Fall 2017 | 15 Trails Report CENTRAL VERMONT MOTORCYCLES 360 WEST ST RUTLAND, VT 05701 802-773-4533 WWW.CENTRALVERMONTMOTORCYCLES.COM *Offer valid at participating U.S. dealers to U.S. residents on new 2013-2017 Arctic Cat snowmobile models excluding youth, race, rental, government and special services models. See dealer for details. *FINANCING AS LOW AS 0% FOR 60 MONTHS is valid on 2013-2017 models and financed through Sheffield Financial. Financing is subject to credit approval; not all applicants will qualify for credit. Consumers will be charged a $50 consumer document fee. Financing promotions void where prohibited. REBATES UP TO $4,00 0 valid on 2013-2017 models is based on model purchased. Offer subject to change without notice. Excludes tax, freight and dealer setup. Always wear a helmet and don’t drink and ride. © 2017 Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc. All rights reserved. CENTRAL VERMONT MOTORCYCLES 360 WEST ST RUTLAND, VT 05701 802-773-4533 WWW.CENTRALVERMONTMOTORCYCLES.COM *Offer valid at participating U.S. dealers to U.S. residents on new 2013-2017 Arctic Cat snowmobile models excluding youth, race, rental, government and special services models. See dealer for details. *FINANCING AS LOW AS 0% FOR 60 MONTHS is valid on 2013-2017 models and financed through Sheffield Financial. Financing is subject to credit approval; not all applicants will qualify for credit. Consumers will be charged a $50 consumer document fee. Financing promotions void where prohibited. REBATES UP TO $4,00 0 valid on 2013-2017 models is based on model purchased. Offer subject to change without notice. Excludes tax, freight and dealer setup. Always wear a helmet and don’t drink and ride. © 2017 Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc. All rights reserved. CENTRAL VERMONT MOTORCYCLES 360 WEST ST RUTLAND, VT 05701 802-773-4533 WWW.CENTRALVERMONTMOTORCYCLES.COM WWW.CENTRALVERMONTMOTORCYCLES.COM CENTRAL VERMONT MOTORCYCLES Visit Our Showroom at 360 West St., Rutland, VT Mon.-Fri. 9-6 & Sat. 9-4 • 802-773-4533 of you there as well! We are looking to increase our membership in ways that work with our landowners and our trail system. We also want to look at offering opportunities that other locations may not offer. One of our larger focuses is reviewing our groomer fleet over the next few years and trying to make changes there to increase efficiency where we can. Other states and provinces have about the same, if not more, miles of trails as Vermont, yet they have half the grooming fleet. With grooming equipment costing between $60,000 and $240,000 per unit, this is a huge concern. The maintenance costs are high on them, in addition to the initial purchase price. If we could run more efficiently and offer the same level of grooming to our membership with fewer groomers in the fleet, the savings would be huge. We will work to do this in the coming years if we can. There is no plan in place, but research is the key right now. We also want to bring VAST into the 21st century by possibly utilizing GPS tracking units in grooming equipment. This is a controversial issue among some but it would provide three key components: 1. Updated information to riders on what was groomed and how long ago it was groomed. 2. Accurate maps pulled from the GPS tracks laid down by the grooming equipment. 3. Exact mileage groomed for more accurate pay to the groomers. It would also eliminate log sheets filled out by the volunteers. We would also work to make our parking areas and businesses easier to find and more accessible. Which parking areas are offering riding in the early and late season? Things like this that are important to riders and we need to change the way we provide them with this information. We also want to start looking at traffic patterns and trail usage a bit further to see where we need to invest our money. It is difficult to invest money where there is little riding to be had due to weather or other costly maintenance issues. However, we also need to look at where our membership is from. If there are not trails close to them, they may find other forms of recreation. Again, the balancing act comes into play here. We need to strategically plan how we are going to fund trails in the future, whether it be by rider totals, snowfall totals, average maintenance costs, trail sustainability and so on. We may need to once again change how we prioritize what we do. Another key aspect to snowmobiling is the volunteers. Without them, we have no trail system. Will we have to start paying for more maintenance and work than we have in the past? Possibly. If it means better trails for the members, then so be it. We need to actively recruit and maintain our volunteer network and be sure that there is adequate help so volunteer burnout is not an issue. This may mean that we hire coordinators for each county who oversee, manage and coordinate the work being done and make the volunteer job a bit easier. Again, this is only an idea that involves changing how we operate. The main objective here is that we need to adapt, change and continue to offer our members the same level of service they have come to expect for a similar cost. If the costs increases so should the benefit to the rider. That is the ultimate goal here and I can assure you the VAST board and staff are fully committed to making this happen. We are working on the necessary changes and know that change cannot happen overnight. Even when it does happen, change is constant and we can never become comfortable or stagnant. We need to embrace change. As Harold Wilson said, “He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” All of these life lessons about change can hopefully not only help snowmobiling and VAST thrive, but also help each of us on our personal journeys and struggles with change in our personal lives. We cannot change other people, but we do have the power to change ourselves for the better. Victor Frank put it best when he said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”