There are no minutes since June?

What has been happening, anyone know?

If several people ask maybe SnoMan will update the site for this.

We shoud also ask that agendas be posted ahead of time so that we can attend meetings of interst to us. Lets face it few people belong to clubs and fewer people go to metings and most clubs don't keep members well informed because they don't post minutes or agenda on websites, some do newsletters though. This should also be done for all the regional associations.

I belevie that openly and promptly providing information is the best policy, most respectful, trusting and encourgages participation and appreciation for the work that they do.

Your thoughts and assitance are appreciated.

Did you e-mail Snoman with your request?
Seems like most people don't really care.

I care!!!

Yes I sent it twice. First reply was we are going to redo our website. Then I said you just did that and you post the trail conditons every week so why not update the Board Minutes and the Agenda for the Board and all the regional assocaitions at once. The reply back was to ask the associations for the agenda, note nowhere is the address of this posted on the Snoman website. I think it would be a great idea to post as much information as possible and have a truely open communciation principle. Don't know about you but not having board minutes not posted for eight months behind makes me nervous as to what might be happening.

Snoman is definitely not on the ball with many things. Usually they don't seem to do anything unless you get right in their face and keep hounding them. Then, if they feel like it, they'll give you some generic answer to your question......or they will try to pass the buck and say it's up to someone else......it's not their problem.

I am not sure but it sure does not seem like snowman has a major website that lets everyone know the conditions in Manitoba. I just think things could be simplified if they posted everthing on a weekly basises. IE how snow conditions were, how trails were, how thick ice was, trails not safe etc. Most of us are not aware of conditions in province. And if one rep from each club would give there input things may be that much greater.

I will say one thing, almost all of the snow/trail conditions are out of date. Not just snowman but all sites.
For example:::::
Trail Conditions
Written by Administrator
Friday, 08 December 2006
LRSR Trail Conditions
All commuter Trails and Club Trails have been groomed this past week, There are some very icy curves to watch out for on Steve's Trail as well as on Rose's trail.

Ride with caution, Respect Private Property and Good Sledding!!!


Give me a break.

I could go to most sites and get the same crap.

It takes 3 minutes to update a web page.

Not to defend LRSR,(I am the last one to)...but if you read to the bottom of the report (or at least c&p the whole thing), you'd seen

Do fellow sledders like be treated like mushrooms, you should request to be kept informed and provid feedback to protect our sport.

never mind the minutes the trail conditions are never upto date and i have called them and left them messages over the past few days and still no phone call back , not only that , i think they should have a weekend pass available for like 15.00 and they would sell a tonn of them , as i have more than one sled and the second sled would only go out if mine breaks down or the GF comes out riding which isnt very often , so right now i am forced to purchase a 85.00 0r even 115.00 pass

but they need to keep the trail conditions extremely current , maybe some changes are needed at snowman headquearters

A 7 day pass is $50. I agree that a cheaper weekend pass would be a good idea, maybe $25.
Trail reports are the responsibility of the clubs and have nothing to do with the 2 people employed by Snoman. They update the website as soon as the reports are received from the clubs.
The people who are complaining about trail reports should join the club of their choice and volunteer to send the reports in. Most clubs barely have the resources to look after the grooming, never mind sending in trail reports.

WELL THANK YOU FELLOW SLEDDERS. The website now has boardminutes up to January so I guess you called or else SnoMan executive must read this site and decided to post the minutes. They also posted the sled sno on March 23 again a suggestion on this website. That is great. Thanks to everyone, SnoMan especially.

Please SnoMan and Regional Associations post your meeting agenda's 5-7 days before the meeting date (on the SnoMan website) so that you can get valueable feedback from fellow sledders on important issues that affect them or that they have knowlege of to assit you in making an informed decison that benefits everyone.

As to updates of grooming this really should be done by Thursday by 3 pm for safety reasons especially as people plan their rides in advance based on snow conditons and grooming most people seem to ride on Fridays and Saturdays. SnoMan needs to enforce the updates from the clubs. A portion of the SnoFund money should be held back if clubs don't report on time. This is why we pay our Sno Pass to have grooming and to be aware of the grooming. As soon as clubs start not getting all the funds they are entitled to you will see very good compliance in reporting trail conditions on time.

Yes it seems that a lessor fee for weekend passes is needed, people want to comply they don't have to they could ride without a pass so lets, help them out. The fee would ahve to be more than $25 as some people only ride 4-5 times a year so more like $30-$35.

Now since we all know this is the most informative website for Manitoba sledders why not post a link on the SnoMan website and have a writeup about this site as it is a great safety and toursim feature and great knowledge on sleds and products. There is no more Bada Bing section here so it has to be acceptable to everyone.

Fellow sledders let your voice be heard, call, write, emial, fax or visit SnoMan and let then know what you think. We need this snowfake support (pun on grass roots support).

We are making great progress here.

