9147-R2_MSA_September2025_Newsletter

From The Executive Board

H ello to our Snowmobile Family! What a summer! Rainy weekends record heat and a drought! What else do we need? Snow is in the Farmer’s Almanac forecast this season let’s hope they’re right. We all know we really need a good winter. My agenda this year is to get out to more clubs and schools to pro mote snowmobile safety along with everyday safety habits to make you safe. Accidents hap pen quickly and very unexpected any time any where. I was driving the other day on a country road trees overshadowed the road. It was hard to see, and it was noontime, all of a sudden, a saw a little boy on the opposite side of the road getting his mail for his family. Never saw him until I was only a few yards away. Taught me a lesson to keep my eyes open for anything. Scared the life out of me. This is how quick things happen. I was beginning to sit down in a chair on our deck the leg of the chair went through the deck my head went back broke my glasses hit my head on the garage wall meet each other. Some clubs we do have to send theirs in the mail either because the con tact person is out of state, or the club is very remote and only has people there in season. PLEASE- whoever receives this packet, open it up, look inside, and deliver the pieces to the correct club person. The membership packet should go to the person in charge of that area. MEMBERSHIP PERSON- Look at the preprinted cards carefully and make sure you have received one for each family and busi ness that was a member last year. Also, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to verify ALL the information on the card with the mem ber. Each year the office receives many pa pers back saying the address is incorrect. Also please make sure the member states how they want their paper received. With postage rates continuing to climb, the MSA is looking to re duce those costs so we need accurate informa tion on how or if the member wants a paper. CLUB OFFICER UPDATE FORM - An other extremely important piece of info for MSA. On it is a question regarding your club dues. This is needed for the online member ship form that people can fill out through the MSA website. It helps the MSA know what your club dues are. TO ALL CLUBS - As the season begins, you are reminded to send in the memberships as soon as you receive them. The members will not receive a paper until that membership is entered in our system. The office receives calls frequently from a member asking where their paper is and if we haven’t received their membership, they are not on the mailing list. Also, if you receive a statement from the MSA office informing you a person has joined your club via the website or a reason so make them feel welcome. If you have any questions you can contact the MSA office or email membership@mesnow.com. make sure all clubs get their share if the buyer chooses your club. What each club needs to do is go to the MSA website and signup your club there is a Formstack to do this. Please do this so you get your share. While we’re on the super raffle subject, A new incredible prize is being offered, a $5000.00 dollar gift card to any MSA affiliated dealership across the state! This prize will take the place of the kids’ sled we have been raffling. Also Shin pond is offering a Huge prize getaway!!! Check out our webpage. All clubs should take advantage of selling these raffle tickets, If you need more tickets let me know I’ll get them to you. Have you heard about the MSA Snowmobile show? Well it has a new name and new vendors too MSA Snowmobile and Powersports Show. Boats, Tractor’s, ATV’s and more this year Augusta Civic center. There is so much going on with our sport I’m proud to be a part of this great organization. Read all the articles in the paper and check out our website. MAINE has the best snowmobiling in the EAST Coast.! Dave PS: check out the new trail app that you can download to your phone (Coming soon)

knocked out for a few seconds. Guess I need to lose weight! The deck is only a few years old. I’ll blame it on recycled wood! How about heat stroke on this record-break ing string of hot weather. At the Somerset Mill where I worked, they always told us to drink lots of water and watch out for the heat affecting you and your coworkers. Look for symptoms like slurred speech headache, dehy dration, excess sweating, and muscle spasms. When you’re exposed to high temperatures like we’ve had you can get very ill in a hurry. If not treated quickly you could develop brain, heart and other internal damage. At the mill, we had electrolytes to add to our water, which helped a lot. This is something you can get online. My legs went out from under me while working outside. Then it turned into a throb bing migraine headache. Drink lots of fluids to stay hydrated. Take a break too. So, our season is coming up trail work has begun already. Be careful out there watch out

