Looking back...
By now you've seen (I hope) Dave's Land Use Blog referencing the closures in CT, the DEC changes in the wind in NY, and the MA legislation. REMEMBER TO WRITE IN AND THEN CALL ABOUT THE ISSUES THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO US! We constantly ask ourselves "How do the greenies get us everytime?". It's obvious; they get mad, get organized, and ACT!!! We're getting outgunned on the front. When we let alerts slip through our emails or ignore the issues, we're getting outflanked from the sides. And when we fail to act at all until it's too late, we getting hit from behind. How can we hope to achieve our goals if we don't ACT? We can't.
Ever see "Bug's Life"? One ant gets his tail kicked...until the rest actually step up.
Find out who YOU should write to at http://www.votesmart.org/
Here in the present...
The July newsletter is available for download now at http://www.ec4wda.org/regiond/doc/july08_trailregister.pdf . As mentioned at the Region meeting in June, the hardcopy prints will be mailed out the club presidents should they request them, so contact me if you'd like them sent for your members.
The Trailfest registration is now available at http://www.ec4wda.org/regiond/TF08/TF08_reg.pdf. Understanding that we're in a time of belt-tightening, Trailfest is still an enormous value. Trails, t-shirts, a full dinner banquet, dash plaque, and a raffle to name a few. Please help support your entire Region by attending the re-birth of our premier event here. Check out the newsletter for a chance to win free tickets!
On to the future...
EC4WDA-North East (D) will be undergoing an organizational change sometime this year. The premise is simple; get more out of the members based on their interests and abilities while streamlining many of the facets of our Land Use "branch". Instead of burdening an already taxed member base, I'm hoping to spread the workload over a greater area.
As it works now, each club should have a Land Use representative that organizes with other clubs within our region via the State Land Use Chair. Each state has an individual State Land Use Chairman that reports to Dave Brill, our Region Land Use Chair. The Land Use reps oversee (or should at least) the issues that deal with their respective state, be it trail research, documenting, scouting, closures, trail maintenance, etc., getting their information directly from each club. That's alot of information for one guy to coordinate! Then by the time it gets up to the Region, there's alot of stuff to do. The less that gets done at the "ground level", the more that NEEDS to get done further up the ladder. Obviously, there'll be some stuff that gets lost in the shuffle or prioritized off the list, especially as our personal lives necessitate.
Now, what our proposal seeks to do is split these responsibilities to the members with the best resources (time, computer, vehicle, etc) to handle them.
Each club should still have their own Land Use representative, dealing at the ground level with local trails, trail issues, and (lest we forget) obtaining land. At the State level, the Land Use Chairman (LU) will now focus on political action items pertinent to our sport, as well as the research and documentation of new and existing trails within their state. Eventually I'd like to see trail "histories" available showing what we've done for each road and trail, including cleanups and research, legality and surveys. Action Alerts are another important item the State Land Use Chair should focus on, sending these to Dave AND up to the Sema Action Network and BRC. This will be a great fit for someone with good computer skills, a desire to sit in front of it, and interested in the political stuff.
The second part of the split will be the State Trails Coordinator (TC). I'd like to see this person coordinating our trail cuts, scouting, and trail maintenance amongst our clubs...the "Field Team" part of Land Use. Having a vehicle is a plus!
We'll still be sending our stuff up to the Region LU Chair, but I hope this decreases the amount of responsibility on each member's backs as it is now. Plus we'll have some cool new titles to hand out!
I've no idea on the date we'll implement this as there are a few tweaks to make.
Also, we're toying with the idea of having a Region multi-day meeting one weekend a year, incorporating a trail ride for participating delegates.
Starting at the last meeting, the North East Region has begun a "Door Prize" incentive program for delegates; we gave away a $50 check just for attending!
Finally, CHECK THE SCHEDULE OFTEN!
