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2021 MSA Club of the Year – Norway Trackers Snowmobile Club Written by John Monk

ues to show their concern of being part of the “big wheel” across the state. Yep! Nailed that one! A big ole giant hurdle unheard of a year ago was the use of technology for company business and communication. Again, this club has not only embraced it but capi- talized on all facets of Facebook, Texting, Zoom and live reporting videos from inside the groomer. They jumped in unknowing like the rest of us of this years “Virtual Snowcross Race” and clearly seized that moment. To put it bluntly, their message is carrying where it needs to be. Please bear in mind, with these new ways of mes- sage sharing, the chance exists that some of the weakest or those choosing tradi- tional platforms could be left behind. Not with this group. One of their posts clearly referenced options for the “Older crew” and an option for the “Newer crew”. Yes folks, this was an outright display showing respect for their forefathers of their club and appreciation to where they had been brought to today. That is not something that comes easy in the volunteer arena. What a concept to embrace in today’s world… Yep! Check in that box! Drama with today’s “my voice every- where mentality” can be open-ended. Not with this club. Clearly, they vet their posts and pages often and silence unwanted input not relevant to their subject. While not knowing all their members person-

ally, from the outside, they clearly show an extremely low tolerance for this part of life. Kudos to you folks! In 2019, MSA was invited to participate with one of their landowner dinners. Not only were ALL the clubs officers present, many additional members were there and shared their sto- ries of how they got in their positions. The night followed an excellent discussion, raf- fle and walk around of the rescue boggan at their local firehouse. We might add that being a landowner’s supper, a sprinkling of landowners often attend. That night, MSA came away with truly an experience of a lifetime with the highly surprising intro- duction and meeting of Bob Chadborne with Chadborne Timberlands. At that very moment, Maine was in a contentious battle outside of snowmobiling, which may have changed our front as a land user forever. We truly believe that night inked an incredi- bly positive chapter in that gentleman’s life. This season, their club was faced with a mid-season, unforeseen trail closure due to logging. The term Mid-Season is used extremely lightly as like the rest of us, there was no beginning or ending of the season, so as you can imagine, a mid-season clo- sure was pretty disappointing. The post went up, strong and concrete and they moved on. We all appreciate the good with the bad. Somehow, some weekend, they even landed some great weather and pulled off a trailside BBQ with incredible

visibility and an onslaught of happy patrons clearly enjoying what their club offers. Nicely Done! Point and simple, a club should not be all work. These people clearly appear to pride themselves in enjoying their sport. Again, from displayed pictures, this season, they clearly exploded beyond their town’s bor- ders and ventured to many different regions of Maine including The Forks, Coburn Sum- mit, Grand Falls and on another trip, the great Kathadin Region. A season ago, six- teen of their members jumped a plane and spent a week riding the Yellowstone area in Montana. That’s a bucket list item often on about every snowmobiler’s list out there! Wow…. One of their members just recently even communicated to us, in their 50 years of snowmobiling, they have never been as proud to be involved with such a great group of people. In follow up, if there is a way, the MSA is not sure how that we could demonstrate a better well rounded club for the State of Maine and the Snow- mobile world to see. While clubs are all still standing after this last year, this one has clearly risen to the top and deserves Top Honors of 2021 MSA Club of the Year! MSA is extremely proud to congratulate the Norway Trackers Snowmobile Club as being 2021 MSA Club of the Year!

I t’s hard to believe that the season is over and we have crowned the MSA Club of the Year. If one reflects back on the past sea- son since last March, It quickly calls out that pretty much any club that has carried on and is still standing deserves mention and to be in the running for this award. It truly has been a world of unknowns that all clubs as well as MSA has faced. “We all Done Good”! To that, we all deserve something. The State of Maine and all the ridership of the industry that came here should be very thankful. However, with that said, one club must prevail! To be recognized by MSA and Club peers, a great first step would be continuing to be active with MSA and actively involved with sharing input as well as output of the organi- zations decisions. After all, the clubs are the voice of the future of this sport. This club readily has member’s active and voicing concerns as well as support for MSA testi- mony and have also been great supporters of our annual meeting. Aligning with that, actively submitting club news and partici- pating with our monthly newsletter contin-

“2021 MSA Picture of the Year Awarded to Jeff Bourassa from Winslow”

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