Shawangunk Snowmobile
& Rescue Club  since 1970

April 2009

Dear Members:

We had 38 members at our March meeting. The 50-50 was sold by Jessica DiMartino and Ariene Balbach. The winner of $ 64 was Joe Vogel.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 8th at the Catholic War Veterans’ in Pine Bush at 7:30 pm. Please note this will NOT be our last meeting of the snowmobile season. We have extended the season into May. Therefore, the last meeting will be May 13th and will be the pizza party.

Remember all scholarship raffle tickets and Onondaga/NYSSA raffle tickets are due at the April meeting. If you can not attend this meeting, please mail in your money and stubs now !! The scholarship drawings will be held during the April meeting.

Adopt-A-Highway is scheduled for Sunday, April 5th. We will meet at the Hoe Bowl on Route 52 at 8am. Please remember the earlier time!! Orange vests and grabbers will be provided. If you volunteer to help, the club will provide your admittance to the pancake breakfast at the Pine Bush Fire Dept. immediately following the clean-up. Please let me know if you plan on volunteering by calling 778-4379.

Election results from the March meeting are as follows: President: Paul Oomen, Vice President: Tony Rozzi, Secretary: Lori Pinckney, Asst. Secretary: Christina Balbach, Treasurer: Pearl Buckridge. The 3 new board of directors are: Ryan Balbach, Mike DiMartino and Chris Vogel.

Since the club trip to Tug Hill was such a success, we have reserved 20 rooms at the Edge Hotel for Feb 19, 20 & 21st for next year. All the rooms are on the ground floor and will be together. The Edge staff will hold these rooms until Jan 19, 2010. It is recommended that you make your reservations early since this trip has become popular and February is prime snowmobiling at Tug Hill.

Other News: The second annual NYSSA Adirondack Park Snowmobile Trails Conference is scheduled for Saturday, April 4th from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Adirondack Hotel in Long Lake. The purpose of the event is to bring snowmobilers together with those officials that have a vested interest in snowmobile trails, identify issues affecting trails, and understand the course needed to resolve those issues. Invited participants are DEC Region 5 and Region 6, The Nature Conservancy, and DOT. There may be additional speakers. Note: Lunch is not provided as part of the Conference, but the Hotel does have a restaurant. There is no charge to attend the Conference. All attendees are asked to sign up in advance so that we may gauge seating room. Please contact Dave Perkins, NYSSA Trail Coordinator, 518-747-4609, or email jenval@roadrunner.com.

Also: SnowTrails TV Proposal: Developing Snowmobile Internet TV Broadcast Partnerships.

It is proven that SnowTrails TV is a family style TV program demonstrating and representing the realities of the true recreational snowmobile lifestyle and experience. Being accepted by the snowmobiling community as “their” TV show, it shares our passions and brings the true reality of the snowmobiling experience to the viewers.

The object of this proposal is to overcome the limited distribution that regional PBS television has provided over the past 7 years, expanding coverage to everyone. Internet video and web broadcasting has developed to a point that it can be used by most of us to communicate with our own snowmobile Internet TV broadcast network.

Snowtrailstv.com is delivering all of its TV programming online with good quality real time flash video. We call this On Demand delivery content. As a committed partner with all of organized snowmobiling and my personal commitment to improving and educating everyone about snowmobiling though the use of positive media, I am offering the free SnowTrails TV series to be broadcast from (video embedded on) a page within the websites of snowmobiling clubs, organizations and associations.

This delivery and management of Internet TV is technically easy, with today’s networks. With our growing SnowTrails TV library we can continuously provide new insightful reality snowmobiling programs for our friends, neighbors and partners to share and learn more about the snowmobiling experiences.

Additionally time sensitive, Internet TV messaging, can be directly delivered to the viewing snowmobiling membership and public with programming being updated bi-monthly during the off season and possibly more during the peak season times.

This is a free web broadcast offer to all snowmobile organizations. We are looking for up to 80% internet broadcast participation in helping locally distribute online reality SnowTrails TV. We are hoping for 10% participation with supporting Tour Pass partners for funding.

Voluntary supporting sponsorship is with a SnowTrails TV Club Tour Pass for $200.00 annually or individually for $20.00. Club members will be asked for input and opinions regarding this at the April meeting.

We have a club member that is looking for childrens helmets. If you have anything available, let me know I will pass the info on.

Lori Pinckney
Secretary

March 2009

Dear Members: We had 32 members at our February meeting. The 50-50 was sold by Dawn VanHouten and Jane Oomen. The winner of $64 was Bob Pinckney.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 11th at the Catholic War Veterans’ in Pine Bush at 7:30 pm. We will be holding elections for the following positions: President, Vice President, Secretary, Asst. Secretary, Treasurer and 3 Board of Directors positions. The Board of Directors positions are for a three year term. Anyone interested in any position, please see Darren and Charis O.

Remember to sell those Scholarship and NYSSA raffle tickets. If you haven’t sold any, please get some at the March meeting. Both drawings are held in April. All money will need to be handed in either at the March meeting or at the beginning of the April meeting.

Club Weekend at Speculator was a great success. We had 41 members attend. Everyone had a great time and the trails were very good.

