in to see what they’re saying in my absence, providing I don’t get distracted by some more interesting gearhead activities…

And with the next election over a year away, why the heck are they meeting anyway? I so need a rally… In the morning I’ll be riding the hack’d Quota to the SKUNKS rally!