Meeting minutes, NEA May 5th

Meeting Minutes
May 5, 2007
Deering Fish & Game, Deering NH

Attendance
Executive Officers: Scott Hatch, Jason Ghelli, Steve Nordby, Tammy Van Gemert

Delegates/Alternates: Roy Van Gemert (Deep Woods Extreme), Pat Charron (Baystate), Mark Kosciukiewicz (NEJEEP), Brian Churchill (VJA), Bob Butler (New England Jeepz), Todd Violette (Cape Cod Jeep Club), Karl Harmon (NEZR2), Doreen Marsters (Legal Jeepers), Joe Mylie (Yankee Toys), Brian Seeley (NE4WI), Mark Rodier (NEWJO), Andrew Heavisides (CCFW), Roy Armitrano (OJME), Rich Banfield (Patriot Jeepers), Michael Stevens (UNYX)

Guests: Dave LaMarch (Mass Mudders), Michael Rames (Mass Mudders),

Absences: LIOR, JonFund, Freedom Trail Riders

Motion to accept minutes from previous meeting was made by Pat Charron and a second by Bob Butler. Unanimously accepted.

On-Line Voting Results
Motion by Doc to give Underground Jeeps, Vermont Jeeps, and Yankee Toys a grace period of 10 days to make dues payment. Dues must be received by April 21rst, 2007. Second made by Bob. Vote passed with eight in favor. There was no response from four of the member clubs.

Scott Hatch reminded delegates to respond to online motions and voting issues so that decisions are accurately represented.

OLD BUSINESS
MA Land Committee Report
No report submitted.
Scott Hatch mentioned there was an online discussion about Coy Hill being closed but that there had not been any confirmation as to whether the area is closed or not.

Land Committee Report (Scott Hatch)
Scott Hatch, Steve Nordby, & Jason Ghelli attended a meeting with the NH Trails Bureau to discuss implementing a sticker program, development of Jericho Park, and the current work being done to define our sport with the state of NH. Scott is working cooperatively with the NHTB to come up with a definition for our sport so that the NHTB can speak on our behalf to support future legislation. Scott has posted the proposed Amendments to current legislation on the Association forum. Scott stated that the NHTB is behind us and he projects it may take 3-5 years to accomplish our goals but he has a positive outlook based on recent progress.

As far as private land-
Cemetery Hill: Scott is still working to make contact with the landowner to let them know we will hold off using the land and we will assess the land in July.

Field & Forest: will be accessible by at least the third week of May. He reminded everyone to not drive on the grass and to take care of their own camping arrangements and just work with Gretchen when you arrive to give her payment. He also reminded clubs to not contact the landowners directly until you have spoken with the Land Manager or Scott.

Springfield: The previous landowner, Kned, passed away recently. Steve has since contacted the new landowner and he is ok with us continuing to use the land. Jen Marrs is the current Land Manager.

Pat Charron suggested we get some smaller ATV-type vehicles to scout the land before the other vehicles go out. Scott stated that Jen Marrs is planning to scout the land on foot. The land is approximately 150 acres with plenty of Class VI roads in the area.

Carnage Hill: trail cut is planned for May 6th.

Scott is going to plan a NH Land Committee meeting so he told the BOD to look for details on that soon.

Questions related to report:
Will there be provisions in the sticker program for non-residents? Yes. Non-residents will probably be required to pay a higher fee for the sticker.

Are there any expected conflicts from the NH Snowmobile Association(s)? No. Scott and others have met with members from the NH Snowmobile Association to let them know what we are doing. In most cases we would not be utilizing the same networks and if we did cross paths we would work together to make adjustments.

Will the insurance benefit from the sticker program be per individual or is it a group benefit? A benefit of the sticker program would be state-funded liability insurance that offers a $2,000,000 liability blanket for anyone who has obtained a sticker. Private landowners can be covered if they have registered their land with the state as being a landowner that participates in the program.

Is Jericho Park private land? Jericho was purchased with money by local ATV groups but the state still has a hand in the development. Currently there is a bill that has to be passed by the Senate to allow motorized access even though most of the land was purchased by motorized access groups. Scott has urged delegates to get their members to contact their local representatives and ask them to vote in favor of Senate Bill 143.

Will we be utilizing RTP funding for Jericho? Most of the money will come from the Grant In Aid program. Most of the motorized groups in NH have used their own funds to develop what they have.

Pat asked what the rule is regarding Class VI roads and whether or not they are closed until June 1. Scott stated that each town determines when the roads can open.

Rhode Island Land Committee Report (Bob Butler)
RIOHVA is looking at a couple parcels of land to lease, hopefully within a year. The state of Rhode Island has granted them $450,000 towards leasing and developing land for motorized recreation.

