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WHAT do you do to a club that does not follow the FCMQ rules


grumpysanta
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE

 
NOTICE OF CLOSURE OF TRAIL 2018
 
Trail: Trans Québec 3 to LAKE BEATTIE
 
 
 
Friday, December 8, 2017
 
 
Dear members,
 
 
It is with great regret that we announce the closure of the 21 km trail, linking Trans-Québec 3 (near Highway 50) and Lac Beattie, for the entire 2017-2018 season.
 
 
A series of unfortunate events initiated by a director of another snowmobile club, significantly affect our operating budget planned for this season. They put us unnecessarily in financial jeopardy and lead us to this closure. These events forced us to assume a significant cost that was not included in our budget. Although they are guaranteed by the FCMQ, they should never have occurred with a minimum of judgment and respect towards us.
 
 
The decision to close this path was not easy. The issues and impacts were discussed with passion during the last meeting of the Club des Lynx held on December 6, in the presence of all the directors and more than a dozen volunteers. This is the only local trail of our club so it is sad for all the snowmobilers who circulated there. We are disappointed and deeply sorry. We never want to penalize our members and are always looking for ways to improve our trails and their conditions. This disappointing decision for some will however be most beneficial for most of you since our other trails can be well maintained throughout the season. At this point, we can not comment on the future of this trail either.
 
 
This kind of event reminds us of the importance of your loyalty to the Lynx Club by buying your trail passes at home, and advising your friends to do the same. Your input is important and so is the survival of snowmobiling in our area and the long-term survival of our club.
 
 
No comments will be made on this situation until further notice or until significant financial assistance from the FCMQ or other sources occurs and helps our finances.
 
 
Thank you, dear members and partners, for your loyalty and understanding.
Have a good season in our trails and be careful.
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That is only half the story JG.

http://clubmotoneigehiboublanc.com/english/club-lynx-trail-closed-tq3-north-to-gorelac-beattie-20172018-season

My take is, It would seem Hebo sells passes anywhere an establishment is willing to do so for them. Reading between the lines I guess the passes in question were sold at an establishment within the Lynx club territory. No law against this I am assuming but not really that great if a person thought they were buying to support Lynx. That is probably what ticked them off, but their actions afterward were not appropriate. These clubs need to sit down and figure out how to play nice in the sandbox together, if at all possible at this point.

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Not here to start a war.  

This was posted on doo talk from a member (I believe) of the other snowmobile club.

http://www.dootalk.com/forums/topic/1478601-dirty-low-down-backstabbing-deal/#entry20820441

Aside from who is correct and to believe, when will this be resolved?

 

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Maybe there should be a complete overhaul of how passes are sold. The on line method and indicating which club you want to support on your application is a start but then they charge an extra $5 for this so people will still want to buy at a store, outlet etc to save a buck and then there is the convenience issue selling in stores if folks need a pass without delay.

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There is usually a "gentleman's agreement" amongst clubs that, within the Province, we restrict our club's pass sales to vendors within our jurisdictions.  We also generally agree that all "out of Province" sales points are fair game.  Obviously, this could sometimes lead to issues in "border" areas.   Ideally, these are resolved through discussion between clubs.  Furthermore, some clubs are attempting to groom extensive trail networks despite having limited access to points of sale.  For instance, Les Marauders of Duhamel, whose trails our club members use extensively, have very little access to points of sale.  Consequently, our two Boards of Directors have worked together to agree that at least one vendor in our "area", Laperrière Motosports,  should feel free to sell trail pass/memberships (it's regrettable that people no longer refer to them as membership cards, but that's another story) for both clubs, and we don't begrudge any such sales supporting our neighbours a couple of clubs over.

That the new centralized trail pass system, hopefully fully implemented next season, should alleviate a lot of these problems.  The paperwork, effort and running around that this system will save already overburdened volunteers has been covered extensively elsewhere, and needs no repeating here.  Ditto the $7.00 processing fee to cover off the cost of the contractors engaged to process pass sales (when we did it ourselves - or more accurately, myself - the cost to the club, including registered mailing and PayPal fees, was roughly $20.00 per pass).  The new system worked splendidly for us so far this season, and will work even better next year.  Ontario, which shares a similar land mass and trail network (though not a revenue distribution model) has been usually this system exclusively for four years now and, excepting a hiccup this past fall when it became overloaded as their deadline approached, it has worked out very well.  It minimizes conflict, and eliminates the sale of trail passes at "illegal" discounts which is still rampant.  As president of a club that has always scrupulously abided by the FCMQ regulations agreed upon by everyone at annual AGM's, I can't wait!

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38 minutes ago, grumpysanta said:

well i fell sorry for the 25 people that bought the passes ....and the Lynx club never registered them with FCMQ , so not  only were  these people riding without a pass,    and  THEY HAD NO INSURANCE !

