Hello all! I hope this update finds you with some cooler weather and hopefully a little dryer than all of us who attended High Sierra Poker Run this past weekend. What an amazing event! Thank you to Steve Peckham and Paul Brady for putting together this amazing event with an equally amazing group of volunteers that put together a great event from start to finish! Well, perfect other than the unexpected weather Saturday early morning around 3am when I had opted not to put the fly on my tent while camping with my middle daughter when setting up our camp around 2pm, when about 3am, noticed a bit of precipitation entering our tent through what was a star filled sky when going to sleep and discovered that the rain had come quite a bit earlier than any forecast I (and others) looked at. Other than some damp spirits and a little bit of hail Saturday throughout the day, it seemed like everyone had a great time at High Sierra Poker Run. The rain kept the dust down and made the trails a little bit more challenging.   Again, for those of you that have not volunteered with an event or have chaired/co-chaired an event, it is a small miracle when it all goes off and all of that hard work that you and many others put in, allows everyone that attended to have a great time.   There are so many behind the scenes situations that most never notice and I just want to thank each and everyone of you for all of your hard work and dedication. Our August Board Of Directors meeting went very well and I feel very vindicated for all of our hard work leading up to the BOD meeting and at the meeting. I have said it before and will say it again here, the most amount, the meaningful amount of work happens between the meetings, not necessarily at them but in this case, it was both. There is soooo much happening to work towards streamlining the Association in its efficiency and just like our events, there are many volunteers in the background helping with this endeavor. The BOD has decided to move to a new Accountant and Bookkeeper as to have all of our financials handled within one firm. This will relive the office staff and State Treasurer immensely. There was a ton of information that came out of the BOD meeting and I don’t necessarily want to bore you with all of that here – if you want to hear more, please, feel free to reach out to me personally and I’ll fill you in on all the happenings. I also want to say, the next time you talk to one of your district BOD members, take a minute to thank them for their hard work as they are all busting their behinds to make a better Association for tomorrow. Speaking of events, one of my favorite events is coming up rather quickly and I would like to formally invite each and everyone of you to Operation Desert Fun. This is the official 21st ODF that was started by Angela Cook and Mark LaFontaine 21 years ago!   Angela has decided to step down this year as Chair and I want to personally thank Angela for all that she has done for this Association and the South District for the past 20+ years! This year, Danette Starksen and Christina Epstein are Co-Chairing ODF and they have a spectacular event planned that you should make plans to attend! For those that do not know, the raffle proceeds from ODF go directly to the San Diego PVA which is near and dear to my heart. Look for a link in this update for Registration which should be going live as soon as you see this. Thank you all for your patience as we continue working with our new contractors to get them and all of us up to speed as this is a very involved process with new contractors along with all the behind the scenes stuff organizing and streamlining the Association. Till the next update…..

What a whirlwind of craziness since the June Board Of Directors meeting!  I am just now getting back to civilization from attending Sierra Trek 2023 this weekend and I can’t say how much I appreciate all that John and Rene Allen have done to have put together this awesome event!  They obviously didn’t do it by themselves, or could have if they tried but nonetheless, John and Rene had a great support group behind them from this years co-chair and next years Chair, Tom Allgaier who has a ton of work ahead of him for this bar John and Rene set so very high – but after talking to Tom, he was genuinely excited for next year which I’m sure will wear off pretty quick as the planning process starts for Trek 2024, but right now, he's excited and I am too!   John and Rene have done a spectacular job these past few years and I can’t be anymore proud of them and the work they have accomplished – Rene, John, from me personally and every member that attended this weekend, THANK YOU!  You two hit it out of the park and made all of us proud. I don’t know what the final numbers are just yet but it was said that we were up about 10% attendance this time last year!  There was also a huge increase in vendor participation from years past (at least for the measly 4 years I have been attending) and that was no light task either and I wanted to thank Amy Seagraves for her hard work putting the vendor show together.  