8492-R1_MSA_September2023

From The Executive Board Secretary’s Report - Brad Barker 584 th Directors Meeting - Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Augusta, ME, August 15, 2023

Director Jim Boyce: This is a new season. We need to do a better job with public relations and stay off negative social media. Keep the PR positive. What are we doing for small clubs, members, and landowners? Al spoke on land issues. If landowners do not want a snowmobile trail on their land, they do not have to have it there. Do a reroute. We want to keep the trails but the landowner is more important than the trail. There is coastal gate blocking, issues with landowners and club a president. Bob Flagg encouraged the use of the folks at IF&W, Chris McCabe, Rick Laflamme, and a couple others. There is also the issue of the federal land takeover around Baxter State Park. There was a motion made to not support this. M/S/C Augusta Show: October 20, 21, and 22 - If you want to sell Super Raffle Tickets at the show then you need to sign up. You also need four people that will be there to cover the entire shift. If you’re interested you can also email your club name. We would like to have the MSA represented at the New Hampshire Grass Drags and the Massachusetts show in Springfield, the Big E. LD 732 Off Trail Riding did pass and this will protect the landowners. First offense is a $100 fine, second offense is $350 fine, and third offense is $500 fine. Jerry Major mentioned that a source for culverts would be the local town, contractors, or Joe Higgins. You can also try Treeline Inc. at (207)794-2044. A comment was made that perhaps the MSA could be a broker of the culverts. Legislation to think about: The five year cycle for registration cost is coming up. Should we increase it or keep it the same? There is a CMP line upgrade that is coming through central Maine and Al was assured that the bridges will be kept passable to snowmobiles and the trails will be open. Scott Newton of 201 Powersport passed away and our hearts go out to friends and family. He was very active and helpful in donations to support the MSA. It was much appreciated. The MSA office would like to move the membership calendar year from October 1 st to September 1st. The MSA Super Raffle money and the membership checks should be separate checks. David Cogley, Trail Master of the Cobbosseecontee Snowmobile Club, has a 5 foot by 12 foot drag for sale. Call him for more information. Loud exhausts may need more enforcement by the wardens in order to keep landowners happy. Jim Boyce, September 3rd, World Famous Chicken BBQ!! Angela Boyce won the 50/50 raffle of $103. Meeting Adjourned at 8:44 Respectfully submitted, Brad Barker piece of equipment make sure there blocked properly. Be safe folks we don’t want you losing fingers, eye site, you’re hearing or a lifelong injury. Hope you have a great fall! Be safe out there! AL

members and the multi-club paying members No secretary’s report was read. The treasurer’s report was read and placed on file at the office. President Al Swett’s opening comments: HUGE washouts have occurred in Wilton. Gov. Mills is applying for federal money to help fund disaster relief. Al then spoke in support of the previously mentioned insurance proposal. Executive Vice-President: Mark Chinnock shared concerns about the insurance, administrative costs to which someone responded, “Why should MSA be selling life insurance?” Bob Flag spoke on the insurance being a selling tool for recruiting MSA members but we need to protect our membership list. The insurance used to include family memberships, spouses and dependents. There was a motion made to table the insurance company vote until we know more. M/S/C Eastern Region Vice-President: Eileen Lafland: There’s a lot of water, a lot of new culverts with 8 to 10 inches of water running through them. The club packets are available to be picked up. Central Region Vice-President: Jack Lord: There is a lot of mud and water on the trails and many washouts. Most trails are both snowmobile and ATV trails so we are waiting for the ATV season to end so we can start preparing for winter. Coastal Region Vice-President: Dave Watson: Great seeing everyone. Hopefully we will see you all September 19th at the Windham Snowmobile Club. Trails are now active with the ATV clubs. ITS 87 has storm damage and we are trying to postpone improvements until fall. Have a great winter. Northern Region Vice-President: Matt Stedmen: Clubs have been working on signage and some of the trails overlap with other clubs, both ATV and snowmobile, leaving people unsure where to go. He has the membership packets and will be handing them out. Western Region Vice-President: Jerry Major: Here’s the new kid on the block! Two major trails are damaged and there is a lot of ditching being done. Safety Director: Al Swett: Spoke of the meeting with IF&W. More presence on the trails by the wardens is going to happen. Brookfield’s IF&W is back to laminating again. There is a new safety logo, “Ride Safe Today, Ride Again Tomorrow”. Expressed concerns about the Oakland/Maddison Bridge because it is a single width. They are going to put up warning signage to proceed with caution. Recognized Brent Spalding as the new MSA Trails Committee Chair and Jerry Major as the new Western Region VP. MSA Trail Committee Chair: Brent Spalding: August 1st they had their first trials We had a bad year last season. Ten people died while snowmobiling in Maine. We need to educate more, it’s difficult. The State does a great job holding snowmobile safety courses. My thought is to have mandatory snowmobile safety courses for children up to 18 years old. I’d like to see that become a law. Matt Sted man and I met with some State IF&W offi cials last spring to form a committee to solve this problem. They are all in favor of more enforcement on the trails, better signage and more safety classes. Our new logo “Ride Smart Today, Ride Again Tomorrow” rolls out this year. It will be on most everything we print. We will be pro ducing decals small and large for all types of applications. In addition, Safety signs will be available this year as in the past. Wear your PPE while you’re working on your trails and servicing your equipment. It

