OPEN LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
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12/13/2025
Thanks to everyone who voted in our board election. Those of us already seated continued in our respective positions, and we have added Kathy Waters to our board. We met Kathy on our Chix at the Crossroads event, and she was integral to the planning of our Riveter Rumble in Kentucky this past May. She is a welcome addition to our board.
All of us have been very active and focused on these big events - Chix on 66 in 2022, Chix at the Crossroads in 2024, and the Riveter Rumble in 2025. The first two events each took a full year of intense planning - they were 2-week events with many hotel stops to coordinate, routes to plan, and a million details to hammer out. The Rumble - an AMCA road run - typically takes a chapter at least a year to plan. We did it in about six months.
We have a great group who digs in and gets the planning done, but we are all tired! And we all have lives that need our time and attention, so we are going to go into a bit of a stasis mode to catch up in our personal lives. For me, personally, this means focusing on grad school.
As of this writing, I have just finished the grueling first semester. For those who do not know, I started down this path in early 2024. I was at a turning point in my life and needed to refocus, so after a lot of thought, I decided to pursue the PhD that I had not been able to pursue right after undergrad thirty years ago. I moved from Buffalo, NY to Columbia, SC in the fall of 2024, and I applied to the University of South Carolina. In early April of 2025, I was accepted with full funding and a Teaching Assistantship.​
My dissertation is going to be on the history of women in motorcycling - not surprising. What is surprising is how little has been written about our early days. William Murphy's Grace and Grit is the only well-researched source available that I am aware of, and if you have not read it, you should. Murphy is not a historian by training, but he is a historian in practice. He does a great deal of research, and his book is accurate and well written. He is also a super nice guy. I reached out to him about a source, and he generously shared what he had and answered a couple of related questions. So really, get his book and read it.
As I said, it has been a tough first semester, but one of the highlights was a class I took called History for Headphones. The history part was that each of us picked a research topic, and the headphones part was that we presented our final project as a (minimum) 30-munite podcast with an accompanying script with our research evidence. The topic I chose was the Van Buren sisters' 1916 cross-country ride.
I have created a women's history section of this site, where I have shared my podcast and script. I was also invited earlier this year, to collaborate with the Harley-Davidson Museum on an online exhibit for Google Arts and Culture. Google asked the museum for a Route 66-focused exhibit, and since we had worked with Harley-Davidson in 2022 with our Chix on 66 event, they reached out and asked me if I would like to contribute to this display. I collaborated with one of the museum curators to create a 2-part display. Click here for Part 1. And here for Part 2.
So please welcome Kathy Waters to our board, and please check out our new section. Even if we are not actively planning women's events for the moment, we are all still very actively supporting women riders.
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Karan Andrea
President, Riveter Chapter
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A word about membership.
Remember that your chapter membership runs on the calendar year – 1/1/2025 – 12/31/2025, for example – so your chapter membership will likely expire at a different time than your AMCA membership does.
1. If you are not a current AMCA member, click here to join.
2. If you are a current AMCA member and just need to renew your Riveter Chapter membership, send your dues via PayPal to our Treasurer Kathy Strobele. The PayPal email is kathys@riveterchapter.com.
3. If you have any questions about membership status, contact our Membership Director Joann Mikulec.
How do we keep the Riveter Chapter visible between these annual events?
Share what you are doing in your own communities, home chapters, riding organizations, wherever you participate in motorcycling events. If you are at an event, please post, share or tag Chix and Riveter social media (we are on Facebook and Instagram).
FB Riveter Private Group
FB Chix Vintage Riders Public Page
Instagram Chix Vintage Riders Page
• The purpose of this chapter is for us to get to know each other and see what we are all doing. Social media is the perfect outlet for us to make this happen. Our members are spread across the country, so large gatherings of members are going to be few and far between, but sharing the events we attend, the work we do on our bikes, etc., is a great way to support each other and become more aware that we are not all operating in a vacuum.
• If you have an idea or want to create an event or believe that there is something that the chapter can offer its members, please get in touch with one of our board members (see the complete list of board members on the Riveter Chapter website www.riveterchapter.com). This is your chapter. If you are willing to put an event together where you live or know of an event where you would like to see a Riveter presence, we can help you make that happen.
• We are always looking for members who want to be active on a more committed level. There are committee opportunities – either a committee the board has established, or you can propose a committee if you have an idea that would require more planning and execution than you are willing to do on your own.
This sounds like something I want to dig into. What else can I do?
If you want to play a larger role in your chapter, here are just a few ideas for you to consider. Some I have already mentioned above, and some are simply needs that we do not yet have personnel for.
• Social media coordination – we are still looking for someone willing to manage our social media content on Facebook and Instagram – this is one of the best ways to stay in touch with our members and share what Riveters are doing with a wider audience. This could be shared among several people.
• Membership recruiting – do you know riders who might be interested in joining the Riveter Chapter? Forward this site to them. Bring them to an event you are attending. Introduce them to other members.
• Event planning/attendance – if you have an idea for an event – no matter how small and local it may be, or if you gather a few Riveters to attend an event – maybe a local bike night, a road run, one of the bigger rallies like Sturgis or Daytona, etc. – let us know, and we can help coordinate meetups or whatever you have in mind.
• Education – riding techniques, mechanical instruction (repairs/maintenance, etc.)
• Promoting Riveter contributions to motorcycling, etc. If you or someone you know is participating in a motorcycle event – maybe having an antique bike judged, or racing at Sons of Speed, or participating in something like the Chase or Cannonball – we will promote the event and our members through our social media channels.
Thank you for your support of the Riveter Chapter. We are excited about our future, and we are happy that you have chosen to be part of our adventure.
Karan Andrea
President
716-445-5487