The Association of Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs (AWSC) held their annual Fall Workshop convention at The Wilderness Resort/Glacier Canyon Lodge in Lake Delton, between October 25-27. The highlights of each fall convention are the Miss Snowflake Pageant, and the educational seminars.
This year’s event was attended by 553 snowmobile enthusiasts from all over Wisconsin. Each county has a director and a representative, who are liaisons between AWSC and that county’s snowmobile clubs; I am the Sawyer County Director, and Don Mrotek serves as our representative.
The Fall Workshop weekend usually kicks off on Friday with a Costume Dance for both adults and youth, and club-run hospitality rooms – these fun, relaxing gatherings allow us to get caught up with fellow snowmobilers before all the weekend meetings begin.
The General Session meeting on Saturday morning had a lengthy agenda which included reports from AWSC Officers, our current Queen, Miss Snowflake Pageant contestants, youth groups, and guest speakers.
Our quest speakers were Cassie Mordini, Director of Outdoor Recreation, Drew Nussbaum, Regional Tourism Specialist from the Wisconsin Dept. of Tourism, Jillian Steffes, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Off Road Motorized Rec Grant Program Manager, Lt. Jacob Holsclaw, DNR Conservation Warden and Off-Highway Vehicle Administrator, and Nathan Matter, from Groomer Tracking Systems.
We also honor retiring or recently deceased directors and reps, and recognize winners of the annual AWSC ‘of the year’ contest with plaques and publicity photo shoots.
Snowmobilers spent the afternoon attending educational breakout sessions – this year we offered seminars on Pre-KAOS Workshop for youth ages 5-11 (KAOS, Kids and Adults on Sleds, is our youth group), Snowmobile Safety Recertification, Snowmobile Friendly Communities, Club Membership, Trail Signing, and Fundraising.
During recent years, aging grooming equipment and storage sheds, along with rising costs for tools, equipment, repairs, utilities, and other club expenses not covered under the state funding contract, have put the need for effective fundraising in the spotlight. A club’s ability to continuously raise donations is now critical to its livelihood.
This year, Sawyer County was proudly represented at this Workshop weekend. Steve Bethke was our past Sawyer County AWSC Director and is a founding member of our successful Alliance fundraising committee along with Darlene Mela and Jayne Schroeder. Bethke came up with the concept of bringing the state’s 600 AWSC clubs together to share and exchange fundraising ideas – and put together an educational Fundraising Seminar for the AWSC Workshop.
Bethke opened the seminar with our Alliance history on fundraising, then gave the mic over to Darlene Mela, who gave a slide presentation about our annual Holiday Gala fundraiser then talked about other fundraising projects and tips. This was followed by presentations from three other clubs from around the state. Towards the end of the session, Bethke invited the audience to speak with the presenters- and during the lively discussion came an outpouring of interesting ideas. AWSC plans to incorporate these ideas into a database or library for clubs to add too, and access.
This was an excellent seminar, and I heard many directors comment about how helpful the seminar was, and how they couldn’t wait to take the information back to their clubs!
After the Workshop sessions, we gathered for a very nice banquet, the Miss Snowflake pageant and crowning of our 2024-2025 Miss Snowflake.
Brianna Crotteau, our outgoing queen, gave her farewell speech to the large group and I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness that her reign was over. This young lady was a great role model and representative of our sport, plus…she lives in the northern part of the state, so we easily got to enjoy her presence at many Sawyer County, Alliance, and club events. It turned out that I didn’t have to be sad for very long, because Jamey Crotteau, Brianna’s sister, won this year’s Miss Snowflake pageant!
This busy, vibrant weekend ended with a Sunday Director’s Meeting lasting over 4 ½ hours. I won’t go into meeting details as that would take up the entire newspaper. If you are a Sawyer County club member reading this – I will be getting a lengthy report out to all of you later this week so watch your email – there are some important changes on the horizon, and I will need each club’s feedback to take back to the January AWSC meeting.
Think snow!