John, Thank you for your request for information!
Here’s what your club gets for the $100
One of the most helpful benefits UFWDA can offer your club is help in keeping areas open or getting areas open locally. For instance, UFWDA offers
Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant writing assistance. The RTP grant can be used as a financial resource in bringing money to the table to acquire lands for OHV parks, develop trails in an OHV area, etc. If money is one of the issues in getting the Tiffany Springs OHV park open the RTP can be a source for that funding.
RTP funds can also be leveraged for trail improvement expenses, turning an old route passable by 2WD into a more challenging route.
UFWDA, in long-standing partnership with other national organizations, frequently lobbies congress to approve sufficient funding for the RTP.
UFWDA has a volunteer trail patrol (VTP) program developed to keep your favorite wheeling places open by using peer pressure and serving as the eyes and ears of local law enforcement to protect the places you ride. If your club frequents private OHV parks then you probably already realize the fierce pressure these private lands are faced with – reducing trash, reducing illegal access, minimizing conflicts between users and the local public, and safety. The VTP works in two ways to help keep these parks open. First, it deters improper and illegal behavior and it reports problems before they get out of control, giving law enforcement a chance to respond before the problem is too big to handle. Second, it demonstrates to the local public that the four wheel drive community takes responsibility for its own, through proper use ethics and proper self-policing. If KC Jeep Club would like to take the UFWDA Volunteer Patrol Training, drop a note to Carla Boucher, our chief legal counsel. She manages the program and teaches the brief training class via computer or telephone for UFWDA clubs.
One of our most silent benefits is our involvement in state and federal legislative activities in order to prevent new regulations that threaten 4x4 access and use. We keep our ears open for any new threats, such as unreasonable state-imposed bumper height legislation, and then work in partnership with local clubs, state associations, and other national organizations to engage our grass roots to stop burdensome legislation.
As you are painfully aware, there are few public places to wheel in your area. Our job at UFWDA is to help you stop the closure trend. Not just this year, but next year, the year after that and the year after that. The longer UFWDA is around the more years we can protect your dwindling 4x4 access. Club support for UFWDA enables us to do this year after year.
Finally, and most importantly, your 2008 club membership puts money back on the ground in Kansas City! For every club member that joins UFWDA KC Jeep Club will receive a $3 rebate. Your forums show a very impressive membership gain with 395 new members joining your on-line community in 2007. If every one of those people join UFWDA through KC Jeep Club we will send more than $1,100 back to your club to use for land use issues and 4x4 access. If just 34 of those members join UFWDA through KC Jeep Club your club dues in UFWDA will be like they are free because you’ll get a rebate larger than the $100 join fee for your club. You’ll get all the great benefits listed above and you’ll get them for “free”!
Thanks again for your support of UFWDA. We appreciate it!
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