I can’t mention membership without thanking Steve Egbert and Barbara Seaton who worked tersely to get all registrations figured out with a new Webmaster and new learning curve for everyone involved – thank you Steve and thank you Barbara for your patience and hard work! Ms. Andrea Harris had a huge job feeding all of the hungry travelers and her and the countless volunteers to help to serve this awesome food went above and beyond and Andrea, thank you soooooo much for doing this incredibly difficult job and getting all of us fed.  The food was spectacular, and no one went away hungry. Thank you to all the clubs that worked in and behind the scenes to help with all the winch hills, to help with the raffle, to help with the snack bar, the bar and so on!  It’s a huge job on everyone involved and you all did an amazing job!  I can’t fit everyone into one page here but know that you outdid yourselves and I can’t thank you enough!  The Hi Landers did an incredible job serving the best ever root beer float (or Dr. Pepper float - per Uncle Willie) and hands down, the best French fries on the hill!  Thank you to Julie Nauer and the Boonie Bouncers for their incredible work in the bar where weary travelers were able to hydrate. All in all this weekend was spectacular and if you haven’t gone, you are truly missing a great time, great location and hands down, a truly great event! August 19, 2023 Board of Directors Meeting There has been a ton going on since the June BOD meeting and I have been working with our new Webmaster and our new In Gear editor.  There are some learning curves to be had on both fronts and we are working together to make this change as easy as possible.  There are going to be hiccups and please be patient with not only our new contractors but the Office staff as well as we all find a happy median since this transition is not easy and everyone has a ton more pressure than we are used to. In closing, I want to remind you of our BOD meeting this weekend and wanted to provide you a Zoom Link for all of you that are interested in joining virtually: Topic: CA4WDA August 2023 Board Of Directors Meeting Time: Aug 19, 2023 12:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83844706124?pwd=YlJqYlVLdXZnYkpyek1jQXRvWmlFZz09 Meeting ID: 838 4470 6124 Passcode: 975974

I hope this update finds all of you in great health and you’re out there enjoying the great weather!  Molina Ghost Run I want to thank the Central District for the great hospitality and great times at Molina Ghost Run this past weekend! From what I could tell, everyone had a great time, food was great, and the raffle was even better! Thank you,Mike Magaña, this year’s chair and everyone else who selflessly worked their butts off to put on a great experience for all those who attended! RFP’s Request For Proposals – I have been saying this a lot and need to say it again – We are looking for proposals for: In Gear Editor Web Page Editor Database Administrator Quick Books Consultant Natural Resource Consultant If you have any interest in these positions, or know of anyone who is, PLEASE, have them send me an email: [email protected]. I’d love to talk to them. Before anyone asks (again) no, we are not getting rid of Rose Winn, our current Natural Resource Consultant. Historically, there has been two NRC’s and Rose applied for the northern part of the state and we coerced her into doing the whole state. Please, get your proposals, email, phone calls in to me before June 3! Just to reiterate, these positions are paid contractors! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me and let me better help you understand the potential position you are applying for. HI Desert Round UP! HI Desert Round UP! Is right around the corner, like next weekend! Couple of quick updates I wanted to share before I ask you to attend: Slash X will be serving food Saturday evening:BBQ ribs, chicken, and sides, for $30. There is a kid’s plate, same deal but smaller portions for $15. We are looking for raffle prizes of all sorts! If you have anything you would like to donate, please let me know! Tony Pellegrino from GenRight has graciously donated fenders and will be there in person to sign autographs! Thank you very much Tony for all your continued support of this event! Keith Graham and I have been working on increasing the vendor show and it looks like we’ll have quite a few and would love to formally invite you and your family up to the Slash X near Barstow this Memorial Day weekend for a fun filled, family fun weekend! June BOD Meeting Weekend after HDR is the June board meeting where we finalize the budget and contracts for all current/future employees/contractors.In my opinion, it’s the busier meeting of all of them and if you come across a BOD member in your district, please take a moment to thank them for all their hard work and continued dedication! They are all volunteers and have been working their butts off the past few months to get ready for this weekend.