Connecticut Land Committee Report (Joe Mylie)
CT has formed 2 organizations to deal with land access. CTU (Connecticut Trail Users) is the legislative part and COALT (Connecticut Open Access Land Trust) will deal with land.
CTU is working with the state legislature to get a bill passed forcing the DEP to comply with a 20+ year old bill requiring land for OHV use. While primarily dealing with ATV's, we will follow with access for full size OHV's. CTU hopes to get a vote on the bill in this year’s session. As the bill does have bi-partisan support, we are hopeful.

COALT was incorporated in 2006 as a non-profit CT corporation. We are in the process of having an attorney review our federal application for a 501(c) (3) corporation. This will allow donations to be tax deductible and allow us to apply for state, federal, and private grants for land acquisition.

COALT will also start identifying Class VI roads in CT and mapping state forest roads that allow registered vehicles and have not been maintained, so present at least stock level wheeling.

Meetings:
CTU - 2nd Monday of the month - Meriden Motorcycle Club - Meriden, CT
COALT - Last Tuesday of the month - Slider's Berlin CT

Maine Land Committee Report
No report submitted.

Vermont Land Committee Report (Brian Churchill)
Sean Myers is the appointed Trails Committee Chairperson. One of their first tasks is to inventory and map current trails. They will also be working to identify all Class IV roads in Vermont.

Sean is jointly working with Brian Churchill to define roles with towns for ancient road classification. Legislative deadline for towns to identify roads is July 2009, then have a plan in place by July 2015.

Other goals include investigating grants for road improvement and drainage, reflecting water quality issues in northern Vermont, educating members about "standing" and how to be an activist regarding land use in towns, and to add one road/trail/property per member to the inventory.

2007 Association Meeting Locations
NEJeep will be hosting the July 7th meeting at the Windsor Lockes Public Library from 10am-2pm. The library needs a Proof of Non-Profit record from us in order to avoid a charge for the use of the room.

Vermont Jeep Association is working on a location for August. They will probably be using Mt. Snow and if so there will be an offering to wheel after the meeting.

2007 United Four Wheel Drive Association’s Convention
Scott asked if there were any volunteers to attend the Convention. He stated he would like to ask Robin Chacon to be one of the attendees. Tammy Van Gemert volunteered to go since she worked on the proposal for the 2008 Convention. In the event that Robin cannot attend Scott will be looking for another volunteer. The event is July 25-28 in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Fall Crawl 2007
The BOD reviewed the proposed menu for the 2007 event and after a lengthy discussion Bob Butler motioned to approve the proposed menu and charge $20 per person for attendance. A second was made by Pat Charron. e vote passed with 12 in favor and 1 opposed.
The total amount for food and camping will be $40 per person.

In lieu of the motion, many of the delegates would like Steve to go back to Famous Dave’s to bargain for a lower cost for the food and the BOD may still choose to modify the menu to lower the costs.

Scott stated there is additional work we can do for Gretchen in order to get the same deal we got last year for camping.

NEA4WDC Store Front Update
Rich Banfield sent his proposal to Pat Charron for review. Pat will review Rich’s proposal as well as contact Jean Wnuck for further information. She stated she will report her results online.

Disabled Vets Access Ride
Due to lack of information regarding the event, this discussion has been tabled for online discussion while the committee continues to figure out some of the logistics for the event. Also the event was originally planned for some time in July and is now being pushed back to August until further notice.

Approval of Full Member Status
Scott mentioned that we are beginning to have an issue with being able to attend runs for probationary clubs who are outside of the normal Northeast area. The delegates felt that we should not turn these clubs away and that we should make more of an effort to make one of their runs if we are going to use that as a requirement for membership. However, after doing some fast research we discovered that attending a run of a probationary club prior to them being accepted as a full member is not written in the by-laws. We are going to have Paul Maxwell review older versions of the by-laws to be sure but for this meeting the delegates decided to go ahead and vote on both Patriot Jeepers and UNYX becoming full member clubs.

Roy Van Gemert motioned to accept Patriot Jeepers and UNYX as full members to the Association with a second made by Brian Seeley. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.

Scott asked for someone from Patriot Jeepers to sign-up on the forum so they can be involved in the discussions. Rich Banfield said they had tried but were unable to access the forum.

Access-4-All Vehicle
Mark K. reported that the vehicle is currently being worked on and some volunteers are going through all of the mechanical aspects of the Jeep. Scott stated that the group needs to get a wish list together as soon as possible so Mark Dupont can continue soliciting for donations. In addition Scott wanted to have a project manager for the vehicle and with some forceful ribbing, Mark K. agreed to manage the project. Mark will not be responsible for doing all of the work to the vehicle but he will be the point of contact for parts and maintenance as well handling the logistical aspect of the vehicle.

The delegates discussed some of the modifications to the vehicle and agreed to build the vehicle for the purpose of traveling Class VI Roads. The maximum tire size discussed was 33”. Mark also stated that he would like to see the vehicle shrink-wrapped and he will be looking into estimates for that.

The BOD discussed the issue regarding insurance of the vehicle and agreed that since we will only be using the vehicle on Class VI Roads for the time being, we can go with a regular vehicle insurance policy. The vehicle is currently registered in NH. Tammy will be contacting Progressive and another insurance company given to her by Doreen Marsters to get quotes for a policy. It was also agreed that operation of the vehicle will be limited to one of the delegates or Executive Officers for liability purposes.