That is what I mean, what that club did next was un acceptable.

Edited by Cnc
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Make all sales online, finished. Its 2018 in one week. Everyone has access to Internet, no excuses, if it costs 5-10$ more oh well, if that 5-10$ is too much more money for you.... then sell your sled and gear cause this is not the sport for you. 

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Thanks for the input Dan. Agreed on the price Iceman. Especially for someone who lives as far away as we do online is awesome and worth a small amount of money. It honestly doesn’t save me money for a season pass but it’s so much easier the pass is on my sled already.  I have been on trips with groups where we couldn’t find local places to sell us passes -  2012 I think Magog had a lot of snow and we didn’t find passes until we had a burned down sled to take care of. Motors RE helped us a ton that trip. 

Hey Dan when my trail pass came from your kitchen it came in half the time. 

Sounds like Lynx tried to pull a fast one and got their wrists slapped for $10G and are holding trail access hostage. Why not it seems to work for one group or another every year. 

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1 hour ago, Gullyrider said:

There is usually a "gentleman's agreement" amongst clubs that, within the Province, we restrict our club's pass sales to vendors within our jurisdictions.  We also generally agree that all "out of Province" sales points are fair game.  Obviously, this could sometimes lead to issues in "border" areas.   Ideally, these are resolved through discussion between clubs.  Furthermore, some clubs are attempting to groom extensive trail networks despite having limited access to points of sale.  For instance, Les Marauders of Duhamel, whose trails our club members use extensively, have very little access to points of sale.  Consequently, our two Boards of Directors have worked together to agree that at least one vendor in our "area", Laperrière Motosports,  should feel free to sell trail pass/memberships (it's regrettable that people no longer refer to them as membership cards, but that's another story) for both clubs, and we don't begrudge any such sales supporting our neighbours a couple of clubs over.

That the new centralized trail pass system, hopefully fully implemented next season, should alleviate a lot of these problems.  The paperwork, effort and running around that this system will save already overburdened volunteers has been covered extensively elsewhere, and needs no repeating here.  Ditto the $7.00 processing fee to cover off the cost of the contractors engaged to process pass sales (when we did it ourselves - or more accurately, myself - the cost to the club, including registered mailing and PayPal fees, was roughly $20.00 per pass).  The new system worked splendidly for us so far this season, and will work even better next year.  Ontario, which shares a similar land mass and trail network (though not a revenue distribution model) has been usually this system exclusively for four years now and, excepting a hiccup this past fall when it became overloaded as their deadline approached, it has worked out very well.  It minimizes conflict, and eliminates the sale of trail passes at "illegal" discounts which is still rampant.  As president of a club that has always scrupulously abided by the FCMQ regulations agreed upon by everyone at annual AGM's, I can't wait!

I like the Marauders on trail hotdog  cook out day, stopped several times.👍🏻

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WE have dealers here that sell passes for 3 clubs at once and even do so cross border and have not had a problem , you choose what club just like u do in your own town , you might join a club where your country house is or you might like another club because they work harder to groom and open new trails ,  or where u ride the most.

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I certainly don't know what a fix is. This is a club by club getting together and having to realize every club needs their neighboring club. My self I have always bought passes from the same club from people I met many year ago. I think of them as friends.  We do usually ride at least once in their area each year but we also have favorite places else where. 

Maybe one thing to think about is sharing out of providence pass money with all the club's. I would think this pass money would be a small percentage of all the money taken and I may be wrong. I hate to think if one club closes down that it could effect the whole system. These are my thoughts and I may be way off track. Just need more talking and have people talking more.

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10 minutes ago, Shore1066 said:

I certainly don't know what a fix is. This is a club by club getting together and having to realize every club needs their neighboring club. My self I have always bought passes from the same club from people I met many year ago. I think of them as friends.  We do usually ride at least once in their area each year but we also have favorite places else where. 

Maybe one thing to think about is sharing out of providence pass money with all the club's. I would think this pass money would be a small percentage of all the money taken and I may be wrong. I hate to think if one club closes down that it could effect the whole system. These are my thoughts and I may be way off track. Just need more talking and have people talking more.

I don't know how that would be worked out, though I guess there could be a formula. I imagine not each club has the same overhead etc due to length of their season, frequency of grooming due to volume of traffic, distance they cover and much more I am not aware of. Since we are talking passes, one thing I always thought and may have mentioned in the past here is, wouldn't it be great if you could pay a premium and have a pass that covered more than one Provence for riders that live or ride close to another Province. Or registering the rider pass wise not not the sled so guys with multiple sleds could choose what sled they wanted to ride on a particular day if they have multiple sleds. You can only ride one at a time anyway. 

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