Donegal-BCSF
Active member
Here is a letter written by Randy Toth from Massachusetts...It has American references but the story still applies across North America. Support your local Snowmobile Club!
>One chilly fall day in the not too distant future, as you prepare for
>the upcoming snowmobiling season, you will remember that you have not
>received your state association magazine yet. Muttering something
>derogatory, you go to the state association’s website only to find a
>notation from the ISP (Internet Service Provider) that the domain name
>is now available for sale to any interested parties. Huh?
>
>You call up a friend and ask “What’s up with the state association?” He
>informs you that last spring they announced that they were disbanding
>due to lack of volunteer support. “Well exactly what did they ever do
>for me?” you say. Then you call one of your local club officers only to
>find that no one volunteered to run for club office and that the
>current president and vice president had retired and moved south. Your
>club has also disbanded and sold your grooming equipment to an out of
>state club and donated the remaining club money to charity. Your buddy
>says that the club two towns over is still active and he has joined
>there, so you decide that you will join there also. He then mentions
>that the dues have gone way up since the state association is no longer
>around to provide some much needed grooming money.
>
>You decide you had better go to a club meeting to find out what’s
>really happening. The club meeting holds a few surprises for you as
>they discuss their huge loss of former friendly landowners. Apparently
>when they found out that they were no longer covered by the state
>association sponsored liability insurance, they immediately revoked
>permission to ride on their land. You also find out that you can no
>longer ride from one state property to another because of the lack of
>private landowner connector trails. “OK,” you say, “I will just ride in
>my local state forest then.” Of course without your old local club
>there is no grooming or snowmobile trail maintenance in your local
>state forest. There is still riding there but only on about 15 miles of
>unmaintained and ungroomed trails. Furthermore, you no longer have
>riding access to any food or gas because those connector trails were
>located on private land.
>
>The next day you read in the paper that snowmobiles are being banned on
>a number of state lands due to damage caused by wheeled vehicles.
>Incredibly, no one attended any of the planning meetings and spoke up
>and defended snowmobiling **** which have virtually no negative impact on
>trails. With no organized opposition, snowmobiles were simply banned
>along with wheeled vehicles. There is also a notice that an
>environmental group is fighting hard to pass a state law banning all
>internal combustion engines on state land to protect the health of
>native miniature snails. Who do you turn to?
>“I’ll just call my local representative or senator,” you decide. The
>call goes something like “Hi, I’m Joe and I like to snowmobile so you
>need to help me.” The response is something like, “Thank you for
>calling to express your opinion, we will tell your representative or
>senator that you called **** what organization did you say you were
>representing?” Now you start to sweat and remember having heard about
>how to approach your representative or senator from your state
>association, and you realize that your encounter didn’t just go as you
>had planned. Ok, so you and your friends decide your club should hire a
>lobbyist. Now, just how will you find one and pay for her? Your club
>will just have to raise lots of money **** somehow. Of course you always
>voted against dues increases on principle in the past. You then
>remember that in the past, revenue from the state association’s trail
>passes and Sno-Expo helped fund these key access-related activities.
>Furthermore, many of your friends said they weren’t going to even join
>the club until there was rideable snow on the ground, because they
>remember a year in the past when there wasn’t much snow.
>
>You call some like-minded friends and you all agree to organize to
>fight these injustices, but you have no clue how to begin. You also
>start to experience that sinking feeling that it might already be too
>late. You want to turn to the guys who have always maintained and
>groomed the trails for help. Did you know the average age of an active
>three-man trail crew in the western part of the state, who maintains
>snowmobile trails on a very large tract of state land now, is over 70
>years old? No answer when you call.
>You call your friend back only to learn that two of the three have
>retired from trail work and the other is no longer around. Now what?
>Where are all of the younger folks who were supposed to take over? You
>then cringe at the thought that you personally have said many times,
>“I’ll help when I get around to it,” but you never did.
>
>Well, you can always drive to nearby states where they used to have
>large trail systems. Maybe they’re still in operation?
>
>To get your mind off of this mess, you then decide to drive out of
>state to attend a snow show. Your wife reminds you that with gas prices
>at $6 a gallon you can’t afford to, since you will need to save the
>money to go snowmobiling.
>OK, you decide to go to the smaller snow show in your own state. Darn!
>**** the lack of volunteers and support caused it to fold a couple of
>years ago. Remember how you and your friends said that there were
>bigger and better shows elsewhere, so why should you support your local
>one?
>
>If you think that this scenario can’t happen, just sit back, put your
>feet up, do nothing and wait. It may now be later than you think!
>
>Perhaps someone will be kind enough to send me an email in Florida and
>tell me how it all turns out. Meanwhile, I’ll be out riding around
>Tampa Bay on my personal watercraft and volunteering with the senior
>section of the local Personal Watercraft Club. Happy Riding!