To support our goal of actively promoting the advancement of vehicle-oriented outdoor recreation,  the Cal4Wheel Conservation and Education Foundation has partnered with onX Offroad for digital mapping to enhance your off-road experience, including discovering new trails and navigation without a cell signal. This partnership aims to generate funds for the Cal4Wheel foundation to sponsor trail maintenance, stewardship, and access advocacy, while also providing a Cal4Wheel member benefit. Use code “CAL4WHEEL” at checkout for 20% off your app purchase and onX will donate an extra 20% to the Cal4Wheel Foundation. Your participation means more funds for trail maintenance, improvements, cleanups, and promoting land and trail access. Redeem your 20% discount onX Offroad is trusted by hundreds of thousands of off-roaders nationwide, helping riders find new trails, discover new riding areas, and hit the trails with confidence. With onX, you can: Find trails for 4×4, ATV, SxS, dirt bikes, and snowmobiles across the nation. Tap any trail for details such as open and close dates, difficulty ratings, and trail photos. Save maps to your phone or tablet, including all interactive land and trail data. You’ll still be able to view your location on your saved maps using your phone’s internal GPS. Easily track your trips, including location, distance, speed, and elevation with Go & Track’s GPS capabilities. Save your trips for future reference, or share them with friends so they can add them to their Offroad app. Organize your waypoints, recorded tracks and other markups into Folders to easily share with friends and club members. To access the maps on your phone: Search for “onX Offroad” in the App Store > Download the App > Log in using the information you provided when creating your account. If you run into any issues when creating your account, please reach out to onX’s US-based customer service team at 406-540-1600, and they will get it resolved.

The National Park Service (NPS) will only accept credit or debit card payments for camping and entrance fees in Death Valley National Park starting June 1.    Last year the park collected $22,000 in cash, which cost over $40,000 to process. Cash handling costs include an armored car contract to transport cash and park rangers’ time counting money and processing paperwork.   The transition to cashless payments will allow the NPS to redirect the $40,000 previously spent processing cash to directly benefit park visitors.   Entrance and camping fees are used to improve visitor experiences in national parks. In Death Valley National Park, these funds are currently used to clean public restrooms, lead school field trips, host distance learning classroom sessions, provide emergency medical services, repair flood damage at Scotty’s Castle, and more.   Visitors can use cash to purchase the $30 per vehicle park entrance 7-day pass at several partner locations:  Charles Brown General Store (Shoshone, CA)  Death Valley Natural History Association (Furnace Creek Visitor Center)  Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association (Lone Pine Visitor Center)  Panamint Springs Resort  Visitors can also purchase entrance passes ahead of time online at recreation.gov/sitepass/deathvalley.    More information about visiting the park can be found at nps.gov/deva.

I hope everyone that is reading this is in great health and survived the crazy late winter weather that decimated pretty much all of California. Here in the south, we have been getting record rain and snow! Nothing like what all the folks in the north are getting for snow — man, lots, and lots of snow. I am getting back from traveling up and down the state with the awesome Convention 2023 and this past weekend at Tierra Del Sol’s 60th Desert Safari! Convention 2023 was awesome in almost every way! I want to thank Amy Cave for her incredible work and to all the volunteers that worked their butts off to make this year’s convention an incredible experience! It takes a village, as they say, and I’m so proud of this village and more so when I was able to break free a few times and walk around the property to see all the rich history of this association and the clubs that were displayed in the halls as well as the incredible vendor show and huge car show in the parking lot. Thank you to all the clubs who came and set up a table during hospitality on Friday evening and a special thanks to all that came and supported those tables and even more so to those that may have over supported those tables and had a hard time Saturday concentrating during general session. Of course, there were some setbacks, you know, like the hotel being sold during this past year and some reservations, like mine, that were lost and so on, but overall, I think the hotel staff and management did an incredible job overcoming these hurdles and provided a great venue to celebrate 64 years of Convention! The board and I are working on ideas to improve your experience for next year’s extravagant 65th Convention and I would love to hear what you loved and hated over the past years so I can present those to the committee for Convention 2024. Please send an email to [email protected] with your thoughts, great times you have had in the past and ideas you would like to see implemented or taken away to make your experience more enjoyable