8924-R1_MSA_December2024_Newsletter

From The Executive Board

way. Clubs and their teams are working hard on trails, bridges, and grooming equipment in anticipation of a great season. Remember to register your snowmobiles and do not forget to join a club and participate in that club. Not only is there labor work to be done, but there is an enormous amount of work that you can do behind the scenes with management, fundraising, membership and more. So even if you think you cannot help in the woods, you can still contribute a great deal. The MSA Central Region is the gateway to the Northwoods for tourists and many of our clubs operate with small teams. So please follow our websites and social media sites for information on individual clubs in the areas you ride and pitch in where you can. I would also like to thank all of you who attended the Central Region Directors meeting at the VFW in Madison. And a special thanks to all that helped set up and prepare the delicious meal. Ron Nunes, Central Region VP W ell, the end of another year is almost here and it doesn’t’ seem possible we will soon say Hello to 2025!! The Fall of 2024 has been too warm to make us feel like winter is coming, but hopefully by the time you read this it will have arrived. With the dry condi tions in Oct. and most of Nov. at least some of the water holes have dried up. Let’s hope they stay that way, freeze hard, and allow us a winter like we deserved and definitely want. I know there are people out there doing cold weather and snow dances now, so maybe if we all do them it will happen! On Nov. 19 th MSA brought back President’s night and what a night it was! I couldn’t be more proud of Eastern Maine Snowmobilers and especially cook for the night Larry Lafland and his crew for putting on a wonderful meal. They served 23 presidents and a total of 70+ meals in a short period of time. Great job by There are 4,175 members and 882 business members for a total of 5,057 memberships. Compared to last year as of mid-November we are almost 1,000 total memberships ahead this year! Totals be region as of 11/23/24 Coastal- 594, Central-687, Northern -1,104, Western- 1,330 and Eastern – 1,335 high school senior planning to attend are eligi ble to apply. All the necessary information is available on our website and we have worked to streamline the process to the point that we have heard from past applicants that our appli cation is relatively easy to complete. The due date may seem to be a ways off but April 1, will be here sooner than you think. The committee would like ways to encourage as many families as possible to apply. With the two winners each getting $1,500 we feel like this is a significant way to help support our MSA family members with the cost of educa tion. The MSA office is always willing to help with any questions that might arise and every scholarship committee member is willing to offer any support that we can. Sticking with the holiday theme, we are always looking for donations or pledges to help build the scholarship fund so that we can give as much as possible. We have had a really good year in terms of finances and we want to continue to build so that our awards can keep up with the rising cost of post high school edu cation. If you, your club or anyone you know might be interested in supporting our cause, please feel free to reach out to any of us . Thanks to each and every one that has helped in the past and wishing all a happy and healthy holidays season. Incredible work to ALL the clubs who are working hard to renew members and sign up new ones. I did notice quite a few members who are returning to clubs after two or more years not being members. Glad to have you back in the clubs and back with MSA! Report as of Nov. 23,2024- (after the two-day ,700 + memberships were entered}187 of the state’s 284 clubs have submitted memberships to MSA. One club has over 400 (Rangeley), one club over 200 (Washburn) and two clubs over 100 ( Moosehead and Blue Ridge).

