The 2008 National Motorcycle Safety Conference is in Billings, Montana August 15 to 17!
Come join us under the Big Sky... Montana is the host state for the 2008 National Association of State Motorcycle Safety Administrators (SMSA) Annual Conference. The conference will be held at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center on August 15-17 and is hosted by SMSA, Montana Motorcycle Rider Safety, and Montana State University - Northern.
The conference will start on Friday afternoon with Professional Development Workshops (PDW) presented by SMSA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The PDW for Rider Coaches/Instructors is "Communicating Effectively" and will be presented by Herb Guenther and Beth McCormick. In this session, you will learn about the different learning styles, speaking, facilitation, and team training aspects of communicating. The PDW for Administrations is "Rising to the Challenge: How NAMS Can Help You Find New Crash Reduction Strategies" and will be presented by Jim Hedlund and Ron Thompson. This session will give state administrators guidance to identify and implement countermeasures to reduce motorcycle crashes as identified in the National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety (NAMS).
SMSA is in the planning process for the Friday, Instructor Appreciation event and the Saturday event hosted by Harley-Davidson and hope to provide conference attendees with a real "Wild West" Montana experience.
This year's conference will provide participants with a wide variety of break-out sessions that really fit the theme of "Open Spaces...Open Minds". A sample of these sessions will include: "BRC - 2 for the Returning Rider", "Guided Discussion - A Simple, Consistent, and Effective Classroom Teaching Technique", "Brain Based Learning", "Diversity of Rider Training Presents Opportunities for Everyone", "SMSA Listening Session", "Taking it to the Track with Street-Masters", and "Maximum Braking - Evaluation and Coaching". There will be some outdoor sessions this year to include: "Open Spaces Filled with New Course Exercises" and "ABS-A Better Solution". For the full list of the break-out sessions and their descriptions,
please visit the SMSA web site at www.smsa.org. Registration for non-SMSA members costs $220.
Montana makes the perfect backdrop for this exciting conference. We hope you will all mark your calendars and take time out of your busy schedules to come and join us under the Big Sky.
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