Interview: Hall of Fame Chairman Jeffrey Heininger
Paul Carruthers | April 24, 2012
The American Motorcycle Heritage Foundation (AMHF) Board of Directors decided during meetings last week in Ohio that a supplemental vote will be held for the inclusion of Derek “Nobby” Clark in this year’s Hall of Fame induction class.
The decision, announced on Thursday, July 19, is in response to errors that occurred in the 2012 AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame balloting process that led to Clark being announced as an inductee in a press release, then being un-inducted in a second release.
According to the chairman of the AMHF, Jeffrey Heininger, the process doesn’t affect the other 2012 Hall of Fame inductees and members will be contacted this week to get the ballots going again.
“There was a tremendous amount of deliberation, obviously,” Heininger said in a phone conversation on Monday, July 23. “This board [the American Motorcycle Heritage Foundation] is a phenomenal group of tremendously talented people. They’ve all done tremendous things – Eddie Cole and Chris Carter and new people like Rick Mitchell and Andy Ording. We’ve got probably one of the strongest business boards in the motorcycle business, period. Obviously, when you have a challenge like what we’ve created for ourselves, you need pretty darn good input and help to figure things out and I really do believe that we democratically and systematically came up with the best solution based on the outcome of the meeting.”
Heininger, who was re-elected as chairman at the same meeting in Ohio last week, has been the chairman of the AMHF for three years.
We asked Heininger a few questions regarding the Clark debacle.
Who is in actually in charge? And can you explain how does the corporate relationship between the AMA and the Hall of Fame work?
“The Hall of Fame is a wholly owned subsidiary of the AMA,” Heininger said. “It is a separate, non-profit organization. We are a 501 (c) (3). I’m not sure what…
For the complete interview, click on the following link:
http://cyclenews.coverleaf.com/cyclenews/20120724#pg17
