Directors Letter 10 Oct 2022
10th October 2022
Good evening all HOG Members,
Thought it was time for another Directors letter with some updates on the Chapter and upcoming events and rides.
If you are receiving this for the first time, that will mean you are a new member to our Chapter, so on behalf of myself and the committee, we welcome you and hope to see you on a ride in the near future. To all other members a big thank you for renewing your membership and taking part in the Waikato HOG Chapter.
An update with your committee. There has been a couple more members join the committee during the past two months. Thank you for your willingness to join us help make this a great Chapter.
Welcome to our Secretary - Brenda Hart. Brenda comes to us all the way from Morrisville.
Media officer Rod Corban coming to us out of Tamahere, thank you Rod.
If this is something you would like to help out with, please get in contact with myself or any of the committee. All the committee positions are voluntary. We meet via a Zoom meeting once a mouth so you don’t even have to leave your home.
Spring is here as you may tell by the weather and now is the time to blow the dust of the bike, do all the right checks, get it serviced etc ready for riding on the long summer days. I know many haven’t stopped riding over the past winter months which is good and I’m glad you have all been safe. For those who are just summer riders, I trust you take this time to get your bike ready for summer riding. If you are not so confident in doing these checks yourself, make sure you book into the local dealership, Road & Sport so they can make you safe for the roads ahead.
Summer officially starts in December but I think we can get in many rides before then, and there is many to chose from on the calendar.
Upcoming events.
October 15th and 16th - H.O.T Training (Harley Officer Training). This is a time for members of the committee to meet up with other Chapter committee members, Directors, the National Director, representatives from New Zealand Harley Davidson dealers and some Australian Harley Davidson staff coming over from Aussie. Those attending are meeting in Auckland next weekend. This is always a great time to catch up with other Chapter executive committee members, to discuss, swap ideas and to learn how other Chapters are run, what works for them etc.
October 19th - Dinner Ride - see Member Jungle for more information and registrations
October 22nd - Farewell to Ash Owens
October 30th - Woodturners & Museum ride
November 6th - Coromandel BBQ ride
November 16th - Dinner ride
November 19th - Waihi Wahoo - This is a joint Chapter event with Auckland and East Coast HOG Chapters. You will need to register via the link below, this has all the details you need. You will also need to book accommodation if you wish to stay and enjoy the band on Saturday night (to save a late night trip home)
The Waihi Wahoo Tickets, Waihi | Eventbrite
November 26th Beach Hop - more details to come regarding the ride for this. Harley Davidson, as in previous years will have a big appearance there. Come along for the day and support our local Dealership, Road & Sport.
December 4th - Road Captains and TEC ride. We would encourage more members to help us in this – becoming a TEC or a Road Captain. It is not a big job but would help spread the load and get some different rides happening. Contact Lance if you would like to help in any way.
December 11th - Christmas ride. More information will be emailed out once finalised, so keep an eye out for them.
December 18th - Waiuku ride.
So as you can see there are a few good rides coming up. Keep an eye on MJ for more info and reminders. Please try to register for rides and events. This helps the Road Captain being able to let the venue know approx numbers, thanks.
Important information
When renewing your membership and paying via on-line banking, or at Road & Sport – YOU MUST complete a membership form. These can be found on the Chapter’s website www.waikatohog.co.nz or at Road & Sport. To make it even easier for you, you can even fill in the form on-line on the Chapter’s website. This alerts the Membership Officer, Janice that you are renewing and have paid your money.
It is very hard for Janice to know you have paid your money if you do not fill out a membership form and let her know.
I do want to thank you for continuing to renew your membership each year, as Director, it is pleasing to see, so thank you.
So that’s all from myself. On behalf of myself and the committee we want to thank you for being members and for your ongoing support of the Chapter. If you have any questions or there is something you are unsure about, please don’t hesitate to contact myself.
Take care and see you out there.
Deane Blaikie
Director
Waikato HOG Chapter
Just a final note from one of our members that you will find interesting and helpful.
The last couple of years has brought home to many of us the importance of looking after our well-being. This is something as a psychologist I spent most of my days supporting people with. I try not to practice clinical psychology as this is the domain of helping unwell people recover, but rather I prefer to focus on keeping “well people well”, particularly when life is challenging. Thus, below I have attempted to give us all some reminders on how to stay well when life is throwing all sorts of proverbial at us.
The first thing to recognise that we all struggle from time to time. Unfortunately, the modern rhetoric is often about “thriving”. I always say the last time I was truly thriving was when I was about 10 and didn’t have to deal with the things life throws at us! Further, we are taught from a very young age that we should always be happy and unpleasant feelings are to be avoided at all costs – which is simply not possible. Thus, the first thing to recognise is that mental health is a continuum with thriving (well-being) at one end and struggling (mental ill-health) at the other end (see below figure).
We will go up and down this continuum and the trick is to recognise when we are starting to slip down the wrong side of coping. One way to help when this happens is by identifying what I often refer to as our “basics”. These are some very simple behaviours that we need to engage in when we feel things are starting to overwhelm us. These are the things that help stay to connected with what is important to us. For example, these can be getting out exercising (even mild exercise in the morning has been shown to be protective against mental ill-health), prioritising our sleep, connecting with the people that are important to us etc. There are numerous things that can make up people’s basics and these will be very individual. The key is that they are simple behavioural things that we have complete control of and that fill our “resilience bank”. One of mine is making sure I ride my bike at least once a week (even when it’s winter!). In stressful times, we are constantly drawing from this resilience bank and if we do not keep putting credit back into our account then eventually we will have nothing to draw on.
Unfortunately, what happens when we start to slip down the wrong end of the continuum is our mind will give us all sorts of reasons not to do these things (e.g., “I haven’t got time”, “I’m too tired”, “I can’t be bothered seeing people” etc.) and in the short term this seems to be the best thing to do, but in the long term this ends up being detrimental to our well-being. So, my advice is to identify your basics and commit to doing them, and not just when you find yourself in a hole as often this is too late – do them as often as you can.
One more word of advice. Sometimes, connecting to your basics will not be enough. Thus, if you feel you have been struggling for a period of weeks and finding it difficult to function, go and see your GP as they may be able to help you and/or they will know whether your local DHB has facilities for you to seek professional help.
Dr. Rod Corban (PhD)
Registered Psychologist and fellow HOG Member
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