Upper Midwest Trials Association

Paul Nesse has revamped the UMTA Member Handbook and Club Rules. Please read it and use the Contact Us form if you have corrections, suggested changes, etc.

Here’s a clip of Paul, sneering after yet another win last year.

New stuff for the website since moving from a server in Northfield to TigerTech.net:

• I’ve added a weblog email digest signup box. I’ve subscribed everyone who’s already on the discussion list, but it doesn’t hurt to check to see if you’re on it by entering your email address.

• There’s a weblog archive and a Photo of the Week on the home page.
  
• The Contact Us page now has a form on it.
  
• Since we’ve moved to a new server, I’ve used a slightly different system for the URL’s of site pages. If you’ve bookmarked/made a favorite of different pages (other than the home page) on the old site, those will no longer work.

• We’ve now added RSS to this weblog. What’s RSS? “Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable “What’s New” for your site.” See Intro to RSS for more info. The XML icon in the signup box for the Weblog Email Digest is the cue that we’re RSS capable. So you can now subscribe to the weblog via content aggregators like Amphetadesk and NewzCrawler and many others.

• The UMTA email discussion list (for UMTA members only) is still hosted on the Northfield.org server and will be for the time being. Most of you receiving this weblog digest can participate in a discussion by sending an email to the list: umta at northfield dot org (I’ve spelled it that way to discourage spambots.)
  
• I’ve added links/info on UMTA members who are dealers to our Links Page: Tom Elbert, Eric Sette, Jack Chermak, Martin Belair.
  
• We’ll be making more changes to the website in the coming weeks… and keep you posted via the weblog and digest.

Kudos to incoming UMTA President Mike Hendrickson and outgoing President Tim Hunt for hosting a terrific annual meeting and banquet.

Here are notes from the meeting from Mike:

• We voted to adopt the new rules of the FIM and NATC as UMTA’s.
  
• We discussed the revision of the club handbook. Paul Nesse is putting the final touches on it.
  
• We created the position of MENTOR. A volunteer mentor at each event will be responsible for riding with and aiding the lower classes (youth, novice and intermediate) in an effort to tutor our existing riders and to retain people who are potential new club members.
  
• We voted on incentives for trials masters (free ride on the day of the event + first place points once in a season), helpers and mentors (new title) which will be first place points once in a season.

• We voted on the number of events to count towards 2003 point standings. We will count 13 of the 18 available events (drop 5).
  
• We discussed the banquet date (end of season vs. date in February). We decided to continue with the February time slot with an attempt to avoid the supercross.
  
• We discussed he possibility of sponsoring a national vintage event as a club fundraiser. The earliest possible time for this event would be in the 2004 season. Gregg Huggenvik and Rod Villand will provide more direction / information as the 2003 season progresses.
  
• There was a brief discussion of the club finances, which appear to be good.
  
• There was discussion about eliminating end of year standings plaques to the lower classes to encourage riders to move up as their abilities allowed instead of waiting until they have their season points locked up. The incentive to move on is to be an advancement plaque at the banquet. NOTE: As I recall, most members in attendance felt this would be a good system. I don’t recall if we actually put this to a vote.

I’ve put up a Locations page, but thus far I only have details for the Faribault club grounds.

If you’ve got detailed directions (from old flyers?) to the other riding/event areas listed, please contact me.