The club weekend trip to the Edge Hotel was also a great success. The trails were good there as well. We had 53 members attend. There were 3 snowmobile related deaths the Saturday of the trip and thank goodness none of our members were involved. We did however, have a “rescue/event” - please read the letter at the end of this newsletter.

NYSSA is having their annual Forum & Meeting in Liverpool (Syracuse), NY on April 17th, 18th & 19th. Friday & Saturday schedules include seminars and a banquet with Sunday holding the annual meeting. Activities take place at the Holiday Inn. Check the NYSSA website, www.nyssnowassoc.org for updates & detailed seminar information. Anyone interested in attending is welcome to go. Up to 5 people can go. Registration forms will be available at the March meeting. Registration ends March 30 - so hurry!

The Wurstboro Winter Festival is scheduled for March 7th. It is from 9am to 5 pm at the Wurtsboro Airport. The club will have a table set up to provide snowmobile safety and trail information as well as sell raffle tickets. The club trailer and rescue equipment will also be displayed. A snowmobile swap meet will also be there as well as destination info, exhibitors, horse drawn sleigh rides, “touch a truck” and more. It sounds like a great event for anyone. Come check it out! If you have a snowmobile to sell, please print up a flyer (email it to me or mail to the PO Box listed at top of newsletter by Friday) and we can display it at the club “table” instead of paying the $30 entrance fee for the swap meet.

See you at the meeting.

Lori Pinckney
Secretary

To the members of the Shawangunk Snowmobile & RESCUE Club. Our recent outing to the Edge Hotel in Lyon’s Falls was our first with the club. We were primed for a great weekend and looked forward to meeting many of the club members. While some might say that our weekend turned out terrible, we would argue just the opposite. Yes, Jean’s sled broke down on Friday and we had to leave it on the trail overnight, and yes, my sled broke down on Saturday as we went to retrieve the first one; we found a group of people that could be counted on to jump in and do not just what was necessary, but they rose far above necessity and came through in a way that could not be expected. These people tried everything possible on the trail with the first sled before determining that there was no more that could be done. They then insisted on going back the next day while putting their own plans on hold and then even continued on without me when my sled broke down. They used amazing ingenuity and incorporated a child’s toboggan in order to move one sled even though it took harnessing two of their own to pull it 8 – 10 miles out to where it could be loaded onto the back of a pickup truck. Anyone else might have given up when one of the sleds pulling it overturned, but these were determined people. Even then because of their concern for the safety of others, they had one member of the group go on ahead with a flag to let oncoming traffic know what to expect. It must have looked just like the escorts we see on the road for wide loads. I felt so bad that I couldn’t be there to help. Once it was out they made sure that both sleds were brought back to the hotel and placed back in the trailer. We were just blown away. We want everyone to know just how dedicated and caring these people are. We are looking forward to many more rides in the future. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!

Thank You Especially To: Bob, Lori, John, Pearl, Stephen, Scott, Rhonda, Kristin, Tom, Ryan, Christina, Chris, Jamie, Meghan, Rich & Stephen Rozzi.

Jim & Jean Meineker

Click image to print larger flyer!

Our donation at work:

View photos from
Delaware Valley Ridge Riders' poker run 1/17/09 in Downsville, NY

February 2009 (older newsletters are on the news page)

Dear Members:

We had 37 members at our January meeting with several new members accepted. The 50-50 was sold by Jessica & Erika Dammeyer. The winner of $63 was Harold Baird.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, February 11th at the Catholic War Veterans’ in Pine Bush at 7:30 pm. We will be holding elections in march so volunteers are needed to be on a nominating committee. The positions up for election are: President, Vice President, Secretary, Asst. Secretary, Treasurer and 3 Board of Directors positions. The Board of Directors positions are for a three year term.

If you read your NYSSA online magazine for January, you may have noticed that there are 2 Scholarships available to NYSSA and NYS Snowmobile Club Members. The Northeast Chapter (NEC) Scholarship (application deadline: April 1, 2009) and the 2009 NYSSA Scholarship which offers 2 - $500 awards (application deadline: March 1, 2009). If you are interested in either of these scholarships see the NYSSA website or I will have some applications at the February meeting.

REMINDERS:

**There are Scholarship raffle tickets that still need to be sold. Drawings will be held at the April meeting. See me for tickets.

** NYSSA raffle tickets are available. Please see Rich Rozzi to get some. This year there are 62 great prizes including 3 sleds, 1 trailer, snowmobile vacation trips, merchandise, gift certificates, and cash.

** Club trip to Lyons Falls, NY(Tug Hill, The Edge Hotel) is Feb 20th through 22nd. If you have not made your reservations yet for the Edge Hotel, do it now -315-348-4211. Rooms are no longer being held for our club members, it is first come, first served.

We had 10 members participate in the Delaware Valley Ridge Riders poker run January 17th up in the Downsville/Walton area. It made for a great day trip from our area. Trails were well maintained.

Lori Pinckney
Secretary

Prices are shown on the order form.

Dark colored items will be imprinted with white lettering, light colors with black lettering.

Orders have been completed. We may put together another group order in the upcoming months. If you're interested send your order to Lori Pinckney, 845-778-4379.

BIG THANKS to Lori for pulling this project together!!