FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Thought you might find this interesting. This is a letter that I sent to Dean and Larry this morning. I always thought loyalty from an employer came from earned respect from doing your job really well, and was expressed by pay raises and more benefits, not by being able to fly under the radar. Mark Lewellen Ozark, Missouri (Addressed to Larry Lawrence, AMA Superbike Media Manager–as of yesterday, anyway) First, I would like to state that I am not a member of the AMA, and have not been for more than ten years. Additionally, I do not know you, or any of the persons that were fired, or any other AMA employees in the last 12 years. I do know that the AMA has had essentially stagnant membership levels for decades, (less than 300,000) and that spectator attendance and racer participation is stagnant or declining in AMA roadracing. I also know that Harley has more members in HOG than the AMA has in total members. My opinion is that with the truly stunning growth in riders and bike sales in the last 20 years, that we should have seen a relative growth in AMA membership as well, yet that never happened. Instead, as a former team owner and roadracing fan, we are subjected to the wonderful headlines of how the AMA steals a series from one of it’s partners, (R. Edmondson) and then lies about it to everyone, and then looses a few million dollars of member money in a lost legal battle to the aforementioned partner. At the same time, we find out about secret memos, that the factory 600 Kawasaki team is ok to use relocated pivots, etc., and other great things to lead us to believe that this is being run as the “Loyal employee/good ole’ boy” network. Yet during all of these fiasco’s, AMA membership did not grow any amount to speak of. In my opinion, your comments seem to further that mentality, in that you claim they are “Loyal employees” with many years of service and they were fired in some disrespectful method or manner. You also state that employees are afraid to discuss things openly, and they worry that e-mails and voicemails are being monitored. As far as I know, people are generally hired to do a job, and if they do not do it, they get replaced with someone else. If your job is to grow membership, and you are a loyal employee for many years, and the membership does not grow, then it would seem to me that you are not doing your job, and should be replaced. I know that seems fairly harsh, but loyalty does not warrant a paycheck, performance does. You state that “A positive, open and productive atmosphere needs to be restored to the AMA so that the association can return to doing its job of being the voice for motorcyclists in America.” I fail to see where decades of stagnant growth or even loss of membership, and the repeated disclosures of rules favoritism, thievery, loss of series sponsors, etc. can be considered to be productive by any stretch of the imagination. The entire tone of your complaint seems to be that you and the “Loyal employees” are upset that they are being held accountable to accomplish things, and if they do not, then they are at risk of being replaced, as it should be. As far as I am aware, I have never worked anywhere that I was told that if I am loyal, I can stay forever, as “we owe you for your loyalty”. I am an engineer, and I have always worked with the understanding that I have a job to do, and if I cannot do it, then I should expect to be replaced with someone who can. The AMA has a responsibility to its members to grow the membership base to allow for a larger voice with the politicians, and to properly represent all aspects of motorcycling fairly to all. That has not happened in a few decades. This new AMA President seems to be holding himself accountable to the members and making things happen. It probably is not popular with everyone, especially with anyone who gets fired, but I have noticed some improvements. I guess only time will tell. I fired the AMA a long time ago, because the “good ole boys/loyal employees” were looking out for each other, rather than doing there jobs. In my humble opinion, Dingman may be onto something. Perhaps he just has not gone far enough. Regards, Mark Lewellen Ozark, Missouri FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I do not know if Greg or Bill deserve to be fired but let me say that I have been witness to the way the AMA has operated for over 30 years and it is an abject failure on so many levels and cleaning house of non-productive employees (amongst other reasons) is only one of the things management needs to do. Sentimentality may have its place but not in business. If the AMA is to survive and command any respect whatsoever, major changes must take place and if that means heads rolling, then so be it. Perhaps for the first time in decades the AMA might be growing up and finally being responsible to those who have kept it financially afloat for a very long time. Peter Starr Los Angeles, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: If Dingman can drag them from the 60’s or 70’s into say….the mid to late 1990’s…. it would be miraculous. Chris Nugent Crystal Lake, Illinois FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: To Larry Lawrence: As a life member of the AMA I believe I have the perspective to say: Throw all you bums out! From the Roger Edmondson stupidity, to the death of flat track, the “super” everything classes of AMA Road Racing that fail to get all the manufacturers and top riders in one class, the AMA leadership has proven to be INCOMPETENT at every level. The only series with some credibility is SX and MX which is more due to Youth Stream and Clear Channel than anything the AMA has orchestrated. In SX and MX there are privateer and industry sponsored