meeting. He expressed concerns regarding the ITS 115 connector trail to the east side and to Bingham. There is currently no access into Bingham and it is a five mile trek in and out for fuel. The points system for signage for the Capital Equipment Grant will be implemented this season. He would also like a list of the Park N Rides in order to link them to the trail system in the online maps. The Nordic Lakers Club is dissolving and the Caribou Club will be picking up those sections of the trails. Barney Robichaux of the Matawamkeg Snowmobile Club passed at 101y. He really loved grooming. He moved to rename the grooming award to the Barney Robichaux Grooming Award. M/S/C Membership Report: Eileen Lafland: Acknowledged Al and Larry’s huge help stuffing envelopes and boxes for the clubs, including raffle tickets. The officer update form is EXTREMELY important to get filled out and returned to the MSA. On the right side of the membership renewal card it is important to check off the box indicating paper, virtual, or none in regards to the Maine Snowmobiler newspaper. This is also important due to the costs of postage. Make sure that you have the license with you NO MATTER where you’re selling raffle tickets. For the Membership Transmittal Form the front page is needed. Then you fill out the membership information on the second page. If you would like to use an Excel spreadsheet for this information instead and submit it to Eileen this way, it does save time on data entry. On renewals, if nothing has changed, you don’t have to fill out the back of the transmittal but they do need the cards back. Some people are lifetime members of a club but not of the MSA, in which case they would still need to pay the yearly fee. You can contact the office to check on the lifetime status of members when renewing membership. Some clubs use Venmo for payments but it is hard to do that with the MSA payments because only one person can be on the Venmo account and our officers change back and forth frequently so it is difficult to keep it up to date. Hospitality Report: Gail Ryan: shared a joke. Scholarship Committee: Assistant Director Barry Ryan: Scholarship fund is going well but only three applications last year. We would like to give away more this year. The deadline for this is April 1st. Laura at the Red Barn is doing a fundraiser for the scholarship fund sometime in September. Hall of Fame Chair: Aleta Rioux was not present and no report was given. Steering Committee Chairman: John Monk was not present and no report was given. New Business only takes a few seconds to put on a pair of earplugs to protect your hearing. Eye protec tion too, metal splinters hurt you’re the eyes. Gloves and good shoes are a good idea as well. Back in the 70’s we did not have the pro tection that is available today. That’s why my ears ring constantly. Please use care when jacking a bridge or

Brad Barker, Secretary 207-524-3301 155 Fish Street, Leeds ME 04263 barkerbrad155@gmail.com

M eeting started with the pledge of allegiance at 6:42pm. Juno and Drew spoke on the American Income Life Insurance policy that is being proposed to the MSA to offer to its members. Juno spoke regarding: • There is a letter in response to the Zoom meeting. There is no obligation for the accidental death and dismemberment to the MSA members. • The insurance company would pay these premiums after they get a response from a member that sent their card in requesting contact. • They will be using physical stickers for addresses instead of a database for member addresses. This will protect the privacy of all MSA members. • It is only free to the paying member of the club. Drew spoke regarding: • The member list and the virtual meeting that will occur after a contact card is returned. • Insurance costs the company $.48 per thousand dollars per member or $1.92 for $4000 worth of insurance. • Typically, they get a 20% response. • Pointed out that there would be two mailings, one after the other and then a follow up mailing in 18 months. Mark Chinnock commented that AIL should pick up the administrative costs of printing and processing the mailing so that MSA is not donating our time and effort towards their benefit. Dave Watson stated that if it is voted in then the MSA should also get a copy of the letter that will be generated to all the clubs so that they are aware of what is going on. Discussion occurs about dues paying

Safety Committee

MSA CLUBS: TO ORDER NEEDED ITS & JCT SIGNS Contact Mike Grass Sr., MSA Trails Committee • 252 Condon Rd • Plymouth, ME 04969 207-368-4914 home • 207-745-2745 cell Grasslands252@gmail.com

TO ORDER CLUB TRAIL SIGNAGE Candice Pinkham, DACF/Snowmobile Program 207-287-4957 Office • 207-878-8111 Fax Candice.M.Pinkham@maine.gov

Alan Swett, 207-872-7282 234 County Rd, Waterville ME 04901 snowtraveler@roadrunner.com

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