Wow what a quick summer it has been, we are already at the end and about to move into a very busy September.
Thanks to our new social media expert Janet Deane, we have seen a big uptake on our social channels to bring more awareness to our ATV community events, clubs, safety training and opportunities to connect. If you haven’t already joined one of our new 6 regional club pages on social media, please do and share these pages with all your riding community as we work to build up the engagement, content and opportunities for our riders.
Advocacy Actions
Following our meeting with the President of the Cascade Gondola project Jayson Faulkner, our group reviewed the updated version of the map of the impacted areas and concluded that this project would no longer affect our riders in the area. A new updated position statement on this project is being released later this week. While reviewing the maps for this project the conversation around the neighbouring ski resort project was discussed and a call out to that proponent has been made to request an opportunity to learn more about their project and potential impacts to motorized sport in the area.
This month has seen continued work with tourism associations around BC to bring awareness to ATVing in the regions. In particular, we are working in the Shuswap and Cariboo Chilcotin areas to bring together support for our call to government on the changes to the ORV Act to allow for licensing of ATV/UTV to ride into rural communities to access gas, food and accommodations.
This type of riding brings a large economic impact to the communities and promotes safe and responsible riding. This leads us to our next big event coming up Sept 18-20th at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) conference in Vancouver. Together with our friends at the BC Snowmobile Federation, we will be presenting our call to action on changes to the ORV Act to allow for ATV/UTV riding into communities. This push on government has increased since Vancouver recently started allowing golf carts on their roadways for tourists. Our press release in response to this approval has gained a lot of attention from communities around the province and we are encouraged by the response we are getting from the public, local governments and members.
Lastly, our work with various government staff in different ministries to collect the procedures each ministry follows for de-activations, has been slow moving as summer brings many vacations for government staff. We hope to have more feedback on our inquiries into the fall to allow us to establish a guideline for our clubs to follow when dealing with de-activations.
ATVBC Events
Planning is very busy with our 5 island clubs and our AGM planning committee to put together the first ever ISLAND AGM & Jamboree coming to Vancouver Island in Lake Cowichan, from Sept 19-23rd. This event has been filling up fast with so many great activities including onsite camping, guided rides, a night ride to Youbou Lookout, nightly beer gardens, Ice Cream Parade into town, daily 50/50, silent auction, door prizes, Saturday night club social event with community booths, sponsor booths, activities, show & Shine and so much more!!
PLEASE Register on our website for this amazing event!
Safety Training is also going to be available at this event with options to train on Thursday Sept 19th, Sunday Sept 22nd or Monday Sept 23rd. Space is filling fast for these one-day courses with ATVBC members getting a great discount at $150 per rider. Click here to register.
I know I have said this on the last 2 e-newsletter messages, but it is such an important part of our AGM and that is the nominations for new Board Directors.
This year we will have 5 spots to fill as we have board directors moving on to other important passion projects. If you or someone you know is a good fit for the ATVBC Board of Directors, please share with them this great opportunity to help shape the future of ATVBC. Click here for the 2024 AGM Nomination form. If you have questions about what the role is and if you are a good fit, please reach out to our Nominations Task Force Chair, Padraig Tedford at [email protected]
As of today, many regions around the province have lifted their fire bans due to recent weather patterns bringing more rain to the areas and we encourage our riders to remain vigilant when riding out in the backcountry as we are still in our fire season.
Look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming event in Lake Cowichan!
Kristin