teams that rival or equal the factory efforts. Why? Because there is economic return in sponsoring and running a team. Look at the payouts in Road Racing. Pitiful. I guess you have to pay off the $3 million payout to Roger Edmondson on somebody’s backs. So you see in Road Racing, it’s the factories, and then a bunch of ineffective privateers (with the exception of the Jordan Motor Sports, who are at the professional private level the AMA should be encouraging) due to the utter lack of any chance of breaking close to even or recouping ones expenses. You make the rules, the series suffers, and the AMA proceeds on like they have some solutions. The fuel testing stupidity, the crankcase breather mods on GSXRs, the weighing of dirt track bikes: Do you need any more examples of your organization’s incompetence? Then you get on a high horse and try and threaten with credentials that have no luster. Dingman should accept your veiled threat to leave. Since the people fired were there a long time, they are by definition part of the problem. Sounds like you are, too. A bitter and disillusioned AMA life member, Jim Lubin Oakland, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Wow, changes at the AMA, how many times have we heard that? This is way overdue. That of course is just my opinion as an ex road racing promoter and someone who tried to work with the AMA on many levels a hundred times. While I do not know many of the people still employed at the AMA and on a personal level everyone that I’ve had contact with were indeed nice folks. However my opinion formed over the years is that this group of “nice” folks have held “our” sport down and crippled its ability to market itself for the last 20 years. I’ve had many meetings in various Ohio towns over the past decade trying to make “something” happen and each time I’ve driven home with the thought: “those folks don’t want to change anything, they are truly afraid of something new or the work involved to make it happen.” I will acknowledge that I only saw one narrow slice of the AMA’s day to day operations and like any business you don’t know what you don’t know till you’ve worn the boots. But, contrary to Mr. Lawrence’s last paragraph I’ve never known the AMA to foster “A positive, open and productive atmosphere.” Like it or not, for the rest of our lives the AMA will set the stage for motorcycle related activity in this country. They need to lead, follow or get the _ out of the way. I say run the AMA like any other business in this country, we don’t need another branch of the government, we need a leader who can produce results daily. It IS fundamentally that simple. Eric Nacke Event Media Systems Grand Rapids, Michigan FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: To Larry Lawrence: Greetings. My name is Peter Migli, and I am a twenty-year AMA member (#430483) and former road racer. I was shocked and disappointed when I read of the dismissals of Mr. Greg Harrison and Mr. Bill Wood by the current AMA administration. I have always found comfort in the thoughtful and honest reporting by both of those men, as I have read American Motorcyclist throughout the years. However, I was pleased to see your personal outrage published on the Cycle News website. It gave me pause to wonder how I might be able to contribute. I sent a query, via the “members only” page of the AMA website, asking for a complete explanation for the dismissals in an upcoming issue of American Motorcyclist. I suggested that, in the absence of such an explanation, I would have to give serious consideration to letting my AMA membership lapse. I would much rather continue my membership, because I want to support the organization that supports motorcycling, and I have done so for many consecutive years. I was hoping to find the e-mail addresses for the AMA Board of Directors listed in American Motorcyclist; but alas, none were there. To be honest, I will probably not be able to put the necessary time and energy into sending the directors snail-mail. I am going to try to send a copy of this message to AMA board members Mr. John Ulrich and Mr. Andy Goldfine, in the hope that they might be able to discern the causes for the dismissals of Mr. Harrison and Mr. Wood. Perhaps that can help to get something started. Thank you for your time and attention. Sincerely, Peter L. Migli AMA #430483 South Miami, Florida (And now, my personal opinion: It’s common in real-world companies that, with a new CEO, there is a certain amount of staff change due to differences in vision, disagreements on the level of required cooperation, and perception of job performance. In the specific case of the AMA, given the change in upper management, the size of the membership compared to the growth in the number of motorcyclists in this country, and the official magazine’s recent financial performance, it should not be altogether surprising that the staffers responsible for growing membership and for running the magazine have been let go. In social settings, how nice a person is and how loyal they are counts more than it does in a business setting, where performance and buying into the CEO’s vision and plan are considerably more important. We’d post a letter of outrage that former AMA President Ed Youngblood has sent other websites decrying the firing of his long-time associates and friends, but for some reason he didn’t send it to Roadracingworld.com. The fact that these staff changes have upset Youngblood–who may be remembered as the Richard Nixon of AMA history, having resigned in disgrace after his attempt to screw joint venture partner Roger Edmondson cost the AMA $3.2 million in an adverse judgement and another couple of million in legal fees–may be the best endorsement of all…John Ulrich, Roadracingworld.com)