Question: What prevents some from purchasing a snowmobile club membership

[snopro]

Sadly we have a demographic that will pay $200 for a color option accessory on their sled or something like a aftermarket Y pipe that promises the world but delivers nothing instead of buying a club membership to help support the very activity they could lose to the sports hate crowd. I found a lot of sledders are pretty cheap in all the years I've been associated in the sport where as the watercraft and dirt crowd are far more generous with their wallets.

 

[Teth-Air]

I would buy a membership where I would ride most. This made sense as in Revy for example a long weekend for my son and I just for daily trail passes would be 6 x $25 = $150. And we would do that several times each season. The seasons pass was way more more economical and supported the club. My problem now is I only get to Revy once or twice per year and I ride other BC areas in between. This makes a couple weekends there and other locations with the $25/day charge seem expensive when I knew the locals with yearly passes likely would average $5/day. An ideal situation for me would be buy a Province wide membership that got me benefits that I could feel in my pocket. The idea of a weekend pass to an area for club members or when your trail pass expenditures surpassed the yearly fee could get me on board again.

Is there no easy way to give the guys a trail pass card that gets punched or stamped each time they pay their daily trail fees and when it is full they are automatically members of the club?

 

[Dazzler]

So this is the question of the day. Why do you feel some choose to not purchase a snowmobile club membership in the areas they ride? This includes tourists and locals. Further to that question, what could be done to increase membership stimulus?



Thank you! Love you!

Momma.

Excellent topic Trish, I do purchase a CSC (Calgary snowmobile club) membership every year for the past 20+/- years and have only rode on an Alberta trail once in all those years. Although I feel I'm helping out, I'm really only a notch above the masses as I do not attend meetings nor volunteer. I also purchase a GSC (Golden) membership and the last 2-3 years we end up riding Sicamous area 90% of the time, doesn't really bother me in the big picture, but as someone mentioned below, a $5.00 savings for a trail fee in other areas with proof of a BC club membership would likely give some incentive to join a club?

 

[maxwell]

I would buy a membership where I would ride most. This made sense as in Revy for example a long weekend for my son and I just for daily trail passes would be 6 x $25 = $150. And we would do that several times each season. The seasons pass was way more more economical and supported the club. My problem now is I only get to Revy once or twice per year and I ride other BC areas in between. This makes a couple weekends there and other locations with the $25/day charge seem expensive when I knew the locals with yearly passes likely would average $5/day. An ideal situation for me would be buy a Province wide membership that got me benefits that I could feel in my pocket. The idea of a weekend pass to an area for club members or when your trail pass expenditures surpassed the yearly fee could get me on board again.

Is there no easy way to give the guys a trail pass card that gets punched or stamped each time they pay their daily trail fees and when it is full they are automatically members of the club?

This isnt Tim Hortons man. have you scanned your Revelstoke rewards card today? LMFAO. Is that Teth air connecting your brain to your keyboard? if so you should change the batteries hehehe

 

[Teth-Air]

This isnt Tim Hortons man. have you scanned your Revelstoke rewards card today? LMFAO. Is that Teth air connecting your brain to your keyboard? if so you should change the batteries hehehe

Some guys asked for easier tech to buy a pass/membership. This is low tech compared. Maybe a little too technical for you I am guessing as you would have to figure out which is side of the card is the front and which side is the back. You would be holding up the line for hours. Look at the bright side, when your ski-doo blows up you could use your card as fire starter.

 

[Quicksand]

Sadly we have a demographic that will pay $200 for a color option accessory on their sled or something like a aftermarket Y pipe that promises the world but delivers nothing instead of buying a club membership to help support the very activity they could lose to the sports hate crowd. I found a lot of sledders are pretty cheap in all the years I've been associated in the sport where as the watercraft and dirt crowd are far more generous with their wallets.