for you and others. Convention is a time of celebration and acknowledgement of all the hard work over the past year, a time to reflect and appreciate all that is there and to brainstorm on how to make everything better. What where your highs? Lows? What would you love to see next year? I was sorry to have missed the Kingsburg Snow run this past weekend but attended the 60th Desert Safari in the mud hills of Truck Haven near Salton Sea, California. I was able to work the booth with Don Rybarczyk and Keith Graham Saturday and get to talk to other organizations, vendors, members, and prospective members of Cal4Wheel! The weather was great up until Saturday afternoon when the precarious wind picked up and turned the area into a large dust bowl where we retreated to camp and enjoyed the evening. I want to thank the hospitality of all the great people at Tierra Del Sol and the even greater hospitality of Debbie and Bill who run the Sea View Estates who over fed everyone during the weekend and kept the doors open longer for those of us who were running late. The Sea View Estates is where we held Operation Desert Fun this past year and will be holding for the foreseeable future! There are a couple of important things I need to get out to everyone. If you haven’t noticed, registration for Sierra Trek and Hi Desert Round-Up has opened! Both are looking for volunteers to help here and there and if have any time during those events to help out, please reach out to me and I’ll get you in contact with the person to need to talk to. If you don’t have the time to help, you can still register, which is also helping! Being from the south, Trek is a long drive, and I never had any intention to go, then I went. I must go every year now! It’s amazing, beautiful, and awe-inspiring. I’m sure those of you from the north are looking at Hi Desert Round-Up thinking about the drive, that long drive… I promise you if you come out, you’ll have an equally incredible time, don’t hesitate, register now, and prepare an excuse to be sick from work. The newest In Gear will be coming out soon — which is Suzy’s second to last one and we are still looking for a new editor to take over the helm. If you have any interest in taking on this (paying) position, please reach out to me so we can talk about it some more! You’ll see some Request for Proposals (RFP’s) in the In Gear and online with this update for several positions. I am eager to talk to anyone a little interested. ‘Til the next update…

President Update 2/8/2023 Happy New Year! It’s amazing how fast time can get away from you. Since my last update it’s been pretty much a whirlwind of highs and lows and like too many of us, time just kept marching along and here we are, February! DISTRICT VP ELECTIONS I want to take a minute and congratulate Chris Silveira, Don Rybarczyk and David Rocha II on their elections to Vice President. I was able to attend the elections in the North and Central Districts in person at their January meetings. Unfortunately, when making the schedule last year, we overlooked the fact that the South District and the Central District had their meetings on the same day, so Don, my apologies for not being there to congratulate you. REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS There has been a tremendous amount of work done since my last update regarding land use, association business, and the like. As we travel into this new year, I have a better feeling of work accomplished and the path to travel forward. I have been working with a committee I formed with Past Presidents Robert Reed, David Douglas, and Don Spuhler to clean up a slew of loose ends in the association and to make your association more effective and more efficient. I can’t thank these three men enough – I have been secretly referring to them as the three wisemen. Bob, Dave and Don – thank you for your incredible insight, work and support, you guys are incredible. If you haven’t noticed, Request for Proposals has been published for In Gear editor, web page editor, database administrator and QuickBooks analyst. Suzy Johnson is a powerhouse of a woman and has continually gone above and beyond for this association for a very long time and when she announced that she was favoring retirement over continuing to work, I knew we had to start this process immediately. Six months ago, when this committee started to peel the layers of this onion back to get a clear and concise picture of what our contractors and employees do, it was perplexing and maybe even overwhelming. I was apprehensive to say the least, but I can now say that we have made incredible progress and have a clear picture and plan moving forward with tons of data, which makes me feel better about the future of this association than I ever felt. I am excited for what this New Year brings, and I am very excited about the future of this great association. I’ll be talking more in detail about all of this at Convention in a couple of weeks at the Lamp Liter Inn in Visalia – speaking of which, do you have your tickets yet? CONVENTION COMING UP Amy Cave, this year’s Convention chair has been going above and beyond to make this year’s Convention awesome! Amy and her group of volunteers have all sorts of exciting and fun things to come and check out from seminars, vendor shows, and car shows. Friday night is the