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.