The Segway Enthusiasts Group of America is undergoing a significant transformation.

As you know, volunteer organizations rely on consistent stewardship and activity in order to prosper. While both our membership and general interest has continued to grow throughout the years, the volunteer effort has not. In fact this year we did not receive enough nominations for the SEG America Executive Board to remain in compliance with our bylaws. Simply put, we no longer have the volunteer resources necessary to maintain and grow SEG America.

Because of this, the current entity of SEG America will officially retire on August 31, 2007. There is a silver lining, however. Segway Inc. believes in this community and would like to continue nurturing it in a new way. It sees an opportunity working with and for Segway enthusiasts and hopes to come up with practical and creative ways to grow membership and involvement.

We expect this transition to take some time and we hope you will support their efforts and continue your involvement. We believe our group and its founding objectives will be well served under a more consistent and motivated stewardship via Segway Inc., a company that has always supported our efforts and is now ready to take them to the next level. Your SEG America membership will be one of the starting points for the launch of this new effort.

What will happen to SEG America’s assets? Remaining assets will be reallocated within the Segway Enthusiast community.

It has been our honor as the Executive Board of SEG America to serve this organization over the last three years. We have made many friends, and we have all had some good times. We thank you all for that.

For more news about the SEG America transition, stay tuned to Segway Inc.’s “The Last Mile” blog at http://www.segway.com/blog. We encourage all of you to continue to glide with pride, be good and responsible Segway citizens, find opportunities to glide with your friends, and continue a long and successful life in the Segway community.

Karl Ian Sagal, Fred Kaplan, Stan Dobrowski, Will Hopper

It is time for members to decide on the management of this organization for the next year. Nominations for elected office open now! Any Advanced or Individual member can nominate any Advanced or Individual member for any office, by simply sending an email to elections@segamerica.org . All nominations must include the full name and email address of the person making the nomination, and the full name and email address of the person being nominated. If we cannot contact you or the potential nominee, then that action will not be valid.

The elected officers of SEG America are, President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Local Group Coordinator.

I will send another email with the voting procedures, which you can expect shortly. If you are not current, it is a good time to renew your membership. Many have already done it, and to those members, thanks! To those of us who have yet to do it, the time is here. Go to www.segamerica.org and get it done.

We have had some issues regarding databases and websites, and are well on our way to resolving many of them, and while we are still dealing with them, we are much more able to respond to the issues that come up. We are installing a number of new features at the same time as the reconstruction, and I still hope to be able to announce many of the improvements soon.

But first…I want to remind everyone that we here at SEG America are all about enjoying the segway experience. Last week I reminded you to go find someone and glide with them. Group glides are a blast!

This week I am going to tell you to go and find something else to do with your seg. Visit a local seg dealer, many are Business members and offer discounts and perks for members. Check out the new t-shirts, and local accessories. Find out if they have some interesting events coming up… Maybe you should go and find or go and start a polo team. If you want to play, and you make it known, you will gather other polo players to you…

We are still looking for The WOZ Cup Challenge in September, and although I have no new news on it, I hope to have some soon. Lots of people have had a great time at local parades, festivals, and glides. If you have some good stories to relate, send them to me, and I will mention them in the next message. You can send them to President@SEGamerica.org .

As a reminder, this year, the election of officers will follow this schedule:

Elections Committee formation : April 30 (Done – Will Hopper chairman)
Nominations for Club officers : July 15 to 28 (Open Now)
Compile Ballot : July 29 to July 31
Voting : Aug 1 to Aug 13
Tabulations : Aug 14 to Aug 15
Results Announced : Aug 15
New Term starts : Sep 1

SEG America merchandise is for sale. We have polo shirts, tee shirts, and much more…

At this point, I want to speak of the rebuild that is currently going on at our website. We are completely reformatting it. We want input. We need images, logos, original artwork, and ideas. Specifically, among other images, we want candid shots of people on segs doing things. The person on the seg need not be the topic or star of the photo. We want interesting shots, with a seg somewhere in it. Send in suggestions and things you want to see on the site. We want to use your ideas and images… Send a note with what attachments you like to President@segamerica.org and I will bring all work to the board… We have special gifts for the contributors, mostly memorabilia from segway history. Be sure to include a mailing address and your permission to use anything you send us.

Keep looking for new action and activity. We will be sending you news as we have it…

Karl Ian Sagal, President, SEG America
848 North Rainbow Boulevard # 559, Las Vegas, Nevada 89017

Summer is in full swing, and I hope this letter finds itself to people fully engaged in all sorts of segging activities. If not, print this letter to read later, and go out now and take a glide. Make up for lost gliding miles…

2007 has been full of behind the scenes activity and lots of local activities as well. We are looking forward to International Events like the WOZ Cup Challenge in September, but also have been attending lots of local parades, festivals, and local glides. If you are not doing so, you are missing a great deal of fun.