infamous hospitality night which each district will be fighting for your love/support as they whip up some incredible cocktails and food while you can roam around the room and talk to other illustrious members of this association. The whole weekend is jam-packed with awesome things to do and see and if you haven’t got your tickets to attend, why not? I beg of you to change your plans and come down for a day – you don’t have to be a delegate, just a member of Cal4Wheel and I promise you, one day at convention will make you yearn for next year’s convention and bring a broader, brighter vision and love for this great association. Please, don’t be shy and cancel whatever other plans you have and come on down – look for me and I’ll introduce you to some people and after a few minutes, you’ll feel like you’re at home with a family you never knew you had. Not to mention, Saturday evening, I’ll be picking the winning ticket for this year’s incredible Raffle Vehicle built by Varozza Off Road and spearheaded by our awesome, newly elected North District Vice President, Chris Silveira! We will also be unveiling this year’s new Raffle Vehicle and will be selling tickets for it so you can win that in February of 2024! Registration for Convention closes today (February 8, 2023) at 5PM PST. Go to cal4wheel.com/convention for all the details. Speaking of Convention, we’ll be electing a state treasurer this year and if you’re thinking about getting more involved in Cal4 and have a great understanding of accounting/bookkeeping, this would be awesome for you and the association. The committee and I are working on cleaning up the financial side, as in how we do business and will ultimately make the state treasurer’s job a million times easier. There are no bylaws this year to vote on and I’m looking forward to seeing all the members and delegates at general session on Saturday to reflect back on this past year and plans moving forward into this new year and more importantly, getting to talk to each and every one of you in person and seeing how I can better help you and your club and how I can improve to be a better president to all of you. Truth be told, being your president over the past year has been one of the most gratifying experiences I have ever done and I couldn’t be more proud to be here promoting Cal4Wheel and having the great support of not only the board of directors, but the entire membership of this incredible association. Thank you for this incredible opportunity and if there is anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to ask. I could write a novel about land use issues going on and if you have been at the district meetings or on social media, you have (hopefully) read our incredible Natural Resource Consultant Rose Winn’s reports. There are issues all over this state and throughout the country that are starting to get to the point where we’ll need your help and support with writing letters, making phone calls and such coming up soon. Over the past year, I have been working closely with other land use organizations, bringing unity to all of us which is very encouraging because working together makes us stronger and stronger keeps public lands public. I am going to keep this short as my ‘whirlwind’ of tasks keeps coming as I am packing up and heading out this weekend for my club’s 75th anniversary! I hope you get some time to get out of the house and go enjoy the outdoors this weekend and I look forward to seeing each and every one of the following week at Convention! ‘Til the next update…

I am pleased to report that the association’s finances are in a strong position as a result of the funds raised at our recent events including Sierra Trek, High Sierra Poker Run, Operation Desert Fun, and Panamint Valley Days, as well as funds from the advance registration for Winter Fun Festival and ticket sales for the Win-A-Jeep raffle.  Our strong finances allowed us to fund a Natural Resource Consultant and even purchase the next raffle vehicle for cash without the need to borrow from the Life Member Fund or any other fund as we sometimes had to do in the past.  It is the Association’s policy that I do not publish financial details in a public forum such as In Gear.  I will present detailed information at the Annual Meeting on February 18, 2023 in Visalia. Misstatement in October 2022 Treasurer’s Report I made a misstatement made in my Treasurer’s Report in the October 2022 In Gear regarding a proposed joint Cal4Wheel/Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Museum event. At the August, 2022 Board of Directors meeting, I had submitted a motion to hold an event based at the MDHCA facility in Goffs, CA. Billy Creech, the president of the MDHCA was a guest. After discussion, I withdrew the motion because there were too many unresolved issues. Josh suggested as an alternative: that we continue to discuss and work with the MDHCA to resolve the issues. These discussions may lead to a scaled down event, an event at a different time, or no event at all. My article implied that this event is a board-approved event when it is not. I apologize for my mistake; I did not intend to mislead anyone on the status of this proposed event. I hope that we will continue to build a strong relationship with the MDHCA because such an alliance will have many benefits for members of both