MVHOG New Members Packet

I am their mascot, a hog in bib overalls with MVHOG tattooed on my arm. Since Miami Valley Harley Owners Group was too big to have tattooed on my arm, I shortened it to MVHOG. I was born at our sponsoring dealership, F&S Harley-Davidson, and raised by your Miami Valley Harley Owners Group Chapter. Being the chapter mascot, it is my duty to introduce you to your chapter.

Our chapter is glad you decided to join our family and this is your chapter, so jump right in and enjoy yourself! On the following pages you will find information you should know about your chapter and our sponsoring dealership, F&S Harley-Davidson.

Your Sponsoring Dealership F&S Harley-Davidson

You cannot have a national Harley Owners Group Chapter without a Harley-Davidson Dealership as a sponsor. MVHOG is very lucky to have F&S Harley-Davidson as our sponsoring dealership.

F&S was founded in 1961 by Gary Stolzenburg and Edgar Fuhr in Dayton, Ohio. The primary focus of the business was racing. Over the years, F&S has sponsored some great races, and although the emphasis has been on flat track, F&S has been affiliated with every kind of two-wheeled racing.

In 1979, Gary and his wife Mary purchased the Harley-Davidson franchise and have seen it grow steadily since. Today, F&S Harley-Davidson / Buell is a 55,279 square foot “Superstore”.

F&S has approximately 50 “Team Members” including all four of the Stolzenburg family members. Gary and Mary are active in the day-to-day operations of the business, as well as their son and daughter, Jeff and Jenny.


Gary and Mary	Jeff and Jenny

About your Miami Valley Harley Owners Group

Our chapter is a place where people can come together to share their passion for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. We became a national Harley Owners Group Chapter in 1987, so we have been around for a while. Our motto is “Ride and Have Fun” and that means there is always food and ice cream along the way.

Membership Meeting

Our membership meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month except in December. That’s when MVHOG and F&S have our annual Christmas Party. The membership meetings are held in our chapter room that F&S has provided for us at the rear of the dealership. We eat at 6 p.m. and start the meeting at 7 p.m. Our chapter provides the meat for our pre-meeting gathering, usually cooked on the grill, and we’ll have pop and water available for a small fee. We’d love it if you choose to bring a dish to share, or put money in our hog bank to help cover expenses, but either way you are welcome to come early and get to know the other members of the group. Then at 7 it’s time to get down to chapter business. We try to keep our meetings to one hour.

Name tags, T-shirts, and Patches

Speaking of getting to know each other, wearing a chapter nametag is a good way to let others know your name and helps you know ours too! See our secretary if you’d like to buy one. We also have T-shirts and patches that designate our chapter on them. These are great to wear to rallies and other events to show your chapter pride. You can buy these at the membership meetings or at the dealership.

Points and Wearing Your Colors

Four times a year our sponsoring dealership, F&S, has an MVHOG Appreciation Week. You earn points each quarter and the more points you earn the bigger the discount for Appreciation Week. You will receive a point by attending a membership meeting, ride, or an event. You will earn a second point by wearing your MVHOG colors. Wearing your colors means you are wearing something that has MVHOG on it, such as your patch, name badge, shirt, hat, or anything that shows Miami Valley Harley Owners Group logo. You will earn a third point for riding to the event, but it must be a Harley-Davidson or Buell motorcycle to count as a point. This means for attending one event you could earn three points towards the quarter total.

We hope you will show your pride and be proud to wear your colors, instead of just wearing your colors to earn a point.

Ladies of Harley or “LOH”

These are the gals in our MVHOG chapter. They may be riding solo on their own bike or riding as a passenger. They take care of the food, supplies, and clean up during our meeting or events held in our chapter room. They organize the annual gift wrapping days in December at our sponsoring dealership F&S. The donations they collect go towards our charity work. LOH has some interesting rides and fun activities for the chapter. Ladies of Harley is not just for ladies, as LOH is not a separate organization.

Group Rides

We go on lots of group rides, most often incorporating food into the trip. Our officers do a great job of planning the trips, and our road captains lead the rides to make sure we all are safe. We generally do a dinner ride once a month and we’ll usually find a place to stop and eat ice cream on other rides. The food is a no-brainer, but if you’re new to group riding, you can find info on the hand signals we use on our chapter website at www.mvhog.org. During our riding months we offer a Welcome to the Family Ride on the third Sunday of the month. It is a ride for our new members where our Head Road Captain and Road Captains show you how to be comfortable on a chapter group ride. We start the ride with a short informational meeting on how to ride in a group and answer any questions you might have. Then off for a short ride to get (what else) some ice cream.

MVHOG Mileage Program

Every year we see how many total miles our chapter rides for the year. In order to track our chapter mileage you will need to fill out an MVHOG Mileage Form. This form is just for our MVHOG Chapter and has nothing to do with the national HOG Mileage Program. You can fill out an MVHOG Mileage Form at our membership meeting or go to our website and click on the form, fill it out, print, and turn it in to our director. There are chapter awards for riding the most total miles for the year, male and female rider, and for the most Britches miles for the year, male and female rider. Britches rides are marked on our MVHOG calendar with a picture of me, the handsome dude in bib overalls on the front page.

Website

In addition to hand signals for group rides, you can find pictures of our chapter officers and me, as well as our email addresses. Feel free to email any of us anytime you have a question or comment about your chapter. We’d love to hear from you. You can check out all the fun stuff we’re doing on our calendar pages. Our Webmaster tries to keep them updated for you. When we have enough notice and there are last minute changes, we try to send out an email, so make sure we’ve got your latest e-mail address. Check it out! www.mvhog.org.

MVHOG Hot Line

We have a phone line that you can call to check for any last minute changes prior to an event. Please call (866) OHIO HOG or (866) 644-6464 for an update. If an event has been canceled, please phone a friend to let them know too.

Charities and Community Service

Aside from eating and riding, we do some really cool stuff for people who need a little help. Miami Valley Harley Owners Group and our dealership, F&S, is traditionally the largest supporter of Muscular Dystrophy Association in the Miami Valley. Our chapter raises money throughout the year and helps with organizing Jerry’s Ride on Labor Day. This ride is from F&S Dealership to the MDA Telethon.

Also near and dear to us are the first grade students at Morrison Elementary School. Each fall we get on our Harleys and ride to the school. We then give them their school supplies that are purchased by our Ladies of Harley. The look on their little faces is all the thanks we need, but they still send us the sweetest thank you notes each year.

We support the Artemis Center who provides early intervention, supportive services, and education for victims of domestic violence and their children.

Also we can’t forget all the homeless animals and by supporting SICSA, the Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals, they will continue to help out those pooches and cats that need it.

One of the community services we do is Adopt a Roadway Litter Control program on Miller Lane. Butler Township has provided signage on both ends of Miller Lane saying Miami Valley Harley Owners Group has adopted this roadway. Our chapter takes pride in getting together three or four times a year to keep our roadway clean. So far, our chapter has picked up over a ton of litter on our adopted roadway.

2009 MVHOG Officers

See http://www.mvhog.org/2009/2009_officers.htm
for Officer Pictures and Email addresses.

Thank you from Britches

I would like to say thank you for joining our MVHOG chapter and hope you have a better understanding about our chapter. I have included our chapter officers and a copy of our newsletter HOG TALES. Read our newsletter to see what we are up to.

If you have any questions, please contact any of your officers or me. We will be glad to help you, and one day soon you will be able to answer new members’ questions about your chapter.

Have fun! Remember to support our sponsoring dealership, F&S, and I will see you at our next event.

Britches