From the President

From the MnUSA President Positivity

Scott Wakefield

The ‘Positivity Party’ (charter member, yours truly) has been out campaigning as of late, with stops in Region 1 in Red Lake Falls, Region 5 in Owatonna, and Region 8 in Minnetonka, visiting with clubs at the regional meetings, and discussing the positive things we have been doing at MnUSA. If you have a regional meeting coming up, let me know and I will try my best to attend.

We also had a very nice positive piece in MidWest Outdoors magazine in the Minnesota section with a title of “MnUSA 40 Years Later, Still Blazing Trails.” It focused on what we do as an organization and the importance of getting the message out about: no trespassing; volunteering—brushing, clearing, sign posting and maintaining miles of trails; education, snowmobile safety training, and so on. In addition, MnUSA Region 8 clubs again participated in Toys for Tots, collecting 825 toys and $2,200 in cash donations, and was on the local NBC affiliate KARE 11 News, 10pm Friday night newscast.

So, does MnUSA present a positive message about snowmobiling? I’m sure trying to do my share, but I challenge you and your club, to do the same. Anything I’ve listed above can be accomplished by you and your clubs, so if we all work together, we can accomplish a tantamount of good will and positivity.

If I’m doing the math (and I kind of like to do that), Region 1 has 32 clubs, Region 5 has 42 clubs, and Region 8 has 9 clubs, with varying amounts of members that show up to regional meetings. MidWest Outdoors has a readership of about 65,000 between print and digital. KARE 11’s Nielsen ratings for a 10pm Friday night newscast is around 590,000 households. So, if you add all that up, MnUSA has provided a positive message in the last month or more, to darn near three quarters of million people, not including 10,000 magazines, to members.

Let’s make it an even million! You can help by submitting club news of your positive community involvement, and if you haven’t started, now’s a good time to start, so we can bank that positivity for future use. Page 34 of this month’s issue has a full-page club submission form with deadlines and descriptions of what we are looking for and where to send them.

January is our safety issue, so you will see an emphasis on safety, safety training, and the instructors who sacrifice time and money to train the future of our sport (read more in the Milestones column—check it out!) Snowmobile Safety Week is January 14th-22nd—let’s get out and promote that in our regions, as safety is tantamount to our survival as an organization and sport.

Region 8 is our destination this month. Constantly dealing with development and 1031 exchange purchases makes it difficult to maintain trails in Region 8, but with a lot of perseverance and good luck, it can get done. And if clubs are social clubs, they tend to really give to their communities and community programs and events. I evidenced that firsthand at the Delano Snowstormers Silent Auction fundraiser and the Foxtailers Trail Opener party, both held the first weekend in December. Both events were packed with attendees, with many good prizes donated by local business that went to support these very hard-working clubs. Oh, and I happened to pick up some nice auction items myself.