ASSOCIATION
OF WISCONSIN SNOWMOBILE CLUBS
ANNUAL MEETING
SATURDAY MARCH 15, 2008
PLAZA HOTEL AND SWUITES, WAUSAU, WI.
Meeting was called to order
by President Bill Pfaff at 9:00 A. M.
The number attending is
714 adults and 33 youth this
week-end.
Todd Barkow of Marathon
County welcomed everyone. Darren
Schaefer of the Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau welcomed
everyone to the Wausau area. Featured
speaker was 86th Assemblyman, Jerry Pietrowski.
Posting of Colors was
presented, Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem
were recited and there was a moment of silence.
President asked to move the
Guest Speaker before Ms. Snowflake on the agenda.
Matt Frank, Secretary of
the DNR, our Guest Speaker welcomed everyone.
He has been Secretary of the DNR for seven months and is enjoying every
moment of it. There are so many
important things that are done for the people of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has such a great quality of life and I am honored to be
Secretary of the DNR. We thank the
snowmobilers for all that you do and the dedication.
We need the clubs to manage the trails.
Tourism shows that this year money has been spent in the entire State of
Wisconsin because everyone had snow. There
are over 18,000 miles of groomed trails maintained by clubs.
There was over 216,000 license sales.
The AWSC should be commended for the safety aspect of snowmobiling and it
is appreciated very much by the DNR. More
than 266,000 students have been certified by volunteer workers so they can ride
snowmobiles and be made aware of safety. During
the Madison snowstorm when the highways were closed down with traffic stuck for
several hours. Snowmoilers were the
only ones that could get through. After a call
by the DNR to Morris Nelson of the AWSC, a large group of snowmobilers
responded to help the stranded people. This
was very impressive and says something great about this organization.
It was also great to hear about the snowmobile ride for the servicemen
sponsored by this organization which was headed by Bill Schumann.
I am really looking forward to working with each and everyone of you
throughout the year.
Miss Snowflake, Ashley Hull
welcomed everyone and advised that she has been to 24 events so far.
She advised that they have started the Youth Group and looking forward to
this group.
Motion made by Jerry
Green to approve the minutes of the annual meeting of March 17, 2007.
Second by Scott Makowski. Motion
unanimously carried.
Bill Schumann, Treasurer
advised that the budget is in the packets and if anyone has questions please
contact Bill. We are using the
Balance Sheet of February 29th.
The AWSC has never been in such great financial shape.
Our numbers may be down but we are holding our own financially in
watching our spending.
Doug Johnson, membership
chairman reported that our membership is ahead of what it was last year.
Hopefully we are in the process of turning around.
We have picked up about 2500 members over last year and I am sure it is
due to the large amount of snow this season.
Brian Swan, Portage County,
stood in for Tim Werner who is out of town, to handle the elections.
We will start the nominations with Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President
and President . We will limit the
nominations to two minutes and a
second only with no comments.
Floor is open for
nominations for Secretary. Wally
Thill of Ozaukee County nominated Darlene Krentz, as Secretary.
Dennis Trapp of Green Lake County seconded the nomination .
With no other nominations, Ken
Race, Vilas County made a motion to unanimously elect Darlene Krentz as
Secretary. Second by Scott Makowski.
Motion unanimously carried.
Jim Johnson of Marquette
County nominated Natalie Sessler as Treasurer.
Jim Drmolka, Portage County seconded the nomination.
With no other nominations, Dennis
Boldt, Racine County made a motion to unanimously elect Natalie Sessler as
Treasurer. Second by Jim Johnson,
Marquette County. Motion unanimously
carried.
Jeff Draeger, Jefferson
County, nominated Bill Pfaff as Vice President.
Second by Sam Landes, Dane County.
Brian Van Someren, St.
Croix County, nominated Doug Johnson as Vice President.
Second by Ken Race, Vilas
County.
Marv Haberland,
Outagamie County, nominated Tom Chwala as President.
Second by Randy Schoppen, Jefferson County.
Larry Erickson, Iron
County, nominated Bill Schumann as President.
Second by Scott Makowski, Director-
at- Large.
Everyone has ballots and
they should be completed and will then be picked up to be counted.
The results will be announced later in the meeting.
Morris Nelson reported on
Legislation Update. Our
Lobbyist is here and some of the issues we need to deal with need his help.
AB660, regarding
snowmobiles 30 years or older was
dropped.
AB600, dealing with having
more people on the State Trails committee has also been dropped.
