Hello members, I’m writing this to you on the 22nd day in a row of our trails being open. What a great season and more days coming for us to enjoy. 12 sleds drove to our meeting which was one to remember. Many of these sleds from a good distance away.
A lot of good and constructive conversations took place on a number of topics.
Our meeting was opened at 11am and the minutes were read and approved from January’s meeting. Today we have 397 members which is a good number above our total of 337 last year. We’re hoping to break 400. NYSSA says that so far this season 10,000 more sleds have been registered than last year. This helps us for our trail funding.
Speaking of funds Treasurer Gail explained her report and answered any questions.
Brian Bartron mentioned we have over 940 tickets sold for our February Daily Drawing. In fact this is the most ever sold. Thank you Brian and all club members who have helped this raffle be so successful. It has been very trying to hold fundraisers for the past 12 months. Our fundraisers are a big key in paying our fuel bills and groomer repairs.
With this being a very good season we will spend more money on fuel and groomer repairs. The BR 160 recently had a couple of idler wheels fail which threw a track off. This machine had to be trucked back to the groomer barn and is awaiting the rest of the parts to be repaired. Parts on our older groomers such as this one and our BR 180 are becoming more difficult to find as the manufacturers no longer support machines nearly 30 years old. As long as these groomers are viable we will endeavor to keep them working for us.
We have been doing bridge repairs where needed and we bought a couple of trailer frames to use for bridges. Steel girders are a better frame to start building a bridge with. As always we strive for safe trails so if you see a condition please report it to a club member. We strive to be very responsive in keeping our sport as safe as possible. Remember most accidents are a result of speed so know your surroundings and conditions.
We also spent some time discussing a future vision for our club and the possibility of owning property and building a bigger groomer facility. We will investigate zoning requirements and other issues to discuss at the next meeting in March. Speaking of next meetings we will be at the Attica Hotel Sunday 11am March 7th to make it easier for members on that side of the county to attend.
Thank you to our groomer operators, repair crews and Trail Coordinator Steve Cox for working whatever hours it takes to keep our equipment operating and trails in the best condition. We have a narrow window of opportunity in our winters to take advantage of good snow. We appreciate all that our members do.
Ride safe…stay on the trails and join where you ride.
Chance Vogt President OVSA
