I myself enjoy off-roading IN GENERAL. This means that I Jeep, ATV, Dirtbike, etc.. ANything I can do to get myself and my kids outdoors. It seems however, that when something threatens to disrupt our play at a Local level, Its "x" ATV club commenting, or "Y" jeep club commenting. its very rarely the off-road community as a whole. We have large national groups like the blue ribbon coalition and such, but that rarely trickels down to help on the smaller, local community or county issues.
I'm thinking it might be of a benefit to encourage open membership to clubs, Allow Bikers into ATV clubs, allow ATVS into Jeep clubs, etc.. I mean after all Many, Many of us enjoy multiple activities, and in most cases ATV, dirt Bike, and even jeep with the same group of people, By having an open membership policy, the numbers could swell and begin having an impact at a local level. This way its not, them, me or you, its US. ANy thoughts?

 

In the end game of clout, numbers and/or money are all that count. Politicians, who actually formulate and implement public policy/legislation at all levels, are influenced only by those two factors.

 

Right on track georged, the enviro's have done a fair job of kicking *** in Oregon by buddying up with attourneys, national enviro groups, the USFS, and any who have a similar thought process and money..............The politicians follow along with their tongues and knuckles dragging the ground. An ATV can almost spin out in the slobbers and slime trails they leave on the ground. The biggest challenge is that most have to spend time working for a living so they have enough cash to recreate. Only leaves so much time to fight the wars.........Tass

 

Here in California, we have CORVA (http://www.corva.org/) which is a body that speaks (politically) for the united off-road users. They sponsor a few events (mostly fund raser type stuff), but are primarily a political action organization. And, the ASA (http://www.americansandassociation.org/) which is a group that speaks for the united dune riders.

ATV "clubs" are rare (I don't know of a single one), if any exist at all. Mostly there are just large informal groups of friends that ride together. Jeepers however are well organized into many clubs, and you meet groups out on the trail all the time. There are a lot of dirt bike "clubs", but most are AMA District 37 racer oriented, not so much recreation oriented.

I'm not sure how the different groups would fit together in a "club" atmosphere??? The Jeeps don't fit well with the dirt bikes/atvs, because being street legal, they can go places the rest of us can't. (My church for example has an "off-road" group, but it is hard to get them to plan a ride that includes routes where you can take unlicensed vehicles.) Dirt bikes and ATV's don't mix well, because the dirt bikes are so much faster than the quads.

But that said, one recent informal "group ride" was composed of.........one Jeep, one Rhino, one buggy, a dozen or so quads, and a couple of dirt bikes. So, we can all certainly coexist when we want to!