On a side not when is the next compass coming out? I have not gotten one in awhile.
It should mail this week. I spoke with the printer today. It's a long story but the long and short of it come back to volunteer hours.
What everyone needs to understand about U4 is that right now we are a handful of people trying to focus our energies the best way we know how. We are overwhelmingly undermanned. The same small group that brings you the RMP updates and research are the same people that call sponsors and solicit donations and write articles for the magazine and, and, and....
I don't think, scratch that, I KNOW people don't understand all that U4 does. We are trying to get the word out as much as we can but it still takes a attentive audience at this point. 2007 has been a HUGE year in the world of land use in Utah. Without the efforts of a few key individuals around this state the off-road community would be completely uninformed and ill-prepared. It is thanks to key members of U4 and its member clubs that the layperson has a concrete, educated opinion about what is wrong in these rmp's, what to comment on, why to take issue etc, etc.
Kurt Williams, Don Black, Steve Jackson, Dave Adams, Ber Knight, Jeff Stevens, to name a few, are some of the unsung heros of this fight. They have all spent quite literally hundreds of hours pouring over thousands of pages of documents looking of issues, outlining issues and presenting them for your consumption and comment making. Each RMP consists of at least three books, over 1000 pages each. And these folks have done this with
6 plans this year.
People ask how they can help. Knowing where to begin is the biggest problem. The issue of land use in Utah is a daunting task. Even understanding the issues involved can be intense. That is why we need people to take a small bite of of this huge pie. What everyone reading this needs to understand is this. Without your help the off-road community in Utah is doomed. A small group cannot sustain this level of involvement for an extended period.
I came to my initial U4 meeting completely uninformed and green (pun intended). I am still a know nothing. But I keep trying to help. Don't let inexperience and time constraints keep you away. And if by chance you do make it to a meeting don't get overwhelmed and run and hide. Give it a few months, figure out how your skill set can help and work with that.
Our membership is growing. Our voice is growing. Our influence is growing. To keep this up we need people. We need people for tasks as simple as scouring newspapers for articles to organizing service projects. We need people that are willing to get and STAY involved. When volunteering you will most likely meet some resistance. (Meat can attest) This is because people come and go but the tasks remain. We have added some quality people in the last few month. Most of these people came to 3-4 months of meeting before anyone takes them seriously. It is not that we are not happy to see new faces, we are. We just hope you to stick it out, hang in and come consistently.
This is a big state. We have members in almost every corner. The growth in southern Utah is awesome. This is due to a few key people that got involved and took the reigns. The members of Rockaholics and U4x4C down there have organized our next convention. Complete with trail leaders, product sponsors, BLM permission and catering. With any luck we raise a few thousand dollars for the open access fund. After all that is the point.
The board meeting are a quick way to get up to speed on what U4 has on its plate. But don't let the inability to attend deter you. We keep minutes and the important stuff gets blasted out to all the boards. Some of our most pressing needs have been on the website for over a year. If you look at he volunteer page steve posted you can see some of these simple jobs.
It is hard to pin down a answer to the "what more can I do?" question. That answer is alway changing. If you had asked me last week I would have told you to pick up some T-Shirts we had printed or call on these 5 product suppliers and get a donation. This week I would tell you to write up a rig spotlight for the magazine. Or better yet just come to our pizza party tomorrow night and show your support for Kurt and his many hours of rmp reading dedication.
