News Archive, May through June 2002

The club gathered together for another meeting at Phillips International Inn on June 20.  The food was good and the service was better than last time.  There was a lot of discussion and ideas brought forth, causing the meeting the run longer than usual.  As well, this meeting we were treated to a finished video (edited for brevity and put to music) of the clubs last trail run, Purches Creek Trail.  Thank you Crazy 5 for the time you put in, I think it fair to say everyone who was able to stick around enjoyed viewing the videos.  The topics included:

• Meet and Greet Summary

• AWAIC

• Trail Safety on club runs

• New member requirements

• Raffle tickets

• Jim Lake closure?

• Up coming meeting dates

There was a fair amount of feedback on the Meet and Greet.  In general, those who attended had a good time, and everyone thought it would be a good idea to host one again next year.  The comments made by several was that more organization was needed, perhaps a timeline of events.  The club is making note of ways to make the event better and planning to do it again.

The club still needed a bunch of volunteers for the AWAIC.  Unfortunately many people who originally showed interest in the event couldn't (or wouldn't) participate.  Luckily enough members volunteered their time that the list was mostly filled.

Having a well maintained vehicle on the trails if very important.  It is possibly the most important safety item that can effect you, your passengers, and fellow club members.  This issue was highlighted on a non-club run on June 15, 2002.  A string of unlikely events led to an unfortunate accident, a fullsize Bronco rolling several times down Church Road.  A recovery mission was mounted the following day, on Father's Day, by members of Alaska Extreme Fourwheelers, Last Frontier Four Wheelers, and other local four wheelers.  Pictures and a short write up of the recovery were put together by Brentt and can be found here. Our president talked for awhile about general safety concerns on club runs because of this event.  It led to a discussion on getting 'back to the by-laws'.  In general, the technical inspections and trail rides required by the by-laws to join will be enforced.  It was similar to a discussion the club had at a meeting a couple months ago.  This was the transition into the next topic.

During the clubs discussion of the by-law's membership requirements, many people expressed interest in amending the by-laws to make the requirements more strict.  Specifically, 2 meetings and 2 trail runs would be required, neither of which would be waiverable, as well as the general majority vote already established.  I took on the task of working on the verbiage so that a specific change may be voted on at the next meeting.

Raffle tickets are still on sale for the 48" Hi-Lift jack donated by member Kurt Hala of Five Star Automotive.  Tickets are 5 dollars a piece, all proceeds go to the club treasury.

The Alaska Center for the Environment (ACE) is currently working on a plan to turn some of the land around Jim Lake into a wilderness designation.  This would limit land use heavily by giving the area more governmental protection and the ability to keep out recreationist.  Curtis brought a copy of the article published in the ACE spring newsletter.  I have scanned the article and it is available here.  It is not clear what parts of the accessKnik drainage this would affect, and what the impact to access to the Knik glacier would be at this time.  A couple club members are currently researching this plan to see if it is something the club should support or oppose.

There will be no meeting next Thursday because of the holiday.  Our next meeting is July 11, 2002.  This will be an informal meeting to go over details for the Bear Paw parade as well as to make plans for a trail run that weekend.  The following week will be our next official club meeting, July 18th, in which new members and by-law amendments may be voted on.  A tentative run is scheduled over the 4th of July weekend, it will be Saturday to Boulder Creek.  Please see the calendar for clarification.

Members Rigs has been updated again, Gary Griffith and his flexy CJ is now listed.

On June 6, the club held another meeting at Phillips International Inn.  The topics included:

• Meet and Greet Planning

• AWAIC

• Next Raffle

• Trail run scheduling

• Up coming meeting dates

Time was allotted to finalize planning for the Meet and Greet.  Details were worked out for the transportation of the RTI ramp, the barbeque, and other club sponsored events.  Many people offered help and ideas making the final planning go more smoothly than anticipated.

Patty Williams now has the official sign up list for the AWAIC summer solstice festival.  See link above for details on this event (as well as my emails).  Patty is the coordinating the list, so either sign up at the next club meeting on June 20, email her at powerofpatty@hotmail.com, or call by phone.

