Recap of the March 11th Meeting

We would like to thank all of our members and newcomers who came out to Revision last night to join us in a discussion of some important topics.  While I think everyone enjoyed the beer, the sound acoustics were certainly not optimal… sorry about that. Overall it was a great meeting and after presenting everything we did, it became real that RAD really is starting an effective movement. #theradmovement.

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If you were unable to make it, here’s what you missed:

Peavine Maze Project

We had a special guest speaker, Kevin Joell (Sierra Trail Works), who is contracted to do the heavy equipment work on the singletrack trails in Peavine, talk to us about his experience with trail building, the importance of user groups taking ownership of their trails, and what to expect as a volunteer during trail work days.  As a volunteer, you will be using some specialty tools to do finishing work (after the tractor has done its job), moving smaller rocks for structural support and pruning plants around the trails.
 
Based on Kevin’s availability for this project, the trail work days will be May 2nd, May 23rd and May 24th.  Due to the more complex nature of logistics, it is important that we identify the number of volunteers who will be present during each work day.  If you would like to help #keeptrailsrad and give some love to the trails you ride on, please
sign up here. 
 
If you received a long sleeve “RAD Volunteer” shirt at February’s clean-up day, please wear this shirt to the trail work day.  When you sign up for a volunteer work day, we will ask you to let us know whether you need a shirt or not.

We ordered 50 shirts for the first clean-up day - 100 people showed up and cleaned us out.
So we are ordering more!

Upcoming Fun Events

New Swag

At the meeting, the popular consensus was that the next round of RAD t-shirts would be navy blue with a white logo.  Hats and beanies were also requested.  Your RADmins are going to get to work on producing these and we’ll let you know once they are available and for sale!

Other OHV Interests

​We talked about the proposed Washoe County Public Lands Bill, which raises concerns of future access if we do not take the steps to legalize our trails.  I made a separate post explaining the issues and what RAD proposes to do about it here.
 
We also discussed Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship's current venture, the Connected Communities Project, in which they are in the midst of establishing 300 miles of new dirtbike-friendly singletrack trails connecting Truckee to multiple small towns in the Sierras, and Truckee Dirt Riders’ new trail which they are in the process of building to connect to SBTS’s new trail system.  You can read our summary about that here, and more impressive, detailed information from SBTS here.
 
These projects (and their funding) stop at the Nevada border.  RAD would like to make a connection from Reno to these epic new trails and partner with the efforts of SBTS and TDR. We are looking into having our 2021 OHV grant proposal be for funding the necessary NEPA investigations, planning and mapping of a new trail from Verdi to connect to TDR’s new trail.

We Need Your Help

​According to RAD’s By-Laws, RAD may have no less than 3 and no more than 7 Directors, who serve for a term of 2 years.  Directors are the people legally in charge of the entity, make decisions regarding the forward momentum of the organization, and do all this work for free (and good karma). Each year at the end of May, RAD is required to file a form with the Secretary of State reporting who the Directors are.  
 
There are currently two Director vacancies.  If you are interested in being part of the leadership team and are willing to contribute to #theradmovement, please reach out to a RADmin.  If we have any nominees, we will hold an election open to the general membership in May, in which a majority vote of the membership would elect you to the Board of Directors.
 
If that sounds like too much for you, but you still want to help out, we’ve established three new membership committees:

Events Committee 

​This might be for you if you’d like to see more RAD rides, training clinics, parties, fun things, etc., and you are willing to help with prep work for said events (e.g., scouting and marking ride courses, logistics and clean-up).

Project Committee 

​This might be for you if you are eager to help out with the current OHV grant project, you want to see more trail or other projects happen in the future, you are not as geographically illiterate as Lacey is, you have some useful technical knowledge/skills, and/or you can wrangle volunteers.

Outreach Committee

This might be for you if you are concerned about public land use issues, you want to advocate for dirtbike interests in the community, you would be willing to go to some public meetings when they directly affect local OHV interests, or you have friends in high places.

At the meeting, a handful of people signed up for various committees. By being part of a committee, you can incorporate your own ideas into RAD and help them come to fruition. The RADmins are here to provide support and guidance when needed.  But essentially, this way we can make more things happen for our members and ensure you’re getting what you want. 
 
If you want to be part of a committee, we will put you in touch with the other members who signed up for that committee as well.  With the events committee, you can plan and discuss amongst yourselves the events you want to do. With the projects and outreach committees, you will get some updated information from the RADmins on when and where effort is needed - which will likely be pretty touch-and-go.

Next Meeting

As a routine practice, we are going to hold member meetings every other month – on the second Wednesday of every odd number month. 

The next meeting will be on May 13, 2020 at 6:00pm at Mi Casa Too.