Leaderboard

Unfortunately in this and similar other countless threads, many of which I've participated, we are truly beating a dead horse here. The answer to all that allegedly ails the NHSA is very, very simple. It's not the AG's Office (I highly doubt, that in the end, the AG will take any action of importance against the NHSA), it's not forming a second association...nor boycotting the existing association. The power to rectify what some (including myself) perceive is wrong has always been in the hands of the County directors, and all stakeholders at the annual meeting. The simple answer is that a majority of the County directors do not see a need for any major changes or shakeups in Tilton. Same at the annual meetings, where year after year rumors lead up to each meeting that a coup is in the making, only to have the annual meeting turn out as tame as your average house cat. Regrettably the vast majority of the NHSA membership is unaware of the organization they belong to, and therefore do not participate by default. Until enough members feel that a significant change is warranted, and reflect that by electing County directors that reflect their desire for change, five years from now we'll still be reading threads about what action the AG may take, anonymous letters to the board and the annual concerns regarding the Grass Drags and Easter Seals events!

Our (SNHSS) memberships run through the end of July. We will be actively seeking memberships after the board rejoins Monday night.

The North East Motor Sports Museum is now open at the NHMS racetrack in Loudon. My brother went there last Friday and said it was worth a visit. There are vehicles on display, as well as photos, from a good sampling of racing vehicles with a connection to New England. Included are exhibits from drag racing, oval racing, road course racing, motorcycle racing, and one lone Yamaha snowmobile. My brother said that the displays would change over time, so maybe someday there'll be a 1970's ice oval sled that raced in Lancaster on display.

To a point ... The chronicles of "Binky Sears" is getting very old

Having been in the middle of the Pittsburg Ridge Runners for quite a few years, as VP, SEC, Board Member, I can remember going to a lot of NHSA meetings and county meetings. These meetings always left me with an uneasy feeling that "The Lights Are On But Nobody's Home". I have said some rather strong criticisms of the organization, with just cause, but this letter has confirmed all of those uneasy feelings I had back then. "• Since 2006 the biggest negative to the sport of snowmobiling in the state of New Hampshire has been the executive board of the NHSA." For someone from the inner circle of things to make a statement that Direct and Powerful in meaning shows a lot of guts, and caring for the organization. It also shows how much of a jam the mishandling of the organization has gotten all of us into. The answer, or cure to this unfortunate situation is neither simple, nor clear. It is clear, however, that something has to be done to rein in the "runaway egos" who think they can do no wrong, and should answer to no one. pathfinder

Here's a video that I filmed near 1st Ct lake in Pittsburg last Wednesday. Next time I head over I'm going to try to hook up @pathfinder

Always a little sad when a club goes down, thinking about all the time and effort over many year period to get them going, and the ups and downs they all go through trying to keep it together. Kind of like when the NHSA use to deal with SNOWMOBILING instead of maximizing income from the masses. What a joke we have allowed to evolve over the years. pathfinder

August is 3 days away, so in 6 weeks we'll be well into Fall. So, how many people have joined a club or registered a sled? Interestingly, I haven't received any emails from the clubs asking me to renew my memberships. I guess they just wait for people to join.

Since the clubs have no control over the weather and state regulations and laws, aggressive actions to retain and increase club memberships seems to be the only way the clubs will survive. It also seems that SNHSS is doing the work needed to be on the right track, and let's hope you're rewarded with a decent winter and no dumb moves by the state.

Today's Manchester Union Leader has a story on the first page of the sports section about an auto race over the logging roads in western Maine and north-east New Hampshire.Most of us have ridden sleds over similar roads, but probably not in the same fashion as the drivers of these rally race cars. "During the first day of racing on Friday on logging roads in western Maine and northeastern New Hampshire, Pastrana’s No. 199 Subaru WRX STI was humming along at about 120 miles per hour when it became airborne and sailed about 200 feet down the course. Upon impact, co-driver Robbie Durant suffered what the Subaru Rally Team USA called a compression injury.” Let's see now, you're driving a car 120 mph on a dirt logging road, go airborne and land 200 feet down the road, then continue racing. Certainly seems like a reasonable thing to do. The winner of the 2017 New England Forest Rally is the same guy who won the Mount Washington Hill Climb Auto Race this year. It figures that he made his reputation doing insane things on motorcycles in the X-Games.