Randy Toth from Massachusetts
>One chilly fall day in the not too distant future, as you prepare for
>the upcoming snowmobiling season, you will remember that you have not
>received your state association magazine yet. Muttering something
>derogatory, you go to the state association’s website only to find a
>notation from the ISP (Internet Service Provider) that the domain name
>is now available for sale to any interested parties. Huh?
>
>You call up a friend and ask “What’s up with the state association?” He
>informs you that last spring they announced that they were disbanding
>due to lack of volunteer support. “Well exactly what did they ever do
>for me?” you say. Then you call one of your local club officers only to
>find that no one volunteered to run for club office and that the
>current president and vice president had retired and moved south. Your
>club has also disbanded and sold your grooming equipment to an out of
>state club and donated the remaining club money to charity. Your buddy
>says that the club two towns over is still active and he has joined
>there, so you decide that you will join there also. He then mentions
>that the dues have gone way up since the state association is no longer
>around to provide some much needed grooming money.
>
>You decide you had better go to a club meeting to find out what’s
>really happening. The club meeting holds a few surprises for you as
>they discuss their huge loss of former friendly landowners. Apparently
>when they found out that they were no longer covered by the state
>association sponsored liability insurance, they immediately revoked
>permission to ride on their land. You also find out that you can no
>longer ride from one state property to another because of the lack of
>private landowner connector trails. “OK,” you say, “I will just ride in
>my local state forest then.” Of course without your old local club
>there is no grooming or snowmobile trail maintenance in your local
>state forest. There is still riding there but only on about 15 miles of
>unmaintained and ungroomed trails. Furthermore, you no longer have
>riding access to any food or gas because those connector trails were
>located on private land.
>
>The next day you read in the paper that snowmobiles are being banned on
>a number of state lands due to damage caused by wheeled vehicles.
>Incredibly, no one attended any of the planning meetings and spoke up
>and defended snowmobiling **** which have virtually no negative impact on
>trails. With no organized opposition, snowmobiles were simply banned
>along with wheeled vehicles. There is also a notice that an
>environmental group is fighting hard to pass a state law banning all
>internal combustion engines on state land to protect the health of
>native miniature snails. Who do you turn to?
>“I’ll just call my local representative or senator,” you decide. The
>call goes something like “Hi, I’m Joe and I like to snowmobile so you
>need to help me.” The response is something like, “Thank you for
>calling to express your opinion, we will tell your representative or
>senator that you called **** what organization did you say you were
>representing?” Now you start to sweat and remember having heard about
>how to approach your representative or senator from your state
>association, and you realize that your encounter didn’t just go as you
>had planned. Ok, so you and your friends decide your club should hire a
>lobbyist. Now, just how will you find one and pay for her? Your club
>will just have to raise lots of money **** somehow. Of course you always
>voted against dues increases on principle in the past. You then
>remember that in the past, revenue from the state association’s trail
>passes and Sno-Expo helped fund these key access-related activities.
>Furthermore, many of your friends said they weren’t going to even join
>the club until there was rideable snow on the ground, because they
>remember a year in the past when there wasn’t much snow.
>
>You call some like-minded friends and you all agree to organize to
>fight these injustices, but you have no clue how to begin. You also
>start to experience that sinking feeling that it might already be too
>late. You want to turn to the guys who have always maintained and
>groomed the trails for help. Did you know the average age of an active
>three-man trail crew in the western part of the state, who maintains
>snowmobile trails on a very large tract of state land now, is over 70
>years old? No answer when you call.
>You call your friend back only to learn that two of the three have
>retired from trail work and the other is no longer around. Now what?
>Where are all of the younger folks who were supposed to take over? You
>then cringe at the thought that you personally have said many times,
>“I’ll help when I get around to it,” but you never did.
>
>Well, you can always drive to nearby states where they used to have
>large trail systems. Maybe they’re still in operation?
>
>To get your mind off of this mess, you then decide to drive out of
>state to attend a snow show. Your wife reminds you that with gas prices
>at $6 a gallon you can’t afford to, since you will need to save the
>money to go snowmobiling.
>OK, you decide to go to the smaller snow show in your own state. Darn!
>**** the lack of volunteers and support caused it to fold a couple of
>years ago. Remember how you and your friends said that there were
>bigger and better shows elsewhere, so why should you support your local
>one?
>
>If you think that this scenario can’t happen, just sit back, put your
>feet up, do nothing and wait. It may now be later than you think!
>
>Perhaps someone will be kind enough to send me an email in Florida and
>tell me how it all turns out. Meanwhile, I’ll be out riding around
>Tampa Bay on my personal watercraft and volunteering with the senior
>section of the local Personal Watercraft Club. Happy Riding!
Randy Toth from Massachusetts