Personal Property taxes on
groomers is being checked into and the way the law reads says we could be
charged personal property taxes. Tim
Spearschneider reported that the Statutes do not include any exemption from
personal property tax for groomers. This
will have to be addressed Legislatively and is rather simple item to do.
Morris advised that we should get some language change on this issue.
Tim has been working on
language change regarding the Amery to Dresser Trail.
·
Morris advised that the CAP
program had a meeting on how the program works.
Tim is drawing up a draft of the Legislation that we need.
The State of Wisconsin would register a snowmobile one time for a $10.00
or $15.00 fee. It would be
registered to you for as long as you would own the snowmoible and would not have
to be registered again. You need an
initial registration number to the owner. You
would have to buy a trail sticker
the same as a non-resident sticker. You
would buy them each year and the price would be $35.00 per year to ride in
Wisconsin. AWSC would be a vendor of
the trail pass stickers. You join
your club and the AWSC would provide a standard form of registration and you
would receive a copy of that when you join a club.If you do not want to pay your
$35.00 you can send your pass in to the AWSC and they can
sell the pass to an AWSC member for $15.00.
It does add a burden onto the AWSC office.
Under this program the AWSC office would receive a portion of the money
for Administrative costs. The DNR
administrative costs is that about 100,000 renewal notices are sent out
each year and about $350,000.00 to $400,000.00 of our snowmobile fund goes to
registration of snowmobiles with the department.
Now they do not have to send out renewals.
We may be able to cut more costs by having the AWSC do it.
An effort like this for the first time will take a tremendous effort by
the AWSC to be in contact with your politicians and we need everyone to work on
this. Support your politicians and
let them know who you are.
·
Regarding the non-resident trail
pass being raised from $18.00 to $35.00. Bob
Jentz spoke on the process of bills in the Legislature.
The bill is still waiting to be passed.
Morris had his own version of why it lost and that was because the
Republicans and Democrats had a great disagreement and no one would give in.
(Morris, a few word usuage changes for the minutes.)
There were several
questions and discussion from the
floor.
Our association has lost a
dear friend of the AWSC, Art Scharren. Please
keep his family in your thoughts.
OLD BUSINESS:
Randy Murdock,
Monroe County, reported that over $300,000.00 was raised for Multiple
Sclerosis by snowmobilers.
NEW BUSINESS:
President Pfaff announced
that two Resolutions from Price County were presented
to combine Workshop and Convention and to
change the By-Laws to hold a
combined meeting each year in October starting in 2012.
They want to eliminate the March meeting and combine it with October
meeting.
A representative of Price
County spoke and said their organization felt we were spending too much time at
the meeting, however, this person has not ever attended any of the State
meetings.
President Pfaff read the
entire Resolution from Price County.
Bill Schumann, Treasurer
said we are a 501C3 Corporation and we must follow the IRS rules and we do not
need this type of change.
Motion made by Jerry
Green that we disregard the Resolution
of Price County. Second
by Scott Makowski.
After discussion from the
audience Sam Landes called the question. Motion
carried unanimously.
Mary Holden, Sheboygan
County, Chairman of the Youth Group. We
have five youth attending this week-end. Our
Miss Snowflake is a great representative for our youth.
Get your clubs and counties involved in getting the youth.
This group will meet with your Counties to try and get more people
involved.
Brian Swan announced the
election results, as follows:
There were 456 ballots
cast. 7 were not valid as they voted
for two in the same category so they were thrown out.
449 ballots counted.
Doug Johnson received
382 votes for Vice President
Bill Pfaff received 67
votes for Vice President.
Bill Schumann received
378 votes for President.
Tom Chwala received
71 votes for President.
Brian Swan announced that
we have a new President, being Bill Schumann and
a new Vice- President, being Doug Johnson.
Brian Swan asked to
entertain a motion to destroy the ballots. Motion
made by John Stohr, Walworth County to destroy the ballots.
Second by Dan Schomise, Dodge
County. Motion unanimously carried.
Scott Makowski announced
the Club Only Raffle winners:
Triton
Trailer winner: Suamico
Sno-Birds/Green Bay
Vacation
Pakage- Sno-Nuts,
Wausau
Todd Barkow announced that
he wants all safety instructors to meet and have a photo taken for the web site.
Prime rib will be served at the sit down dinner this evening, with music
after.
Ralph Culver, Director- at-
Large made a motion to adjourn. Seconded
by Jeff Draeger, Jefferson County.
Meeting adjourned.
DARLENE KRENTZ
AWSC SECRETARY