Brian Churchill asked if we would like to have the vehicle at the Essex Junction Jamboree-August 4-5. If the vehicle is ready we will have it there.

Shane Beard Award
Topic was shelved for online discussion. The delegates suggested that a committee be formed to work on this project for future award requirements and distribution.

New Business
Membership Requirements
This topic was skipped due to the earlier findings with the by-laws. Paul Maxwell will review earlier editions of the by-laws to ensure nothing was accidentally deleted and the delegates will have to discuss if they wish to work on adding in text to support previous requirements for membership approval.

Dues Increase
The delegates agreed we may need to increase dues but would like to see a written statement as to what an increase of dues would support and what the new dues structure would be. Tammy stated she would write something up for the newsletter.Delegates also suggested that we put more thought into other ways to increase revenue for the Association.. One of the goals will be to tighten the planning of current fundraisers to make sure we actually make a profit from them.

NEA4WDC Future Message & Goals
Scott felt that we had already determined many of our goals during discussion of the other topics at the meeting. Our message will remain that we are going to continue to work on both public and private land access and in doing so we will continue to push for changes in legislation. The delegates discussed the issue of using the term OHRV and felt we should stick with it and just use the definition to define who we are. It was recommended that if a landowner is not open to hearing about an OHRV accessing their land than we should be creative in how we approach them.

Mass Mudders
A couple representatives from Mass Mudders were at the meeting to field questions and apply for probationary membership. Scott reminded the delegates that any history between Mass Mudders and the Association should be “water under the bridge” and that enough time has passed for us to move on.

Roy Van Gemert asked the club if they had access to any private land. One of the representatives stated they do not have legal access to private land but they do have access to some land in Gloucester that they are working on getting permission for.

They also wanted to let the Association know they have some equipment that they are willing to let other clubs use such as a pig roaster, hydraulic RTI ramp, and they are in the process of building a see-saw.

Roy Van Gemert motioned to approve Mass Mudders as probationary members with a second by Pat Charron. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.

Tammy questioned as to why we still have to go through the probationary process if a club submits all the requested materials as currently outlined in the by-laws since the old reason for making a club wait doesn’t seem to exist. Scott said we should wait for Paul to review the by-laws and delegates can continue this discussion online.

NEA4WDC Stickers
Steve Nordby got a quote to print more stickers from Kinko’s but they wanted $1.75 each for 500 stickers.
Tammy had the following quotes:
Phoenix Screen Printing in Nashua, NH- $.40 cents for 1000
Minuteman Press of Nashua, NH- $450-$500 for 1000 weatherproof stickers. This price was not confirmed at the time of the meeting and she was going to get confirmation from Minuteman on Monday.

One of the guests suggested we look into buying a vinyl machine and we could make the stickers ourselves. There were several others who were going to get quotes and report back. Scott stated that we would continue the discussion online.

Individual Memberships
Scott approached the idea of offering individual memberships. The majority of the delegates still did not seem to want to implement the idea but left that it would be discussed online as to the pros and cons.

Open ForumRich Banfield turned in a $200 donation from his 2006 Big 4WD Event and said there may be more coming. He gave some preliminary information about the event and Tammy noted that there is an ad in the newsletter about it.

Andrew H. passed out the CCFW upcoming events flyer. Scott asked him to give one to Tammy for the newsletter and urged delegates to have their clubs send event info to Tammy in the future. He also stated that he has a TV show and is trying to get it nationally syndicated and he would be interested in attending some of the upcoming events such as the DWE Show and the Big 4WD Event.

Mass Mudders mentioned that they are planning their annual Pig Roast and again said they would send the info to Tammy.

Roy Van Gemert stated that Deep Woods Extreme would be sending a packet of flyers to each of the club delegates to have them spread the word about the event. He also fielded some questions about the show. There will be a Show ‘n’ Shine but the club is not sure if there will be actual judging and categories. They are going to work on it but do not want to advertise just yet. But vehicles are more than welcome to come inside and park and as always if clubs want to remain together they must contact Roy or Tammy in advance. Clubs are urged to set up a booth at the show.

Joe Mylie let the delegates know that the NOHVCC has trail planning kits available. He also had a copy of the Hatfield McCoy Environmental Impact Report and stated that to obtain one you could go onto the NOHVCC website (nohvcc.org).

Tammy presented some information she received for advertising in the Northwoods Journal. It would cost $445.50 for the NEA4WDC to advertise for one year and they would also receive a live link on the Northwoods website, and a free 12 issue subscription. The journal reaches over 45,000 readers a month who participate in hunting, fishing, and motorized recreation. Due to time constraints Tammy was asked to post more info online.

Motion to adjourn meeting made by Brian Seeley with a second by Pat Charron.

Minutes Composed By:

Tammy Lynn Van Gemert