Ideas to raise some money to help keep trails open

[blondejoncherokee]

so i was thinking about some ways to help raise money, on top of whatever people normally donate. i got some quick ideas.

idea #1

auction with a swap meet,
etc where everyone donates free parts and all the proceeds go to whereever the sierra chapter votes on
and we can all chip in to provide cheap bbq where any donations go to the same cause

for example, i have alot of XJ parts i can donate, and some CJ parts
we do a combo of an online sale like craigslist, and a swap meet sorta thing, and only bring stuff we can donate for free, and we sell it all to other jeepers, we can advertise on craigslist, pirate, cherokee forum, etc, hold it in may, so we can plan , and give us time to find a location.

idea #2
garage day
guys post up saying they either dont know how, or dont have the space,
some of us have space, and some of us know how,
dont have a welder? no transmission jack?
so we can have a series of garages all over northern california, and a series of teams of mechanics ready to work for free, , maybe even get an actual shop or two to chip in space on day they are closed if anyone knows one?

instead of a car wash, sierra chapter guys allow their garages for the guys with less experience, with no garage, or without the right tools.
id offer up my time and my garage for a saturday, actaully both of my garages , and we accept donations from the guys whose rigs get worked on, it can be only 10 bucks if thats all you can spare, that at the end of the weekend we donate as a lump sum to a group

adopt a trail oror dirt road or something
not just trails but access roads are getting closed, lets adopt one that hasnt been adopted yet and help keep another one accessible

 

[NorCalChris]

I like the adopt a trail idea.

 

[Jeep450r]

Why not combine the swap meet, bbq, and car wash all into one. Make it a larger thing with people participating from all over norcal. Get people from Pirate and other 4x4 enthusiasts in on it.

And even if we can't adopt a trail, what about educating people on the trail. Instead of turning away and ignoring the people who aren't treading lightly and those who go off the trail to get to their "killer spot", we can speak up and let them know that what they are doing is wrong.

Almost every time I have wheeled Deer Valley (with or without ), I have seen people out in their "secret camping spots" hidden in the trees along the river crossings on DV where the only way to get there was to cut across some grassland. I wish I had the courage to step up and tell them that what they were doing was wrong before it was too late.

Maybe we can take a new step as a club to be more vocal about what is right and what is wrong while out on the trail. Maybe we could print out flyers regarding this whole mess and the danger that our trails are in and hand them out on the trail. We could even put them on peoples windshields at the base of the stair steps on Slick Rock, for example.

Now I'm not saying that as a club is ignoring these things on the trail, but if we made keeping our trails clean/safe/open a priority over simply having fun, then maybe we can enjoy our trails for a few more years.

Something as simple as requiring each rig to have a trash bag hanging off the back would make it this much easier to keep our trails clean.

It has been a dream of mine to bring my own children and grandchildren camping on these trails, and seeing this dream crumble at my feet is heartbreaking. I feel that there is no better time for me personally to get involved in the fight to keep our trails open, and also feel that there is no better time for to get more involved as well.

Sorry about my little rant.. Stepping off my soap box now.

:smsoap:

 

[DrvOvrIt]

I agree educating folks on staying on trail is key!! I like the flyer idea, also some better signage maybe. Reading through some of the active legal documents in this case from the Blue Ribbon Coaltion's site, the plaintiff's are arguing that whole trail route access has to be closed because signs aren't enough to keep folks off the meadows. Close it all because the risk of someone driving off trail is too great?
Quote from the Plaintiffs;

“it is very difficult and impractical to effectively prohibit illegal use
on meadows if only the portion of a route that crosses the meadow is closed.” Pltfs’ Reply On
Remedies, dkt. #104, at 10. “Pragmatically, if a motorized vehicle route intersects a meadow,
and the remainder of the route is just on the other side, simply installing a sign at the meadow
opening is not sufficient to ensure closure; the risk of intrusion is simply too great and, indeed,​

exacerbated by a route that dead-ends at a closure.”

