• There were many reasons for the change of the site software, the biggest was security. The age of the old software also meant no server updates for certain programs. There are many benefits to the new software, one of the biggest is the mobile functionality. Ill fix up some stuff in the coming days, we'll also try to get some of the old addons back or the data imported back into the site like the garage. To create a thread or to reply with a post is basically the same as it was in the prior software. The default style of the site is light colored, but i temporarily added a darker colored style, to change you can find a link at the bottom of the site.

Starting a new Spyder Rider group in Kansas City, Kansas looking for new members.

Welcome to the forum!Again welcome Armstong12 and hope to hear more from you. What kind of spyder do you have, photos u can share? There is a great event coming up called "spyderfest" that is a do not miss event.

Getting sleepy now, will talk later".....................

Ticketbait
 
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As a president of a Spyder Ryder of America chapter, I want to clarify something.
SRA is not in it for profit. It is a non profit organization, with each chapter required to file as a non profit organization with the states they are in. All dues stay within their respective chapters. Nothing gets paid to national unless you are buying patches or something.

Dues, non dues, and charging for rides are completely up to each individual chapter.
Having a written set of bylaws helps to set up a line of succession in the event a leader has to leave the club for any reason. This helps to give the club better longevity, where as some clubs can just completely fall apart if a single central person leaves.

The clubs are as political as YOU make it. Don't want to be too political? Keep some loose bylaws and keep things casual. Don't want dues? Don't have any. But there are operating costs wether SRA or not. Dues make it easiest to cover these, but you could also do fund raisers and the like instead to pay the bills.

Our chapter membership here in Vegas is $24/ year, which is less than a quarter of the cost needed to get into the local HOG chapter, which also requires you join the national association (SRA doesn't require this). You want a for profit group, look at HOG. We opted for membership dues because it is going to cost us somewhere between 500-1000$ to file as a non profit organization.

I'm just posting this to help you make and informed decision. If you want more info on SRA I'll point you in the right direction.

TicketBait gave some good advice, but I wanted to clear up some misconceptions they may have had.

In addition, talk to your local dealers. Sometimes they are willing to help get you in touch with other local ryders.
 
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There are lots of issues that can come up with organized or unorganized groups.

Alaska Spyder Ryders has been very low key. I founded it in October of 2008. We had a few rides in 2009 but as summer progressed, it was hard to put organzed rides together. People like to "follow the fish" and this means each month there is a new fishing bonanza going on.

I combined our rides in 2010 and 2011 with another group that I had been riding with for over 10 years. There are still a couple :spyder2:'s now riding with that group.

The group became very political last year and I parted ways with it in August 2011 as I am not into politics.

This year akspyderlady and myself are going to do our own thing but will welcome riders who wish to join us.

Just another take on the club issue.
 
:welcome: Welcome to Spyderlovers! i know there are other Spyder riders in the KC area and I'm sure they will pipe in soon. If your looking for someone to ride with a good way might be to join us in Cuba, MO for Spyderfest 2012. I'm sure there will be others from your area that will be making the trip and yuo could join up with them.

Jeff

WIILY Spyder Riders
 
I understand that you are classified as a non profit organization, so is the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Opera Association and the United Way . Each of these CEO's makes in excess of 1-2.5 million annually. These not for profit organizations also hire lobbyists to further there non profit agenda. I have been a member of an association related to my field of work, paid dues, etc. .

I am the creator- in the sense I typed a few keys on the keyboard;) (not really, Lamont is) of SpyderLovers of California, City of Angels Los Angeles Chapter. We have no dues and nothing to file at the end of the year. If we decide on which patch or shirt to get it will be from this sites sponsor CAT Specialties. We don't collect money so there is no need for a treasurer. My point is that this website is sponsored by merchants, and this site "SpyderLovers" has a Ryding group section that is available to all free of charge. If everyone started a state SpyderLovers Chapter and organized rides here, the vendors on this site will make available even more cool stuff and events we can all participate in if we choose.

My reference to "politics" was not in the sense of views on different issues, heck we all express our opinions every day. When you create Presidents, Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, Sergeant at Arms, committee members responsible for membership, Historians, the whole process has a different flavor and agenda. Some like that, some don't . If someone ,................ dang I have to run off to work before i finished my thought. Sorry, will be back later today. :)

ticketbait
 
I got the impression from your last message that you knew prior to your first post that we are non profit. If that is incorrect, I apologize, but if you knew that we are a non profit organization, then you intentionally misrepresented the facts, making the rest of your argument suspect. No money is required to national and the directors of our chapters are unpaid. Comparing us to large multi national "non profit" organization is comparing apples and oranges. The only money ever sent to national is for purchasing actual products (which are also not required). So, yes, I guess the national director does make some profit. But don't think for a second that Lamont doesn't profit off of Spyder lovers chapters in the form of increased ad revenue from the forum and site sponsors. So tell me, how does that really make Spyder lovers chapters and SRA chapters any different in that regard?
Any money a chapter chooses to collect stays within that chapter to fund activities for the members and charity events, and those running the individual chapters do so on an UNPAID volunteer basis. We are rewarded by seeing the group succede and by having a great group of people to ride with, which is what it's all about anyways.

