February 2023 Meeting Minutes

Snowy Range Snowmobile Club

6:00 PM at 3C Guiding shop

Membership Update: 

72 total members as of 2/21/23. 28 single memberships, 26 families, 8 associate businesses, 10 premium businesses. 

Beacon Check Stations:

All beacon check signs are in. Let us know if you notice any of them not working or needing attention. 

The Lake Marie beacon checkpoint needs raised up after these heavier storms. The snow level is rising up on it, will be buried if not addressed.

Safety shelters:

State Trails moved the Quealy safety shelter to try to level it out and raise it as the snowpack gets deeper. Keep stocking with firewood if you drop by. Shoot us a message if they need fire starter or matches.

Does anyone know how we’re doing on fire starter at Nelson Safety Shelter? Zach dropped a bunch of stuff off there after the previous club meeting (thanks!).

Business Matter:

We do not have a valid tax ID for the club. Paypal is now withholding 24% of all funds that come to us as income tax backup withholding. We need to re-establish our non-profit status for this to be resolved. Currently, $300 is being held and will ultimately be sent to the IRS.

At the federal level we need to be a non-profit organization to avoid having dues paid through online services like Paypal or Venmo sent in as income tax. 

Sunny said she can work on this.

Spring BBQ: Lake Marie BBQ on April 1st, 2023. Come out, eat food and ride sleds. Planning this will ensure it DUMPS snow!

WSSA Update: 

-Fun days is coming up! First weekend in March.

-Can join most clubs in the state through the new WSSA website.

-They’re working on a change to the ROP’s & Bylaws to allow people to join multiple clubs in the state with only paying the WSSA fee once.

-Everyone that’s a paid/current member, let us know if you’re not receiving the WSSA Wrangler in the mail. 

-Scholarship fund with WSSA, what should we donate? 75% goes to scholarship, 25% goes to the ACCESS Program. Last year we donated $1000. 

-WSSA website has links to State Trails maps. 

Treasurer Update: 

$10450.23 in checking. 

$500 each to be donated to Albany County SAR and Carbon County SAR.

We should be mindful of the costs associated with another safety shelter on the Range and keep some funds reserved.

USFS Liaison Update: 

State Trails is grooming 1000 miles total per week in the Snowies. Actively working with the Brush Creek Ranger District to get a permanent safety shelter at Quealy and then open up the existing mobile shelter to move elsewhere on the mountain (Lake Marie, possibly). 

All the “ologists” at USFS are staffed, so USFS can move forward on the parking lot evaluation. There’s a gravel pit with an active permit in the proposed lot location through summer 2023. Once that’s wrapped up, can move forward. The trail to link the new lot will be planned in cooperation with the SE WY Outdoor Recreation Collaborative.Proximity to Little Laramie trail system is considered. The Snowmobile lot going in, may motivate the plowing of the Little Laramie trailhead lot, as the plan is to have the new lot be only for OSV users. Currently, non motorized recreationists are parking along the highway across from the Little Laramie lot, not much room there. State Trails may be willing to get that plowed, to keep access available to all & keep non-sledders in their own parking area to minimize potential for user conflicts.

USFS & UWyo are doing some parking surveys on both sides of the Range to get area use numbers. So if you see some college kids at Greenrock taking notes feel free to chat with them. 

The lower lot across the street from the USFS visitor center on WY-130 is still being considered. This would be a great thing for Centennial businesses as people could sled right into town. The SE WY Outdoor Recreation Collaborative will have input on this. There are some concerns about snow cover in this area.

Assorted:

There’s a guy in Centennial that is continuing to film people as they drive through town. While this is odd, please remember to drive safely through town and obey the speed limit. Occasionally WY Highway Patrol will have a speed trap setup. 

Discussions between our club members and riders on the mountain indicated there’s positive feedback about an additional safety shelter and an actual parking lot. Some of these people follow us on Facebook, but had no idea there was an actual snowmobile Club with dues to pay that is working to make those things happen. Cameron will work on a quick PSA for our Facebook audience to clarify the situation.

