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Disappointing to read this.


ZR SLEDHEAD

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This is a few words from the president of our snowmobile club, Mike Guimond.

"Welcome to all our out of town sledders up here from the south. Hope you are enjoying our trails, but please bare with us we are not able to maintain the trails up to the standard we are used to due to the increased traffic and major shortage of funds. 
We have the manpower to groom more but unfortunately not the $$$$$ for fuel and wages. Please bare with us until the OFSC understands our needs that all the clubs in the north are facing."
Ride safe.

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So color me as knowing nothing about how monies are dispersed to the clubs. I have however heard scenarios like the above are suppose to have a fail safe back up where there is no such thing as a club without the funds to run their groomer(s). 

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11 minutes ago, ZR SLEDHEAD said:

This is a few words from the president of our snowmobile club, Mike Guimond.

"Welcome to all our out of town sledders up here from the south. Hope you are enjoying our trails, but please bare with us we are not able to maintain the trails up to the standard we are used to due to the increased traffic and major shortage of funds. 
We have the manpower to groom more but unfortunately not the $$$$$ for fuel and wages. Please bare with us until the OFSC understands our needs that all the clubs in the north are facing."
Ride safe.

Were are the funds going? Trails have been open like 8 days and only one weekend in my area all winter. So riders are going north. I will be going soon too. If grooming stops early in north, trail permit sales next winter will tank no doubt. It is a province wide permit after all l, so riders will go where the snow is. Should be extra funds for north available, since only 25 percent of system is open. 

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We've all been made aware, time after time, bulk of the funds are spent long before any of us put a track or ski on the trail, I get that. In the same breath, one would assume actual groomer operating budgets (fuel, wages, repairs etc) must be based on a full season for each and every club. Ok so lets take that as a given, many clubs, in spite of their hard work n best wishes, have groomed at best 50% of what was anticipated in the budget, does that not leave the funds to prop up the areas still running full bore?  OR is the whole thing based on the hope and prayer many areas don't groom much because in actual fact there would never be enough money if all groomed for a full winter? 

After reading that post on facebook,  totally confused as to how this could even be possible. Does not take a genius to realize Area A has seem limited grooming because of low / no snow but area B is busting their balls x 10 just to keep up and are gonna run out of funds.  This has to be demoralizing to those working tirelessly to keep all of us on the snow.

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I am certainly no fan of the current OFSC operation, but this funding formula was accepted by the membership at last years AGM. So the membership have no-one to blame but themselves. The funding formula contained significant cut backs on trail prep funding and grooming funding. But when I tried to put the Equalization model on the agenda for discussion, could not get enough support (actually virtually no support) to have the discussion. So either they don't understand or are too afraid to stand up and challenge the current management practices.

 

This club/district, and every other club/district is getting exactly the amount of cash that was agreed to.  The only caveat I would make is that all the money goes to the district and the district divides the money up for the clubs. Maybe the club did not get a fair shake at the district level. I don't know and frankly don't care. This is one of the results you get when you give up control of your own destiny. 

 

As to where is all the cash. The last EQ payment report showed a $2.3million surplus at the OFSC level. What are the plans for that. If the history of the last 2 years hold that surplus will be used to fund next years groomer purchases. Too bad we don't have enough money to put fuel and a operator in them. 

 

Every district is receiving the $53.09 per km of trail and $58.24 per hour of grooming. So is the club saying that the $58.24 is not enough? Or is the district not allocating addition dollars according to the extra hours they are doing? Maybe this is not an OFSC problem at all. Those 2 rates were reduced by $10.00 each this year and there was not a whimper at AGM.Maybe people need to get informed and pay attention as to what is happening. 

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1 hour ago, ZR SLEDHEAD said:

We've all been made aware, time after time, bulk of the funds are spent long before any of us put a track or ski on the trail, I get that. In the same breath, one would assume actual groomer operating budgets (fuel, wages, repairs etc) must be based on a full season for each and every club. Ok so lets take that as a given, many clubs, in spite of their hard work n best wishes, have groomed at best 50% of what was anticipated in the budget, does that not leave the funds to prop up the areas still running full bore?  OR is the whole thing based on the hope and prayer many areas don't groom much because in actual fact there would never be enough money if all groomed for a full winter? 

After reading that post on facebook,  totally confused as to how this could even be possible. Does not take a genius to realize Area A has seem limited grooming because of low / no snow but area B is busting their balls x 10 just to keep up and are gonna run out of funds.  This has to be demoralizing to those working tirelessly to keep all of us on the snow.

Bingo!!!!. And the reason there is not enough money is the aggressive capital expenditures for groomer replacement the OFSC is promising. The latest EQ Report shows a $2.3 million surplus in the fund. If they send that money up north, there is not enough money for the 15-20 groomers next year. 

