Moving Ahead ...

Tuesday night a small group got together trackside to figure out our "next steps" in track preparation. Mike Froh had mony good things to say about the Steve Spencer designed and built track. The wheels turn in Mike's mind nearly as quickly as they do on his bike as it relates to a couple of tweaks. The fourth of July weekend will bring a great deal of progress toward the completion of the Milwaukee track. The group will spend a considerable amount of time on Friday June 30th, Saturday July 1st, (we are not scheduled to work on Sunday, though some of us likely will) and Monday July 3rd. John Mittlestadt is working on procurring a skid loader for Mike to run those days. We've got some great leads on equipment we may be able to use that John is following through on, or, Fred Yanke can also procure a rental at a pretty killer rate. In any event ... you will be seeing considerable progress soon.

John and I have been scratching our heads over our expenses and awards seem to be a considerable piece of the puzzle. Despite the fact that a friend of mine runs a trophy shop, we're going to have to shop the awards piece, I'm afraid ... so, if anybody has additional suggestions for a competitive quote for us ... leave word here, or feel free to shoot me an e-mail. Another item that's been revealed in the promise of Milwaukee BMX is that our cost model really reflects a better situation for us as the rider count increases. This is a result of ammortizing our cost of insurance (and is the only cost that's absolutely static with no regard to rider count) ... so, we're hoping that all of you realize that we're promoting together. Please bring a friend, and don't forget to encourage that friend to bring a friend. Because of the nature of the agreements with John Kaishian and ABA BMX, which are both modeled on a per-rider basis, increased rider counts will help us pay off our gate more quickly, and provide the peace of mind (hey, cash makes me rest easier too) to John K. that he made the right decision by supporting our effort.

Today, we discussed a possible fund-raising event to get a bit of money for the club together ... so that we won't have to keep cranking cash out of our own pockets in an effort to prepare for racing. A good friend of mine from the Portland area clued me in to the following fund-raising event put on by a local bike shop ... it was called Bucks for BMX and involved a premiere showing (in Portland, anyway) of Joe Kid on a Sting-Ray which is a totally rad movie about the formative years of BMX Racing and Freestyle.

From what I've heard, the event was quite successful, although I do not know exactly how much the final tally of money raised amounted to.

John and I have discussed having a small party (perhaps 100 guests) at the Chalet at Crystal Ridge to view the movie and just ratchet up the excitement about Milwaukee BMX in general. Again, feedback is helpful, so, if you have some thoughts the type of success we could have with this type of party, I'd love to hear them.

That's all for now. I will be picking and raking for a few hours on Sunday, if anybody wants to join, we're trying to get the big stuff dug out so that Mike can really move ahead with final shaping and massaging the track next weekend.

Kevin O'