It is almost time for members to decide on the management of this organization for the next year. Nominations for elected office are right around the corner. You can expect an email specifically on elections next week. Nominations open on July 15, and are open to any current paid Advanced Member, who can nominate any current Advanced Member for office. If you are not current, it is a good time to renew your membership. Many have already done it, and to those members, thanks! To those of us who have yet to do it, the time is here. Go to www.segamerica.org and get it done.

As a reminder, this year, the election of officers will follow this schedule:

Elections Committee formation : April 30 (Done – Will Hopper chairman)
Nominations for Club officers : July 15 to 28
Compile Ballot : July 29 to July 31
Voting : Aug 1 to Aug 13
Tabulations : Aug 14 to Aug 15
Results Announced : Aug 15
New Term starts : Sep 1

This year we opened up the organization to Business Members and the response was great, but we are still installing the structure that will best take advantage of their support.

This year very well may be the year. In the life cycle of any product, there is a point that the number of users gets to the point where owning and using one is no longer a novelty, and becomes recognized as cutting edge. $3.00 and more for a gallon of gas, Police and security agencies all over using them, and more and more commuters using them and keeping them in the public’s eyes, Most major cities and tourist areas with rental and tour groups may be factors to drive this home…

SEG America encourages responsible uses of all kinds. We encourage everyone who enjoys gliding to go out and do it. We encourage all to gather with others and glide, as that is a great aspect of this activity, there are lots of very interesting folks who are doing it. I have yet to be in a group of segway gliders where they were not all having a good time.

While we encourage people to gather together, and are very happy to help facilitate that, we recognize that there are many more formats for these activities than just SEG America. There are many local and international groups and polo clubs in the segway world, and we wish them all well.

There are also some big changes here at SEG America. We are in the process of having our website overhauled, and it will have a bold new look, and many new features. We will announce the developments as they become ready to come online. There are other big doings in the works as well. Keep watching for more announcements! (tease, tease)

SEG America merchandise is for sale. We have polo shirts, tee shirts, and much more…

Karl Ian Sagal, President, SEG America

848 North Rainbow Boulevard # 559, Las Vegas, Nevada 89017

January 17, 2007.

January 31, 2007.

Meeting Summaries can always be found after they are approved by clicking on the “Executive Board Meeting Summaries” link on the left.

Meeting called to order by Karl at: 9:11 pm and recorded.

Executive Board members in attendance:

Karl Ian Sagal, President
Fred Kaplan, Treasurer
Stanley Dobrowski, Secretary
Carolyn Kelford, Local group Coordinator

Executive Board members absent:

Will Hopper, Immediate Past President Vice President – None.

Minutes from previous meeting

The minutes from Jan 17, 2007 meeting were not available for discussion. They will be Emailed to the board when ready and voted on via Email.

Topics

• Stan was asked to prepare a list of the members for use by Karl, Fred and Carolyn.
• Discussion about the business memberships. Stan reported that the database and screen form are almost ready. He needs to create the $100 subscription in Amember. Karl asked for one additional piece of information – a checkbox to indicate the business has outlets available for plugging in Segways to charge.
• Discussion of the dealer list obtained from Segway. It will be combined with Fred’s and Will’s lists to make one comprehensive list for Karl and Carolyn to use.
• Stan was asked to create the LGC mailbox at segamerica.org for Carolyn’s use.
• Stan will do a batch export of the active member information to an Access database to prepare for the printing of the membership cards.
• Discussion about the Kmailer add-ons to track Email campaigns, which Emails are opened, read and clicked on.
• Discussion about the letter to dealers written by Karl. Carolyn will work with dealers to help find people interested in making local groups and getting dealers to become business members.
• Karl was looking into and found some leads on mail forwarding services. He found a nice on in Las Vegas that looks promising.
• Discussion about locations for SegwayFest 2007 and 2008, local fests and regional fests.
• Discussion about the club’s role in local legal (ban) issues.
• Discussion about the Woz Cup ’07.

Adjournment

Stan made a motion, seconded by Fred to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 11:16 pm.

Next Meeting

Will be in three weeks on Feb 21, 2007 at 9 pm eastern time.

Approved: Feb 26, 2007

Meeting called to order by Karl at: 9:08 pm and recorded.

Executive Board members in attendance:

Karl Ian Sagal, President
Fred Kaplan, Treasurer
Stanley Dobrowski, Secretary
Carolyn Kelford, Local group Coordinator
Will Hopper, Immediate Past President

Executive Board members absent:

Vice President – None.

Minutes from previous meeting

Minutes from the Jan 3, 2007 and Dec 13, 2006 meetings were reviewed. No changes were suggested. Motion to accept by Karl with 2nd by Carolyn. Motion passed unanimously.

