Sno-devils Snowmobile Club
St. Albans, Maine
www.snodevils.net

Hello All!

Global warming... I think that I'm on the fence on this one. As I sit here and type the great white stuff is falling fast and furious. This will be our second storm of the month and it looks like before it is done we have more than we did all of last winter. Harvey and Adam have started taking care of some of the trail work, but with just the two of them it is going slow. I know that there have been a few non-members out there trying to help as well and that is greatly appreciated.

From here on I will probably do some rambling!

The club is under funded and is lacking active members. We will try to do as much as possible, but eventually the money will run out. As you all know, gas prices are atrocious and if we have a major breakdown we will be done. Last year we received our grant money and for reasons that are not clear, it was $600.00 short. We received $2700.00 and of that we paid $1200.00 for insurance. There was some discussion about going to liability only for insurance, but that would put us below the minimum premium. Ahhh, we can't win. We don't have the luxury of shopping around for less expensive insurance because it doesn't exist and from what I've been hearing we are lucky to find anyone who will cover a snowmobile club at all.

We will not start grooming until the first of the year in an effort to stretch the money a bit longer into the season and we are unsure who will be doing all of the grooming; Harvey will be away serving his country for some time and Adam works all week and half of the weekend. If anyone has any interest in learning to run the groomer that would be great. Please keep in mind that we will be doing everything that we can to provide decent trails. It's not necessary to call and complain about the trails; we are aware when they haven't been groomed in some time.

The club house will probably be open; however, not every Saturday and Sunday unless we can get some volunteers up there. I am working a full-time job, a part-time job and I am a full-time student as well. Besides those obligations I have a family and I happen to like to ice fish and ride snowmobile. I don't believe it's fair to expect three or four people to provide all of the work and not be able to enjoy the reward and to complain about the work that is being done is in my opinion a waste of breath. The complaints will definitely fall on deaf ears. If there are people out there who don't like the way things are being done then they need to step up and be a part of the solution. Please don't call my house and leave an anonymous message about the trails. First, for those who have called my house, you should know that it's not anonymous, I know who you are, and second, the lack of gratitude and help does not motivate me.

Currently we do not have enough people coming to meetings to actually have a meeting. It only requires five. Harvey knew that he was going to be away most of the winter and did not want to continue as President, but there is no one else. This year we have decided not to just walk away and leave it, but next year might be a different story. I know first hand how busy everyone is and I know that this problem has become very common in volunteer organizations, but if people want to continue to enjoy the benefits of these organizations they are going to have to pitch in and help.

I was never involved in a snowmobile club back in the days when there were seventy active members and everyone did things together and had a good time. I'm not sure how to get that back; club rides, suppers, and a sense of community. I think for some the meetings became too political or there was too much arguing. It's certainly not like that now; it would be nice to have enough people there to have an argument! This type of organization needs a large variety of people. It can't just be this small group of people or one family. There are many decisions to be made and they should not be made by a few people; there should be a large variety of community members involved and making the decisions. This snowmobile club was not created to belong to a small group or a family. It's not mine or Adam's or Harvey's; it belongs to all of the members and the community. I can see with the lack of volunteers how it can revolve around one family or one group of friends. You are out there trying to do the best you can, but when you can't get anyone to help who do you turn to? Your closest friends and family. Those are the only people that you can count on and after awhile even they will say, "Enough"!

Many people have put a lot of time into this snowmobile club and like many other clubs I don't think that the average age of an active member should be 60 to 70 years old. They have done their time; let them come in and enjoy the atmosphere, but let them retire from trail work if they want to! I know that in the last thirty years our lifestyles and priorities have changed; we are all busy, but people still want groomed trails. A few years ago one of our members was out brushing a trail by himself. He had this large pile of brush in the trail and someone pulled up on a brand new snowmobile. The person on the snowmobile sat there waiting for the member to move the brush out of the trail. When the member didn't move it, the person did not get off his sled to help; instead he drove his band new sled over this huge pile of brush. For some reason this person believed that he was entitled to a brushed, groomed trail, why?? We are not in Canada where the government pays for trail maintenance and a person is not required to join a club or purchase a permit to ride. We live in small towns where the snowmobile clubs are being run by few volunteers and getting by on a shoestring.

At this point I am unsure if we are going to be able to use the trail that has been closed on the mountain. Unless the large sand piles have been moved, we won't be able to groom it anyway. Adam and Harvey are trying to take care of any landowner issues that have cropped up over the summer. There have been some changes and it's important to respect them. Please don't use trails that are no longer marked. They will be trying to get everything brushed as soon as possible, but with the holidays coming time is short. It may be something that has to be done when they groom the first time.

The MSA has gone up to $12.00 for the price of a family membership. Who can blame them with fuel prices driving the price of everything else up? Unfortunately, we cannot increase the price of our membership because we cannot have a meeting and with Harvey leaving in January this will become more difficult. Imagine for a minute trying to run a business and not being able to make any decisions? For the club, this means that the membership price will stay at $20.00 for a family and we will only be keeping $8.00 per membership. We are averaging 20-30 members per year; I hope that with all of the snow that is falling more people will join the club this year. I will try to get the website updated before the first of the year with the club news and the kitchen hours. I have a week’s vacation coming that I have to use and that will give me the opportunity to do that. The web address is www.snodevils.net and our email address is sno_devils@tds.net. If you have any ideas or questions please feel free to contact us or join us at a meeting. Meetings are held on the first and third Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m. You may also contact Adam or me 938-4898.

I guess that I have chewed you ear off (so to speak) long enough. I hope to see many faces at our future meetings and many membership cards in the mailbox. Before I do sign off I would like to thank our landowners for their generosity and for working with us.

Until next time!

Lori Hughes
Club Reporter