For all you Classic sled fans

Very Nice! Question? What happens if your drone exceeds the limits of the remote control? Does it continue to the West Coast, or runs out of power? How far does the better drones operating range approach? Thanks for posting these vids, it's nice to have a break from the political bonfires that have been brewing of late. pathfinder

The GSSA was the earliest version of the NHSA. The NHSA name needed to be purchased from a local club; I think they ended up being willing to change their name without a battle. Skip, I think the problem is that many are not willing to accept the trend line... All the associations are trying to fight it off... but in the end, it will get us. NH has a terrible collective FiSt score, and most of our members come from NH. New England has a terrible FiSt score, and the remainder of our members almost exclusively come from New England.

August is a strange time to bring up something that happened this past winter, but here goes: As most of you know I am an older guy that is into vintage sleds and vintage racing. I grew up in the 60's and 70's reading the sled mags and all the activity at the World Championships in Eagle River, WI. Never thought I'd get there, but a phone call from a friend changed all that in a hurry. M y friend Chet asked me if I would like to come with him and a friend to try and qualify for the Vintage World Championships, competing with two sleds that five days before we left were bare chassis. I said "hell ya'" . Thousand mile ride through Canada and Upper Peninsula of MI brought us to the scenic area of Eagle River. Checked into hotel, 1/4 mile from the track, which is a real piece of work, 13 degree banks, wide turns, heated hot boxes for spectators, totally organized and maintained by the legendary Decker family. Worked on the super mod 340 and 440 for 3 days before qualifying on Friday morning. The motors were highly modified "Decker" built beauties that were morphed into 78 El Tigre Chassis's that were spotless and had new tracks. Friday morning arrived at a balmy 3 degrees and qualifying began, 68 sleds getting 2 solo laps on a glass track against the clock, first 34 would move to the next round. Driver, Spencer Landry, had lots of experience racing on snow but never ice, had drawn second up on the smooth track and by the end had qualified 29. Simply Amazing! Rest of the weekend we competed in about 8 classes, just to get some ice time on the new sleds. The scale of what goes on out there is hard to imagine. We had set up in the pits next to a six man team from Sweden, who were just a hoot, always smiling and working on four sleds all different brands that did well. Also met racers from all over Canada, Wyoming, Alaska, who were all very friendly and couldn't help each other enough, sometimes sharing motor parts between heats. Hope to get there again, and see new friends and feel the energy that just surrounds you. Here's a link that will give you some idea of what is infectious. Our sleds were 67M, Cats, one green, one black. Pathfinder

1) John is no longer with Fish and Game. He retired a few months ago. 2) What does any of this back and forth have to do with the Letter that is the topic of this thread? 3) Does Hijacking a thread mean anything? 4) I tend to think that when Small Engine Guy (moderator) made a post and closed a few threads earlier this spring, this is what he was referring to at the time.

