The 100 Mile House Snowmobile Club is once again struggling for members.
At one point, the club used to be sitting pretty with around 200 people, now they are at 25. The races, drags and other events seem to be no longer as not just membership but enthusiasm wanes.
“We really don’t do anything anymore, there’s no enthusiasm in the club anymore,” said Al Reichardt, the club’s president for nine years.
“The snowmobile club needs new blood.”
With several access points for the trails the club operates, it’s easy for non-paying members to use them without paying. What they might not know, is the $70 primary membership (or $110 for a family for four) goes into maintaining the trails, only groomed by three members of the club. The three members, who have full-time jobs outside of the club, often find themselves re-grooming the trails after they have been torn apart by people not paying their dues.
Being a member of the club has advantages, especially now it’s mandatory for all snowmobilers to have registration and liability insurance.
Both of these and the decal displaying the information is included with membership.
Without the registration, liability insurance and a road-crossing permit, if the RCMP or the Ministry of Forests catch someone riding on Crown Land they can be fined heavily and/or have their sled confiscated, according to Reichardt.
While people get a membership to avoid this, they’ll come for a ride once and are never seen again by the club.
The club has been adding incentives for new members to hopefully stay, including lowering the membership fees by $10 and a free subscription to SnoRiders Magazine and discounts at several resorts and motels in the province.
In the past, they would do special non-member rides and promote the club, giving participants the speech on why the club needs membership to keep the trails open and in the worse case, survive.
However, this practice looks like it will be coming to an end.
“Out of the 30 people, you might get one that’s interested,” said Reichardt. “We’re not going to break our necks to do these rides if we’re not going to get people on board with us.”
While Reichardt says the club won’t be going away easy, he likens the whole thing to “flogging a dead horse.”
“You’re putting a whole bunch of energy into something that’s not going anywhere,” he said.
“The snowmobile club needs a shot in the ass. Like, everybody on the board of directors is over 50. We need people to step up to the plate and help us as far as trail maintenance and running the club.”
The club’s next meeting will be on Dec. 5 at the Firehouse Restaurant at 6 p.m. and will be open to the public. Reichardt is hoping the public will let the club know what the club can do better and encourage more people to join their ranks.