Ken McClelland, BCorma
October has continued to be a busy month as we followed closely the provincial election, sharing with as many candidates as possible the needs of ATVBC in our ATVBC Provincial Election Priorities white paper.
Issued to media, election candidates, local clubs and other ATVBC stakeholders, this white paper was a key topic of conversation in all my lobbying efforts over the month.
I was invited to attend the Annual Motorcycle Powersports BC Dealer Summit in Harrison Hot Springs in early October to join fellow panelist from BC Off-Road Motorcycle Association (BCorma), 4-Wheel Drive Association of BC (4wdabc), and Dual-Sport BC to talk about our industry needs, struggles, successes and how the dealers can further support the work we are doing.
During this event, we presented our “ATVBC provincial priorities” white paper and many in attendance expressed great concern around the issues we are having. Many in particular, were unaware, of the provincial and federal 2030 conservation goals and the potential impacts to our sport.
Overall, the attendees were very interested in learning more about the issues we are facing in the industry and how they can help. They are interested in creating ways to support ATVBC through corporate memberships, new fee systems or other mechanisms and they understood the need for the dealers to be working closely with organizations like ATVBC to ensure fair access to trails in BC and a united voice to government.
Kim Reeves, 4DABC
Lastly, we introduced our newly developed dealer kits available as a “gift with purchase” valued at $75 for salespeople to give to riders when they purchase a new membership through their stores. We provided samples to all attendees to bring back to their stores to share with their teams.
Following this event, we were invited to attend a few dealer sales meetings in the Okanagan to help communicate the value and work that ATVBC is doing on behalf of the riders and present ideas for how the dealers can work together with ATVBC to address key issues.
Over the next month I will be attending these sales meetings along with key engagement opportunities in the 100mile and Shuswap area to bring our work on Trails that Transform and continue the conversations with communities that are interested in exploring ways to create ORV friendly routes into their communities.
The last two months has been very busy with multiple events and opportunities to connect with various potential stakeholders and communities on the topics of ORV friendly riding in communities and fair access to trails. We will continue to follow-up with the connections made these last few months so we can continue the conversations into the fall/winter to see where we can go in 2025.
Enjoy your fall riding, see you on the trails!
Kristin
