Wing Ding 30 Official Program - Wing World Magazine Archives

In the ZoneSharon Stanley • Editor • editor@gwrra.orgPondering Two Anniversaries this JulyThis issue’s cover date marks themonth of my one-year anniversary asyour editor. I hope you’ve enjoyed eachand every one of your monthly issues ofWing World magazine and that we continueon in our relationship together formany years to come.That being said, however, I do have asmall confession to make: I really didn’trealize how active you all are in theAssociation and, subsequently, in communicatingwith me. There’s a big difference betweenbeing the Rider, so to speak, of this magazineas opposed to the Co-Rider, and my helmet iscertainly off to Former Editor Nick Hoppnerfor his many loyal years of steering the bike forthis membership!And your continued input signals a veryhealthy readership, so for that I am very thankful.But I do have a teensy favor to ask my fellowGWRRA Members: While I certainlyencourage you to continue sending in material,please do be patient with me as I furtherrefine my organizational efforts. It may takejust a tad longer til I perfect this process.There have been the occasional bumps alongthe road; I’ve underestimated how long someone’sarticle would take to appear in the magazineor an event or ad somehow hung incyberspace for a month longer than expected,and/or a copyedit error was overlooked. Forthose, I hope you’ll accept my sincere apologies.But even amidst the hundreds and hundredsof emails and letters and photos andfull-length articles and more that I receiveeach month (think about it this way, it takes farless than one percent of the Association topop a single email in order to account for severalhundred contributions coming my wayeach month!), I do try my best to hold tothose words of wisdom that haste makeswaste. That’s why I’ve spent many hoursinventing new—and sometimes even unheardof—ways to stay better organized. In fact, Iwas just chatting with a gentleman this morningin which I was explaining my shock to himthat I now officially have 132 subfolders, notcounting the usual Inbox, Sent, Spam, etc. folders,just in my email account. (I had figured itcouldn’t have possibly been more than 58.Wrong!)So anyway, enough chit-chat on that. I justwant you to know that, if you sent in a contributionand I received it, I have taken the timeto review it, it has been filed, and it hasreceived consideration for publication.Logistically speaking, however, it is impossibleto print every contribution, just as it is impossibleto ride every road, no matter how greatthey all are. Yet you still like to hear aboutthem.And I do enjoy hearing from each andevery one of you. GWRRA Members, while attimes a somewhat spunky bunch, are most alltrue blue through and through. Which ofcourse leads me to my next point—my amazementat an Association that has withstood 31years together and continues to celebrateanniversary after anniversary, like this year’s30th Wing Ding in Greenville, South Carolina.What an anniversary! Can you imagine?Three decades of celebrating an event togetherthat all began with the dreams of just ahandful or so of people.That’s not just quite anaccomplishment, that’s quite a story.Why not either continue that story, orstart a new Wing Ding story for yourself (ifthis year would be your very first time as adelegate), by planning to make it to this hugefamily reunion? You know, I recently had thepleasure of chatting with my grandmotherabout my biological family’s genealogy. It waswonderful to learn more of the roots of myfamily tree. It made me realize I’ll always be apart of something larger than just who I am asan individual. My one regret is that, as withmany biological families over the years, familyreunions seem to get less frequent unlesssomeone steps forward and says “I’ll organizeit” or “I’ll attend it”.You already have the Event ManagementGroup and the many Volunteers who’vehelped organize Wing Ding. Everything’s set.Why not, if you’re able, try to attend this greatreunion they throw for you annually? I’ll tellyou the two feelings I remember most when Ifirst attended Wing Ding in Nashville in 2006:“This is incredibly huge” and “This is family”.So you see, while jumping aboard this bikewe call our magazine seems a bit overwhelmingwith so many tens of thousands of ridersnext to me, it also means I have many familymembers worldwide and a huge reunion toboot. So let’s keep riding!Wishing you a happy and safe ride there,Your Editor●4 Wing World