OVSA membership meeting February 1, 2009
President Jeff called the meeting to order at 11:20am after fiddling around with the microphone for awhile. We do try our best to use this tool so that everyone in the room can hear what’s going on. Secretary Deb Smith read the minutes from last month’s meeting and they were approved. Treasurer Gail Lawson handed out the treasurer’s report and also mentioned that she has NYSSA raffle tickets for sale. President Jeff reported on local events coming up in the area. February 7th is the Caledonia Trailblazers function at Jones Hall from 12-4pm. February 8th is the Arcade Sled Drags on Route 98 South. February 14th is the Bliss Hotel Snow Day 12-4pm with a chicken barbeque and 50/50 to help our Club out. With the decent winter we’ve had it’s fun to get out and support other Clubs and their events. As of this newsletter writing (Feb. 6th) OVSA has 610 members. In 2008 we had 574. Thank you to all who have joined and help out in any way. In the winter we really appreciate our trail guys and groomer operators who make our trails the envy of WNY. Many riders come to this area because of our large system and how well it is kept up. We do this for safety, our own pleasure and it also brings a lot of business to our local businesses. Ask any gas station or restaurant this winter and see what they say about what the snowmobiling traffic has meant to their business. I have asked this question quite frequently this winter and received all major thumbs up responses. In a down economy it is great that we can have fun and help our local businesses too.
Trail coordinator Mike Black reported that the Railroads will prosecute anyone found using the tracks for a trail. This is extremely dangerous to say the least. Another item that shouldn’t have to be mentioned is that it is ILLEGAL to chase wildlife on a snowmobile. There was a recent incident in the Portageville area that could have closed part of the trail to us because of an irate landowner after witnessing the chasing of deer off the trail. This is just common sense everyone. Remember that our system exists totally at the whim of a couple of hundred landowners. We are also continuing to work on the Varysburg trail which should be marked this coming Monday afternoon with volunteers working with 4-H Camp manager Sean Tiede. Dave Montgomery and Gordon Brown have been working to make this happen. We will work at getting all permissions taken care of for this trail this coming summer so next winter we will be able to jump out of the gate and mark everything we need to. This trail also helps out our business friends in downtown Varysburg who have been so helpful to our Club. Perry has a rather large groomer contingent that is doing a great job. A couple of them were asked by Mike Black to come over and run the Tucker for that section of the trail so that we can spread out the workforce. OVSA trails have been great wherever I’ve ridden this winter. Mike, Tracy and Gail Lawson and President Jeff attended the western regional meeting of NYSSA at BW’s in Pavilion on January 10th. Many items were discussed and it was good to give feedback to those at the top we work with to make this sport better every year. Things just don’t seem to get easier in this world and it takes a lot of effort from a lot of people to make sure we can continue to enjoy this sport, my personal favorite.
Board member Jay Zintel is an organizer in the Pink Ribbon Ride for breast cancer in northern NY at the end of this month. We are proud to have him represent us and the board voted to give him $100 to take as a donation. It was good to see a full helmet rack at the meeting as many members rode their sleds. Now that’s the way to attend a snowmobile meeting. I know we are in the minority about our love for the kind of snow and cold weather we’ve had but that’s why we live here. Where else would we rather be?