And again, it's all as political as you make it. Here in Vegas, we are pretty loose. We have someone to track the money, someone to keep membership records, and someone to provide some direction and act as a figurehead. We run the club collectively. There's no political back stabbing or infighting. We simply don't want it. That kind of stuff turns being a part of a fun club into a job.

However, this thread is getting off topic. To the OP. There are a lot of options. Your group can be anywhere from a small group of friends getting together for a ride, up to a large very political organization, or anywhere in between. If you are interested in being a part of a larger national group, there are several people on this board and others you can talk to. The big thing right now is finding other riders. I did this by talking to my dealer, as I suggested in my previous post. Good luck whichever way you choose.
 
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Hew Boy ...

As organizer for Maryland Spyder Web, a non-profit, non-dues, non-whatever organizing meetup.com group, I'm with AskSpyderman and ArMiHardies. We Love SpyderLovers.com!! All we're interested in is ryding. We Support SpyderLovers.com!! We encourage our respective loose-knit ryder groups to be on SpyderLovers and enjoy all it has to offer. I have a disclaimer on my meetup.com site that says we're not competing with SpyderLovers and to join SpyderLovers. That said, I post pretty much everything I organize in SpyderLovers Maryland State chapter forums and ..... *crickets.* If you look in the Maryland State Chapter ... It's like only me talking. So having my local group is mainly for coverage and to give local/regional belonging to being in the Spyder community.

I think it would be cool to have State Chapter rallies and get-togethers ... I think it'd be cool if the Spyder5 would ride out and rally every state chapter on Spyderlovers ... but that's not happened yet. Therefore, I'm a believer in everybody who has their juices of enthusiasm flowing enough to getting people in their areas out and ryding. Do it.

When I set the Maryland Spyder Web group up and started posting in Spyderlovers, Lamonster expressed some concern ... I answered and all has been well since. There is a huge difference between having a local group for local rydes, and trying to be a competitor forum ... Like SpyderTalk or SpyderLife. Those are competitor sites who don't hold a candle to Spyderlovers; yet I'm a member of all of them. I have my Maryland Spyder Web represented as well in the "Riding Groups/Clubs" area here on SpyderLovers. I say have your local group ... Overtly and unabashedly tie yourselves to Spyderlovers. You'll be okay.

:clap:~ Surfer
 
As a founding member, and current Secretary and Road Captain of Spyder Ryder of America - San Diego, and a friend of Ticketbait at the same time, I think I should clarify some thing. Each person has their own choice of what they want. Neither of you are wrong, stop trying to belittle each other's ideas/decisions.

Yes, SRA is a great way to ride and meet other owners, I consider my Chapter members my second family and will miss them when I have to move to Washington. Yes we are a Non-Profit, its required in the National Charter, but NOBODY has this as their Primary Job...even our National Director. Even though it seems he does cause he is able to make all the patches with his own machine in-house. Nobody is making a profit Including our National Director who makes just enough to cover the cost of materials for patches, and other embroidery products. The money we made last year in our chapter went towards helping the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation at the Ride for Kids, a lunch for the attendees of a ride we did to support a family member of a ryder who was walking in the Susan G Koman 3 Day, and start up costs, including non-profit fees, website fees, and banners. But without all that, my main reason for being an SRA member is to RYDE.

BUT SpyderLovers is a great way to do the same thing. I am gladly a member of both organisations and will continue to be.

Ultimately its your choice. But don't belittle anyone for their choice and their thoughts, or you're just another motorcycle rider and you'll start alienating yourself. Welcome Spyder Owners with open arms and a full tank of gas and Ryde. That's the whole point of both SRA and SpyderLovers.

So, Armstrong12, if you want to make a Club with SpyderLovers, go ahead. Nobody but Lamont can stop you, if you want to male an SRA chapter, contact Wish Again (Ken) on here and ask for details, and if you want to start you own, go ahead.
 
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I wasn't trying to belittle his club or his choices. My sole intention was to correct some misinformation that was given about an organization I am a part of. If it seems otherwise, I sincerely apologize. The sole reason to be a part of any club is to ryde with friends. Anything else is secondary.
 
