Happy Halloween to all. Hope many of you will be going out to ride this holiday, and will be doing it in costume, but safely. We always found it to be a lot of fun, what with costumes and decorating our machines. Sometimes there were prizes for those whose decorations survived the ride.
The highlight of this month was the ATVBC Directors’ face to face meeting in Kamloops. To say it was worthwhile would be an understatement.
The weekend started off on the Friday with a 75 kilometre trail ride south of Kamloops with 7 directors, Carrie and Kristin, Louise Pedersen – the Executive Director of the Outdoor Recreation Council (ORC), and 3 of the Directors’ wives for a total of 13 people and 9 machines – a nice number to ride with. The ride took us to the top of Greenstone Mountain and the historic fire lookout and then through some of the burnt areas that resulted from the Tremont Creek wildfire. This area has only been open since May after being closed for 22 months. It was amazing to see how the area has changed and the new growth of the grasses, flowers and aspens.
Saturday was a busy day of meetings, covering off such things as membership growth and retention, the results of the members’ survey that many of you completed, the creation of a standardized radio frequency for when groups go riding, wildfires, and the potential for ATVBC and club involvement in the future, and much, much more. To top it off, we had 2 guest speakers, Louise from ORC and Brendan Keys, VP from Motorcycle Powersports BC. All very interesting. ATVBC will be sharing more of this with you in the next little while.
Sunday, was ATVBC’s strategic planning session. Led by a very capable facilitator – Deb McClelland, we spent a very productive day setting the vision for ATVBC for the next 3 years. I think that everyone came away feeling very good with what was accomplished. The Board will review the work that was done over the next month or so, and then will start the tactical planning for the next year. It is the Board’s plan to have a document that they will be able to share with everyone no later than the end of January. By the way, the results of the member survey were again very useful in helping us determine how best to meet yours and your clubs’ needs going forward.
Don’t forget, that the first intake for grant applications for ATVBC grants begins on November 01, 2023, so get your applications in as soon as you can. We hope to have some other exciting things to tell you about the ORV Trail Grants from RSTBC later in November.
So, stay safe and enjoy the rest of the riding season.
Respectfully submitted
Chris DSilva