ties! While this bond is not a silver bullet to our funding concerns it is a significant step forward and will hopefully provide some true support and relief to many club projects in the coming years. MSA leadership and I are work ing diligently with state officials to urge that the grant process be as simple as possible so that clubs can put this funding to use as soon as possible without a lot of red tape. Additionally, I am also working with MSA leadership on potential legislative strategies to attract additional funding for our clubs, mainte nance and infrastructure. There continues to be a lot of details to iron out, but we are being dil igent in exploring all opportunities. Stay tuned! The new Legislature will be seated on Decem ber 4, and they will return to Augusta in early January to begin their work in earnest. I am anx iously awaiting committee assignments to better understand what legislators we will be working with most closely, and look forward to build ing new relationships and educating legislators about the positive benefits of snowmobiling and the snowmobile economy here in Maine. Until next time, please have a safe and relaxing holiday season, and hopefully, we’ll see you on the trail early this season! James Cote Maine Snowmobile Association Lobbyist afternoon from what I see clubs have been busy painting drags and getting their equipment up and running for what we hope to be a better winner than last year. I’m hoping to get back into the motion of things and start feeling better from some medical hurdles. I’ve had to jump. I just want to say that I appreciate everybody’s patience, understanding and giving me words of encouragement. I enjoy seeing things come together for the sport that we all enjoy although I may not be able to ride this year. I am certainly excited to see people while I’m serving up a hot meal at the T-bone Trail in Limerick. The holidays are here and I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and has a fantastic upcoming Christmas. I hope to get together with some clubs and speak in regards to fundraising and talking about grants. I hope everybody enjoys the upcoming months and get a bunch of riding in. As always don’t hesitate to reach out to me if anybody needs anything merry Christmas everybody and have a happy new year. Matthew Baron W ell folks, just got back from a great meeting in Holden, it was presidents night and 75 were in attendance. Great supper, great people, the MSA is an organization we can be very proud of. We will hold the January meeting here in the western region; it will be held at the Masonic lodge on route 219 in Leeds (many thanks to Brad and Marie). I am proposing this to be another president’s night, so we can meet and honor the presidents in the southern part of this great state, more info next month. Many thanks go out to all the fantastic VOLUNTEERS that make our trails what they are, we realize that you do not get the recognition you deserve, keep on, keeping on. Enough of my babbling get out and do a snow dance, let’s pray for a good year of riding, lots of snow, our businesses deserve it. Till next month, ride right, ride safe. GOD BLESS Jerry allowing us to be there, and to Matt Stedman and Brent Spaulding for speaking to those in attendance. These regional meetings are always a nice chance to meet with clubs and discuss topics that they want to talk about. Hopefully there will be two more in January, so clubs watch for your invitations. Eastern Region clubs- Once again you are getting members to join and renew and are sending in those memberships are a great pace. Keep up the wonderful work you are doing. I’ve said it before and will many more times: I am proud of what the clubs in the Eastern region do and all the effort they put forth to make snowmobiling in this area so great. Have a wonderful holiday season everyone and hope that 2025 comes in roaring with cold, cold weather and lots and lots of snow. We ALL DESERVE it!!

MSA Lobbyist Capitol Report

Scholarship Committee

James Cote MSA Lobbyist

Harvey Chesley, 207-314-0637 25 Hillcrest Dr, Clinton ME 04927 harv.chesley@gmail.com H ello fellow snowmobilers, with the holi days fast approaching it’s a great time to think about the MSA scholarship if you have any high school or college age students com ing home. Most all students will be home for an extended period of time for either Christ mas break or at least some family time. Any dependent family maybe either currently enrolled in post high school programs or any

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reetings Maine Snowmobilers! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving and the start of our holiday sea son. As I write this I am so pleased to see sev eral inches of snow on the ground already and more snow and cold weather in the forecast! I am pleased to report, as you likely already know, that the $30 million trails bond passed in November with flying colors, and attracted more support than any other bond measure. In fact, the trails bond won in 14 out of 16 coun

From The Membership Corner

Coastal Region VP

Matthew Baron, 207-608-3737 92 Emery Corner Rd, Limerick, ME 04048 msacoastalregion@gmail.com Well, it’s December already winter is in the air. Some folks have already seen snowfall. It’s exciting and gets everybody’s blood flowing but quickly disappoint when it melts come

Eileen Lafland, 207-843-7813 PO Box 733, Holden ME 04429 L.andE.lafland525476@gmail.com

W OW!! In a two-day span in late No vember between Liz in the office and myself we entered over 700 memberships!!!

Western Region VP

Central Region VP

Ron Nunes, 401-527-5370 260 Last Round Up Rd, Lexington Twp, ME 04961 Thelastroundup2018@gmail.com T he leaves are falling temperatures are dropping. Fall is here, and winter is on its

Jerry Major, Cell: 207-838-0892 137 Morrill Rd, Norway ME 04268 mrfun101jem@gmail.com

MSA president Mark and Director of Opera tions Al for keeping the meeting rolling ahead. Most importantly a BIG THANK YOU to all the Presidents for what you do. Thanks also to ALL CLUB MEMBERS for making our sport fun and safe while making sure your clubs are operating and keeping the doors open. By the time you read this, there will be some very happy people, as the Super Raffle draw ing will have already taken place. Congratu lations to all the winners and thank you to all the clubs for selling tickets this year. It always amazes me how many tickets are sold and how many ways clubs find to sell them. Again, great job to all the clubs that sold tickets. Also, by the time this hits your mailboxes another Eastern regional meeting will have been held. This one was at the East Branch Sno Rovers clubhouse in East Millinocket/ Medway. Thanks to everyone at the club for

Eastern Region VP

Eileen Lafland, 207-843-7813 PO Box 733, Holden ME 04429 L.andE.lafland525476@gmail.com

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