On one level I agree the “NHSA sucks, amirite?” comment has some truth. I think the author of this letter has a very negative opinion of the current NHSA management, and makes that very clear in his letter. I don’t know the letter author’s motive or intent in writing, and now releasing, this letter, nor do I have any insider information on NHSA or the happenings in Rockingham County. I can read plain English with some degree of understanding, and this letter is very understandable. Maybe not in the references to what happened in 2006, I’d have to have been following NHSA politics much more closely than I have. Still, his/her point that what’s called the “Executive Board” has taken over complete control of NHSA and has pushed the county directors into being a rubber stamp for them is made plainly and clearly. Whether that point is true is another question, and there are differing opinions out there. A reading of the NHSA bylaws would seem to say that there is one Board of Directors consisting of the five executive officers, the county directors, and one contributor/dealer director. The NHSA President leads all Board meetings and appoints any needed committees. The Executive Officers on the board include the President, the Vice-President, the Treasurer, the Secretary, and the immediate past President. There’s an Advisory Board made up of past presidents (and some others if needed) who serve a consulting role for the executive officers and the Board of Directors. The bylaws do seem to be pretty clear as to who manages the NHSA and the duties of the officers and the board. “The Association shall be governed by a Board of Directors. Executive Officers upon election shall be members of the Board of Directors. It shall be the duty of the Board of Directors to carry out the wishes of the majority of the Membership.” The question raised by this letter seems to be “is the NHSA currently being operated in a manner consistent with the bylaws ?” It seems the original target for this letter was an “insider” audience that understands the inner workings of the NHSA. Now this letter is “out in the wild”, and a general audience needs to do some research to understand some of the references. But, a plain English reading makes clear that the author believes that current NHSA management has gone off the tracks, and I think that’s a fair subject for debate.

To: Club Presidents and Membership Administrators Re: Online Membership Sales Notice The NHSA board voted to halt online memberships purchases via the NHSA website effective August 13, 2017. Online sales will not be available until concerns from a few clubs and individuals relating to anti-trust laws regarding a prior approved “unified dues structure” and “100% NHSA membership requirement” are resolved. The NHSA has received opinions from lawyers that the uniform dues structure, voted on by a majority of clubs, would unlikely be violating anti-trust laws. After a complaint in the late fall of 2015, a review by the NH Attorney General found that we would unlikely run afoul of violating antitrust laws, providing we made the suggested modifications, which allowed for online sales to begin in March of 2016. Despite this, complaints to the Attorney General continue. Each complaint is seen as a new issue which must be investigated. To continue this path is exhausting to our volunteers and financial resources. It is clear that in order to move forward we must find a different path that will provide a permanent solution in respect to the grievances. It is our goal to resolve this as quickly as possible by working with our legal counsel, the NH Attorney General's office, and all our clubs, taking whatever steps are needed for a permanent solution. PLEASE NOTE: This change ONLY affects memberships being sold online, directly to the public, through the NHSA Website. CLUBS: Please continue to enter your memberships into the club portals as you have in the past and remove any links from club websites allowing online membership purchases from the NHSA. We will keep you updated as we move forward. The NHSA office

Looks like what I posted yesterday was in deed factual.

Very nice! As usual! pathfinder

He's a video I made from Saturday's flight on Darling Hill in Lyndon, VT.

I guess the compost video plays into the gardening/farming sites I visit, but those sites don't tend to feature the CaliKim type of farmer. Not that I have anything at all against that sort of farmer.

LOL, That interest in compost would be you Jhwentworth. YouTube is looking at your cookies.

I have a LOT of issues... but I can't not blame the software upgrade for it.

WOOT WOOT (sorry, did I say that out loud)

This sounds like a very true statement. Much like I haven't received a copy of Pravda since he upgraded the site software, and I hold him equally accountable. You guys need to get on the ball.

Yep...ever since you updated the software I haven't received my copy of the SnoTraveller...what the hell John!

pathfinder Here is where my mind is till at least after Columbus Day! My #1 Sled is on the Lift ready to roll out with the first 4" of SNOW here in Moultonboro! I took advantage of the Moultonboro Snowmobile Club online Membership Page and joined on July 1st. But I have not sent myself my Membership Card yet.

Got my Pittsburg Ridge Runner renewal forms about three weeks ago. Kind of gave me a shiver!!!!!!! pathfinder#6

An old saying is that "most people don't buy things, they're sold things." A person who's made their living in retail sales would be a good choice for a club membership chairman.

