CLUB: ONE WHEELING FAMILY
To protect the trails of BC
THE OTHER DAY as I was online, I thought to myself why can’t we just get along? Why is there so much controversy and politics in the wheeling world? Especially where social media plays a part, as there is no one truck, wheeling style, or skill set that is better than another.
With two formal Facebook groups in British Columbia, of over 17,000 and 35,000 members, anything and everything that happens on those pages is highly
visible not only to the members, but also the media, and those that want to find fault within our community. The internal conflict is exhausting to volunteers; and prevents those who want to step up and help from doing so, as no one enjoys being in the line of fire.
Time spent mitigating situations that have gone awry is time that could be better spent creating education and safety programs; or organizing community events like the Big Brothers and Big Sisters run, to build a positive legacy and change lives.
Frankly, we can’t achieve our goals of public access to public land unless we focus all our energies on joint ventures. To achieve this, we need to encourage the values of respect, accountability, and mentoring. Like all families, we aren’t going to agree 100% of the time, but we can find a civil way to resolve our differences.
Every year the Four Wheel Drive Association of BC votes for one person who embodies those characteristics as “Wheeler of the
Year”. I feel that two of my fellow wheelers, both with perspective that is wise beyond their years, truly deserve this title. Both sit at the heart of BC wheeling world; Kim Reeves (president) and Matt Ion (Social Media/Webmaster).
Without Kim as president the last seven years, we would not have many things that our wheeling world takes for granted;
including both the Hale and Nahatlatch Shelters. He dreams in living technicolor of what can be accomplished, and simply makes those things happen. It takes a “village” to care for the wheeling world and turn it into one family, but that village also requires a strong leader such as Kim. Matt patiently works through the tensions in the social media aspect And protect this and website, leading maintenance runs, helping clean ups, raising awareness for events, and numerous other tasks as needed.
Recently we temporarily lost access to the Nahatlatch Forest Fire Lookout, and the issue quickly became a hot topic. Tempers flared, many people had ideas on finding their own solution; the board worked diligently to keep the issue at a low simmer to ensure permanent damage to our ability to renegotiate access was not jeopardized. True to form, within ten days the board had met with the stakeholders to identify the issues and successfully renegotiated access for not only members, but the entire wheeling family in BC, which leaves us in a positive light, rather than risking a loss of access to other areas.
All of us look forward to seeing how the association grows over the next few years as many new projects come to light. I’d like to say thank you, and I’m sure many others will agree, to the board of the association, for the role models they are, and all the sacrifices they make, to build one wheeling family working toward a common goal.