Montana Motorcycle Safety Advisory Committee
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Meeting Minutes
May 28, 2003
12:00 – 4:00 PM
DOJ Room -- Scott Hart Building
303 North Roberts Street
Helena, MT
1. Call to Order
Chairman Dal Smilie called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. Present at the meeting were MMSAC members Ladd Paulson, Anita Drews-Oppedahl, Michele Hand, Ken Conrad, and Dal Smilie. Also present were Doug Tyrrell, MMRS Director, Michele Calvert, Program Coordinator, and Sandy Jappe from MSU-Northern; Ray Paige, Off-Highway Education Coordinator from the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks; David Huff, Traffic Education Specialist from the Office of Public Instruction, and Jim Gillett, Legislative Auditor.
2. Minutes of November 7, 2002 Meeting
The minutes of the meeting of November 7, 2002 were questioned. Doug questioned the statement regarding Michele C’s salary coming 100% completely out of the Motorcycle Safety index, which Michele C. clarified as being correct. The minutes were approved.
3. MMRS Mission Statement
Discussion was held regarding the MMRS Mission Statement and ways to shorten it and keep it simple. It was mentioned to find mission statements of other SMSA organizations and see how their individual goals were written up to use as examples. It was felt that the current mission statement’s first sentence was geared more towards new riders, and the second sentence toward inexperienced riders. A statement was needed that said how to equally train both types of riders. After discussion, it was agreed to use this simple statement as the Mission Statement for MMRS -- “The mission of MMRS is to offer training “designed to teach motorcyclists how to safely operate their vehicles.”
4. Jim Gillett – Legislative Auditor
Jim Gillett, Legislative Auditor was introduced and he gave an overview of HB 444 and how the wording of this bill was added to HB 559. Much discussion was held regarding this issue. Jim gave many statistics to tie in with this issue and noted that with this new bill being introduced, it would cut down drastically on the number of trips made to the courthouse to license one’s vehicle(s). It would be a lot less hassle and you can go once, pay taxes for life, and ride for life. It was discussed about registering vehicles through the mail system. The $16.00 one-time permanent registration fee was looked at and discussion was held about the effect this fee would have as to generating income in the next upcoming years.
5. NHTSA
Concerns were addressed regarding NHTSA’S “Characteristics of Motorcycle Operators” survey that was discussed briefly. This is a 4,000 person survey and it was mentioned that this was too narrow of a survey since many factors need to be considered such as riders re-entering, different ages, amount of miles ridden, etc. It was felt that surveying 4,000 people was enough to get the general idea of the information that was being asked for. It was also brought up that what information exactly is NHTSA looking for that they can’t already access or request from a source of information already available?
6. Reappointments/Term Expirations
Discussion was held regarding the term expirations for both Dal Smilie and Ladd Paulson. Both would like to be reappointed and the Governor’s Office will be contacted about this.
7. Review of Yearly Plans
Doug distributed handouts to everyone outlining his expectation for what he hopes the Motorcycle Safety Program will accomplish within a one, five, and ten year period. Discussion was held on these plans dealing with the issues Doug brought up. Below is an outline of his 1-year plan, which he discussed in more detail:
7-1. 1-Year Plan
- Begin replacing CB125’s within the program.
- Increase the support for loaner bikes…
In 2002, 33 bikes were made available on dealer loans from 10 dealers. In 2003, 43 bikes were made available on dealer loans from 13 dealers.
- Increase RiderCoach numbers…
The program had a net gain of 7 RiderCoaches the end of 2002, resulting in a total of 25 active RiderCoaches.
- Expand service to new locations…
Discussion was held regarding painting ranges along with moving the Belgrade, Libby, and Malta classes to the month of August.
- Increase support from rider groups.
- Explore funding and grant options…
Melody Bentz, Grant Writer at MSU-Northern can assist with grant writing. Doug also brought up bringing in driver’s license examiners after hours.
- Continue to work with adjoining states…
States such as Idaho and Washington were brought up and the possibility of having one of our instructors teaching in another state.
- Identify legislative needs.
- Identify policy and procedure needs.
8. State Reciprocity/Cooperative Classes
Discussion was held regarding this issue dealing with adjoining states such as Idaho, Washington, and North Dakota and whether or not the BRC class standards meet the BRC standards in these states. Anita stated that she will visit with people from other states regarding these issues and Doug will be making calls to further check into this.
9. 2003 Legislative Session
The 2003 legislative session was discussed. Everyone agreed that keeping up-to-date with these issues really made a difference on the outcome this had on the program. The funding of the program was discussed and it was mentioned that the class tuition might possibly need to be raised.
10. Program Statistics
Michele C. discussed the statistics as of May 23rd. A total of 965 students have registered so far for classes and she is certain that 1200 students will register for motorcycle safety classes this season. As-to-date, a total of 119 classes is scheduled for this season. One class so far has been canceled … the Experienced Rider Course in Great Falls on May 18th due to snow.
11. Group Reports/Other
Discussion was held regarding providing rollout awning shelters at each class location. Michele C. will look into purchasing an affordable awning for each site. It was also brought up to provide walky-talkies for each site.
Scooter training was discussed and there currently was not a lot of interest in providing this type of training to students.
Fatal vision goggles were discussed and how to properly use them in the classroom was addressed. It was mentioned that the instructors should try and separate the riding activity as far after the use of the goggles due to any after effects the students may feel after using the goggles. Hopefully, this will prevent any accidents from occurring that may be caused from the after effects of these goggles.
Ray Paige discussed a couple of posters that he brought to the meeting regarding issues such as ‘Trespassing Is A Serious Offense’ and ‘Walk When You Stalk’ dealing with vehicles staying on designated trails on BLM lands. Ray made these posters available to anyone interested in receiving one.
12. Next Meeting Date
The Committee discussed meeting again in October. A meeting date of Friday, October 10th at 1:30 pm was set up.
13. Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 4:00 pm.
