Membership Matters, Oct 2022
bcsf executive director update
Welcome back to another great season and obviously it is go time for all snowmobile clubs in BC. While there is no snow on the hills in many areas of BC, this weekend looks promising.
It has been a busy summer at the BCSF with several projects moving forward. The BCSF South Peace Snowmobile Infrastructure Program has hired McElhanney to start a Snowmobile Recreation Master Plan with our clubs in Tumbler Ridge, Mackenzie and Chetwynd. This project intends to capture existing infrastructure to ensure it gets legally established plus identify areas for new investment with improvements to shelters, trails, bridges, and parking. This project will be looking for public input from our riders in the Region starting in November and we hope to start work on the ground next spring.
The BCSF continues to work to establish a Snowmobile Infrastructure Fund for all clubs in BC and believe we are close to our first successful partnership. I hope my November update will include an exciting announcement on this!
Myself and BCSF Vice President, Adam McDonald, traveled to Ottawa earlier this month to meet with our peers across Canada at the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations (CCSO) meeting. This meeting was focussed on creating a strategic vision for our National voice to ensure we continue to move forward as leaders in outdoor recreation in Canada. Many of our Canadian counterparts have exciting projects moving forward and the ability to work together, learn from each other and support the sport as a whole is pretty inspiring.
We are a small player in the economics of snowmobiling in Canada but maintain an equal voice in the direction of snowmobiling in Canada. The BCSF is the oldest Federation in Canada with our 60th anniversary coming in 2025.
While in Ottawa we held a meet and greet for our Ministers and Members of Parliament from across Canada. The event was well attended and it was great to see so many come out to Celebrate Snowmobiling in Canada. For BC we had four MP’s attend including
MP John Aldag - Cloverdale—Langley City (absent from photo)
MP Mel Arnold - North Okanagan—Shuswap
MP Frank Caputo- Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo
MP Rob Morrison - Kootenay—Columbia
It was great to catch up and see the support from these MP’s at our event. We discussed some of the challenges we face in BC but also celebrated what snowmobiling represents to their communities.
After Ottawa we began preparing for our LetsRideBC booth for the Alberta Powersports Show. We had six clubs attend with us under the LetsRideBC banner. We are incredibly proud of the work being done under this new snowmobile tourism marketing arm managed by the BCSF team - If you have not already checked out some of the recent projects including the new BC Provincial Snowmobile Trail Map or the Iconic Road Trip Series - you have to take a look!
The show was well attended with the BCSF there to provide information about all the clubs in BC that could not attend the show themselves. It was a refreshing opportunity for face to face connections with riders. Many people were interested in snowmobiling opportunities in the North as well as over in the Sea to Sky.
We have also made the exciting leap from Silkstart to our new membership management platform Amilia. Your membership numbers matter and we appreciate your support as we make this move to better serve our members and reduce workload on the club volunteers. Please take the time to fill out your Amilia profile completely as it saves time at checkout and ensures a smooth purchase process. Don’t wait until you are standing at the gate with your snowmobile gear on. Once your profile is setup the purchase process is only a few clicks to check out.