Topics

• Stan is looking into additional features of the Kmailer bulk mailing program for Email reception statistics, click-throughs, etc. Karl pointed out that the Emails to remind members of renewals must be sent out ASAP.
• Discussion about general enthusiasm level of members for the club and recruitment ideas.
• Will reports that the DCSEG group had a successful New Year’s Glide and that the group is still as active as it was last year.
• Carolyn talked about SegwayPolo activities in her southern California area. These have been organized on an adhoc basis by SEGOC and SEGLA mostly through announcements on SegwayChat.
• Discussion about legislative issues going on right now, SEG America’s level of involvement and what the club can and cannot do in these cases.
• Stan reported that he is working on the documents that will feed the mail merge to print the cards and the key tags. All supplies (cards and printer ribbons) are in.
• Discussion about Karl’s Dec/Jan President’s message.
• Discussion about the meeting that Stan and Karl had with Klee at Segway, Inc. Karl will send us a draft of the next President’s message for review.
• Karl has worked out the preliminary schedule for the elections process. Once it is finalized, it should be posted on the web site. Karl made the motion, seconded by Stan to approve the schedule tentatively. Motion passed unanimously.
• Discussion about the recent request we received from Segway to help with a PR event in Chicago.
• Further discussion about the meeting with Klee at Segway.
• Discussion about further growth of the club, particularly internationally.
• Discussion about SegwayFest 2007 locations and options.

Adjournment

Stan made a motion, seconded by Fred to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 11:03 pm.

Next Meeting

January 31, 2007 at 9 pm eastern time.

Approved: Feb 26, 2007

SEG America, Inc.
848 North Rainbow Boulevard #559
Las Vegas, NV. 89017

The New York city address will no longer be used.

The voice and fax phone number remains the same at 1-888-224-6502.

It is time for most members renew your membership. Many have already done it, and to those members, thanks! To those of us who have yet to do it, the time is here. Go to www.segamerica.org and get it done.

We have been having some technical difficulties, so all business members who would like to join or renew, please send me an email directly to President@segamerica.org and I will fax you a form if the website registration is not ready. I will then be able to get you on the list. I expect to publish the business list starting with the February message. We will also have it listed on the website as soon as we can…

This year, the election of officers will follow this schedule:

Elections Committee formation : April 30
Nominations for Club officers : July 15 to 28
Compile Ballot : July 29 to July 31
Voting : Aug 1 to Aug 13
Tabulations : Aug 14 to Aug 15
Results Announced : Aug 15
New Term starts : Sep 1

If you would like to volunteer for the Elections Committee, please contact me. All times stated above are Eastern time, USA (I believe this is GM-5). Please note that Elections Committee members cannot run for office the same year.

SegwayFest 2007 is being planned. If you have a location that simply must be considered, contact us right away. If you would like to be on the planning committee, let us know. The best way to be sure that the fest is where you want it and includes your favorite activities, is for you to be part of the fest committee.

We are planning a major spring event, (That is not a SegwayFest) so keep tuned in. Members will love it!

SEG America merchandise is for sale. We have polo shirts, tee shirts, and much more…

We send out notifications to local area owners about Local events… If you have a local event and you want to send out an email to local gliders, send an email to LGC@segamerica.org

Legislative activities and events that need our attention occur on a regular basis around the country… If you would like to notify members of a meeting or a letter of support that is needed, please e-mail me so that I can include it in the next message… (remember to give plenty of lead time)

Our organization is financially sound, and providing for it’s members, but we do depend on your dues, so please renew soon… Our financial report including Balance Sheet and P&L statement are posted on the web site: Financial Report as of Dec-31-2006

In conclusion, it is time for you to do these things…

1. Renew your membership, if you have not yet done that : www.segamerica.org
2. Start your Business Membership : President@segamerica.org
3. Volunteer for the Elections Committee : President@segamerica.org
4. Volunteer for the SegwayFest 2007 Committee : President@segamerica.org
5. Organize a local event : LGC@segamerica.org
6. Run for office (You have time to consider this)
7. Any Questions at all, contact us at Info@segamerica.org

Karl Ian Sagal, President, SEG America

Meeting called to order by Karl at: 9:04 pm and recorded.

Executive Board members in attendance:
Karl Ian Sagal, President
Fred Kaplan, Treasurer
Stanley Dobrowski, Secretary
Carolyn Kelford, Local group Coordinator
Will Hopper, Immediate Past President

Executive Board members absent:
Vice President – None.

Minutes from previous meeting

The minutes from the 12/13/2006 meeting were not ready to be reviewed. After they are prepared, they will be sent vie Email, reviewed and then approved via Email.

Reports

Treasurer: We received the rebate money from the Coast Hotel. This completes the finances for the SegwayFest.

