Club membership... Please take my money.

[C of Red]

Well, perhaps a Provincial Membership [ with government involvement] which I also do not like,is too hard to implement. But a membership in the BCSF should be mandatory and required in order to purchase a trail pass.

This is a great idea, my wife is huge into fishing. She says she has to buy a WIN card for Alberta then she has to purchase the individual fishing licence.

why not make people buy a yearly membership to the BCSF the first time they go up the hill. Then day pass all they want after in whatever are they ride. At least they are named and counted.

 

[Lund]

This is a great idea, my wife is huge into fishing. She says she has to buy a WIN card for Alberta then she has to purchase the individual fishing licence.

why not make people buy a yearly membership to the BCSF the first time they go up the hill. Then day pass all they want after in whatever are they ride. At least they are named and counted.

I like that idea also.
Another way could be, the clubs could as a collective all raise their trail passes to like $30/day. A provincial permit issued by BCSF for an annual fee would be purchased by sledder's. Those with a BCSF membership would get a $5 discount and pay a $25 trail pass, while those not member's would pay the $30.

The thing is, it put's more voice into the membership as a collective.
Just a thought.

 

[ferniesnow]

Check out vipgolf.ca This has been done for golfers

Man, a guy sure has to know a lot!

ViPgolf membership is $499.95 +gst and then the green fees on top of that.

Golden charges ViPgolf members $64/round as savings of $16.00

Radium charges ViPgold members $87/round.

Who makes the money here and where does it go?

 

[HotShotHarry]

Any sledder that rides in BC is benefitting from the work done by the BCSF. Therefore I think all riders should have to pay something to cover that cost and future costs involved in keeping riding areas open. When I go to Ontario to ride [just about every year] , I have to pay a minimum of $125 for a 5 day pass. Any longer than that , a full season pass is required.

 

[ferniesnow]

Well, perhaps a Provincial Membership [ with government involvement] which I also do not like,is too hard to implement. But a membership in the BCSF should be mandatory and required in order to purchase a trail pass.

Take that one step further and add in sled registration. So mandatory registration along with a mandatory membership (can't buy a trail pass nor register/insure sled without BCSF membership). That was discussed and presented with the new OHV process and it was too burdensome to implement. Registration is collected by ICBC (an as mentioned earlier, not a red cent comes back to the sport) and they couldn't collect monies for membership without charging an astronomical fee for doing so. One problem I see and one problem that wasn't really addressed with the new OHV was the enforcement process. I keep going back to this time and time again; the government has to realize that all the laws in the world won't work if there is nobody to enforce them. They have to be aware that the foot soldiers, the working class has to have their feet on the ground and be out there enforcing.

With the new SilkStart process that the BCSF has started using for membership there are new processes that may be available. Only time will tell. You will not convince the clubs to become an "equalization benefit" (like the provincial governments) and they will still continue to collect locally what monies they require for the season.

 

[C of Red]

C of Red, the overall numbers are the members in the BCSF. Buy a BCSF membership and you are counted (go on-line and buy that membership for the cheapest club and there you go. You are a counted rider). There are countless riders that are not counted, just like there are countless unregistered sleds in BC. As an example in Fernie, the out-of-province members out weight the locals. Why is that? Partly, because the out-of-province members know they are getting a deal (the locals get the same deal but don't really know how fortunate they are) and the locals are hung up in local politics and can't wrap their head around what is going on. Lots of them don't like the tourism aspect, they don't like the business aspect, but yet, they want groomed trails to the alpine and cabins. Who pays for that?

The BCSF works very hard on increasing membership. A big hurdle has recently been achieved with the amalgamation of the two provincial organizations. There are a few independent clubs in BC and that membership isn't counted with the provincial numbers. Why are they independent? Are they a bunch of OLDFARTS, mistrusting the system, or something totally different? You would have to ask them as I don't know their reasoning.

I can't believe the best solution is to have folks buy a membership to a club in potentially some obscure location they may never see. The mass of "Gypsy" sledders (thanks Lund I like that name) will not do that. I do like the idea of making folks buy an annual BCSF membership the first day they go up the hill. Then they can ride any club after that with the standard day pass.

