8528-R2_MSA_October2023

From The Executive Board Secretary’s Report - Brad Barker 585 th Directors Meeting - Pat’s Pizza, Windham, Maine , September 19, 2023

Can we have more options? Can we have ALL the options sent around? Get the information to Matt Stedmen so that we can all get that information to us. Scholarship Committee: Barry Ryan - Looking for volunteers to man the booth at the show. Also Steve Bennett there is a fundraiser on October 12 th at the Red Barn for this. There will also be a display there to sell raffle tickets. Hospitality Gail Ryan: sent many cards and then told a joke Membership Report: Eileen Lafland: box on the right hand side, please ask your members about this!!! We are just trying to cut down on costs! If someone is a member of more than one club, you can mark that on the card. Get the membership cards back in as soon as you can. Super Raffle tickets MUST have a separate check. Al: American Income Life Insurance M/S/C To decline any association with them. Western Maine Rafting M/S/C To ?? New signs for IF&W Culverts will be bought at reduced rates and parked and distributed by Spruce Culvert Company in Windsor New club that would like to join us, in the West Forks-Dead River Area vote will be held once membership documents have been completed. Clubs were drawn for manning the Raffle Booth at the show. First shift Saturday - Glenburn 2 nd shift Saturday - Alna 3 rd shift Saturday - Rome Rough Riders Sunday 1 st shift Sunday - Ossipee 2 nd shift Sunday - 30 Mile River Steering committee - should members switch over? Stagger the leadership? Looking for input from membership. Motion to table and discuss next time M/S/C James Cote working on making the registration list available to clubs, and mandatory safety course for 16 and under. BRIDGTON CLUB surprise - MSA congratulation plaque for 50 years of service. 50/50 - Brad Porter $125. And returned $50. Pot of Gold - Oakland SnowGoers S.C. Meeting adjourned at 8:22 Respectfully submitted, Brad Barker to a consensus by about this time next year. We know that there is over a $3 million fund ing gap from last winters’ reported expenses and program income. (Grants paid out vs. volunteer hours + clubs’ submitted costs’) I know this isn’t close to the full gap because most folks do not include ALL the hours and expenses that go into running their club. We know where the current income stream to the State of Maine snowmobile program comes from and goes to. The 1 st step is to gather ideas to filter through to determine a path forward. We will need every one’s help to get ideas to our group to begin this process. Once we have ideas from our member ship, we will combine them with our own, group the ones that are similar, ensure we understand them & begin to sort them into categories. We will begin this at the show, having a “brown paper” exercise to gather ideas from members. There will be a large sheet of paper on the wall in the meeting room, post it notes and pens for folks to write ideas onto. Please include your name & club name so we can make sure to connect with you if we are unsure of the idea detail. In addition to this, the regional VP’s and directors will be soliciting ideas and concerns from clubs across the State. We will be bringing in more people to the com mittee on an as-needed basis so that we can con tinue to move forward. There are many aspects and intricacies to funding snowmobile clubs and our committee is dedicated to getting this done right. Please stay tuned & engaged with your club, regional MSA director &/or VP if you are pas sionate about making sure we can continue to fund the sport moving forward. what ways forward have chances at succeeding and then bring them to the membership to come

in the Maine Guide. Looking for New Blood - Destination spotlight - business, you want to spotlight, let them know to promote area, club, businesses, etc. Hoping to pick a region for each issue. Notices and deadlines, look for email blasts that go out to the Presidents. Check your Spam so that you get the notices. A lot of pertinent information in the last one and they are trying to increase communication and keep everyone in the loop. Grants - deadline on club and municipal grants have been bumped to December 1 st . Poland Spring - does anyone have a town with Poland Spring Bottling - Hollis? There is a program for non-profits, just fill out the form. Pretty easy. October 17 th directors at SAM in Augusta. Safety - Al Swett: use PPE when you’re doing trail work, safety shoes, ear plugs, Eye protection, etc. More safety posters from Brookfield are ready. They offered to buy them for us. BIW signs are a big hit. Hopefully we will be able to get more. Safety classes for schools are available. Al will come in and talk to the kids. Eastern Region Vice-President: Eileen Lafland - all the clubs in Eastern have their packets and memberships are coming in. Clubs are starting up. I think Downeast region will have some problems this year due to storm damage. Central Region Vice-President: Jack Lord - trail up from Oakland is fabulous. Last week I checked the trail from Norridgewock and we will be the first people to use that trail. It looks great! Hearing that everything from Norridgewock up will be connected, not sure of the lower part of the trail. Need a couple directors if anyone wants to step up. I would like to retire next year, I’ll be 80 and would like to train someone. Jack won first place at the North New Portland World’s Fair. Coastal Region Vice-President: Dave Watson - Thank you Windham, you did a great job. Thank you for setting this up Steve Bennett. Thank you for all that you members do. DO YOUR SNOW DANCES!! Northern Region Vice-President: Matt Stedmen - Thank you Lori and Bob for setting this up so everyone far away can listen in and be part of the meeting. Not a lot going on up ing for updating the actual overlay. Tracks are replotted and mileages recalculated. The approved overlay is also sent to Corson GIS Solutions for adaptation for our online inter active map. While this is going on, the text for the map backer is reviewed for club and busi ness edits and updated accordingly by MSA volunteers, in this year’s case it was Lori and Mark. Ditto for the front cover graphics and content around the perimeter of the actual map overlay. There are many emails and phone calls involved until everyone is in agreement on the content. At this point, all the data is sent to Franklin Printing, our longstanding vendor for the ITS map. Finally, the various pieces of the map are used to create a proof. This proof is reviewed, approved, and quantity verified. At last, the map printing goes into full pro duction. By the time you read this article, you will have the ability to hold the final product in your hands and start planning your rides. Until this year, I didn’t have an appreciation for the time, effort, and collaboration it takes to produce our annual ITS map. I do now. I hope you do too. So with map production covered, come get yours at the MSA’s Maine Snowmobile Show Oct 20, 21 & 22. I will be spearheading a trails workshop on Saturday Oct 21 at 9AM. We’ll discuss signage and trail issues, get infor mation on the grooming gear of Mountain Grooming Equipment from representative, Doug Wilson, and wrap up with grants and general snowmobile issues with Joe Higgins. The Trails Committee will have its October meeting immediately following at approxi mately 11:30 AM. Hope to see you all there. Brent

