AMA board taps new president – November 13, 2006

Robert Dingman, a veteran of legislation concerning powersports matters, has been named the American Motorcyclist Association’s next president.
Dingman succeeds Robert Rasor, who is retiring as AMA president but will continue to serve as AMA director of international affairs.
Dingman previously served the AMA for nearly five years as its Washington, D.C. representative. He is returning to the association after serving as assistant commissioner for Transportation Safety for New York State’s Department of Motor Vehicles, where he headed the governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. Prior to joining the AMA staff in 1994, he was a government relations specialist for the Motorcycle Industry Council and a legislative aide and research associate in the New York State Assembly.
“I’m honored to have been chosen by the board of directors to lead the AMA at this time of change and growth,” Dingman said in a prepared statement. “I believe in the association’s mission of ‘rights, riding, racing,’ and for me there’s no greater privilege than to serve the AMA’s 280,000 members.
“Every AMA member, along with everyone in the American motorcycling community, can look at Rob Dingman and say, ‘He’s one of us’ — a true enthusiast with a genuine passion for the work we do,” said Dal Smilie, chairman of the AMA board of directors. “We’re fortunate to have found a person of his professional experience and personal commitment to guide the AMA into what promises to be a bright and successful future.”
Dingman’s first day as AMA president will be Nov. 27. Based at the association’s headquarters in Pickerington, Ohio, he’ll report to AMA Chief Executive Officer Patricia DiPietro on an interim basis during a transition period.
A member of the AMA staff since joining as a legislative analyst in 1973, Rasor was vice president of AMA Government Relations from the early 1980s until his appointment as the association’s president in 2000 following the retirement of J. Scott Thornton, who had served as AMA president since November 1999.
Rasor’s time at the AMA has included several landmark legislative victories, from the battle to stop the federal government from imposing helmet laws on states to victories against bike bans in St. Louis, Springfield, Ill., Brockton, Mass., Chicago and other communities nationwide. He also oversaw the AMA’s effort to impose a federal ban halting health-care discrimination against motorcyclists on the part of companies and unions that provide insurance to workers, and led the fight to protect the rights of off-highway motorcyclists to ride in appropriate areas of public lands.
In October 2005, Rasor was elected to the position of vice president of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), the Geneva, Switzerland-based international governing body for motorcycle sport and touring. He has served the FIM as the first president of its Commission on Mobility, Transport, Road Safety and Public Policy, and is president of the North American Motorcycle Union, one of six such regional groups within the FIM. PSB