SRSC coozie’s could be some good marketing. Can send them to members and hand them out at Snow Shows (Denver, Hay Days). They’re less than $1 each if we order over 100 at a time. Mitch will send Cory our logo and Cory will work on this.

January 2023 Snowy Range Snowmobile Club Meeting Minutes

January 19th, 2023. 6:00 PM MST.

Location: 3C Guiding shop

Minutes recorded by secretary: Mitch Helling

Treasurer: Sunny Madden

President: Cameron Chimenti

Vice President: Justin Madden

USFS Liason: Matt Burkhart

Business Liason: Keith Tupper

Social Media Director: Heather Tupper

Attendance: 13 people in person, a few online. Thanks for coming out!

Membership Update: 22 single members, 24 family members, 7 premium business members, 7 associate business members for a total of 59 as of January 19th, 2023. 

Treasurer Update: $9207.60 in checking, $704.74 inbound from Paypal (paid membership dues), and outstanding check for WSSA dues of $1200. For a net total of $9212.34 assets.

WSSA Awards: We’ll donate the awards money to the ACCESS program to support public access.

State Trails Update: 

Grooming has been ongoing, along with safety shelters in place. 

The State’s snow cats have new GPS trackers on them, and State Trails has had issues linking them to their website, so current grooming status that we’ve had in years passed was not operational until recently. Josh Millek told us they’re working on fixing this earlier this season, and it now appears to be working: https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/home-trails 

Safety Shelters: 

Safety shelters need more fire starter. Nelson specifically. Cameron has some at the shop, Zach said he’ll bring it up this weekend. 

Josh & Forrest are talking with the USFS Brush Creek Ranger District about getting a safety shelter at Lake Marie. Reefer trailer would be sensible, since we can fill part of it with firewood offsite, and it’s on the highway (easy to tow). We would need to coordinate with WY-DOT on the timing of pulling a trailer like this in place just before the road shuts down. If USFS won’t go for a reefer, could do one like the Nelson & Quealy on a skid. The Club would need to provide the skid frame & framing (either pay to have it built or build it ourselves–we have several fabricators in the group). One complication with this option is that we can’t cut firewood on-site, since WY-130 is a scenic byway and that means firewood must be cut 300’ or farther away. Not a huge deal, a few pickup loads will do it. 

Keith brought up the idea to add a hut in the Sierra’s. Something to bring to State Trails attention. With no club over there, we’d likely need to step up to maintain it.

Updated vinyl (with current business memberships) for inside the safety shelters is in progress. Hasn’t been printed yet, Cameron will check on this and ensure it happens.

Label the donation boxes inside the huts as donation boxes. Sharpie would work to label for now. 

Beacon Check Signs: 

Chains End, Albany, and Lake Marie signs are up. Mitch will take Greenrock sign up Friday or Saturday morning.

WSSA Update: 

Fun Days is March 3rd, 2023 in Alpine, WY. All the hotel rooms are booked out. 

WSSA Scholarships are due February 1st to Shannon Glandt. https://snowmobilewyoming.org/scholorship/

WSSA website now provides a central place to join all the state clubs: https://snowmobilewyoming.org/join/ 

Still looking for a secretary + treasurer to take over. Pays $500/month year round if you’re approved & hired on. If interested, reach out to Sunny Madden: wssasunny@gmail.com    

Miscellaneous: 

Black 2004 Skidoo Rev broke down December 11th near NO trail. Owner attempted to retrieve the machine but it was gone (or buried?). They probed the spot it was left but were unable to locate it. Anyone know anything? No one had any intel at the meeting, group figured it’s buried. Cameron said there’s approximately 6’ on the mountain on average and that it would be very tough to find a buried sled.

WY-DOT camera at Green Rock is currently not working. 

Parking Lot: State Trails has been working with the Denver (Region 2) Recreation folks for a parking lot, trying to go over the Laramie District since we’ve tried that angle for 20+ years and gotten effectively no where. We may consider reaching out to state legislature, let them know USFS is stonewalling us on an issue rooted in supporting the local economy & recreation. 

