Club Policies
The purpose of this dialogue is to help to bring people up to speed as to the whys, the do’s and the don’ts of riding and clubbing. Everybody is not cut out to be a clubber though anyone can be a biker. Being a clubber is a whole other story.
To be a clubber you must be able to take orders and express humility as a prospect. Some of the more serious clubs prospectship is very demanding and that is not by accident. Prospecting is the clubs way of finding out who you are and what you can take. I look at it as being in basic training for military service or pledging for a fraternity (or sorority). Serious oriented clubs hold prospects as the most important part of the club next to the members. A prospect is like a new member being born. How that prospect is interned will determine the type of member that it will become. In the more social network clubs prospectship is what I consider to be a joke. I have seen prospects laughing and joking with the members or club acquaintances and associates. When I was prospecting, we were informed that prospects were to be seen and not heard. Prospects have but one name, ‘Prospect’. If a member wants something and they say Prospect, everybody with that name had better show up. A prospect is a work horse for the club; they are not however, for the amusement of others outside of the prospect’s club. A prospect doesn’t say hello or shake hands with anyone outside of his or her club. There is no time limit as to how long a person will be a prospect. Some prospectships may be longer than others.
One of the purposes of a long hard prospectship is to put value into the individuals becoming a member. A person who works hard to achieve a goal is not so likely to just throw in the towel when things don’t seem to go their way. A good prospect once becoming a full patched member will protect his / her right to wear their club patch with their lives. When a person puts in the work and the blood sweat and tears to achieve something they value that accomplishment and they do whatever it takes to hold on to it. You can’t make them mad enough to give it up. Prospects in the social circuit are given pretty much light weight things to do such as run errands and maybe keep the bikes clean. On the other hand the prospects for the more serious oriented clubs put in some serious work. They put in the kind of work that could cause them to catch a bid or worse. Not to concern though because this is what they signed on for and they don’t go into the life oblivious to what type of expectations are waiting for them. Whatever it is, it comes with the territory. Nobody who goes into that level of prospectship goes in blind because they don’t start prospecting right off the street. A person has to hang around the club for a while and once noticed by a full patch holder, one must be invited to prospect for the club. The members have to get to know you and what you are about before you are even invited to prospect. Trust me it doesn’t happen overnight.
That is enough about prospects, now I want to talk about the club itself and the different aspects of the club. Most clubs have two main functions. They are 1) social and 2) business. Now everybody can handle the social endeavors of the club, but not everybody can handle the business. The business side of the club is the most important side because this is the side that answers to the government and the establishment itself for the purpose of keeping the physical house in order. Most clubs including and especially most ‘outlaw’ or ‘1%er’ clubs are chartered, incorporated and registered to legally do business in this country. Not only are they chartered but their patches, their names and their symbols and insignias are trademarked and Heaven help you if you infringe upon it. This is because regardless of what they may or may not be doing legally or illegally they have the right to do business just as any other corporation. Now it stands to reason that if serious no nonsense clubs such as the category of clubs I just mentioned can do their homework and legitimize the business side of their empires shouldn’t the casual 'I just ride on the week-enders' too? So you say "why should I"? Well if you have a clubhouse that is a business and it should be run as such. It has to be stocked, rent has to be paid and whatever other overhead is involved has to be dealt with too, such as utilities. I have even heard of such foolishness as sharing a clubhouse between two or more clubs. Think of that like two or three families trying to share a single family home. You can imagine how that would work. Now let’s say one family has the legal paperwork to operate, meaning to get a lease, have utilities turned on and answer to the government on the tax liabilities whereas the other one can’t, how do you think that will work out? Let me help you, it won't! If something catastrophic happens at the house, one club can simply walk away while the other one is left holding the bag. After all, everything is in their name. Well, so much for that argument. God bless the child that’s got his own.