On the trails with Rural Cass Snowmobile Club

The Rural Cass Snowmobile Club held its final meeting of the season 4/13/2021 at the Pit 88 Bar and Grill in Amenia, ND. (Great burgers and thanks to owner Doug Hersh for being a club sponsor!) 18 members present, with one new member.

Club President Spencer Symington called the meeting to order at 7:07pm.

Old Business:

Trail Signing – 100% of both north and south loop trail signs are removed and stored for the season

Signs – even after building close to 800 brand new trail signs, and fixing another 600, we plan on replacing/fixing more for next season, so will be ordering more sign faces from SnowmobileND this spring.

Conex Container – internal bunks have been built and north loop signs are stored. next step is to get the container wrapped with the club logo and add some crushed concrete or Class 5 Gravel in the low spots for trailer storage.

Extra trailers – since we have broken down the trail signing, we have 2 unused trailers to sell. One, a 20′, was sold to club member Jeff Kolnes. The other, a 16′ with 2-3500lb axles, that was used on the south loop, is going to be listed and sold this spring. If you have interest, contact the club ASAP.

Membership – we had 61 paid memberships this season. down a few from our all-time club high of 65, set last season. It was also a very tough season due to lack of snow and bone chilling temps during SnowJam/State ride. We are working on ways to make renewing memberships a simpler task.

Financials – our club is sitting pretty good. We did a lot of fundraising, and our account balance is $2000 above the year prior. We spent over $3000 on new signs/posts. But some expenses(fuel) were much less, since we only groomed part of the trail one time. We still want to thank all our sponsors, and the club members that went out and asked for sponsorships.

New Business:

Charitable Gaming – We have talked about trying to get our club into Charitable Gaming/E-tabs. We had an opportunity to place machines at Pit 88 in Amenia. To do this, we need to set up our own 501(C)3. In doing research, this process was actually started back in December of 1995 when the club was originally formed. but it was never completed. We are now being told the government is months out on approvals. We would need this done by June 1st to secure the spots for this year, which will not happen. We are still going to try get the 501(C)3 so we can have this opportunity in the future. If and when we do get the tax status, we will be the only club in the state to have that designation.

Trail signing breakdown – in 2020, our club broke the trail into 10 sections. Each section would be maintained by one member. This worked out much better than trying to coordinate a group effort to go out and do the entire 100+ miles of trail in 1 or 2 days. everyone that had a previous section, volunteered to sign the same section again this fall. We also had club member Ben Fergeson step up and split up a large section on the south loop. So we now have 11 members with a designated section of the trail. Each section is 9-16 miles long.

Club Mascot/Nickname – over the past few meetings we have tried to come up with Mascot or Nickname to suit our club. We are still trying to decide on something so if you have any clever ideas, please feel free to hit us up!

Vintage Show/Swap – talk of doing a separate vintage show and swap from SnowJam. We are in the preliminary stages at the moment, but there was enough interest to discuss at our next meeting.

Trail expansion – talk of expanding our trail to more towns. Brent Haugen said SnowmobileND has miles available for expansion if we wanted to pursue it. Talk of going north to Grandin/Hunter, or Chaffee on the southwest side.

Club Elections – 3 seasons ago, the Rural Cass club was very close to being dissolved. due to lack of memberships(only having 5 paid memberships in 2018), and mainly due to lack of to help to sign the trail. Luckily, the past leadership put out an ultimatum, which got a new wave of members involved(we also had a couple decent winters of snow which also helped!). This led to a complete turnover of the club governing body in the 2019 election of officials. The newly elected officials really were going in blind. Thankfully, the past leadership; Troy and Sheila Klevgard, Jeff and Joanne Seifert, and Brent Haugen, were VERY helpful in answering questions that came up, and still continue to arise 2 years later. Things have went fairly smoothly, and the new leadership team has learned many lessons in two short seasons. That being said, we held the club elections to close out the meeting. It was quickly known that all current positions would be re-elected for another 2 year term in the same positions. We also added a few titles to other members that have went above and beyond in specific areas.

Results of Club Officer Elections 4/13/2021. All for 2 year terms

President – Spencer Symington

Vice President – Michael Geisen

Secretary/Treasurer – Zach Bohn

Communications – Jeff Kolnes

South Loop Trail Coordinator – Tim Tigges

North Loop Trail Coordinator – Toby Bryson

New titles:

Grooming Coordinator – Brent Haugen

Fundraising Coordinator – Rod Clouse

Trail Sign Coordinator – Wyatt Kram

Gaming Coordinator – Derryn Heley

Tuesday, September 14, 2021 will be the first club meeting of the 2021/2022 season. held at Happy Trails in Argusville, ND. At that meeting we will be discussing fundraising and sign building for the upcoming season.

Have a great summer!

Jeff Kolnes, club communications director.