8620-R1_MSA_February2024_Newsletter_Web

From The Executive Board Secretary’s Report - Brad Barker 590 th Directors Meeting & Super Raffle - Norway Fire Station, Norway Trackers - Norway, Maine - January 6, 2024

her radar to advocate for the clubs that need the funds. Funding short term, mid-term, and long term funding. Online membership form. Lori has created a portal. Please go on to the website to see the online membership portal. You can join any club you want in the MSA. Park and Ride - there’s an addition in the January paper to add your town and club area. You can also sign up through the membership form. Thank you Lori. Great Job! (Applause) Next meeting is February 17th, East Branch Snow Rovers, showcase ride. Thank everyone for coming out in the weather. Any work that the clubs do, keep track of them to get them into Joe’s office so that when funds come through. Document - take photos of everything that you’re working on and also GPS information if you can. Northern Region Vice-President: Matt Stedmen - Sorry he couldn’t be there tonight due to the storm. Got a lot going on in the northern region. 50 to 75 percent of clubs are out and about and by this weekend we should all be out there. Cold weather is helping get things firmed up. Attended next generation ride age 4-13 age kids of club members, together one weekend a month to build that up. Had 8 kids there and are building relationships now. Clubs are hosting ots of breakfasts and lunches etc. Northern region meeting March 16 out of Easton. Could stay in Presque or Mars Hill. Trails - snowmobiling slow start so when they come they will come hard and fast so preach safety, keep safety front and center. Wardens have said they will be out and about more this winter so be in touch with them if you need them. No off trail riding signs, trying to get them out to clubs. Clubs are excited to have them and getting them to the landowners that need them. Eastern Region Vice-President: Eileen Lafland -Still working on trails. If you’re going to ride anywhere in Eastern please check in to make sure that the trails are open. Downeast is still under water. Sunrise has major washouts. Groomer Rodeo at the East Branch get underway. Western Maine actually received the most snow cover and most projects are up and running. Northern Maine was doing OK by end of January to allow for riding but woods and fields were still thin. The rest of the state was spotty on grooming operations as of the end of January. Hopefully by the time you read this we will have sufficient snow throughout the state. One thing for sure, crews have been out clearing trees, fixing washouts, and ensuring our trail system was connected. The process is never ending. There are almost weekly updates on logging operations or a landowner issue. The reroutes continue so take note of local signage when out on the trail. The trail committee has ramped up inspec tions of the ITS system and many clubs should have received their results by now. We have revised our inspection form so that the club will receive their report directly after the inspector submits the results. Keep doing your snow dance so maybe we can ride in April….. Brent

Sno-Rovers February 3rd. All day events. Showcase Ride will be announced at the ride. Central Region Vice-President: Jack Lord - No report. Coastal Region Vice-President: Dave Watson - Still snowing, it’s cold, lost a lot of snow during the rainstorm, expecting trails to be opened up. Everything is moving forward. Western Region Vice-President: Jerry Major - Norway’s park and ride is listed in the paper. There is still a LOT of open water so be very careful. The Strong meeting was unbelievable. If anyone wants a safety check just let Jerry know. Paul Gallant from Fryeburg was recognized for the Most Super Raffle Tickets sold. Executive Vice-President: Mark Chinnock - any club out there, don’t feel like you’re alone. It’s very discouraging but we are all in this together, if you need help or direction just call us we can help you. We are your big brother. Trail Committee Chair: Brent Spalding - Just phenomenal the family that we have here. The amount of work being done between volunteers, businesses, and the snowmobiling community. Been doing some signage workshops. Those are going really well. It’s changing and we all are learning something new every time. Capital equipment grants - part of the scoring includes a point line for signage. Get the trail inspectors to check. They are being asked to get involved with the club trails as well. A tracking app is being used by DACF and they are working on extending this to some of the MSA Trail Inspectors for a trial run. Anyone wanting a trails workshop please reach out to me. Scholarship Committee: Berry Ryan - We need more scholarship applicants. 2 -$1500 scholarships available this year. If you have any questions, reach out. In this month’s paper there is a whole page about it, thank you very much. Steering Committee Chairman: John Monk - Thank you to Norway Trackers. The State of Maine website had a nice ad about registering your sled. it was very supportive and important for people to understand. Abandoned and discontinued roads presentation to the legislatures. On a discontinued road, no one knows who owns

