February 5, 2016

Snowmobile North Dakota

Board of Directors Meeting

February 5, 2016

 

The Snowmobile North Dakota Board of Directors held a meeting at the Eagles Club in Valley City, North Dakota.

 

Members Present: Dale Deibert, Reily Bata, Joanne Seifert, Jeff Seifert, Joel Iverson, Laura Forbes, Jesse Fritz, Mark Forbes, Perry Brintnell, Shawn Cole, Troy Klevgard, Brent Haugen

 

Members Absent: Sheri Hoffmann-Excused

 

Others Present: Todd Thronson – Executive Director, Tari Norby – Office Manager, Erik Dietrich and Tyler Modlin – NDPRD

 

  1. Call to order at 7:04PM by President Troy Klevgard
  2. Approve Agenda – Shawn made a motion to accept the updated agenda, seconded by Laura, approved by all members present
  • Approve Minutes
    1. The minutes of the December meeting were e-mailed to all board members prior to the meeting.
    2. Dale made a motion to accept the minutes as written, seconded by Mark, approved by all members present
  1. Financial Reports
    1. The financial reports were e-mailed to all board members prior to the meeting
    2. Perry made a motion to accept the financial reports as written, seconded by Reily, approved by all members present
  2. Reports
    1. President’s Report: Troy encouraged everyone to write their articles for the SnoDak News, reported on Cass County Sherriff’s deputies patrolling on sled, and encouraged everyone to work on increasing their club’s memberships
    2. Office Report: see attached document
    3. NDPRD Report –
      1. Erik introduced Tyler Modlin the Park Manager from Fort Ransom
      2. Safety Classes have been having more kids in them since the age was decreased to 10 years.
  • Enforcement is a little slow this year, they have just done training with Cass County and some up at the Gorge
  1. Registration numbers are down but funds are about equal due to the increase in registration fees and the gas tax which provides about $75,000
  2. There has been an increase in fatality calls to the office; both of the most recent ones did not happen on the trail. They are working on education state wide to encourage safe riding at all times.
  1. Committee Reports
    1. Equipment Committee
      1. The new groomer has been delivered to Bottineau
      2. The Equipment Committee will meet right after this board meeting to discuss what to purchase with the next RTP application and which machine to trade
    2. Budget Committee – no updates
    3. Regulations Committee – no updates
    4. Awards and Nominations Committee
      1. Looking for nominations for the “of the year” awards, forms are on line
        1. Deadline is April 1st
        2. One nominee coming in for Hall of Fame
      2. There have been three applications for scholarship submitted so far
    5. Trails Operations Committee
      1. The committee reviewed the events in the Northeast region and recommends to the Board to extend their probation period an additional two years until 2019 – this will be further discussed in New Business
  • Old Business
    1. Probation Systems – all are in good standing at this time – Cattail, ECVTA, Sargent, and Red River South are on probation until June 2016 and the NE is on probation until June 2017 for now.
    2. 2016 Convention – Bottineau is working with the hotels in their area to be able to submit an application – they have a meeting on Monday with the Cobblestone Inn
    3. Groomer Tracking Software & Mapping Program Update – Todd provided an update on the units, they are about 90% working – Todd has been working with Karl at Automatic Logistics Solutions to try and integrate the tracking with the expense into one program. It was suggested to have Karl attend the next convention to talk about the units and answer questions the clubs might have.
    4. Raffle Tickets – $12,800 sold so far, drawing will be held tomorrow during the State Ride and again on Sunday for the second round of prizes
    5. 2016 ISC convention in Rapid City in June – we have an extra $2000 in the budget that could be used to assist board members who are interested in attending. Todd and Tari will be attending as well – Dale and Mark are both interested
    6. 2015 Trail Association Update was distributed to all members reviewing the benchmarks, signing and trail inspections that have been completed to date
  • New Business
    1. Committee Listings – the new list was distributed to all members
    2. Snow Bikes and UTVs
      1. Erik Dietrich reported that they had a meeting with the DOT about taking over the registrations – the DOT is open to it and would support it
        1. The problem is a budget shortfall for the software needed to take over the registrations
        2. The computer program is approximately $310,000 and no money can be taken from the general fund to fund this
        3. The program they currently use for out of state registrations could possibly be adapted to do the instate registrations for about $50,000 which would need to come from the Snowmobile budget, not the general fund
        4. Another option to increase funds available for the computer program would be to allow modified OHVs to run on the snowmobile trails. Then we could use a portion of the OHV dollars.
        5. Will need to compare the cost of the computer program to registration funds to see how close we’d be
      2. Timber Sled conversion kits currently do not fit the definition of a snowmobile in North Dakota. Snow Hawks do as they cannot be converted back to another type of vehicle.
        1. Polaris bought out Timber Sled so we can expect to see an increase in the conversion vehicles in the state. Arctic Cat is already producing tracked vehicles.
        2. A separate trail permit for Timber Sleds on the snowmobile trail can be done without legislation approval
  • Not allowing OHVs on the snowmobile trail is currently an NDPRD/operational law, not a state law so wouldn’t need to go the legislature for changes
    1. Having tracked OHVs on the snowmobile trail is going to be an enforcement issue
    2. The current definition of an OHV is a vehicle that is not registerable as anything else that can run on roads
    3. Would likely need width and weight restrictions on the OHVs to assure we don’t end up with Jeep Wranglers on the trails – MN OHV trails are limited to 50 inches
  1. Erik will work up talking points for board members to take back to their regions and discuss at meetings to get a feel for what the SND members want to do about the issue
  1. Northeast extended probation
    1. The Trail Operations Committee recommends extending the probation period an additional two years so they’d be on probation until 2019
    2. The association has talked about splitting into two associations, an East and West to split funds and split signing and grooming duties
      1. Highway 32 would be a natural border for this but puts two towns right down the middle (Edinburgh and Walhalla)
      2. Will need to check with V&V to see what the costs would be of adding another association to our insurance policy
      3. The clubs are worried if they split they’d lose a groomer – the board would have to discuss this but likelihood is low
  • The Northeast association will discuss all these things at their next meeting after their February 20th event
  1. Shawn made a motion to extend the probation period for the Northeast Association an additional two years and reduce their first benchmark for the current year only – seconded by Mark – opposed by Laura, approved by all other members present, the motion carried