I am the founding member of the SRA San Francisco Chapter and I am telling you do what I did, find some people to ride with and enjoying spending time with and just go for it. We may collect dues and have patches and titles, but I assure you we are very casual and almost every dime we get from dues go back to the membership through organized Safety Days, BBQs, etc. Our operating costs are almost 100% funded by myself. We have fun and are very casual. Four chapters of SRA exist in CA alone and it's from those groups of people statewide that I have found a family, and as a family we are about to hold another successful Spyder enthusiasts event in California. I don't know where I'd be without them.

With that said, I love SpyderLovers too, but it was in SRA I found my Spyder family.

Check out MO Gang....and maybe see you at SpyderFest? :-)
 
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HERE, here!
We bought them to ride them, be it SRA, SpyderLovers or anything else! Lets Ryde!
As always, anyone is welcome to ryde with Spyder Ryder of America - San Diego anytime.
We are all part of the Spyder riding community and there is no reason to exclude anyone, some will like one, some will like another, as long as we all enjoy the wind and three wheels on the road!
Thhat said I am the President of Spyder Ryder of America - San Diego but I am a Spyder rider first, and we are all SpyderLovers.

See you all at Spyderfest!

-George
 
Can I put my dime in too? I'm the founder and president of SRA Inland Empire Chapter. The hardest part of wanting to be with other Spyder ryders is contacting them. I don't know the layout of Kansas other than, its kinda flat. Not sure how many dealers you have or how large they are. If ryders in your state are going out of state to make their purchase that can pretty hard to meet, especially if you live in rural area. In metropolitan California, its a little easier to make contact with owners because there's a dealer within a 20 mile range, be they a large or small dealer, and SRA wants to support the dealers. But dealers rarely give out information on who their customer's are. They will post a flyer from you, but if these flyers are noticed is anybodys guess. I've used the BRP sites owners map, which is a pain and I'm sure out of date, to contact owners with soso results. I've tried contacting through SpyderLovers, which in fact was worse. Not all owners put their location down or it may be too general as in "California". If you tried to organize the thousands of members here by state its a total pain. On Spydertalk you can't do it at all. Ironically, for one of the most advanced cycles on the road today, the best way is the most basic: chance encounters. Did you know the first encounter I had was in a ghost town over a hour from my home in the middle of the desert? He was with his family in a car, saw the Spyder and went looking for me. I was there with a local motorcycle club, he asked other people who the owner was, and I wasn't hard to spot considering there's only about 4 business's in town. Turns out, his wife was from my hometown 2 hrs away and we attended the same school but I did not know her. He too was from the same area. We exchanged cell numbers as they DO NOT have the internet :yikes:. I have met owners while on Patriot Guard missions, which is not a club, per se, but really is. We do not have dues, club meetings, or elections but we do have a "store" for patches, etc. The big picture is, we all want to ryde, and for some, ryding is safer, funner, and clicks better with a group/club/buds/social circle/whatever. If you want it, be sure to advertise your intentions broadly. Spyderfest is in about a month, closer to you than for me. Put a flyer on your byke with those tear away strips. And look me up. I'll be on a silver RT.:joke:

PS: Steve/TicketBait is a friend of mine and he's a great guy. Hope we can have a ryde together soon. Or try. Hey Steve! Bert's is coming up soon!
 
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Totally Agree

HERE, here!
We bought them to ride them, be it SRA, SpyderLovers or anything else! Lets Ryde!
As always, anyone is welcome to ryde with Spyder Ryder of America - San Diego anytime.
We are all part of the Spyder riding community and there is no reason to exclude anyone, some will like one, some will like another, as long as we all enjoy the wind and three wheels on the road!
Thhat said I am the President of Spyder Ryder of America - San Diego but I am a Spyder rider first, and we are all SpyderLovers.

See you all at Spyderfest!

-George


Pincushion, I totally agree with you that no one should be excluded from riding with someone else...I personally find it to be a discrimitive measure on some peoples part and find it to be absolutely ridiculous. I was removed as a spyder group member and was even prohibited from being a part of a group, when it advertises that if you have a spyder or are thinking of getting one to please sign up! If someone has a group, it should be open to everyone and it should be up to the individual spyder rider if they want to join a group or not and not the organizer of a group to pick and choose who they want as members! :)
 
Having only been an SRA member for 5 months, I am speaking as a newbie. Our SRA Florida Coast to Coast Chapter is a dues free chapter with one goal, finding like minded riders who want to ride with friends looking to have a good time in a safe environment. To become a not for profit ride club in Florida costs $1300.00. It is mandatory that each chapter be a non profit organization as prescribed by our SRA National Chapter. Nothing would thrill me more than to be able to sponsor Charity rides while doing what we enjoy most, riding, and supporting a great cause. Being recognized for charitable contributions by the community would be the icing on the cake. The use of the term, "family", can be overused, but for our chapter, I think it's point on. Personally, this has been one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life and thanks to all of the those that have helped make it this way and to those yet too.
 
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