Report written by Alice Sexton, WIMA USA President at the time.
The first official WIMA International Rally held outside of Europe and adjacent countries since Louise Scherbyn founded the group in 1950 in the USA (aside from a 20th Year Anniversary Celebration in New York in 1970), was in 2009 – only a short 59 years since inception. Until this year, when rallies were held both in Europe and further afield, the European rally had been designated the official one.
In an effort to re-introduce ‘international’ to the Women’s INTERNATIONAL Motorcycling Association, the small USA team of WIMA, under the leadership of President Alice Sexton (2002- 2011), aimed to demonstrate that joining with other women rider contemporaries, and national women’s motorcycling groups was a valuable way to not only provide ‘rally’ amenities that a small WIMA membership could not afford on its own, but to spread the word of WIMA to the 1,000+ women conference attendees from around the world who were not yet WIMA members!
In partnering with the AMA’s 5th Annual Women’s Conference, WIMA USA hoped to demonstrate that there were many alternatives and tools available to make each WIMA International Rally unique. The AMA provided demo rides, conference seminars, notable women speakers, and hands- on workshops, all of this very different from the usual WIMA European Rallies. This plan provided fantastic amenities, none of which WIMA USA could have afforded, and all for basically the same cost as other WIMA European Rallies.
The idea was to give WIMA countries with smaller memberships, a blueprint to partner with other groups so that their members, who could not afford to travel to Europe every year, had a chance to experience the ‘international’ aspect in their own country and not bear the financial burden themselves. Scherbyn’s main goal in forming WIMA was to correspond, interact and share resources with women riders around the globe, and with the 2009 rally, WIMA USA strived to meet this goal.
WIMA International Rally USA 2009 attendance included USA and Japan. Michiko Hitomi (President of WIMA Japan at the time), Keiko Osawa (Michiko’s successor) and six other members from Japan, hailed Jody Waltemeyer as instrumental in arranging details and transport for their attendance, thank you Jody! The WIMA members met up for a pizza party the evening before the Conference started.
Louise Scherbyn would be proud that WIMA USA, 59 years after her founding, blazed the trail to the Japan 2010 Rally at the foot of Mt. Fuji and the 2015 Australian Rally at Phillip Island by hosting the first WIMA International Rally outside of Europe. Our USA Team at Keystone consisted of Alice Sexton, Sarah Schilke, and Jody Waltemeyer.