I agree with you right up until you said sledders are cheap. Most sledders need to save for months to be able to hit up revy for a weekend. That's LITERALLY a $1000 weekend on the cheap side. God forbid you bring the wife and/or kids. I wouldn't want to actually add up my sledding expenses for a whole year. It'd probably make me re-think mountain riding as a hobby. I absolutely hate the "whats another $250" statement. Some people just assume if you sled you must be rich, pretty sickening when in reality lots of sledders only ride 2 days a year because of the cost of it. $250 is make or break for a family struggling daily.

Clubs say they are raising fees to stay afloat, raise them all you want but How much money does the club get if 0 People buy a $400 dollar membership?

 

[kanedog]

Some years it’s cheaper to buy the daily pass depending on how often I sled. Less than eight times($25) it’s better to go daily as opposed to $200 for a full year. Simple economics. Back in the day I used join clubs before trail fees were required. I didn’t even sled in those areas. Last year I did a combo of both but did so to only to vote out the useless humans running the club. Then I saw the skull duggery going on and I’m keeping my nose out of it. Back to sledding only.

 

[MOMMA]

Is there no easy way to give the guys a trail pass card that gets punched or stamped each time they pay their daily trail fees and when it is full they are automatically members of the club?

I think it is difficult for some of the smaller clubs. I live in Creston, and we don't have a formal trail fee collection policy. We simply don't have the volunteer base to accommodate a person hanging out at our trail heads, or have the funds to hire an employee. We have come along way in the last few years and now actually have a grooming program. I do like your idea though.

 

[Donegal-BCSF]

Someone correct me if im wrong but i believe we are talking about Club Memberships and not seasons trail passes? In your case you are certainly correct that multiple seasons passes are not feasible. Many riders fall in this category. However you can purchase the individual club memberships separately for around the 25$ range on the BCSF website. Best case scenario for everyone involved for a rider like yourself is pay your daily trail pass fee for the grooming etc. and Then pick one of the multiple clubs you ride in and purchase the 25$ club membership. Or if your feeling generous join a couple. The most important goal is to have every rider a member of a snowmobile club. In my opinion. So really, only adding 25$ to your yearly snowmobile costs. Heck even rotate every year share the love.

Thanks for posting Maxwell...though as you have found out, I do have to correct. Not all clubs offer the ability for you to only buy a membership. In fact almost no clubs do offer this membership type...VARDA being one of the few that does. Most clubs offer only a membership in their local club and one of the benefits of membership is a seasons pass to the trails that club manages. The BCSF portion of a clubs membership is 35.00 for adults. Which provides the club member with all of the BCSF member benefits including insurance and is the primary funding for the BCSF and the work we do. The BCSF only collects this fee once so if you join a second club this amount will be deducted (you will have to contact the club with proof of membership to get an offered rate) The BCSF also does not want to compete with our smaller member clubs for membership dollars as these funds are needed by the clubs to keep the trails operating. Therefore, the Board of Directors have made the BCSF supporter membership 100.00 with all of the funds collected being used only for our land access campaigns. We prefer that you join us through your local club.

 

[Donegal-BCSF]

Trish I appreciate this thread and the honestly shared. From my perspective one of the issues we have in BC is that we have a strong "it is our right" to ride mentality. People believe that it is crown land and they should be able to do it for free. Even though we have lost a huge percentage of land available to snowmobiling these people do not see that they are the reason. That the clubs do not have enough volunteers or the funds necessary to complete the work needed. I spend most of my time fighting for land that is not a registered (groomed) trail where these people ride. Yet the very people that benefit from this work do not support a club or the BCSF because the trail is not groomed. The fact that they did not see a gate on their riding area is proof they do not need us. The fact that the BCSF and the club spent thousands of dollars and 100's of volunteer hours to prevent that gate is lost on them. When the gate does go up they quickly join their local club and demand they fight or blame the BCSF for not being there. It takes money to be there, volunteers to manage the areas we fight for, and a strong club to make our sport happen. I can tell you it is much easier to prevent a gate than it is to remove a gate.