 

  1. Adjournment
    1. Shawn made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Dale, approved by all members present – meeting adjourned at 8:21PM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SND Office Staff Report

February 5, 2016

              

  1. Marketing Statistics:
    • SND Facebook:  Total of 2,052 likes on 2/2/16 (weekly reach 1K)
    • Sno-Dak Facebook:  Total of 1,307 likes as of 2/2/16 (weekly reach 1K)
    • Issuu:  Over 5,430 reads and 55,234 impressions in the lifetime of our free subscription
    • Website:  Monthly reach 3,205
  • Most Viewed Pages:
    1. Trails
    2. Sno-Dak News
    3. Grooming Forms
  • Constant Contact: 1,620 Contacts
      1. Most Viewed Emails:
        • January 2016 Deadline (22%)
        • January 2016 Emagazine (20%)

 

  1. Sno-Dak News:
    • Total Income:  $19,274.3; Total Expenses:  $9,082.78
    • $2,000 in donations, proceeds will be donated to the Grant & Aid and Scholarship program
    • Will be sending a 1 year subscription to any kid that passes the snowmobile safety class this season.
    • March Officer & Board Articles Due 2/10/16
  • Troy Klevgard
  • Sheri Hoffmann
  • Laura Forbes
  • Mark Forbes
  • Jesse Fritz
  • Perry Brintnell
  • Joel Iverson
  • Jeff Seifert

 

  1. 15-16 Membership Information as of 2/2/16:
    • 715 Individual/Family Memberships
    • 31 Associate Members
  2. Sled’N Snap: Website is up and running. Flyer has been printed in Sno-Dak News. Less than 100 days to get your pictures uploaded!
  3. 2017 RTP Application: Has been submitted.

Tyler Dosch: On 1/9/16 Todd received and email from Tyler stating he is stepping down from the Board. He received a new position at work and couldn’t commit to SND. Jesse Fritz has reached out to Lake Region and has not heard back if anyone is interested in the position.

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