The the mid-to late 1990's I was the Operations Director for Sandy Corporation on the Harley-Davidson Account. That mean I spent the whole year leading a small team organizing and developing training for a winter meeting event held in a sun-city called Dealer Operations Training (DOT). Harley was in the process of converting all of its dealerships into state of the art destinations. Sandy's job was to assist Harley in moving their dealers into the the best business practices of retail sales and service operations. Sandy was particularly expert at this because of its decades of experience working with the automobile companies.
While I lead the Sandy effort, DOT was held in San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, New Orleans, and for two years in Ft. Lauderdale, where the above pictures were taken. (L) The H-D clothing store in the convention center lobby, and (R) Yours Truly with Willie Davison, the famed motorcycle designer. Willie was the son of the company's president, and grandson of it's founder...both named William.
My H-D client, Bill Bailey talking to my Sandy boss, VP John Rusche. Both Bill and John were two of the best people I ever worked for. Between then, in the background is John Wycoff, a well known motorcycle writer, author, speaker.
My H-D on-site team standing behind me. (L-R) Doug (facilities), Barb (instruction), Mark (audio-visual), Judith (coordinator), and an unknown gentleman who worked with one of our vendors.
(Top) A Thank You Dinner at a high-end Northville, MI restaurant celebrating another successful DOT year. In the foreground Lou and Judith Marchinda (my Sandy coordinator and informal Catholic sponsor who God put in my path during my journey), me and Pam, and in the back Steve and Barb Levine. Barb was my freelance instructional design advisor and coordinator, and her husband Steve happened to be the department head for the University of Michigan Occupational Safety graduate school...an ironic position.
(Bottom) Steve and Barb both purchase Harley's and started to ride them. One summer Steve was almost killed by an elderly man who made a left hand turn in his pickup in front of Steve who was riding at 50 mph on a country road. Steve spent over two years recovering from the accident, and at one point was put into an induced coma for weeks to help his body heal. I visited him weekly in the hospital and rehabilitation center, and the last time I was with him we walked along a beach in Florida where he and Barb were considering retiring. Ironically, these two families played great counter-parts in my faith journey. Lou and Judith were devout Catholics and Judith counseled me on spiritual matters constantly. On the other hand Steve and Barb were devoutly agnostic...although Steve let me lay hands on his various injured appendages during his recovery and pray for him.
(Top, L-R) At my last DOT event: Ron Hutchinson (VP H-D Parts and Service), Yours Truly, Jeff Blustein (H-D Chairman), and Ralph “Benny” E. Suggs, who had just retired from the Navy as a Rear Admiral and was hired by H-D as their new director of training for the retiring Bill Bailey. The plan all along was that after ten years, Harley would take their DOT training in-house and phase Sandy out of the business. Thus, my job phased out with it.
(Bottom) Judith "worships" Mark T. for finding the last piece of the jig-saw puzzle that kept us busy during down-time at a DOT event.
(L) Yours Truly and Nephew Bob who came over to Ft. Lauderdale for a day's visit at the end of a DOT event. Here's we're standing on the deck of a dinner-boat I had rented for all the Harley and Sandy staff to celebrate the end of another DOT. AT the right, (top) is Judith and Doug Olsen showing off their dinner plates at a birthday bash we had for Bill Bailey at a local fish restaurant. I ordered Tuna but didn't realize it came raw. I went hungry that night. (below) Rich Teerlink, H-D President, with Doug Olsen. At this event Doug was not only an instructor for a class on Customer Service, but also keynoted. I knew Doug from Highland Park Baptist Church where he was the long-haired Harley rider who was principle of the high-school and Sunday Bible teacher. (see the book)
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