 

ZR, the EQ funding is working exactly as planned. Southern districts either have not received or will be required to repay EQ funding due to grooming hours being less than budgeted. As an FYI our district received no EQ funding on the Feb 20 payment due to lack of grooming hours and many others are in the same boat and are even looking at refunds. Now I am not privy to every districts info but I would assume that the current forecast for grooming hours in northern district reflects the increased grooming so they should be receiving/have received funding to reflect the extra activity. As I stated in my post above the rates for trail prep and grooming hours were reduced by $10.00 each. Based on 3,400 km and approx 10,000 hrs (4 yr average) for my district that equates to approx $130k is less funding for the district. But virtually nobody wanted to talk about this at AGM. So we have what we have. 

 

 

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Bottom line is if northern trails aren't groomed properly when south is closed. Riders are going to pack up and go to Quebec next time. Frustrating to spend money on hotels, meals etc and ride rough trails or in some cases ride trails that haven't been groomed in a week such as Sudbury town loop. Already see die hard riders go across the boarder and never hear any complaints about rough trails or lack of grooming, due to high traffic. 

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There may be more to the story than what was stated on Facebook by a club president.

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11 minutes ago, Blake G said:

There may be more to the story than what was stated on Facebook by a club president.

I was thinking the same when I read it, knowing some stuff that Big Pete has touched on. 'The squeaky wheel gets the grease?" 

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I wouldn't be drawing any dire conclusions from a Facebook post.

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7 minutes ago, Blake G said:

I wouldn't be drawing any dire conclusions from a Facebook post.

True haven't heard of any first hand complaints yet and is Saturday night. 

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I’d say someone from the OFSC needs to look at district 14’s books.  Jackpine club has a similar comment up tonight on their page.  Waiting for all the snow to fall before grooming again to save money.  There’s no reason you can’t run a groomer for $58 an hour.  Especially when the unit is being purchased outright for the club by the OFSC.   Is this a cashflow problem because the equalization hasn’t been finalized and re-distributed?  Or is there irresponsible spending going on?  It’s disappointing to see the club reverting to making a publicity stunt out of this.  Why can’t we solve these issues internally?  It’s sad how some clubs decide to air all the dirty laundry.  Obviously some frustrated volunteers here.  One of the OFSC governors needs to step in and deal with this.  If it’s a legitimate cash flow issue get an advance to these clubs.  If it’s the other heads need to roll.  Ungroomed trails in March in Northern Ontario when there is 3’ of snow on the ground is unacceptable.  MOTS was created to avoid these issues.  Not create them.

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1 hour ago, Big Pete said:

I am certainly no fan of the current OFSC operation, but this funding formula was accepted by the membership at last years AGM. So the membership have no-one to blame but themselves. The funding formula contained significant cut backs on trail prep funding and grooming funding. But when I tried to put the Equalization model on the agenda for discussion, could not get enough support (actually virtually no support) to have the discussion. So either they don't understand or are too afraid to stand up and challenge the current management practices.

 

This club/district, and every other club/district is getting exactly the amount of cash that was agreed to.  The only caveat I would make is that all the money goes to the district and the district divides the money up for the clubs. Maybe the club did not get a fair shake at the district level. I don't know and frankly don't care. This is one of the results you get when you give up control of your own destiny. 

 

As to where is all the cash. The last EQ payment report showed a $2.3million surplus at the OFSC level. What are the plans for that. If the history of the last 2 years hold that surplus will be used to fund next years groomer purchases. Too bad we don't have enough money to put fuel and a operator in them. 

 

Every district is receiving the $53.09 per km of trail and $58.24 per hour of grooming. So is the club saying that the $58.24 is not enough? Or is the district not allocating addition dollars according to the extra hours they are doing? Maybe this is not an OFSC problem at all. Those 2 rates were reduced by $10.00 each this year and there was not a whimper at AGM.Maybe people need to get informed and pay attention as to what is happening. 

I saw this exact situation coming ten years ago. I resisted a push to centralize control and to be more prudent with any and all monies spent on anything but grooming trails,

 and due to that position was treated like crap. Any money spent on marketing, flying in people for meetings, awards, or any other cause that does not allow groomers to move is simply ludicrous when we see this happen. How can anyone argue this now, not sure, but they will, and the spin will sound like a speech from Trudeau. Cue Nutter to point the finger directly at the club and absolve those that created a system destined to fail.