Facebook: 

Advertisements on the club’s group page from businesses will be deleted if they are made by non member businesses. This is only fair to the businesses that are active, paying members.

We have 7400+ followers of our Facebook page, with 5500+ of them “members” of our Facebook group. Cameron’s going to make a quick video to inform the group that being a member of our Facebook group doesn’t constitute actual membership of the club. Joining the club & paying dues constitutes club membership, and this is what matters from an organizational perspective for things like working towards having a parking lot put in & interacting with governmental entities like USFS. If even 1% of the Facebook group members actually joined, we would double our actual club membership!

Next Meeting: 

Thursday, February 16th, 2023 at 6:00 PM MST. The plan is to be in the 3C Guiding shop again, and online via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84967175275

I’ll email out a reminder the week of. This event is also posted on our Facebook page.

December 2022 Meeting Minutes

Both safety shelters are in. Quealy has a donation box mounted. Striker plate was loose (door was stripped). Keith got some bigger screws and got it secured. Members Kevin & Mitch stocked Quealy with firewood (12/15/22) with help of 3 riders from Cheyenne. The locked Job Box in there is low on fire starter and matches (for replenishing the ammo can).

We need to get the beacon check signs out at Albany and Greenrock. The Chains End sign is up, as is the one at the base of Lake Marie. The business names on them are outdated: Cameron will work with the vinyl shop to create updated banners with the current partnerships named. 

Safety Shelter at Lake Marie would be great. Permanent one at Quealy would be great too, but maybe a third portable one would be more feasible. Upkeep could be an issue for a permanent structure. Justin will touch base with Forrest (at State Trails). One idea for a relatively cheap/simple portable safety shelter for Lake Marie location is a reefer trailer. State Trails is not confident that USFS would go for us putting a reefer trailer at Lake Marie. This should be discussed with WY-DOT as they’re another interested party (with respect to opening the highway in the spring). 

Note there’s no where in Centennial that sells trail stickers. Make sure to grab your permits in Laramie or Albany before heading up. 

State Trails has all the trails marked and has been grooming. It’s been thin, creating some challenges for trails (especially leaving Greenrock on U trail and going around Brown’s Peak on O Trail), but this recent storm cycle has helped with coverage. Note that State Trails put new GPS devices on their Snow Cats this year, and they’re having issues linking them to their website that shows grooming status. They’re working on it. 

Treasurer’s Update: $10985 in checking. Cameron (president) is correcting our account at the bank to make Sunny Madden the treasurer. Sunny hasn’t been elected but will serve in this role until we hold elections again. Big thanks to Sunny for doing this!

WSSA is looking for a secretary & treasurer (1 role), and a VP. The secretary/treasurer position is paid, $500/month. Sunny is hoping to transition out of that role by Fun Days 2024. 

WSSA Scholarships due Feb. 1st to Shannon Glandt at WSSA. Emails sent out previously (10/26/22). Reach out if you need it again or didn’t receive the information. This is for active club members or their dependents, for attending higher education. 

Fun Days first weekend in March, 3rd-5th. Top or the Rockies club is hosting in Alpine. Can register online on that club’s site (https://ridealpine.com/). There’s also a link off the WSSA site. Meet & greet Friday night, rides Saturday (along with XC skiing & an art thing). Rev it Up Girls are hosting a ladies ride Friday. Saturday night is the banquet. Sunday is the WSSA business meeting. 

Sunny updated the WSSA website so you can join most of the clubs in the state through the WSSA website. One current issue with this is if you join a bunch of clubs you’ll pay the WSSA fee each time. They’re working on fixing that so a person can pay the state-level fee once, and then pay only the club portion of the membership fee to join additional clubs. 

Charity reports: track charitable hours & donations. This gets sent to American Council of Snowmobilers so we know how much snowmobilers contribute to the community. Makes for great PR for the motorized/snowmobile community.

We’re thinking of doing a spring ride & bbq again this year. We’ll discuss specifics at future meetings. Usually held on a spring day, during a snowstorm(ha!).