Kakwa snow reports

[driller]

pg membership
there would be a lot more members if a the cost was more like 20-25 dollars
if the dealers in town promoted membership and it was only 20 or 25 dollars there would be a large increase in the numbers

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

pg membership
there would be a lot more members if a the cost was more like 20-25 dollars
if the dealers in town promoted membership and it was only 20 or 25 dollars there would be a large increase in the numbers

In Ontario a membership costs about $250/ year.
I don't know how they enforce it, but they sign up thousands of members in each club across Quebec and Ontario.
In BC the clubs are all insured for the volunteer workers and directors insurance policy under a provincial umbrella policy, either through ABC Snow or the BCSF organization. Each membership sold starts out with a base price of about $45 or $50.
So for us to sell you a membership for $25.00, we would have have a bake sale or something to raise the rest of the money for your membership.
Come out to the next meeting next week and you can start a conversation around how we could function at less than the cost to carry insurance.
We also have to insure various club assets like the groomer, cabins, clubhouse and pay the utilities and whatever comes up in a year of operations.
I think the quilters guild down town charges $40.
Do you know of any society operating in BC that has a $25 membership?

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

I'm not so sure it is the money. I was wondering if the closing down of 90% of the mountain areas would result in more interest in snowmobilers banning together in the various clubs in BC, but that didn't happen. Instead it seems that the Ride-for-Free snowmobilers blamed the clubs and their tiny memberships for not being powerful enough to push back and losing the mountains to anyone but a snowmobiler.
It isn't the money. Clearly the people that ride snowmobiles easily have twice the budget compared to a bunch of old women at the Quilters Guild, so it's not the money.
Possibly it is the nature of the recreation where people try out snowmobiling and find it a little too scary and don't want to join a club and be a member?

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

I just checked the trail pass per day at McBride is $25/day each.
It isn't the cost of club membership that is detering people, it is something else.
Maybe it is time that the PG Club takes over all trail access for Kakwa and Torpy? That would be one way to earn money instead of selling memberships.

 

[zal]

Good luck on trying to get more members. Its not an easy task

 

[subseaaddicted]

Speaking of trail pass costs.......

Just rode Barkerville on the weekend.........$25 a day for a trail pass.......oh and you also cant ride to yanks from the parking lot/Wells because of plowed logging road. So you have to truck/trailer up past the X road. All in all great days of riding but i am not sure i am a fan of the $10 a day increase this year.

So I am thinking that #1 on the PG club agenda should be getting the entire Torpy trail under their control and start charging.....maybe something like $20 for non members and $5 for members...... make trail passes payable at gas stations heading outta town and the dealers.. you will see a huge jump in members if they can "save a few bucks".

That way it would only take like 4 rides out there to pay for a membership. not to mention you then have an easily recorded number of people using the area....making it easier to combat the "Greenies".

All aspects would improve......more members.....more grooming....more money for trail/cabin maintenance...... its a Win Win for everyone.

 

[X-Treme]

Speaking of trail pass costs.......

Just rode Barkerville on the weekend.........$25 a day for a trail pass.......oh and you also cant ride to yanks from the parking lot/Wells because of plowed logging road. So you have to truck/trailer up past the X road. All in all great days of riding but i am not sure i am a fan of the $10 a day increase this year.

So I am thinking that #1 on the PG club agenda should be getting the entire Torpy trail under their control and start charging.....maybe something like $20 for non members and $5 for members...... make trail passes payable at gas stations heading outta town and the dealers.. you will see a huge jump in members if they can "save a few bucks".

That way it would only take like 4 rides out there to pay for a membership. not to mention you then have an easily recorded number of people using the area....making it easier to combat the "Greenies".

All aspects would improve......more members.....more grooming....more money for trail/cabin maintenance...... its a Win Win for everyone.

MORE members paying only $5 and MORE grooming means A LOT LESS money left over. If any. Doesn't sound like win win to me at all.

 

[subseaaddicted]

MORE members paying only $5 and MORE grooming means A LOT LESS money left over. If any. Doesn't sound like win win to me at all.

X-Treme..... i believe you're looking at it wrong...... If it is structured correctly, you only get the discounted day pass if you are a member. If your not a member then your paying more. And to become a member you will pay your yearly $75-100....which in turn will increase the clubs overall funds.

The actual cost of the trail pass can be argued to death, but the main idea must be that you are better off financially to purchase a membership, this is the only way to drive memberships up.

Ultimately the name of the game is to get more members......... As when you have more members then you automatically get more funds from membership which will allow the club to reinvest back into the trail network....as well as all the other things the club does in the background....including promoting and opening up new future riding areas.

Also a side effect of having more members is the number of other opportunities which arise..... all of a sudden people are connected with a common interest and are able to pool resources to accomplish a common goal. Things which a small membership thought impossible are all of a sudden within easy reach of a large membership

The biggest problem that I see with riders in the PG area, is that they don't see first hand the benefits of being a club member. Which in turn gives them no reason to become members. They only time the majority of sledders in Prince George KNOWINGLY experience benefits from the club is when they ride the trail into the torpy after it has been groomed.....instead of the normal 30+ km of bumps. However if you somehow could force all people to pay for this privilege instead of only club members like in other local riding areas (Barkerville, Mcbride, Valemount....etc) Then you will give everyone who pays to ride the trail a reason to purchase a membership.

Prince George is a town and area with ALOT of sledders with rather high disposable incomes .... however it is also a population who in general will not part with this income unless shown it will directly benefit them.

Ask any sledder from Prince George if it bothers them to drive 2+ hours to Mcbride, Barkerville, Valemount...etc and pay $20+ to ride on a smooth groomed trail straight to the alpine, with nice warmup shelters....... i guarantee you that most of them will tell you it doesn't bother them at all.

Ask the same group of sledders why they don't have PG snowmobile club memberships..... I Guarantee that they will tell you its because they don't see a reason.............. " i dont ride the buckhorn trails", " I dont ride the westlake trails" , "they never groom the Torpy", " I don't use the torpy cabin"........ it goes on and on.


The only way to convince them is to force them and show them its in there best interests....

 

[52weekbreak]

I personally am not overly sensitive about the cost not that it isn't a factor to consider. The only mountain riding I have done is in the Kakwa and of the last 3 times I was there, there was nobody at the bus so I used the box to pay the trail pass. I wasn't really convinced that the money deposited there actually gets to where it should go as 15 seconds and a screw driver was all that would have been needed to break in. A receipt book would be handy even if it was self serve.

As to joining the Swan City Snowmobile club, I would be happy to but their website does not make that easy. When renewing my ASA membership I did designate Swan City as my club because that is where I ride.

I have entered the contact us info to the club and hope to get a response soon.....

 

[gunner3006]

Just a follow up on the previous posts. In ontario it is $250 per year for a trail pass. They are monitored by the rcmp and the tickets are real. I believe that if there is a cabin in these mountain ranges and the trail is groomed to the best possible standard then $25 is definetly worth the price. I keep reading about these fantastic sledding areas that are being shut down and it sux because sledding does a lot for the winter economy. But, in saying that, as a hunter, getting to a remote mountain peak and finding beer cans and cig butts is nothing but bad publicity. The second these guys get out of the back country they go to there local sustainable resource office and complain. Who can blame them.