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58 minutes ago, signfan said:

I’d say someone from the OFSC needs to look at district 14’s books.  Jackpine club has a similar comment up tonight on their page.  Waiting for all the snow to fall before grooming again to save money.  There’s no reason you can’t run a groomer for $58 an hour.  Especially when the unit is being purchased outright for the club by the OFSC.   Is this a cashflow problem because the equalization hasn’t been finalized and re-distributed?  Or is there irresponsible spending going on?  It’s disappointing to see the club reverting to making a publicity stunt out of this.  Why can’t we solve these issues internally?  It’s sad how some clubs decide to air all the dirty laundry.  Obviously some frustrated volunteers here.  One of the OFSC governors needs to step in and deal with this.  If it’s a legitimate cash flow issue get an advance to these clubs.  If it’s the other heads need to roll.  Ungroomed trails in March in Northern Ontario when there is 3’ of snow on the ground is unacceptable.  MOTS was created to avoid these issues.  Not create them.

Mots is a a pile of poop, our club went from 5 groomers to 4 and when we have snow we cant keep up to our 460km of trails. Looking at grass now, any extra money should be sent north 

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Next time your in cochrane, ask a local involved, why trail to east to Quebec is closed, MOTS closed it bottom line!

 

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Mots = pissed off volounteers

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7 hours ago, Blake G said:

I wouldn't be drawing any dire conclusions from a Facebook post.

I have to agree with Blake.  Rather than constantly pushing opinions and speculating on partial or biased information, make some calls and verify what is being stated!  This is NOT an OFSC isssue, as Big Pete stated the Districts are reimbursed for EVERY kilometre of trail and EVERY Hour groomed.  If a club feels that they do not have funds to groom take it to the District board! NOT a public chat forum. Take the time to be informed.

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I rode this area 2 weeks ago in -32 and the trails rocked ,not sure about any of the political crap with ofsc and this club ,but if they stop grooming the town and motels will be dead for sure and guys will get their last run in wherever good trails are and will not wait for the two parties to play games ,ofsc has not been the same in the last 4 or 5 years ,I have a trail sled and a off trail one just for these occasions ,we are in gowganda now off trailing as the 107 coming in from Sudbury is pummeled and I won’t ride that ,ofsc needs to wake up fast 

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6 hours ago, GTC said:

Next time your in cochrane, ask a local involved, why trail to east to Quebec is closed, MOTS closed it bottom line!

 

 

Closed because they had their 3rd groomer pulled. Can't do all their trails with 2 groomers, and they can't afford to lose the canyon.

 

Something had to give. 

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6 hours ago, GTC said:

Next time your in cochrane, ask a local involved, why trail to east to Quebec is closed, MOTS closed it bottom line!

 

Losing the groomer to mots and not many locals ride that trail, so club wanted to concentrate on trails that most riders use. With traffic now, doubt it would be groomed anyways. Operators and some equipment should be sent to north for march break. The big loop is open equipment should be utilized in high traffic area's to keep things under control. 

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6 hours ago, GTC said:

Next time your in cochrane, ask a local involved, why trail to east to Quebec is closed, MOTS closed it bottom line!

 

Even if it hadn't been closed Kenny is having a hard enough time getting enough volunteers to maintain the trails that they currently have .  That trail would be even harder, not many volunteers are willing to go for back to back 12 hour days or the alternative of a straight 24 hour run.  Something had to give and the Canyon loop was deemed more important.  

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10 hours ago, Big Pete said:

I am certainly no fan of the current OFSC operation, but this funding formula was accepted by the membership at last years AGM. So the membership have no-one to blame but themselves. The funding formula contained significant cut backs on trail prep funding and grooming funding. But when I tried to put the Equalization model on the agenda for discussion, could not get enough support (actually virtually no support) to have the discussion. So either they don't understand or are too afraid to stand up and challenge the current management practices.

 

This club/district, and every other club/district is getting exactly the amount of cash that was agreed to.  The only caveat I would make is that all the money goes to the district and the district divides the money up for the clubs. Maybe the club did not get a fair shake at the district level. I don't know and frankly don't care. This is one of the results you get when you give up control of your own destiny. 

 

As to where is all the cash. The last EQ payment report showed a $2.3million surplus at the OFSC level. What are the plans for that. If the history of the last 2 years hold that surplus will be used to fund next years groomer purchases. Too bad we don't have enough money to put fuel and a operator in them. 

 

Every district is receiving the $53.09 per km of trail and $58.24 per hour of grooming. So is the club saying that the $58.24 is not enough? Or is the district not allocating addition dollars according to the extra hours they are doing? Maybe this is not an OFSC problem at all. Those 2 rates were reduced by $10.00 each this year and there was not a whimper at AGM.Maybe people need to get informed and pay attention as to what is happening. 

The issue at AGM is that it is designed and ran in such a way as to not allow for change as well too many want to rush through the business and do not understand the implications of the formulas . 

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