Quoted from:
http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/...se to Defendants' Proposed Order 03-28-12.pdf

BRC links to the legal muck going on, so depressing.
http://www.sharetrails.org/news/2012/04/05/brc-and-legal-partners-object-court-ordered-interim-closures

Support the Blue Ribbon Coalition and Cal 4WD clubs, these seem to be the groups actively involved in the legal proceedings!!

 

[KTMqdracer]

Besides the money, I think one of the biggest things needed is just to spread the word and get as many people involved as we can.

Another thing to do if it hasn't been done already would be to create an online petition stating our view or a generic letter that people can sign and send to those involved. We need to show how many people these closures will impact and how wrong these enviro nuts are.

 

[Ben H]

I have been selling some miscellaneous parts over on Pirate...Have a big long parts thread. I've been donating 30% of all proceeds to save the hammers, I've been able to donate $150 to FOJV at this point (About 30 minutes with a semi decent lawyer, 15 minutes with a good one)....but will likely change gears for this cause now.

If anyone has some old parts laying around...they might serve as a good fundraising tool.
One mans junk is another's treasure.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

yah i just donated to BRC and CORVA, and i plan on doing some to FOTR and FOF as soon as i sell more crap i have lying around and pay back my brother 2700 i borrowed to buy this last jeep i bought

 

[DaveNJeep]

Great ideas, keep them coming. I'm good for the swap meet/bbq thing.

 

[DaveNJeep]

Is affliated with CAL 4 Wheel? How many members of the SC are members of Cal 4 Wheel?

 

[DaveNJeep]

I decided to put my money where my mouth is and turned my name RED! I have a RED name!

 

[NorCalChris]

I say we adopt a trail and donate hrs of volunteer work. SoCal chapter adopted one...

 

[NorCalChris]

I'm not sure if we are associated with cal 4 wheel.

 

[DaveNJeep]

First off if we arn't affliliated w Cal 4 Wheel we should be. Second, has anyone adopted Deer Valley? That's my personal favorite.

 

[JaVeLiN]

Great ideas. Also, we should send some of our kids to law school on some kind of scholarship. ( you like Jeeps, and get $$$ for school ) Also seems like we need some true leaders to step up and get elected to political office. ( Power to make policy and legislate with the old XJ in mind ) County board of supervisors is a good start? I just want to throw in some long term ideas, and get more people thinking about strategy and social engineering... What else could we do??? Occupy Deer Valley??? hmmmmm....

 

[DaveNJeep]

We can't "occupy", we have j-o-b-s. (seriously how do they "occupy" for weks at a time?)

 

[JaVeLiN]

Tru Dat. You can only occupy if you gots no J-O-B and no K-A-R !!! After one more beer and a little more thought, i think BlondeJon is brilliant, and idea #2 sounds real cool. My only skill so far is the front fender trim, but I have a Saws-All and would donate a Sunday for the cause. Also seems like option #1 where we all chip in to provide cheap bbq would be a blast, and I'll bet we could all scrounge up some cool XJ parts to donate. You guys just make me proud to be American !!!

 

[JeepFreak21]

I can donate garage space and what skills I possess. I like that idea.

The great thing about the car wash is it involves those that aren't necessarily a part of our community already (untapped resources, since a lot of us are "tapped"!). If we seriously have people willing to work for free, and space to work in, we could open up the "charity wrenching event" to the public. $30 oil changes to benefit local trails? (Although, I HATE changing oil and only do it on lifted vehicles, and only when I have to).

Anyway, I applaud all those participating in this discussion! Thanks for bringing it up Jon!

Billy

 

[JeepFreak21]

Speaking of skills, maybe we could branch out to more non-jeep related skills? I fix your computer, you pay me $50 and I donate it to keep a trail open?

I'll donate part of my commission if anybody's looking for a real estate agent too!

Billy

 

[Jeep450r]

The problem I see with an open to the public wrenching event is liability. Will we be held liable if the oil drain plug falls off their car 100 miles down the road? Or for anything that we do, for that matter?

Waivers?

Otherwise, I think its a great idea.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

i understand that. i was thinking more like club members and friends. we can scratch that idea if it gets too complicated.

i like all of these ideas.
i also think we should try to take a bigger part with the forest service relationships, and work closer with them