Winter work continues at the ISMA office
In addition to numerous meetings with representatives from the US Department of Interior and the US Forest Service in Washington DC, business continues at a relatively rapid pace at the ISMA Office.
During the month of November, the snowmobile Communications Committee reviews numerous Grant requests from state and provincial snowmobile associations requesting support money for projects they will conduct over the next 12 months. Those projects include but are not limited to
- Special safety training programs for snowmobilers
- Conducting Economic Impact Studies – highlighting the positive economic impact snowmobilers have on various communities located in the snowbelt.
- Sponsoring snowmobile rides for potential new customers and for influential community leaders that want to experience snowmobiling firsthand.
- Support of trail expansions and improvements
- Improvements for office operation procedures at the state and provincial level.
The ISMA Grant Program has been in existence for over 20 years and has supported hundreds of projects that have improved snowmobiling across North America.
This is the time of year when the manufacturers collectively support Friends of the Forest Avalanche Training groups throughout the mountainous regions of the United States. Most of those Friends groups also support forecasting of snow conditions. Many of the Avalanche Safety groups are closely aligned with US, State, and Provincial forests. The money is used to support safety training and forecasting.
The manufacturers also work closely with Avalanche Canada in Alberta. Avalanche Canada is the preeminent Avalanche Training provider for Canada.
As the year progresses, we are grateful to see snow cover over much of the US and Canada and are now working on the support of Snowmobile Safety Week (January 20-28, 2018) and Take a Friend Snowmobiling Week (February 10-19, 2018) campaigns that are held nationwide.
We encourage snowmobilers to visit our website www.gosnowmobiling.org and “like” us on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/GoSnowmobiling.
Editor’s Note: Ed Klim is the Executive Director of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers’ Association. In that role, he serves as the industry’s chief liaison with government agencies in the US, Canada and the European Union. We have invited Ed to give a monthly update on important meetings and initiatives he is working on, as well as some of the unique and interesting people he comes across.