associations and for all “desert rats”. Duties and Responsibilities of State Treasurer Recently, Josh, the board of directors and I have had discussions on the roles and responsibilities of the state treasurer. Josh’s opinions can be summed up in one sentence, “I think you’re overwhelmed.” I would prefer to use an analogy that I’m sure every member of this association will understand. I hope you will bear with me when I compare our accounting system to a vintage, classic off road vehicle. When I became state treasurer in February, 2020, I felt like the proud owner of an old but dependable Jeep CJ-5. This Jeep was in pristine condition inside and outside and had been lovingly cared for by about a dozen previous owners, each of whom had upgraded various systems such as the engine, powertrain, wheels, tires, sound systems, and other accessories. Some of the recent owners replaced or upgraded some of the upgrades of previous owners. As a result, when I open the hood, there is a maze of wires, hoses, and relays, many of which are no longer needed or in use. There are switches on the instrument panel that have no labels and I don’t know what they are for. Fortunately for me, there are two experienced mechanics who have taken care of all the routine maintenance on this CJ-5. Unfortunately for me, one of the mechanics has announced that she will be retiring and the other is nearing her retirement. I need to learn how everything works and bring order to the mess under the hood. Josh and the board decided to appoint a committee to work to bring more order to the duties and responsibilities of the state treasurer and in light of the retirement of Suzy Johnson, the overall financial management of the association. I have already begun by drafting a proposed SOP that will be a start to this process. I have made some recommendations to simplify the accounting systems and I will work with the committee to identify additional tasks and priorities.

Hello to everyone who enjoys the all the different ways of wheeling whether it be vehicle, razors, UTV, ATV’s, overlanders, on-line trail runners, and any other form of wheeling I did not mention. I had been on the board of directors as the North District secretary/treasurer for many years, as well as volunteering to haul trailers and the raffle vehicle to many places. I began selling merchandise in the North District when the ever so missed Mr. Steve Gardiner was our state merchandise chair. Late 2021 I decided I wanted a different board position and ran for ND Membership Chair. I was very happy when I was able to begin fulfilling my position at the February Convention in 2022. I have been busy attending club meetings, events, and shows in the ND and I continued to sell merchandise, as it made sense since I was in attendance of many types of gatherings. I have also started teaching a program called Hug-A-Tree where I teach informative survival techniques. This is a program not only for children, but many adults have stated they had no idea the simple things they can do to survive in the wilderness whether due to a wheeling breakdown or being lost — for the guys who think they never get lost — let’s call it ‘misplaced’. Okay maybe you didn’t find that funny, no worries my husband doesn’t laugh or smile at any of my jokes either. Not only have I attended all the ND and board meetings, I managed to stay quite busy visiting several of our clubs and meeting truly awesome members whether at the club meetings or at an event or show. I was looking at my calendar for the 2022 year and I was astonished how much I have traveled. I have made trips to Scotts Valley, Tahoe, Santa Rosa, Sacramento and surrounding areas, Red Bluff, Hollister, Grass Valley, and Sonora. For a quick rundown here are the wonderful things that kept me busy in 2022:Aside from picking up and dropping off the raffle vehicle and trailers I worked Winter Fun Fest membership, merchandise, and making Saturday night dinner along with Sunday clean up with the Motherlode Rockcrawlers, Cal4Wheel convention, RSE (Redding Sportsman’s expo), Carnegie Appreciation Day (Motorcycles count too), July 4th parade, Thompsons Jeep Meet, Amador County Derby Pulls, Jeepers Jamboree, Jeep Jamboree, Sierra Trek, Skillz Day by Metalcloak. At all the shows and events, with the exception of convention and jamborees, many became annual members and quite a few became life members. Many thousands of dollars were brought in by membership. People loved the Gladiator Win-A-Jeep and were more than happy to try their luck at winning the awesome vehicle, but if not, then they were equally excited about possibly winning the other great raffle items. That made the tickets easy to sell. Much to my disappointment there were a couple months I was unable to make any visits due to the horrendous fire in Amador County known as the Electra fire. I volunteer with an organization called ACART who takes in, and cares for, all types of evacuees’ animals due such disasters. However, I am delighted to report I did have the opportunity to meet with a few. I feel honored, lucky, and appreciative that you were all so willing to let me attend your meetings and speak to all your wonderful members. Thank you to: Joaquin Jeepers, Tuscan 4x4, Trailbusters 4x4, Boonie Bouncers, Tahoe Off Road Crew, Hi-Landers, Santa Cruz, Mud Sweat & Gears, Motherlode