Our March meeting was called to order at 11:04 and the minutes were read and approved from our February meeting. We currently have 385 members.

Treasurer Gail handed out our monthly report and stated that our 70% trail fund check had been received from NYS Parks and also our lagging 30% check from 2017 was just received this past week. Remember these are not monies “given” to us by NYS but funds routed back to us through our increased registration fees agreed upon years ago in the SSRA act. This act helped to boost membership for our clubs and create a mechanism to better fund our clubs for better equipment like groomers and wheelers. This is a big part of why we have 5 working groomers now.

Brian Bartron reported on our very successful February Daily Drawing raffle we just finished. Many thanks to Brian for organizing this and for all who sold and purchased tickets. Our two big fundraisers each year help us a great deal.

Trail Coordinator Steve said we had a pretty quiet month of February but we opened back up last week for a couple of days. Hopefully some more snow will appear and we can sled for awhile into March. We thank our groomer operators and for those who maintain and fix them. Like the track that came apart recently on the Tucker and needs reassembling.

Mike Carlson mentioned a section of the trail around East Rd. in Gainesville that might need some orange fencing to reinforce where the trail goes. Mike also picked up 2 new chainsaws for us so that each groomer has their own saw if a possible obstruction is on the trail.

Steve said that Jeff and Renee Hill donated a DeWalt 20v cordless drill to the club. Steve has been using it to build bridges with and thanked the Hill’s for providing lots of tools to assist with the building. Great members always yield great results.

Dennis Murphy and Jeremy Schroeder updated us on their Pink Ribbon Ride supporting breast cancer up in Old Forge. Dennis was the 2nd largest money raiser and this has been a cause Dennis has been a champion for. This year they rounded up 25 riders from OVSA to go to this event and participate in the ride and fundraising. Next year they are planning for more riders and to raise even more support. Thank you to everyone who supports this cause, we all know someone who has been affected by this disease.

The Folsomdale Club is having their annual dinner/dance at the Strykersville Fire Hall March 9th 4:30pm. For tickets call 716-984-4769. They are a great neighbor club and always worth supporting.

Jack Rase still has a few NYSSA raffle tickets available. They are only $5 and there are a lot of prizes drawn at the NYSSA conference.

Some important dates to put on your calendar.

May 5th Landowner Picnic Warsaw Legion. 12-2pm. Setup 9:30am August 4th Early Bird drawing for our steak/shrimp raffle August 25th meeting which is our first of the season and just before our steak/shrimp raffle to go over any last minute details.

September 7th Steak/Shrimp raffle. Our biggest fundraiser of the year. 12-4pm. Perry Firemens Park.

Thanks to all our members who make each year a success through their hard work and dedication to our sport. Our next meeting will be April 7th. See you soon.