north besides watching it rain. People are out doing trail work and groomer maintenance. People are starting to get excited about it. Dust Bowl postponed from last weekend and will happen next weekend. At the show there will be a wall for people to put ideas on for how to get the clubs more money. We’ve had our first meeting on how to do this. Our next meeting will be at the show to collect these ideas on how to increase funding to clubs. Information will come down through the regional VP’s. Western Region Vice-President: Jerry Major: Not in attendance Trail Committee Chair: Brent Spalding - Waiting for the snow to come. Have good news, as of 3:30 today, the map is at the printer. Have ordered 27500 maps and it looks like everything is going good. Have brought on three new people since last meeting. Steering Committee Chairman: John Monk - What town has the most registered members in the state? Windham! These people are so loyal, they may not get snow but they go where there is some. He is representative on the abandoned and discontinued roads committee. Make friends with the landowners and the people that own the land that the old roads are on explain to them what we do. You may get permission from the town to use the road but if the landowner will have final say as to its use. LD 732 - if it’s documented there can be a ticket written, get your signs up early, the wardens are planning on making some examples early on. The sign HAS to be there in order for there to be fines. Now we can use trail cams to document the off trail riding. There are three retired wardens that have been called in to help Chris Mcabe on these trail and landowner issues. Clubs input are being asked for regarding the snowmobile Registration increase or not. It’s the end of the second biennial for legislation and now is the time to start so that we can get in the biennial. (from the members) Perhaps the set rate for registrations and non club members is the rate plus some amount. Or do we need to ask the legislature to give us a higher percentage of the registration money taken in. Please have the discussions in smaller groups.

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

6:40 call to order Pledge of allegiance. Welcome new club directors

Directors and VP’s stand and new job descriptions and responsibilities list handed out. Secretary’s report M/S/C The treasurer’s report was read by Barry Ryan and placed on file at the office. President’s Opening Comments: Al Swett - landowner issue - it is all about the landowners, more important than the snow. There is a new job description for the regional V.P. and directors. Jack Lord - dropped the snowmobile club and atv trail is dropped from the lawsuit? Bingham trail is closed to us. Executive Vice-President: Mark Chinnock - want to thank the Windham Drifters. Got the show 20-22, Epping 6,7 and 8th, and the Big E in Springfield 18-19, all in October. A lot is coming up. Newspaper - options for the electronic version, share it with your clubs!! There is a selection box on your membership card. Park n Rides - database is being created and there is a short form available on the website so that your park n ride can be put on the website and

Trails Committee Chair Report

Funding Legislation Committee

Matt Stedman 207-557-1921 (call or text) PO Box 621, Ashland ME 04732 Stedman.matt@jdirving.com

Brent Spaulding, MSA Trails Chairman 207-944-7762 41 Madison Ave Brewer ME 04412 msatrailchair@gmail.com G reetings from Brewer, I’m sure you have all started your fall chores and are thinking about the upcoming season. The trails committee has been busy contacting clubs and sharing information. The new ITS map has been the main focus of my efforts since my last article. I have gained much knowledge from my interactions with and guidance from the MSA E board, Joe Higgins, and the vendors that support the map process. It starts with collecting informa tion on reroutes, closures, trail designations, or junction changes. Many of these changes require GPS data that is generally supplied by Joe Higgin’s office. These changes and GPS data are then passed on to SW Cole Engineer

Snowmobile Trail & Equipment Funding Into the Future F ellow snowmobilers, club members and business members. The MSA has put together a committee to determine legislation that needs to be brought in front of the 2025 ses sion to better finance our clubs trail maintenance & equipment funding. This will not be an easy or quick process. The committee is made up of the MSA pres ident, vice-president, regional VP’s and our lobbyist. We will be meeting at least monthly to share information, understand options and become informed on what direction the MSA membership wants us to go. Our goal is to understand the best path for w ard to close the funding gap. We need to get input from MSA members, information from the folks who know their clubs expenses and current income, work with our lobbyist to understand

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