the road. Landowner is liable and we are trying to get the legislatures to look at it. Insurance liability - suggested that - to ask Joe to help with liability insurance? Funding committee: Matt Stedmen - funds were wiped out with the storms and events this summer. Short term (this grant cycle), mid term (next summer and fall), and long term funding (this time next year). Had a very good meeting with the governor’s office. She understands the funds that snowmobiling brings to the state. We will be competing with everyone for the dollars, but we will keep the dialog open. Had some good feedback from clubs. We will be cycling back to people to get more understanding. How do we promote something that is already in place? Want to set this up so we don’t have to keep coming back to rebuild this every two or three years. Membership Report: Eileen Lafland - 243 of 285 that have submitted memberships, 13 clubs over 100 and 2 over 200. 6,950 family memberships and 1,801 business memberships total of 8,751. Lori did a great job getting the online membership Formstack located on the MSA webpage. If your club gets a letter saying that someone joined your club, please acknowledge them. Hospital: Gail Ryan - sent out two cards since the beginning of the year. Safety: Al Swett - be safe, use your head. IFW wherever you have a lot of traffic you should have a safety check. When he goes to schools, he talks about what to expect in snowmobiling. Hall of Fame Chair: Aleta Rioux- No report. Old business: Super Raffle - Most raffle tickets sold- Fryeburg. New business: Eileen - do have contests Dealer, Groomer, Business, Snowmobiler, Snowmobile Club, Youth, Hall of Fame. Capitol Equipment grant inspection of club trails is going to look different. Send in trail reports to editor@mesnow Pot of Gold - Belgrade Draggin’ Masters was drawn. No Director present. Forfeited $400. Motion to Adjourn M/S/C 8:11 to go to the landowners pleading with them to keep the trail open. And I’ll tell you they’re getting mighty sick of it. Well, a little more safety news and it’s not good. My first trip out I came across an accident where the rider missed a corner. He was hurt very bad, and his late model sled destroyed. Something he’ll live with for the rest of his life. As of this writing, we have lost two fel low riders one from Western Maine and one from the North. Many accidents statewide. I was recently at a big event in Western Maine driving down the road with a friend we had a sled go through a stop sign into the state road nearly hitting us. The trial is well marked with the proper signs. Recently a group of Game Wardens did a snowmobile detail in a part of the State with lots of traffic. They ticketed over 20 sleds for many violations and told me there will be more of these details throughout the area. If&W will be having another safety course in Augusta at the Sportsman Alliance of Maine building on February 11th beginning around 9am. Call or visit their website for signing up. Still planning on a Greenville School safety Awareness Day. Waiting for a date. We still have a few Safety Posters available courtesy of Hammond Lumber. Give us a call or email if you’d like some. Be Safe Out There! PLEASE. Our trails are not racetracks. Al Respectfully submitted Brad Barker, Secretary

M eeting started at 7:00 PM. Pledge of Allegiance Secretary’s report M/S/C The treasurer’s report was read and placed on file at the office. President’s opening comments: Thank you to the kitchen crew for putting on a great meal. We’ve been devastated by the weather, Can’t thank you enough for what you do. Having a hard time getting materials for longer bridges and rebuilding bridges. You guys are making it work and the landowners are going above and beyond. Medway Groomer Rodeo and signage workshop February 3. Al is unable to attend. The raffle went awesome last month. He enjoyed delivering the prizes to the winners. Executive Vice-President: Mark Chinnock - Thank you to the Norway Trackers for hosting. It was awesome. Don’t want to keep talking about the disaster… you guys rock. There was a regional meeting in Strong, about 100 people including some legislatures that heard what the clubs were saying. They are trying to get some money back to the clubs for relief. It’s not going to happen overnight, we have to go through the right channels. Had a meeting with the governor last week to get on Brad Barker, Secretary 207-524-3301 155 Fish Street, Leeds ME 04263 barkerbrad155@gmail.com

Trails Committee Chair Report

Safety Committee

Brent Spaulding, MSA Trails Chairman 207-944-7762 41 Madison Ave Brewer ME 04412 msatrailchair@gmail.com G reetings from Brewer, Finally!Mother Nature was somewhat nice to us and allowed our long awaited season to

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

Snowmobile Safety, people tell me to many riders are driving way to fast, going through stop signs, on the wrong side of the trail rid ing on closed trails, and so on and so on. You folks who are guilty of all of the above shame on you. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to our sport? Giving us a bad name for one, getting trails that we worked and cooper ated with landowners to ride on their property closed down. Please respect the landowners over 95% of the trail network is on private property everywhere I go throughout the State I get the same comments; the volunteers have

CLUB MEMBERS Once grooming begins submit your trail reports to: EDITOR@MESNOW.COM Please include your name and club affiliation

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