We are a 299 million dollar industry in BC with snowmobile clubs collecting 4.4 million of that. That is less than 1.5% of the economic benefit our sport provides to BC. Memberships were a little over 1 million of that. Just this summer we had new shelters built in Kamloops, Cranbrook, Valemount, Fernie, Fort St James and improvements to countless other shelters across BC. Summit Seekers are in the process of cleaning up their shelter site after last summers fire destroyed it and plan to start rebuilding soon. This summer Revelstoke did huge parking lot improvement, is installing a pilot software system, trail improvements, and installing some new parking lot outhouses. We have new signs and kiosks being installed in Lumby while Hunters Range is struggling to get approval to replace one of their shelters. We have club volunteers negotiating large road maintenance agreements, caribou boundaries, fighting to keep a large bridge, upgrading culverts, etc all to ensure we can access our areas this winter groomed or not. With all clubs being non-profit organizations led by volunteers all of that 4.4 million was reinvested back into their communities because the other 294.6 million is counting on us to keep our trails to be open for business this winter. Please support your local snowmobile club online at www.bcsf.org/clubs even if you never go to a meeting or ride their "groomed trail". I can guarantee you that something they worked on this year has benefited you in some way...even if it is just a dealer in your community that is still in business because of your local snowmobile club.

 

[Donegal-BCSF]

If you think we are not losing areas take a minute to go slide the map on the Yellowstone to Yukon map at https://y2y.net/vision/our-progress. That is a 20 year gain for them and they have increased it significantly since 2013.

 

[MOMMA]

Trish I appreciate this thread and the honestly shared. From my perspective one of the issues we have in BC is that we have a strong "it is our right" to ride mentality. People believe that it is crown land and they should be able to do it for free. Even though we have lost a huge percentage of land available to snowmobiling these people do not see that they are the reason. That the clubs do not have enough volunteers or the funds necessary to complete the work needed. I spend most of my time fighting for land that is not a registered (groomed) trail where these people ride. Yet the very people that benefit from this work do not support a club or the BCSF because the trail is not groomed. The fact that they did not see a gate on their riding area is proof they do not need us. The fact that the BCSF and the club spent thousands of dollars and 100's of volunteer hours to prevent that gate is lost on them. When the gate does go up they quickly join their local club and demand they fight or blame the BCSF for not being there. It takes money to be there, volunteers to manage the areas we fight for, and a strong club to make our sport happen. I can tell you it is much easier to prevent a gate than it is to remove a gate.

We are a 299 million dollar industry in BC with snowmobile clubs collecting 4.4 million of that. That is less than 1.5% of the economic benefit our sport provides to BC. Memberships were a little over 1 million of that. Just this summer we had new shelters built in Kamloops, Cranbrook, Valemount, Fernie, Fort St James and improvements to countless other shelters across BC. Summit Seekers are in the process of cleaning up their shelter site after last summers fire destroyed it and plan to start rebuilding soon. This summer Revelstoke did huge parking lot improvement, is installing a pilot software system, trail improvements, and installing some new parking lot outhouses. We have new signs and kiosks being installed in Lumby while Hunters Range is struggling to get approval to replace one of their shelters. We have club volunteers negotiating large road maintenance agreements, caribou boundaries, fighting to keep a large bridge, upgrading culverts, etc all to ensure we can access our areas this winter groomed or not. With all clubs being non-profit organizations led by volunteers all of that 4.4 million was reinvested back into their communities because the other 294.6 million is counting on us to keep our trails to be open for business this winter. Please support your local snowmobile club online at www.bcsf.org/clubs even if you never go to a meeting or ride their "groomed trail". I can guarantee you that something they worked on this year has benefited you in some way...even if it is just a dealer in your community that is still in business because of your local snowmobile club.

Well Said Donegal. Prime example is an area by Ymir. When the initial Caribou closures were going down, there was no club in the Salmo or Ymir area to speak on behalf of the riders. The closures up Oscar really had no significant caribou habitat value, but with no one to voice concerns those closures were implemented creating a lot of confusion over the years, with non compliance. Now the area has a brand new BCSF club! woo hooo, and they are on top of all this relating to government and land access. The numbers and representation really do matter.

