Red Knights
NJ XI
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Minutes from Past April Meeting
Joining us for the April Meeting was Matt Vitacco, the NJ State Rep (from Chapter 4 in Hazlet), who spent some time discussing the organization of the NJ State Association. The primary reason for starting a State Association is to unite all of the chapters in the state, and help keep the lines of communication open and functioning between International, and the individual chapters.
The Red Knights is probably the fastest growing Motorcycle Club in the world, with over 200 chapters and more than 6,000 members, Starting a state association helps to maintain some order, and make it easier to meet, ride with, and communicate with some of out neighboring chapters. One of the eventual goals will be to have a State Convention, but in the near future, there will be a meeting open to members of all the NJ chapters on May 10th in Hazlet, and a picnic may be occuring in July. I will be forwarding meeting notices and updates on both of these events seperately.
At the meeting 2 new members were introduced:
John Evan, from Fords and
John Melasippo, from Colonia.
Since the meeting, 2 more riders have joined:
Ray Ference, from Iselin 11 and
Tim Meckler, from Iselin 11
Welcome Brothers, & Sister! Our total membership for the chapter is now 54!!
Several runs were discussed. The 200 Club of Essex County will be raising money for police and firefighter's widows on May 22nd with a run from Fairfield to Iberia Restaurant in Newark, end ing with a pig roast. Flyers will be available at the next meeting.
Also mentioned was "All Car Towing" - which is debatedly one of the most economically efficient (ie, cheapest) tows in the area. Dennis from South Amboy also gives a substantial police and firefighter discount, and is willing to work with anyone from the Red Knights. If for any reason you DON'T have any money or way to pay for ther tow, Dennis will give the tow based on your word to pay him the next day if you mention Kevin B Williams and the Red Knights. (Of course, if you don't pay the next day, you may hear Kevin's harley in your driveway soon after.................).
Colors were distributed to those who ordered them, which brought us to the next topic. Everyone was brought up to date on some of the emails that have been sent to all of the chapters from International, and responses.
Apparently, somewhere in south jersey one of the "Knights of Fire" had his colors forcibly removed because the state name was spelled out. While 99% of the people belonging to motorcycle clubs are motorcycle enthusiasts, 1% are "outlaws". The 1%ers believe that if the state name is spelled out on your colors, you are effectively saying that you "own" the state. One of the Kentucky chapters had to send a batch of their colors back, because the decision was made by International that all state names would be abbreviated in the interest of everyone's safety.
Basically, International is saying we want to be a non-issue with the 1% clubs, For the safety of out members, and the families of our members, all states will be abbreviated on colors from this point forward, and our colors will be red and gold (the older red and white were used by Hells Angels). Fortunately this is really a non-issue for this chapter, because when the chapter was being formed, a decision was made for the bottom rocker to read NJ CHAPTER XI because it looked better - which is in line with what International is now mandating anyway. This was a larger issue for the chapter who had to send the rockers back.......... apparently they really preferred having "Kentucky" on their back instead of "KY".............enough said.
Great news update on member Ed Rivas, who had a serious accident last year - he is now back to work, will be back at the Colonia FD shortly, and will hopefully join us at next months meeting!
Next month's meeting is Wednesday, May 11th, 7:30 PM at Colonia Fire on Inman Avenue at Colonia. Keep checking your email, as soon as I can I will forward a clandar of events so we can review upcoming runs. If anyone knows for sure they are doing a run in the next few weeks, feel free to email me the info, and I'll put it out to the club.
Recorded by:
Mikey G.
Secretary
RKNJXI