Local Group Coordinator: We’ll use the address lgc@segamerica.org for Carolyn. Stan will set up the mailbox and then walk Carolyn through setting up her Outlook to fetch the mail automatically. After Carolyn gets this Email address going, then she can contact the local groups she has on her list.

Immediate Past President: Will several glides with his local group. Will took part in the Segway Chat awards process. There was a discussion about the National Park Service doing a study about Segway on the National Mall. Everyone is encouraged to provide their positive input to this process.

President: Karl is working on composing a Dec/Jan message to the members. He will be studying the by-laws to develop the schedule for the Elections Committee. Karl has a meeting planned for Friday to meet with Klee at Segway.

Karl will set up an ebay account that could be used for this auction or , at least, for selling the clothes and other stuff we have to sell from the V1 sale.

We are going to ask Segway to provide links on the Free InfoKey registration page and on the page where one can get on Segway’s newsletter Emailing list.

Karl reminded Stan that we need to get the follow-up Emails out to the members for the membership renewals.

We should work on designing and making a folding brochure and a poster for the dealers.

Topics

Discussion about a possible name change to reflect the growing international flavor of the group.

Carolyn rode her Segway as a spectator at the Rose Parade. She had a great time.

Discussion about the SegwayFest for 2007 including the changing audience an flavor of the fests, possible locations and schedules, and the roll that Segway will play there.

Adjournment

Stan made a motion, seconded by Carolyn to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 10:48 pm.

Next Meeting

Jan 17th, 2007 at 9pm eastern time.

Approved: Jan 17, 2007

Meeting called to order by Karl at: 9:15 pm and recorded.

Executive Board members in attendance:
Karl Ian Sagal, President
Fred Kaplan, Treasurer
Stanley Dobrowski, Secretary
Carolyn Kelford, Local group Coordinator
Will Hopper, Immediate Past President

Executive Board members absent:
Vice President – None.

Minutes from previous meeting

Minutes from the 11/29/2006 meeting were reviewed. No changes were suggested. Motion to accept by Karl with 2nd by Fred. Motion passed unanimously.

Reports

Treasurer’s Report: We reviewed the Financial Reports for the club and from SegwayFest 2006 in Long Beach, CA.

Secretary’s Report: We have decided to go with the plastic membership cards and not do the lamination process again. We determined that a new membership card printer is just too expensive to purchase right now. Stan confirmed with his company that it would be OK to use their printer as long as the club pays for all card stock and ribbons that will be used and the work is not done on company time.

The changes to the databases and registration & member profile screens to support the Individual Memberships are done. These are now visible on the web site. Stan is still working on the changes to support the business memberships.

Stan has downloaded and is working on the installation, learning and testing of the calendar and zip code locator scripts.

Stan handled several member questions and issues that came in through the Info Email address and members entered into the comments section of the profile screen.

There were a number of membership cards that were returned by the post office. These still need to be processed if there are any forwarding addresses available.

Local Group Coordinator: There was a discussion with Carolyn about giving advice to Florin for forming a group in his country. There was a discussion about the importance and value of local groups.

President: Karl plans to meet this month with Klee Kleeber at Segway HQ in order to discuss SEG America and Segway, SegwayFest 2007 and other matters. No date has been confirmed for this meeting yet. Stan and Will offered to go along if need be and it could be arranged.

Topics

There was a long discussion about the direction of the club, how to get more members, our relationship with Segway and other related matters.

There was a long discussion about recruiting organizers for local groups, what value the club has to offer local groups and individual members such as the locator, club relationships with dealers, incentives for members, a newsletter now that The Info Key is gone, the reduced activity level on Segway Chat, getting the members’ tools going on the web site, and international aspects of the club.

Adjournment

Stan made a motion, seconded by Will to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 11:23 pm.

Next Meeting

Jan 3, 2007 at 9pm eastern time.

Approved: Jan 17, 2007

It is very easy to renew. Just put in your Email address and password on the left side of the screen.

Once inside, you will see the link to Edit Personal Profile. We encourage everyone to go there to make sure we have the proper snail mail address for you (to send the membership cards) and to answer a few more questions about yourself for our records. We’d like to know if you attended any of the first two SegwayFests so that we can include that info on the new membership cards.

After you have saved your updated Profile info, just click on the “Membership Information Page” link or the “My Membership Area” link in the masthead of the screen.

On your membership info screen, you can see all of the subscriptions (and Fest) tickets you have purchased from us. There is a checkbox to check for “Individual Membership ($15)” to renew. Then press “Place Order“.

You will be taken to PayPal to pay the money and then returned back to the SEG America site. Your subscription renewal will start the day after your current one runs out.

We’ll be sending out new-style membership cards along with an extra goody starting in February.