 

[Quicksand]

Where does the $25 trail fee go? Does it go straight to the club? or does anyone else get a part of that

 

[Donegal-BCSF]

Where does the $25 trail fee go? Does it go straight to the club? or does anyone else get a part of that

It goes directly to the club and is based on cost recovery. The fee is set by Government and mandated that it must be reinvested in the trail it was collected on.

 

[Director]

Purchased a 200SnoScoot for the kids and a 900ACE for Mama so we could all play.. I found the Clubs and the events to be a great way to get my family into the sport.. We had lots of fun, got so much support and met some new friends at Poker Derbys, club rides, Hot Dog lunches, club meetings - all made possible by your local volunteers!
Calgary Membership is $105 with ASA or $20 w/out..
Fernie we got a non-rider for $20
CrowSnow is $15
We bought Golden passes as i daytrip there too and youth pass is $50 or $70.
That got us invited to so many events, kids and i always had ppl to ride with so that was super cool..

For Calgarians - the Calgary and Crowsnest Clubs have looked at doing a trail from Cataract down to Blairmore.. With some more support I know Murray and his buddies at the CSC would do what they can to get us across. I've been damn close to Elkford from Cataract, be interesting to open up some of that terrain on the border, the Govt is open to sleds, they just hate the quads..

Non-Rider is what your after for just a membership and you can pay trail fees at the booth.

 

[brian h]

what prevents people from buying memberships imo is alot feel they dont ride enough to cover the cost,or they ride multiple areas. i was talking with a guy 2 days ago who said he didnt know he could buy a season pass to vale,and that he didnt know if he rode enough to make it worth while,i explained to him how important it is ,the next day he messaged me and said he purchased. so for alot they dont know how important it is but also alot of people ride many different areas and buying a membership to one place feel they need to go there only or they our loosing money, not enough know the importance of a membership and what the pass does for the areas and what is done with the money. yes i purchase a pass each year for where i generally ride(valemount) and if else where day pass

 

[LMLCHEVY]

View attachment 219188 Iam a golden club member but ride elsewhere so I can get stickers for my beer fridge. I do think there should be a B.C. membership that helps spread some money to the small clubs

Agreed
One mandatory membership for the province at a reasonable price and then a discount of some sort for either a season or day pass in the riding area of your choice with proof of the provincial membership. I believe this would encourage people to join and drive membership numbers up.

 

[kenvb]

as a original member since 1980 of the Whitecourt Trailblazers.i have bought yearly memberships as money allowed. only use the groomed trails few times each yr which is well worth the $80 fee.But since i was Groomer operator for few yrs i see more what the $80 pays for. these machines are $150,000 with groomer. fuel.maintainance ,insurance another up to $20,000 season depending on snow and breakdowns. and the local club has a great volunteer group who hand clean these trails every fall.

 

[Bogger]

I just don't think enough people know about club memberships and why they are important. I belong to many and it costs me less than 2 tanks of fuel (a month ago) in my truck.

Alberta Beach Family Membership - $25 x 2 (my wife and I are on the executive and we volunteer for events - our home club)
Calgary Snowmobile club membership - $20 (Never taken advantage of their robust ride program but been to a few of the meetings & club social events)
Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association - $25 (we were going to do a Sask. ride this year but looks like that won't happen, but it's only $25)
VARDA - $ 40 (Ride Valemount quite often but not enough for an annual trail pass so we buy a membership)
McBride - No membership option but I would buy if available - In fact McBride needs a membership option and more volunteers, a few do a whole lot)

Then we buy 2 ASA trail passes each year $90 x 2

All in we spend less than $150/yr on memberships for multiple clubs in 3 provinces

Trail passes a little more but that is a fee for use system which works just fine for me. - I think there should be a mandatory membership fee tied in with registration. For those who argue "I only ride in BC" that's fine, register your sled in BC and support their system. If you register in AB there should be a mandatory $50 ASA membership fee - the cost would be reduced but the collection numbers would be hugely increased.