Winnebago County Snowmobile Alliance meeting Minutes

Feb 23, 2016 – REV’S Bowl Bar and Grill 

February 2016 Alliance Minutes
The Feb 23, 2016 meeting was called to order by President:  Dwight Mason at 7:31 PM at REV’s Bowl Bar and Grill.  The January 2016 minutes were read and accepted.

Treasurer’s Report
Please join the Winnebago County Snowmobile Alliance for a copy of the Treasurer’s Report. 

Director’s Report: 
Mike Giese reminded the Alliance of the upcoming AWSC Annual meeting that will be held at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Green Bay, WI from March 18-20.  Early bird registration is $15 until March 7^th.  After that, registration will be $25 per person.  Tickets to the evening banquet will be $32 each and must be purchased by March 7^th to attend.  Please contact the AWSC directly to register.  Visit the AWSC website for more information. 

There will also be a bus trip and a tour of Lambeau Field on Friday March 18^th.  A pre-registration fee of $25 is required by March 7^th to attend the tour.  The tour is only open to people who register for the conference.  There will be sign-ups for County Poker run buses on Friday with the bus trips to run on Saturday after the Annual meeting. 

Trail and Grooming Report
The trails were open and closed 4 times this year.  It was noted that one of the clubs in the county needs to do a better job reporting.  It was also reported that only the discing bills were paid with the first County pay check.  Marking and brushing bills will be paid out in April along with any grooming bills throughout the winter season. 

It was reported that the County Trail Map needs a correction where the trail runs to Westward Ho.  The current trail map has the trail crossing a strawberry field.  This needs to be corrected with next year’s new map printing. 

VV mapping is offering GPS units to Snowmobile clubs to put in their groomers and then mail back to the software developers to update their products.  It was also reported that sometime in the future GPS units will be utilized by the DNR to document trail grooming activity and billing. 

Old Business
Ryan Miller was at the meeting and reported that he is willing to take on more groomer work to make sure we have smooth trails when they are open.  He does not want to take any work away from other clubs and just wanted everyone to know that he is willing to do more grooming if the need presents itself.  Ryan thanked the existing clubs for the good job they did grooming this year when the trails were open. 

New Business
It was reported that Social Media has been working awesome to get trail information out to the general public.  Also, videos of trail grooming seem to be the most popular with an average of 2,000-3,000 shares on facebook. 

A member of the Hortonville Polar Bear Riders attended the meeting to ask if the Wiouwash trail could be left open from Dec 15-April 1^st for snowmobiling.  This proposition was immediately turned down.  The County Parks Department has incurred significant grading repair costs in the past when the Wiouwash trail has been open and damaged due to inadequate snow cover. 

2016-2017 Map Ad Discussion
Mike Thoma brought up next year’s new map advertising.  This fall the WCSA will be printing 2 year trail maps for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 winter seasons.   There was a great deal of discussion surrounding the map ad collection plans for this next map. 

Mike proposed that the WCSA should charge each of the individual clubs in the county $100 for their map ad.  We also typically charge $500 for the back page ad.  This money alone would cover the cost of printing the maps.  Mike also proposed that we eliminate the single map ad and charge a flat rate of $100 for double ads only.  This would result in fewer overall map ads, but would lessen the strain of the map committee trying to make multiple trips to collect map ad money from advertisers on the map.  Mike also suggested that any actual map sale money is collected and kept by the individual clubs responsible for the establishment where the maps are being sold. 

There was a lot of discussion regarding the delegation of map ad collection down to the Snowmobile clubs.  Should the WCSA charge clubs for a block of map ads up front and then allow any money the clubs collect from the map ad sale to be kept by their club, or if a map ad costs $100, should the club keep a portion of that sale ($25).  This could provide motivation to clubs to track down advertisers and lessen the overall work load on the map ad committee.  Jason Ollanketo agreed to document which clubs were responsible for which sections of trail and provide a list at the next meeting to better delegate which advertisers belong to a given clubs territory. 

This topic was tabled till the March meeting.  If you are interested in this topic please plan to attend our next meeting where we hope to make a final decision. 

Nominations for Officers – Elections Next Month
Jason Ollanketo nominated Paul Villwock to run for Secretary for next season.  President Dwight Mason and VP Mark Kopplin both agreed to run for their respective offices next year.  Teri Johnson was not in attendance to accept a nomination to run again for Treasurer. 

8:47 PM, motion to adjourn the meeting was seconded and approved.

Clubs Attending:  Sno-Pioneers, Wolfrunners, Wolff’s Pack, Omro Driftbusters, Drifters, Cruising Paths, Berlin River Riders, Waukau Driftskippers, Sno-Scats, Hortonville Polar Bear Riders

Respectfully Submitted,
Jason Ollanketo 

Location: Rev’s Bowl, Bar and Grill, 275 N Washburn St. Oshkosh, WI 54904

Next Mtg. Dates: Mar 22