Quad County Snowmobile Club

Quad County Snowmobile Club

Summer 2015 Newsletter

President: Mark Wolfanger (585) 728-5808

Vice President: Jerry Jackson (585) 335-7403

Treasurer: Kelly Jerome (585) 728-5808

Secretary: Sandy Riley

Trail Coordinator: Jeff Erwin (585) 734-6835

Equipment Manager: Rick Fairbrother (585) 245-2732

Quick Summary

• Greeting
• Meeting Notice
• Membership
• Trail Volunteers
• Equipment

Greeting:

I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer in-between the days of rain. Again this year the club suspended regular meetings for the summer months. To ensure business is carried on until the fall, the club officers are meeting once a month. Since the last newsletter in April, the NYSSA annual Forum & meeting was held in Rochester April 10th to the 12th. The Forum was well attended and offered many learning opportunities for all snowmobilers. Classes included grooming operations, GPS, chainsaw safety, 501c3, women in snowmobiling, OPRHP (Park’s) Year End Review and various others. In addition to the classes there were groomer displays, vendor displays and a vintage snowmobile show. On Sunday the NYSSA annual meeting was held where officers are elected and by-law changes are voted on that impact’s all NYS clubs and every NYSSA member. More details on a related topic in the Membership section of the newsletter. If you have never attended a forum you might consider attending one in the future to learn more about the sport of organized snowmobiling in our state. For the next 2 years the Forum will once again be located in Lake Placid, a great scenic destination and a welcoming winter sports community.

April and May is also a busy administrative time of year for all clubs. The previous seasons grant paperwork, work rosters and grooming hours have to be tallied, accounted for and submitted for OPRHP trail grant reimbursement. As soon as that paperwork is done, Phase I for this next season has to be entered, all with a due date to Park’s of June 1st. Phase 1 includes applying for new trails, reroutes and mileage corrections. This year we have applied for a reroute of C3 and for one new trail extension. Hopefully we will know the status of these requests before the deadline for Phase 2 on September 1. We will update you on any developments with regards to these items in the next newsletter.

If you have been checking your mail box, DVM sent out this coming season’s registration renewals.

Meeting Notice:

Our next regular meeting is scheduled for Thursday September 10th. Meetings areheld on the second Thursday of the month and commence at 7:30PM, exceptions will be posted. Meetings are generally held in the upstairs conference room of the Mt. View Inn in Atlanta, but occasionally we have been back in the main downstairs’ dinningroom. The full meeting schedule can be found on our website. I look forward to seeing membersand guests at the September meeting.

Membership:

An important piece of news to relay on to our membership which was voted on and approved during the NYSSA Annual meeting, back in April. Club dues will be increasing $5 for all clubs. Out of this $5 increase, local clubs will keep the additional $4 to help offset increasing operational expenses that have occurred over the past decade and the remaining $1 will go to the newly formed SLEDNY which is the Educational 501c3 entity of NYSSA. SLEDNY is tax exempt and will fund certain educational programs, materials & events that are beneficial to snowmobiling all across New York including the entity that hosts our Forum. Our new membership application for Season 2015-2016 has been posted on our website with the new fee schedule. Single membership is now $30 and family is $40.

As always, we encourage all club members to renew their membership early so you have your NYSSA voucher when you are ready to register your snowmobile. If you know your NYSSA User Id & password, you can also renew your club membership via the on-line system (which about 50% of our members do) instead of mailing the paper application into the club’s PO box. Instructions on how to log into the NYSSA website are included in this email and will be posted on the club’s website for future reference. You may ask why should I register early? One reason is that the registration money is what funds the trail grant programwhich in turn funds trail projects, maintenance and grooming. Registrations that are processed prior to November 1st are added to the fund for this year’s grantwhich helps every funded club operate going forward into the new season. Another reason to join early is so when the snow is on the ground and you want to ride, you already have your NYSSA discount voucher and avoid delays getting your discounted DMV registration processed. Club administrators are volunteers and may not be able to process your membership promptly which may lead to a delay of your snowmobile adventure. So I encourage all our members to join the club early to get your voucher and register your snowmobile(s) before November 1st.

Once your membership application is processed (via the club or on-line via the NYSSA website), you will get an email within 5 minutes that contains a link to log back into the NYSSA membership website to print your voucher at your convenience. We do not mail our vouchers to members who have supplied an email address.

Trail Volunteers:

A few years ago we organized a trail volunteer list for contacting members who may be able to help out with trail preparations. The club will keep all members on the list who have previously requested to be added to the list. We can never have too many members on the list so if you are interested in participating with trail work, please check the box on the membership renewal application and we will add you to a call list. When work details are formed this upcoming season, someone in the club may contact you to check your availability. Any and all help is appreciated and makes our pre-season activities go much quicker. It takes roughly 400 work hours in total each year to prepare the trail. Currently we have a consistent base of dedicated volunteers that number around 10, if we could double that number it would reduce everyone's time needed and result in the trail being ready for riding much quicker. There is a Y/N field on our membership application for volunteering.

Equipment:

The groomer is 2/3’s of the way through its required repairs that we wanted to implement at the end of last season. The newly recovered drive sprockets were returned to the club a few months ago and have been installed (yellow covered gears in the picture). After they were installed our volunteers could start the task of reassembling and tensioning the tracks. Just looking at the picture to the right, one might think all has been repaired and we are ready to hit the trail once the snow flies. Well there is still one item that needs to be done in the fall which is testing the hydraulic system and ensuring all is working properly. Once time allows for this activity we will determine if any additional repairs are needed and determine a path forward which will allow the Club to build upon the trail grooming success we had last year. Many of you rode the trails and commented back to various folks that the trails were in the best condition they have ever been in. This is in part to mother-nature supplying us with decent snow but mostly the hard work of our volunteer groomer operators, equipment maintenance folks and of course the groomers with their drags. We must endeavor to keep our equipment in top operating condition so we can groom the trails as weather conditions permit.

In closing, as September draws near, the club will start gearing up for trail improvement projects and installation as soon as farmers have harvested their crops. One last item that you can observe before the season, DOT installed yellow snowmobile ahead crossing signs in various locations (but not all crossings). While you’re out on the main highways keep an eye out for them and see how many you can find (between Loon Lake & Atlanta). Our first fall meeting will be September 10th at the Mt. View in Atlanta, NY, hope to see you there. As always, if you have any comments or questions feel free to contact myself or any of the club officers.

Sincerely,

Quad County Snowmobile Club

Mark Wolfanger, President