Over the last two years I have looked at hundreds of different membership and e-store computer systems. Most were great for what they were intended for, selling items to as wide a range of people as possible. The exact opposite of the goals of the IBA, where the only way to get an Iron Butt hat, shirt or other IBA premium is to have successfully ridden big miles and be willing to submit your documentation to a review by your peers. It became clear to me after endlessly explaining our "backward" way of thinking (forget making money by making items available to limited people) was not going to be handled by an off-the-shelf product. With the IBA's unique needs, the only way to do this right is with a custom solution.

During the 2001 Iron Butt Rally, 2001 IBR reporter Warren Harhay and I were driving around the United States in his little Volkswagen Jetta shoulder to shoulder for a week and thousands of miles. During that drive, Warren got to listen to my vision and agreed to put the power of his design capability behind us to deliver the best possible solution within a reasonable budget (read that last line as "next to nothing!"). Like Dale Wilson, who devotes endless hours to the IBA, Warren's crew has been working to improve the way we deliver services. By off-loading time consuming manual tasks to computers, Warren is helping us to be able to improve our services to our members on an extremely limited budget.

There will be many changes to the store in the coming months. For example, right now we have each size and type of shirt as a separate item. Obviously, we are going to change that, but to expedite getting the system in place so we could begin the process of getting members to be able to order on-line, I asked Warren to get the basic's right, get the membership purchase restrictions in place and work out the rest as time permits.

I want to thank you in advance for your patience as we work out the thousands of details needed to make this happen.