And some clubs wonder why they don't get more participation, members, or interest from fellow riders.

If I recieved some of the above written responses when contacting the club I'd have a hard time convincing myself to contribute to that club in any means.

If they want more involvment, they should try to be less like an ass, and more like a person who runs a club should act.

And yes, sharing up to date information is key to gathering more interested participants. People like to know what's going on in the club which they are a member in. It doesn't do any good to leave members in the dark. People loose interest that way.

SnoMan should also put the fireguard roads back on the map for Sandilands (was in 2002 and prior maps, taht is why I keep my old maps) for safety reasons in case anyone gets hurt they can go or call for help and give exact location.

Good idea. The new base map they use is crap and not accurate.

If they go with the GPS units in the groomer, all the tracks could be available for download from the Snoman website into your own GPS or mapping software.

I guessing in the next few years we will start to see GPS units come factory installed on sleds...it is already happening on quads...

There are no minutes since June?

What has been happening, anyone know?

If several people ask maybe SnoMan will update the site for this.

We shoud also ask that agendas be posted ahead of time so that we can attend meetings of interst to us. Lets face it few people belong to clubs and fewer people go to metings and most clubs don't keep members well informed because they don't post minutes or agenda on websites, some do newsletters though. This should also be done for all the regional associations.

I belevie that openly and promptly providing information is the best policy, most respectful, trusting and encourgages participation and appreciation for the work that they do.

Your thoughts and assitance are appreciated.

I did this post before when they were eight months behind (see first posta). Once again there has been no update. Why? With all the rumours on groomimng you would think this would have been updated to stop the rumours.

Does anyone have some news, eg. people who attend regional meetings or snoman board meetings?

It seems as though Mr. Stokes has a real problem with constructive citicism!
I e-mailed him asking him the same question--whyare board minutes so slow in being posted--his reply was basically not to slam snoman--in fact he said he would not reply to sarcasism!
Mr. Stokes needs to look for new employment as far as I am concerned.
Get someone in there that knows and wants to look after the sledding industry in this province.

I have to disagree with your characterization of Duncan. I think he is a real nice guy who really cares when I talked to him a few times in person. The issue I have is not having the website updated. I did call several months ago a few times not to Duncan but to the administrative assistant / receptionist and was told they are behind on getting the site updated i.e. mostly just doing the trail conditions. That is why I posted here several months ago in the hopes that perhaps the site would be updated sooner if club officals asked for the site to be updated (instead of just a joe sledder like me) or perhaps if more sledders expressed thier views on updating the website it would spark action.

I would hope that SnoMan would train a few people to update the site or ask some volunteers to do this, if that does not work then you hire some to do this (assuming they don't have a contract with a webmaster already). I also sent emials a few months back they were responded to with the same information but not recently.

Again please do not make unessary degrogatory remarks to the people we pay to advance our recreation / sport / liesure acitvity. It is not called for nor will it help. Ask nicely. I thought aI was doing this and woudl others would also.

If the site is updated freqently with news, board minutes, agenda and trail conditon it will help us all with factual up to date honest information and stop rumours and frustration.

I woudl think that this is top site for snowmobilers thus a great way to comunciate and get us all on board.

Again Duncan and the office adminstrator (sorry I don;'t know your name) I think you are doing a good job but please try to update the website often to keep us all in the loop and in the know. If this is done it will certainly lead to better customer service and better relations with all snowmobilers, those who belong to clubs and those who don't but purchase trail passes to support the trails.

Please keep up the good work and let us know how things are going. This is the inforamtion age and you have to keep your stakeholders constantly informed otherwise people think you are keeping them in the dark and that it leads to negative feelings, suspensions and mistrust. I woud hope that the Board of Directors woudl have as SnoMan's prinpciples in the mission and vison statement of frequent open and honest communciation to keep snowmobilers regulary informed.

SnoMan replied. They are having technical troubles but are trying to resolve them now in the summer.

Good Post! I have made the comments in other threads that people are pissed off at trail pass prices that are less than half of other provinces. If people want fantastic response from a first class web site, as well as premium groomed trails, and an active non-volunteer based commitee (because the active volunteers are already working to the max.) you have to pay for it. Somebody in another thread also said that one ticket to a deluxe seat at a NHL game (If they were to move to Wpg) would be more than an annual pass. I could go on for quite a while about this so i'll stop here.

Minutes are now updated.

I believe that people should contact their club, regional association and SnoMan and request that the fireguard roads in Sandilands Provincal Park from Richer to South Junction be put back on the Eastern Map like they used in 2002 and prior years.

That is needed for safety in case people get hurt (for rescure crews) or lost plus those are great riding roads and it is plainly marked they are not a SnoFund trail so there would be no liaibilty issues. I kept my 2002 maps for this reason and use them all the time.

Request it nicely and praise the clubs the associations and SnoMan and its executive and members. Do it now so it will show up in the fall.