October will see Olde North State Cruisers joining forces with our good friends Upstate Cruisers for a ride the weekend of 10/24-26 in the Holy Land, also known as the mountains of Western North Carolina.
This is the event of the year: a 3-day expedition-type ride through the Smokies with spectacular views and terrain. Whether you’ve been on every ride or no rides this year, this is the one you do not want to miss.
As usual, visit IH8MUD for the North vs. South October Event planning thread.
We discussed the current and upcoming trail closures. We first need to make a valiant effort to commit some of our time to the SAVE TELLICO foundation and do what is necessary to make sure this beautiful area stays open as long as possible and we do what we as a club can to promote positive outlooks to make sure that happens. In the near future many of you know that Uwharrie National Forest has a trail closure schedule which allows us to ride until the 15th of December this is something we need to consider in the coming weeks as we plan one of our final rides in the month of December, many of you may remember last years ride we have incredible weather and a wonderful turnout.
I saw many of you on the past trail rides we had in both July and August, both of which were great rides, however we noticed a few things on these rides, we need to get better organized in our morning meeting times and also pre-ride instructions and requirements. There will be some changes many of you will see in the coming rides, one of which is the requirement of 2 way radios. We will also be organizing our larger rides in such a manner to match those more interested in the more intermediate to difficult trails on one trail and the less modified more preserved Cruisers on a different trail with trail leaders on both rides.
As many of you have seen we have an upcoming ride this weekend in Virginia and has been posted on the ONSC Board on the IH8MUD Forum, I hope many of you are able to make that ride and take lots of pictures (the club is working on a quarterly newsletter to included such material). We also have a very well organized ride with our neighboring club Upstate Cruisers out of South Carolina in October up in the Holy Land, I really hope everyone is able to make this trip as Jason and Rick have done a great job committing their time to organize and make sure everyone is able to get together at a specified time for the weekend.
After much discussion of efforts to promote the club and protect the environment in which we live we will be moving forward with the Adopt-A-Highway program discussed at the January meeting early in the year and upon updates from the program will update everyone of the times and location we have been given by the state. We have also made efforts to contact Uwharrie to look into the Adopt-A-Trail system and have been provided information to fill out and return to start that program as well. We should have updates on both in the coming months.
During the OBX run we discussed some philanthropy efforts to provide for a foundation of our choice and have done so. We have decided to work on efforts to do a fund raiser for the Mciver Educational Foundation here in the Triad of our state. We will have more updates on this in the coming months as well.
As we approach the end of the year, we need to be aware of a few things, we have a had a great first year and hope to see the enthusiasm continue into the coming years. In doing so we need to extend our efforts to get the club known and work towards hosting one of our own events as a TLCA sanctioned club, something that is in the works. We also need to consider our club positions and fulfill a few we didn’t have volunteers for the first year. As I see it we need the following positions to fulfill not only the obligations of the club but also those required under the guidelines set forth for a TLCA sanctioned club.
Currently we have the following:
-President-Greg Ashcroft
-Vice President-Juan Galvis
-Secretary-Maria Galvis
-Treasurer-Justin Giphardt
Positions we will be looking to add and fulfill
-TLCA Delegate
-Alternate TLCA Delegate
-ONSC Club Contact for ONSC and Toyota Trails Magazine
-Safety Director for Club events and Rides
I will be looking for nominations for all positions in the coming months so as we approach the new year so we can have things in place come January. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone for such a position please let me know and in our November meeting we will vote on the nominations provided to fulfill above positions, if there is something you would like to volunteer your efforts for please let me know. Things have progressed well, as I hope others feel the same way, for the club and I look forward to future events and trail rides and the upcoming year.
Regards,
Greg Ashcroft