Volunteer Spotlight - Steve Kelly, Fernie Snowmobile Association

When the snowmobile club puts out a call to action for help, you likely imagine firewood work parties, snowcat maintenance, maybe organizing events or building a new cabin. Each of those are incredibly important tasks on the to-do list. But what most riders never consider is the important work that goes on in the office behind the scenes that keeps the club rolling. In addition to volunteers contributing their time on the end of a saw, wrench, or hammer, snowmobile clubs are not-for-profit societies that have complex accounting and financial transparency requirements. It is the role of the snowmobile club Treasurer to ensure effective controls and procedures are in place. These are the men and women who keep us ‘in the black’. I sat down with Fernie Snowmobile Association Treasurer and long-time volunteer Steve Kelly to learn more.

Q: How did you get involved in volunteering for the FSA?

A: Through mutual friends that were involved in the sport. I saw an opportunity to use my skill set to help benefit a community group that I had a connection with.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your background and what that unique skill set was?

A: I was always an avid lover of the outdoors; dabbling in whitewater kayaking, competitive mountain biking, rock climbing, backcountry skiing. I was a ski patroller at the old Fortress Mountain and Lake Louise. The backcountry skiing led me to enjoy snowmobiling and I’ve been riding for about 12 years now. The work skills in engineering, finances, project management, and leadership gave me the practical skills to support the snowmobile club’s endeavors.

Q: Tell us a little but about what you do as a club Treasurer and the kind of projects you have been involved with for the FSA?

A: My role of Treasurer involves about eight hours a month spent in the back office under normal operations. It can get busier at fiscal year end and start up. Typical tasks include accounts payable and receivable, ensuring payments such as GST, PST, WCB, payroll deductions, fuel bills, salary payments to staff, and set up of vendor accounts are completed. I am also a liaison between the FSA and Federal regulators - Natural Resources of Canada, for one of our many land use agreements. In the fall, I enjoy supporting our sponsorship drive by reaching out to businesses for corporate partnership opportunities with the club.

Cool projects I have been involved with would certainly be support on grant writing and project management for the new Wranglers Cabin, gps-ing alternate routes for our grooming program, construction of our three trailhead kiosks and expanded signage program. Recently, the FSA has been tackling an absolutely massive rebuild of infrastructure and trails following the significant fall flood damage. This always includes a lot of meetings, negotiations, budgets, financial tracking, and boots on the ground labor and strategic planning. 

In 2017, the Fernie Snowmobile Association shifted from an external contract to an in-house grooming program. Within 3 years, the club was grooming 5000km of trail each winter, managing a fleet of 4 snowcats, and several staff  / volunteers spread across five different riding areas in the valley. Worker safety was paramount, and Steve introduced the club to the Blackline Safety Device, a lone worker monitoring system he had previously used in his oil and gas career for industrial worksite safety. The devices proved a valuable asset for the club with active satellite tracking, two-way messaging, and man-down features. Not only could the units detect gas leaks, no-motion activity, and slip and falls – all potential hazards for team members working in the remote backcountry alone at night, but they also require the snowcat operators to actively press a timed ‘all ok’ button that goes directly to a manned call center. This was important because if there was an avalanche, medical incident, or situation where the operators was unable to press an SOS button themselves, the club wanted to know that someone would raise the alarm and activate help right away. You can read about this lone worker safety device in action for the club HERE. A pretty cool example of a volunteer bringing their unique skills, experience, and ideas to improve the local riding community. 

Q: Any final thoughts you would like to share with others on the value of volunteering with a snowmobile club Steve?

A: I enjoy seeing others being successful and striving to their fuller potential. Loving our local riding area, I knew I could assist to take the FSA backcountry experience that I love to the next level for others. I would encourage riders out there to get involved in their own unique way. Substitute ‘you’ with ‘I’; ‘you' should do this for the (insert favorite club). Although I appreciate the opinions on what clubs should do, the real effort required is around the boardroom table and the volunteer days in the field to make it all happen. Advice from the armchair only helps so much.

~Thanks for all you do to support organized sledding in Fernie, BC Steve!