At the end of the day it's about getting membership numbers up.

PS I never called anyone an old fart. Lol, that would be very... Hey pot meet kettle. Haha

 

[HotShotHarry]

Forget registration with ICBC. Have the toll booth attendant sell BCFS memberships for the federation and also collect trail pass fees for the local club. BCFS gets 100% of their money and the local club gets 100% of theirs. The local club could sell individual club memberships and perhaps offer discounts on local trails.

 

[C of Red]

Correct, it couldn't be through ICBC, one would never get the membership or cash from us Albertans. Has to be at the gate like HotShotHarry stated.

This would be a great way to " please take my money" as per my original post and add my name to the list of folks to keep these areas open.

 

[ferniesnow]

I can't believe the best solution is to have folks buy a membership to a club in potentially some obscure location they may never see. The mass of "Gypsy" sledders (thanks Lund I like that name) will not do that. I do like the idea of making folks buy an annual BCSF membership the first day they go up the hill. Then they can ride any club after that with the standard day pass.

At the end of the day it's about getting membership numbers up.

PS I never called anyone an old fart. Lol, that would be very... Hey pot meet kettle. Haha

I never said, "it was the best solution" I just said it is a way of being counted and for those penny pinching dudes, it is a way to save some money. As far as the "gypsy" sledders go, I feel I am in tune with the majority of riding areas and there are not, IMHO, the mass of Gypsy sledders that Lund thinks there are. Yes, in the Okanagan, they have a myriad of places to ride and riding areas are huge, so what is the real need for the masses to be Gypsies'? How often would a rider from Revy, Sicamous look outside their area? Maybe Lund is the exception?

With regards to the OLD FARTS. that was a dig at Lund to try and get him out of his old ways of thinking about the BCSF.

 

[HotShotHarry]

Pretty much all of us Albertans could be considered Gypsies. As far as old farts go, I think all of us in this conversation could be called "old farts| LOL.

 

[C of Red]

I never said, "it was the best solution" I just said it is a way of being counted and for those penny pinching dudes, it is a way to save some money. As far as the "gypsy" sledders go, I feel I am in tune with the majority of riding areas and there are not, IMHO, the mass of Gypsy sledders that Lund thinks there are. Yes, in the Okanagan, they have a myriad of places to ride and riding areas are huge, so what is the real need for the masses to be Gypsies'? How often would a rider from Revy, Sicamous look outside their area? Maybe Lund is the exception?

With regards to the OLD FARTS. that was a dig at Lund to try and get him out of his old ways of thinking about the BCSF.

I agree, if I lived in Sicamous or other I probably would ride a lot at my home club. But there are those that don't for whatever reason and they are not buying memberships. I live in Calgary and I think one cannot underestimate the number of "Gypsy" riders that visit from AB. I sure see a lot of AB plates in the hills on weekends. I would also argue a huge number of riders from both provinces travel to wherever the fresh snow is. I don't see why it wouldn't be mandatory to have a BCSF membership at a minimum. I suspect people would be surprised at how many folks are not affiliated to any club. I read on here somewhere the BCSF portion of a club membership was around $26 (please correct me if I'm wrong). Charge every sledder that the first time the go up the hill if they don't have a club membership and watch the BCSF numbers skyrocket. Like mentioned above, have the club collect it at the gate.

More numbers equals a louder voice when defending our interests and areas.

 

[Lund]

I never said, "it was the best solution" I just said it is a way of being counted and for those penny pinching dudes, it is a way to save some money. As far as the "gypsy" sledders go, I feel I am in tune with the majority of riding areas and there are not, IMHO, the mass of Gypsy sledders that Lund thinks there are. Yes, in the Okanagan, they have a myriad of places to ride and riding areas are huge, so what is the real need for the masses to be Gypsies'? How often would a rider from Revy, Sicamous look outside their area? Maybe Lund is the exception?