for tripping hazards. Be aware of your sur roundings wear your PPE. Earplugs, safety glasses good boots gloves be careful running anything with a motor. When lifting equip ment make sure you block it up don’t trust your overhead winch or a jack. Here’s another mishap from me this sum mer. I learned to make sure my trailers lug nuts are checked for tightness and torqued on every trip! Thank goodness, I have a great friend like Barry Ryan; he bailed me out on a busy I95. The folks from the Glenburn Snowmobile Club went above and beyond fixing my trailer. New lug studs and lug nuts love those guys! This is how fast your day, or night can turn into a bad one. Please take the time to check your equipment. Because its equipment! Acci dents happen and lives change forever. Be safe out there! AL As I mentioned in my last article of the 24-25 season, the MSA has been working to develop a new trail APP. I have been coordinating all sum mer with our vendor, Mapgears, to get the new digital platform off the ground. There is a small group within MSA leadership that has been Beta testing the APP and backend platform. There is still much to do, but my vison is to roll out the new APP at our October Powersports show in Augusta. I am looking for assistance in keeping the APP accurate and useful. If you have inter est in joining us to update regional or local trail information, please contact me. You must have reasonable technical ability with computers, cell phone APPs , and GPS units. We already have the ITS and Connector trails loaded in but over this next season we would like to add more and more affiliated club trails . We also will be add ing points of interest ( POI’s) for basics like fuel, food, lodging ,clubhouses, and Life Flight land ing zones. The POI’s will also afford opportuni ties for clubs to create revenue through advertis ing that will display more detailed information like names, pictures, websites etc. More details forthcoming at the Show in October. As usual, the Trails Committee will be hosting a trails workshop at the Snowmobile and Pow ersports Show in Augusta on Saturday October 18 th . Signage workshop starts at 9:30AM , guest speaker at 10:30 AM , and grant workshop with Joe Higgins at 11:00 AM. All for now-- Start thinking SNOW !! BRENT long way. Here in The County as we wait for the local farmers to begin digging their crops and fall high school sports seasons get under way what better time to start thinking about get ting our machines out and getting them serviced and ready to ride once the snow hits the ground. If you’re looking to scratch that riding itch or if your craving the smell of that 2 stroke smoke in just a few short weeks the Ashland and Portage clubs will be hosting their annual Big Woods Grass Drags on Sept. 13th & 14th in Ashland. Check out the Big Woods Grass Drags Facebook page for more details. This upcoming season there is going to be a trail reroute for one of the most sought after riding destinations here in Central Aroostook. Limestone SnowHawks are in the process of building a new trail to the Arch Hanger at Lor ing Airforce Base. There is an aviation com pany that has recently purchased both the Arch Hanger and the D.C. Hanger and the public will no longer be able to ride all the way up the flight line to the front of the hanger like in years past. Stay tuned to the Limestone’s club Facebook page for further updates on the reroute of this trail. Just a heads up if you are caught riding the flight line and riding up to the front of the hanger you will be issued a summons for tres passing. I’m making mention of this to make everyone fully aware as we don’t want to see anyone get in trouble and still want everyone to enjoy the sights of Loring. To conclude I hope everyone enjoys the last little bit of summer we have and the upcoming fall season. Remember to always ride right, ride sober and ride safe. Happy trails and I hope to see all of you out blazing down the white carpet in just a few short months. Nick

Safety Committee

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

Trails Committee Chair Report

From The Membership Corner

Brent Spaulding, MSA Trails Chairman 207-944-7762 41 Madison Ave Brewer ME 04412 msatrailchair@gmail.com G reetings from Brewer, Summer has flown by. Cool temps and shorter daylight hours will soon be upon us. The trails committee has already had some zoom meetings to prepare for the upcoming season. If you have knowledge of ITS trail changes please reach out to your local trail committee member or myself with any updates. The Trails bond grant program was rolled out this spring and the first applications will be accepted this fall. The deadline is September 26 th by 5PM.

Eileen Lafland, 207-843-7813 PO Box 733, Holden ME 04429 L.andE.lafland525476@gmail.com H ere we are beginning the 2025-26 season. Can you believe it is September already? Seems like it was just yesterday we were handing out membership awards at the annual meeting and wishing every one a good sum mer. Now it’s the beginning of fall and time to get those memberships out and sent back in. Many thanks to Liz in the office for orga nizing the club packets for this year. In one morning, Liz and myself packed membership cards in to clubs from three regions and she finished the other two regions up the next day. Many thanks to Al and Matt for packing the completed packets in to the vehicles and bringing them to Waterville. All packets were ready and waiting for people to pick them up at the August MSA Directors meeting. Re gional VPs were asked to take as many as they could to deliver in person and the others were sent in the mail. While it seems time consum ing to make hand deliveries, it puts a name with a face and allows everyone a chance to

Northern Region VP

Coastal Region VP

Nick Morrill, 207-554-0074 406 Main Street, Stockholm ME 04783 landscaper9791@gmail.com G reetings to everyone from the northern part of the great state of Maine. As I sit and write this article, day and night time temps are slowly starting to change now that Mother Nature is done having her hot flashes. While some of us are still praying and doing rain dances for some much needed rain throughout the state, clubs in this area have been busy par ticipating in community events, holding events themselves, doing preseason trail work, pre paring trail signage and building new groomer barns. Most if not all of this work is being done by volunteers and club members which most if not all clubs are in need of. Some clubs are also thinking ahead and have put out the call looking for volunteer groomer operators for the upcom ing season. We all know that these trails that we love and enjoy don’t build themselves so if you’re a snowmobile owner and register a sled to ride the local trails please consider joining your local club or many clubs throughout the area and state. Every little bit helps and goes a

David Watson • 207-205-1558 412 Roberts Ridge Road East Waterboro, ME 04030 Dwatson6841@gmail.com

G reetings to all! I’m back, Once again I have stepped into the Coastal VP position, Matt Baron is dealing with some health issues and please send him prayers and hope he gets better soon. There is a lot of new stuff going on this year Let’s start with online raffle ticket sales, now you can buy a book of raffle tickets online. So we need to

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