Rockcrawlers, Santa Rosa 4x4, Esprit De Four, and Sierra Treasure Hunters. I learned so much from all of you and especially enjoyed all the wheeling stories you have all experienced, some were funny and others informative on how to fix our ‘oops should have taken of that before wheeling’ excursions. I am still encouraging you all to write about them for the In Gear. Give our readers the incentive to write themselves, it’s entertaining and provides the knowledge of how things can be either fixed on the trail or at the least make it possible to limp your ride home. I hope you all learned something from me as well. Regarding the ND merchandise, I was forced to surrender all ND merchandise and it is now in the hands of Mr. Shawn Bell, our Merchandise Chair in southern California. I was very disheartened that I had to give up this region’s merchandise as I had invested many hours to inventorying, packing, traveling, selling then re-inventorying and enjoyed every minute of it. Needless to say, I had brought in thousands of dollars selling our products and there are many opportunities this coming year to sell even more, but sometimes I guess as a volunteer you just have to reluctantly say c’est la vie to a passion. My thank you’s go out to: all the clubs and members for supporting Cal4Wheel, all the volunteers who put your all into it, event chairs who work endlessly to ensure our events are great. Suzy our webmaster and editor where do I begin? I’ll start with you’re amazing, quick, forever helpful just to name a few, but the list goes on and on, you will definitely be missed. The office staff who work many hard hours and have to answer the never-ending ringing phone, my BOD peers for facing and making the most difficult decisions, our raffle vehicle builders for putting in so much time and effort to build our incredible vehicles, and all our sponsors for donating all you do for our raffles, which would not exist if it weren’t for you. A big thank you to the Cal4wheel Conservation and Education Foundation for approving my grant request to teach the Hug-A-Tree program. My plan now until next convention: to get out there and see more clubs, meet new people, bring in more members whether annual, life, or associate members, and attend the many shows and events as 2022 and perhaps even more. Until I write again, please get out there and volunteer even if it’s for only a day, we could use your help. Write articles about your adventures; we’d love to read about them. If you pack it in, pack it out, educate those on the trails that could use it, or need it, whether they’re a friend or a stranger. Take the time to help those who have broken down, remember we all have something in common and it could be you some day. Teach and practice safety and trail etiquette, stay on the trails, have fun, and the most important of all PLEASE do not drink and drive, remember it’s against the law.

California State Parks’ Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Division invites entities that provide off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation opportunities to a two-day grant workshop in Bakersfield on January 9-10. In-person and virtual opportunities will be available. Participants will be informed on the various motorized grants available and how to apply for them.   The workshop is being hosted by OHMVR Division’s Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program (Grants Program). The program began in the early 1970s and has provided over $769 million to agencies and organizations that develop, maintain, operate, expand, support, or contribute to environmentally friendly, well-managed, and high-quality OHV recreation areas, roads, and trails. Also, the program seeks to responsibly maintain the wildlife, soils, and habitat of project areas in a manner that will sustain long-term OHV recreation. Eligible applicants include cities and counties, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, other federal agencies, federally and state-recognized Native American Tribes, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, state agencies, districts, and certified community conservation corps. Entities interested in the program are encouraged to attend the OHV Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program workshop: WHEN:  January 9 and 10, starting at 8:30 a.m. WHERE:  Registration is required to participate in either the virtual or in-person workshop. To register, please visit the webinar registration webpage. In person: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 3100 Camino Del Rio Court, Bakersfield, CA 93308. For more information on grants available by the OHMVR Division, please visit its Grants Program webpage or send an email to [email protected]. California State Parks and the recreational programs supported by its divisions of Boating and Waterways, Historic Preservation and Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation provide the opportunity for families, friends, and communities to connect. Off-highway motor vehicle recreation, boating activities, horseback riding, cycling, hiking, camping, rock climbing, tours, hikes, school group enrichment, and special events are just some of the activities enjoyed in 279 park units organized into 21 field districts throughout the state. Learn more at www.parks.ca.gov.