John, I and my Wife had been doing the Moultonboro Membership Program for the past 10 years. We normally start with a MEMBERSHIP PACKET that we try to get out to all of this past Seasons Members plus those that did not rejoin from the prior Season. Their application is headed with WELCOME BACK. You would be surprise how many rejoin. We try to get the Packet in the mail by the third week of September. By this time the Summer has ended and the Kids are back in School. We normally start to see Applications coming back to us around the 3rd week of October. We get a good percentage of our Membership by the middle of December. From there the driving factor is the weather (SNOW). The end of January and the start of February can be a time for a high volume of Membership, School Vacations are the big factor. We were hit with over 250 Memberships leading in to the first week of February most likely do to the fact we all had SNOW! This presented a question of where do you spend your time, Keeping the Club Membership up to date, getting out our MSC MEMBERSHIP CARDS or our Official MSC Voucher and at the same time keep the NHSA Database Current. Well I guess where my time was concentrated. I ended up putting a new column in my database and marking a "Z" in the column to indicate I needed to Enter them into the NHSA Database a few at a time over the next month or so. Our normal flow of "Mailed" in Applications can be any where from 15 to 100+ per week. This past Season we added an online Membership Page to our Website. We had over 140 Membership processed through OUR Website. We have multiple ways of generating Memberships 1st Our Mail out Application 2nd Our Online Application web page 140+ Membership. We hope to see the Website used more frequently this season! I encourage all Clubs that have a Website to incorporate an electronic Membership Page in to it. It saves a lot of time transferring Data in to the Club Database. 3rd 3 local Sales Agents, DaSilva Motor Sports, Skelly's Market and EM Heath Hardware. And LAST, NHSA, 6 members 15-16 and 11 16-17 Seasons. Through all these avenues of Memberships we had 724 Members making MSC the 3rd largest Club in New Hampshire. Posted to a Thread on Winnipesaukee Snowmobile Forum. The NHSA Online Membership program is basically there to shift the burden of maintaining a Member Database from the NHSA Office to EACH NHSA Member Club. It is now up to each Club to input and Maintain the Database. I have been told by my DEEPSTATE sources that NHSA has logged in a little over 400 Members so far for 2017-2018? The way I look at the position of Membership Chairman is you are a Salesman. Your objective is to SELL your Club. It maybe the Great Conditions of your Trials, The interaction of members, Meetings, Saturday Trial rides, Work Parties and other things that bring people of like interest together to enjoy all the aspects of Snowmobiling. Oh and be ready for the Friday Night call from the Member that Joined early, put his cards in a safe place and now can not find them. If the member has e-mail we simply send him an Official MSC Membership Voucher. If no E-mail we simply tell him we will meet you at 8:00am at Chuck DaSilva's with 2 Replacement Membership Cards. As Cheryl and I step down we hope to see MSC continue using this process? I could go on for another 10 pages with my thoughts on how Clubs should get and KEEP Members.

Done...and worth every penny!

I wasn't aware that it was titled QuebecRider.com until someone sent me an email a little while ago. It took me a while, but I found where that setting was in PayPal. Sorry for the confusion.

AMEN!

Should be a great episode! Not enough people have actually experienced what the Museum has to offer. Relics of the sport which occupies a good part of our brain........ pathfinder

It's scheduled to be aired July 25th at 7pm.

Hi Skip, I am by no means discouraging posting about the latest issues, NHSA included, but sometimes we have 3 new posts in one day about the NHSA. People PM me calling the site SledNHSA because of the stuff. I read every post that's made, but I think one or 2 posts will cover all that's said. Look at the post history and you'll see what I mean. I have no "personal feeling" on the subject. My personal opinion is that posts can be added to, not create new ones every day for the same thing. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've merged many threads as an Administrator on Snowmobileforum.com for years, and people thank me for it.

Letter to Directors edited name.docx I edited out his name and contact info fro his privacy. Permission was granted to post this letter. It was sent to ALL NHSA Directors and Assistant Directors. Curious how it was received by the "Head Table" at last weeks Board meeting. Probably resulted in executive session for discussion or it was brushed off.

The Pemi Valley SMC has dissolved. The groomer has been transferred to the Alexandria Ledge Climbers. Thankfully neighboring clubs will be taking over the system.

I just updated SledNH to the newest software version. Let me know if you have any issues.