The next item to be raffled by the club is a 48" Hi-Lift, donated by club member Kurt Hala of Five Star Automotive.  The tickets are 5 dollars a piece, and as in the past will be sold for 3-4 meetings before holding the raffle.

Trail run planning was a little different than normal.  The immediate weekend after the meeting was the Meet and Greet.  A couple trail runs would be worked out during the event (which turned out to be a run to Wishbone, and a run to Permenente).   Then a run to Purches Creek Trail was planned for the following Saturday. 

Following our biweekly meeting schedule, a meeting would fall on the day of the July 4.  Assuming most people will have a holiday that work, and may be out of town, the club will not be holding a meeting on that day.  We decided to hold an unofficial meeting the following Thursday, which is July 11.  Then an official meeting will follow the regular schedule, to be held on July 18.

Our next meeting is June 20th, 2002.

procrastinate: n. to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done

Some weeks ago the club held another meeting, at our new 'regular' location of Phillips International Inn.  Our president was unfortunately running late with a prior engagement, therefore someone with an agenda in hand but less than authoritive character ran the meeting.  The topics included:

• Park Clean Up

• New member vote

• Club direction

• Raffle

Due to the poor attendance at the recent park clean-up, I asked for suggestions on how to improve turn out for the next event.  Some good ideas were discussed and included: holding the clean-up on the same day as a meeting, holding meeting at the park and doing clean-up, club sponsoring a barbeque during the clean-up, and improving communication.  All the ideas were helpful, and should be discussed further before the next clean up.  With help, I am currently in the process of improving the club email communication.

As mentioned in a previous meeting, the officers are going to try to enforce the club by-laws more strictly in terms of new membership.  Thus, we held a general majority vote for our newest member.   Congratulations to Gary (sorry, don't have your last name) for becoming our newest member.

The club discussed ideas on how to prepare for potentially large turnouts at trail runs this summer.  The club is fairly diverse in vehicle and driver abilities, and the number of members is large.  It is felt that more organization will be required in order for everyone to continue to have fun on the trails.  It was decided the club should try to plan out the summer's trail runs in advance, and to make members aware of the trail rating system.  A more in-depth discussion of scheduling is planned for the next meeting.

The ARB snatch block was raffled off after selling a few more tickets.  The winner was Kurt Hala.  Congratulations Kurt.  The next item to be raffled will be announced at the next meeting, and tickets will likely be on sale.

Our next meeting is June 6th, 2002.

Members Rigs has been updated again, finally got Jeremiah listed.

On May 16th the club held its first Park Clean-Up of the year.  Since the snow melted a large amount of garbage was unveiled.  Unfortunately a large number of members did not turn up for the event.  In attendance were the club officers and the Wininger family.  Six people in all, who spent over an hour and a half filling 8-10 trash bags.

It is uncertain what caused the low turn out for this event.  Other alternatives will have to be explored for the next clean-up.  After the clean up, the officers headed to Dave Arieno's  house to drink some club provided adult beverages.  One good outcome of the low attendance, the club could afford quality beverages.

On May 11th the club held the long awaited Tech Inspections.  The weather was incredibly sunny, offering a good setting  to socialize for those members waiting to pull their vehicles into the shop.  Some items that could easily be fixed in a garage but could spell disaster out on the trail, or worse yet on the highway heading to the trailhead, were discovered.  This made the inspections in general a success.

Approximately 15 vehicles were inspected during several hours.  Most rigs were only suffering from minor problems.  Wheel bearings appeared to be a common fault, one of which was so bad it was used an example.  Luckily, most members proceeded to buy parts and perform the necessary maintenance on their vehicles that afternoon.  Lots of people appreciated the opportunity to look at the underside of their vehicle while on a lift.

A special thanks is in order for Kurt for allowing the use of his shop for the inspections, and Curtis and Ryan for putting in the time to inspect members vehicles.  Also, a thanks goes out to Brentt for playing chef, and to Gary for making a trip to the store to buy hamburgers and soda.  And thank you to everyone who showed up with their vehicles.