September 2014 Alliance Minutes

The Sept 23, 2014 meeting was called to order by President Jim Kumbier at 7:33 PM at Oshkosh Lanes.   The March 2014  minutes were read and accepted.

Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer’s report was read and accepted with the following balances. 

Checking                                            $    5,140.77

Savings Account                               $    7,342.26

Certificate CD                                    $ 10,750.12

Passbook Savings                             $          25.15

Total                                                    $ 23,258.30

Directors Report

Mike Giese reported on ACT 142 which will now be known as the WI Trail Pass Law.  Information about this new law can be viewed on the AWSC website.  There is still a lot of work to be done by both the DNR and the AWSC to prepare for implementation by July 1,2015. 

Mike talked about some insurance changes this year.  If your club previously had a $2 million policy you had a claim limit for one occurrence with a maximum $2 million payout.  This year’s policy now has two $1 million claim limits to allow for payouts on up to two occurrences.  Please verify your clubs actual coverage with your insurer.

Trail and Grooming Report

The first supplemental funding check was received by the Parks dept on 9/22/14 for 50% of the total billing.  Jim forgot to bring the Funded trail and grooming packets to the meeting and promised to get them mailed out. 

 Jim also mentioned that Rob Way was working on getting the county to do some brushing along the Wiouwash trail, but it would have to wait until the equipment was available for usage. 

Old Business

Web Site:  Jason reported that he has made updates to the website for all the club meetings for the 2014-2015 season.  Please review the calendar on the website and let Jason know if any updates are required.  Jason also mentioned that the website developer needed to make a few updates to the site that should happen before the snow starts falling.

Mike Thoma and the map committee need help selling the remainder of the ads for the 2014-2016 maps we  plan to get printed yet this fall.  All map ad money needs to be collected prior to the October 28^th meeting.

Bartending was done again this year at the Winnebago County Fair.  A special thanks goes out to Scott and Terry Johnson, Jim Kumbier, Debbie Beyer and Gale Haag for their support.

New Business

There will be an AWSC workshop in Wisconsin Dells from 10/31-11/02 at the Chula Vista casino.  Early registration ends on Oct 17^th.   There will be special sessions held on Saturday to discuss details of the new trail pass law and how it will impact your club and club membership.

Jim mentioned that the DNR was sending out requests to do a formal bridge inventory for all the snowmobile trails.

Grooming Cap discussion.  $220/mile

Discussions regarding setting a payment cap for grooming and disking during the snowmobile season were discussed in great length at the meeting.  The general premise of the discussion was meant to make sure that every club had equal access to the $250/mile of funding provided by the state.  Under today’s current system, whoever submits their bills first, gets paid first.  Under this system, it is possible that some clubs could get more than $250/mile and that clubs who submit their bills later may have to wait until  supplemental funds are distributed to get paid.  Please note that supplemental funds rarely cover the full amount of the bill and usually only pay out a partial percentage that ranges from 50% to 75% of the submitted bill.

The Alliance has had a motion in place for a few years now that guarantees up to $30/mile to be paid out for trail signing and brushing.  This was done to ensure that every club got access to some of the trail funds, but also prioritized up to $220 per mile to cover disking and grooming expenses.

There was a motion on the floor for a while that suggested that the parks department would stop payments during the winter season once any grooming club submitted grooming and disking bills that totaled $220/mile for the amount of trail that they were responsible to manage under the grooming contracts.

This motion got stalled out when discussions centered around where the sign money was coming from.  There were debates that you can’t guarantee $30/mile for marking and $220/mile for grooming and still pay for signs.  Ultimately, a motion was made by Mike  Thoma and seconded by Chris Bielak to table the motion until the October meeting.

Please plan to attend the next Alliance meeting to get this motion passed in an acceptable format that everyone can agree upon.  It is likely that a new proposal will be made to stop payments at $210/mile for grooming and disking.  Then the $30/mile for marking is protected.  Please note, once the season is over, each club would then get paid up to their total of $250/mile and any remaining funds would be split by an even percentage before going into supplemental.

8:55 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, Berlin River Riders, Eureka, Poyganaires, Cruising Paths