With regards to the OLD FARTS. that was a dig at Lund to try and get him out of his old ways of thinking about the BCSF.

Yes i live in the Okanagan but i'm not originally from the Okanagan but from the coast. There are a lot of guy's in the Okanagan that travel into different regions, especially the hardcore guy's but also a lot of local rider's here riding on budget's, i thinking they should be part of the local club, i hope.
But sledder's at the coast are well known to travel far, most all my buddies at the coast i connect with go to different region's on a weekly basis. And its not a handful.

Old fart LOL, looks who's talking

 

[Lund]

Pretty much all of us Albertans could be considered Gypsies. As far as old farts go, I think all of us in this conversation could be called "old farts| LOL.

Maybe Doug is thinking OLD but fresh fart's LOL?

 

[HotShotHarry]

I wonder if the BCSF even has the legal power to implement a mandatory membership? Probably not without government approval. This is where they would get involved and want compensation. Hmmm.....

 

[ferniesnow]

I agree, if I lived in Sicamous or other I probably would ride a lot at my home club. But there are those that don't for whatever reason and they are not buying memberships. I live in Calgary and I think one cannot underestimate the number of "Gypsy" riders that visit from AB. I sure see a lot of AB plates in the hills on weekends. I would also argue a huge number of riders from both provinces travel to wherever the fresh snow is. I don't see why it wouldn't be mandatory to have a BCSF membership at a minimum. I suspect people would be surprised at how many folks are not affiliated to any club. I read on here somewhere the BCSF portion of a club membership was around $26 (please correct me if I'm wrong). Charge every sledder that the first time the go up the hill if they don't have a club membership and watch the BCSF numbers skyrocket. Like mentioned above, have the club collect it at the gate.

More numbers equals a louder voice when defending our interests and areas.

I agree. Somewhere, somehow there is a solution. Discussion is required and sound ideas need to be put forth. Not idealogical ideas that won't work in the situation that most clubs operate in. When people volunteer and help out, that is where they see the real life problems of trying to run a local club. If they are just rambling off at the mouth without the experience of being a rider, a multi-area rider, a concerned member, or a member with lots of insight, it gets tough to run things. The young and new members put forth ideas, the old members know that idea was tried 10 years ago and it failed miserably (with a little tweaking, it might work) but that is what discussion is for. Clearing the air and logically coming up with solutions.

There are many places right now that the "trail pass vendor" hasn't time to sell memberships (it is a pain for the paper copy and SilkStart will eliminate that but that can't be easily done at a trail head as there is no electricity and in many cases no WiFi). They are busy selling daily trail passes and charting the data (where are you from, home club, how many nights in a local hotel, etc. so that paper work can flow for grants). They sell them but then it has been found the line-ups at the staging areas are tremendous. Another problem is evident when trail passes are only sold on the weekend (it isn't profitable to pay the trail pass vendor 7 days a week in most places) and a lot of riders will ride through the week so they don't have to pay. People are funny creatures.

 

[ferniesnow]

Yes i live in the Okanagan but i'm not originally from the Okanagan but from the coast. There are a lot of guy's in the Okanagan that travel into different regions, especially the hardcore guy's but also a lot of local rider's here riding on budget's, i thinking they should be part of the local club, i hope.
But sledder's at the coast are well known to travel far, most all my buddies at the coast i connect with go to different region's on a weekly basis. And its not a handful.

Old fart LOL, looks who's talking

I was referring to your old ways of thinking about the BCSF. It has changed and you have to open your eyes to that. You keep going back in time and it has changed, believe me! There might be only one person on the Board that is over 50.

 

[HotShotHarry]

Perhaps at the beginning of the season there may be some line-ups but really , how long does it take to fill out a form with your name and address on it. Remember, this would only be done once and could also be done on-line if a person didn't want to be held up at the toll booth.

 

[moyiesledhead]

I wonder if the BCSF even has the legal power to implement a mandatory membership?

No.....they don't. We still live in a democracy (well, sort of). Unconstitutional to make membership in a volunteer organization mandatory.