February H.O.G. Connection

This year is off to a fast start! It’s hard to believe it’s almost March. Despite a spell of deep freeze in early January, the past couple of weeks have almost felt almost like early spring, and I’ve already seen a few bikes out and about around town. It’s great to get an early start on the riding season here in the upper Midwest, even if it’s just for a few short days.

In just under two weeks we’ll be kickstands up for the first H.O.G. touring rally of the year, the Run to Daytona, which heads from Alabama to Daytona Beach, Florida, where we officially kick off the 2024 riding season. Daytona is where the fun begins for thousands of our riders who make the annual pilgrimage to sunny Florida, but the H.O.G. team has been running full speed ahead since early January planning for a full year of H.O.G. rallies and events and attending Regional Officer Connection training sessions across the country.

We’re also nearly halfway through our 21 scheduled ROC sessions, and the turnout and engagement so far has been phenomenal. It’s truly inspiring to see how passionate and committed our officers are to the success of H.O.G. We’ve had great conversations on a wide range of topics at every session, and a few themes have emerged. There is a lot of interest in learning more about H-D Membership, the new program we launched last year that puts H.O.G at the top of the heap as the most valuable and aspirational membership tier. Another popular topic has been about how chapters better engage with their sponsoring dealer to attract and recruit new members (see below for some tips on that).

What both topics have in common is they show there is a great appetite at both the national and chapter level to try new things, to keep H.O.G. growing, evolving and moving ahead to serve the needs of a new generation of riders. We’ll do this by engaging with them on their terms while also remaining true to what H.O.G. stands for: riding together and having fun!

I’m looking forward to having some fun at Bike Week. If you are planning to be there, please make sure to check in with H.O.G. at the Speedway and say hello.

As always, thanks for everything you do to make the Harley Owners Group the biggest and best riding club in the world. 

[Paul Blotske] PAUL BLOTSKE
H.O.G. Regional Manager - Central
414-305-7132 | Email