Winnebago County Snowmobile Alliance Meeting Minutes
November 2013 Alliance Minutes
The Nov 26, 2013 meeting was called to order by President Jim Kumbier at 7:43 PM at Oshkosh Lanes. The October minutes were read and accepted.

Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer’s report was read and accepted with the following balances.
The WCSA received a check for $732.50 from the County Fair bartending. A special thanks goes out to everyone who helped with this annual fundraiser.

Checking $ 4,423.32
Savings Account $ 7,336.79
Certificate CD $ 10,736.73
Passbook Savings $ 25.15
Total $ 22,521.99

Directors Report
Mike Giese reported that the new head of the DNR spoke at the director’s meeting. She is trying to change the face of the DNR as a more cooperative group and took a lot of heat regarding the DNR’s ideas for a Holiday deer hunt. The DNR also found an additional 26% of available funds for supplemental billing. This money will be paid out to clubs in December.

The CAP/Step bill proposal was unanimously approved by the AWSC directors. Mike Giese was also asked to testify to the Tourism council in support of the new legislation.

Mike also reported that Scenic Signs in Wausau is currently going though bankruptcy reorganization and hopes to back in operation just after Christmas. Waterstreet publishing, Renta-flash and Fast Signs are other sign manufacturers throughout the country that can be used to purchase signs.

Trail and Grooming Report
The late spring has resulted in a lot of crops still sitting in fields for harvesting. There may be some difficult areas to groom in the event that disking could not be performed before everything froze up.

Old Business
Web Site: Jason needs to get the upcoming snowmobile classes listed on the website. As of this writing that work has been completed.

Jim Kumbier attended two workshops at the annual meeting in Stevens Point: CAP/STEP and Insurance. Jim reported that it is up to clubs if they decide to list each individual landowner for a $10 charge per landowner. Each club in Winnebago county is required to list the Parks and Recs Dept as an additional insured entity. The parks department also requires that insurance certificates be provided in order to have any billing paid to them.

Jim met with Kim from the Parks Dept and provided a list of funded trail miles for every club. Clubs in the county are encouraged to submit their marking and brushing bills. Kim will pay out, up to the $30 per mile limit, to every club who submits their bills. Please submit your actual billing amounts. In the event it is a low snow year, you may be reimbursed fully at the end of the season if additional funds remain.

New Business
The Poyganaires have concerns about grooming the Winneconne and the Omro trail system. There was a detailed discussion on this topic and these trails will need to be groomed by someone or the county will not receive their funding. The Sno-Pioneers and the Wolff’s Pack both said they would work together to make sure that these trails do get groomed this winter. Jim Kumbier still plans to have additional discussions with the Poyganaires to better understand their concerns.

Jim reported on how funding for the county works and how bills are processed by the Parks Department. Kim from the Parks Dept receives a bill and reviews it for accuracy, she then sends it to County Finance who submits the check within a couple of weeks.

There is a new snowmobile club in Borth that did a great job grooming their non funded trail in Waushara county last season.

We received a thank you letter from the Lake States Alliance for joining their organization.

Map Committee
We are already starting to prepare for the 2014-2015 new trail map that we plan to produce for Winnebago County. The map committee chair: Mike Thoma made a proposal to adjust the ad pricing for next season. Please see the adjustments that Mike would like to consider.

Current Ad Price                                     Proposed Ad Price
$50 New Ad (Single)                             $75 New Ad (Single)
$100 New Ad (Double)                       $125 New Ad (Double)
$40 Renewal Ad (Single)                     $60 Renewal Ad (Single)
$50 Renewal with changes                   $75 Renewal Ad with changes (single)
$100 Renewal with changes              $125 Renewal Ad with changes (double)
$35 Additional Charge for a Color Ad

Our local businesses get a lot of added business from the snowmobile trails and can afford to pay additional funds.  Also, if we can put more double ads on the map we will have less people to chase down for billing every time a new map is produced. We will be looking for people to volunteer to join the map committee and solicit new ads for next year’s map. Please plan to attend our next Alliance meeting on December 17th to vote on this topic.

8:48 PM, motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded – unanimously approved.

Clubs Attending: Sno-Scats, Wolff’s Pack, Wolfrunners, Omro Driftbusters, Sno-Pioneers, Drifters, Waukau Drift Skippers

Respectfully submitted,

Jason Ollanketo