NAXJA NAC to join East Coast 4 Wheel Drive Assoc. NAXJA MEMBERS TAKE NOTE..

[Grizzley]

First off Joe, I want to say that you and every other supporter of has my heart felt thanks for what you do. :yelclap:

But. . .

If you want to work on getting more members why don't you first try to get all the forum users to become paid members? That is a better way to get more members. I myself tell every XJ customer that I come in contact with about . I am a big supporter of . I think that word of mouth is the best way to advertise the clubs existence. A banner on a site really will not help.

Hasn't this been discussed millions of times already? I think the general concensus has been that if they're going to join, they will, if not, they won't. Most seem to join after coming here and getting info that they need. Good for them, I and who knows how many others have done the same thing. If a banner on a site isn't going to help, would it hurt? I don't think so. If banners didn't work, why do retailers pay to use them all the time to get customers?

Like Pete said I am all for more places to wheel. That is a good thing but the club is what it is. I think that you should keep in mind that we all belong to not NAC. Nac is a chapter of . Naxja is a national club why should they join a regional club it makes no sense. With the need for more land to wheel on why don't you start approaching landowners for permission for to use their land? I cannot see the need for to join EC4WDA. Everything that you want can be done without joining EC4WDA. It seems to be that joining EC4WDA is the easy way out. We could use the same private land they use if someone puts in the time and does the work.

Why would they join a local club? Maybe to get a chance to wheel with the people closest to them, be kept up to date on the local offroad issues, and at the same time, meet the landowners to possibly open more land for to wheel? If they've already wheeled a piece of private land and ask permission, doesn't it make more sense that since they've shown themselves to be responsible with other locals users, that they'd have a better chance of obtaining permission? Someone to put in time? Like who? Last fall we couldn't even get two people to run for each seat of the NAC BOD except for one. No one would even take up Stroker's invitation to take over the web site, so I did. I'm learning Dreamweaver in the process and have to figure out an ftp program to upload the semi-updated pages. I've been going to some of the local get-togethers to try and spread around. Mike's sitting on the Governor's board for land use in the state, plus who knows what else he's up to. An easy way out? I think not. A better way to get our foot in the door so that the Mohawk/Vermont area doesn't get overused. I think so. Didn't Steele just post that NY has lost more offroad trails. Who stayed on top of that from the beginning and let the membership know that we needed to attend meetings to show support? No one. Matter of fact, Steele isn't even a paid member, but he took the time to let us know. I don't think Mike got 25% of the NAC membership, quick count 140 paid, to fill out the land use questionier so that the people who deal with the politicians on land use issues would have updated info. Why? Was it so hard to print out a few pages and spend 37 cents to mail it in. Guess it was. Awful hard to make a point with someone when you're quoting information that is over 5 years old or older. I personally think that each state that NAC covers should have a volunteer or volunteers that are responsible for watching the land use issues of the state and getting the word out so that support can be shown for the offroad use. Monitarily, we, the offroad community have a big impact on local economys. We need to get that info out. We need to start somewhere, since right now we're nowhere. EC4WD costs us nothing and opens a lot more doors for us, same as local club memberships would.

Again, I thank you for all you do for , I just wish you could see our point and back us on this. . .

One last thing just so that no one misunderstands. ALL of the above opinions are mine and mine alone. They are not 's or NAC's. I don't want anyone thinking that because I hold an office on the NAC BOD that they're responsible for the above, because they're not.

 

[STROKER]

Before this gets out of hand. WE ARE NOT JOINING EC4WDA, WE are getting an honorary membership. AGAIN NO ONE IS GOING TO JOIN OUR RUNS and such unless INVITED. If people on their own would like to join EC4WDA they can as individuals, THIS IS MORE FOR EXPOSURE, on certain levels for the "less fortunate" that dont have a Paragon or Rausch Creek, rather than a membership.

One last thing just so that no one misunderstands. ALL of the above opinions are mine and mine alone. They are not 's or NAC's. I don't want anyone thinking that because I hold an office on the NAC BOD that they're responsible for the above, because they're not.

This was mentioned to the national BOD and no-one had a problem, simply because its NOT A MEMBERSHIP.

Please eveyone calm down and don't worry about it.

STROKER

 

[Steele]

I may be speaking out of line here, because I signed up just to post/ invite folks about wheeling trips here in the CNY area. I can say for one that EC4WDA is one of the main reasons that most of the once legal trails(NYS 4x4) are now closed in our area. I went on one run with them about 2 years ago, and these guys were trashing trails that some of us locals fought hard to keep and maintain. Now, with the exception of private land, we have very little to wheel on, and I point that finger directly at EC4WD, because they got one of my favorite trails closed, because they did not stay on the land they were supposed to,had about 30 rigs, and a whole bunch of trucks went on private land, got caught by the ranger, and the once legal state trail(s) is now closed. They lost my respect for the way they handled themselves. But since I just post on here to let others know of runs that groups do around here, my opinion may not hold much weight. -Andy

 

[sidriptide]

I may be speaking out of line here, because I signed up just to post/ invite folks about wheeling trips here in the CNY area. I can say for one that EC4WDA is one of the main reasons that most of the once legal trails(NYS 4x4) are now closed in our area. I went on one run with them about 2 years ago, and these guys were trashing trails that some of us locals fought hard to keep and maintain. Now, with the exception of private land, we have very little to wheel on, and I point that finger directly at EC4WD, because they got one of my favorite trails closed, because they did not stay on the land they were supposed to,had about 30 rigs, and a whole bunch of trucks went on private land, got caught by the ranger, and the once legal state trail(s) is now closed. They lost my respect for the way they handled themselves. But since I just post on here to let others know of runs that groups do around here, my opinion may not hold much weight. -Andy

i think i know of the place and incident...

IT WAS NOT the East Coast 4 Wheel Drive Association..... it was a single club! but even so.. you cannot blame the closure of trails in your state on any single group or organization.... you fail to relaize that "locals" are sometimes their own worst enemy.. it is incredibly easy to say " i live here so i can run here all the time.." i know.. i'm a local too!!! but the problem is bigger than that.. nothing stays secret long.. we are having the same issues everywhere.. as our sport gets more organized and responsible, we intentionally limit ourselves to where we wheel.. we know not to go to illegal spots and therein we reduce the number of places we are willing to go.... it is happening EVERYWHERE.... not just in NY... but while we limit ourselves to where we go its a bit counter productiove as well, since we end up with more rigs... i am not defending any irresponsible use of trails or land.. in a case like you point out, i blame the people who were in charge of organizing the event.. but it is impossible to blame an organization that covers 15 states and has near 150 member-clubs for what you call a single incident that ruined it for everyone...
i am VERY interested in talking to you more about this so i can understand why you blame EC4WDA but i feel there is more to it than in this thread and we ned not perpetuate this thread with finger pointing...

its all good steele.. you have a PM.....

 

[Steele]

I'm sure that the entire organization is not all bad, and I appologize if my post came off that way. I am referring to a run that was about 2-3 years ago in northern NY. So maybe they've changed there ways, and I was referring to a small group of them not the entire organization. But because of this small sample of a larger organization, 15 trespassing tickets were issued, and the trail was gated.

We've all known people that can ruin one thing or another for others, and because there is so much interest in 4x4ing ,occasionally you will find the bad apple. I do not want to put all of East Coast 4wd on the chopping block, for just a bad first impression of a small sample size.