NAMRC
North American Motorized Recreation Council
Nov. 7th, 2005 meeting, Las Vegas, NV.

The North American Motorized Recreation Council was formed several years ago and EC4WDA was a major league force in getting it formed. The idea of NAMRC is to create a “Knights of the Round Table” atmosphere. All the top land use people from all the major organized motorized recreation groups getting together to talk on what issues are happening and where, what to do about these issues and what victories have been won. Discussions on how to make the victories something we can all experience. The idea of NAMRC is NOT to have another 4WD association. NAMRC includes, AMA, NOHVCC, ASA, SEMA, ORBA and of course, many other 4WD organizations.

Del Albright again facilitated the meeting and a good one it was! To start, Del sets up an agenda and we start to fill in the blanks. We all introduce ourselves, something like 22 people present for this meeting, great turn out! Del had us then hit on the current issues, defeats and victories we had each experienced, followed by putting together action items we feel are things that affect all motorized users.

Jason Tolleson started by speaking on how the SEMA Action Network is still working great. This SAN is an email network of thousands of users and when a bad bill is spotted, it is put into the system and people are then able to send letters, make phone calls, etc to make sure that the bill doesn’t get passed. He spoke of several bills that had been defeated because of the SAN. He brought up the 3 roles that SEMA plays in Land Access. 1) They move legislative info to the user groups. 2) They advocate for good bills and present bad bills that need to be defeated, this is not only through us, the end users, but through their industry and media contacts and 3) Working directly in Wash DC with legislators, making comments representing 6400 industry leading companies.
SEMA has created a caucus of state legislators that support and are interested in motorized/automotive recreation. This is not only to fight bad bills but to create supportive bills too! The idea is become PROACTIVE and move away from being reactive.

Don Jenson of the Pacific Northwest 4WD Assoc. was up next and he mentioned that we as an entire community have to stop settling for the scraps so to speak and start demanding our equal access. He has been using the “guilt” deal a bit out their way with regards to the Americans with Disabilities act. There is a sense of a lack of focus for many groups along with a lack of appeal and agreement. We must suck it up and start to work together with all motorized users and with OURSELVES! If we don’t change our attitudes, we are doomed!
PNW4WDA recently finished up a reduced membership drive. They charged $10 per individual member instead of their regular $35 and they gained 250 members. NOHVCC is working with them to create another multiple user coalition in the NW corner of the US.

John Stewart of United and CAL4 took the same idea and worked the idea of how we market ourselves into the fray as well. He mentioned making sure that when working with public agencies, they know exactly what it is we do before we try to start a working relationship with them. Brenda Summers of WEROC and a freelance writer for 4x4 Builder and DirtSports magazines said that she can produce a DVD “documentary” that we would all be able to use to show what it is we do. Discussion followed to make this happen.
Jack Welch from Blue Ribbon Coalition spoke up next and he wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Clark Collins has now officially retired from Blue Ribbon and that 4WD enthusiast, Gregg Mumm has been hired to take his place. He spoke of the many legal actions that BRC is currently handling, including many snowmobile actions in the Yellowstone Park area. One item that stuck was the idea of presenting several viable solutions to the problems you are addressing when dealing with our public officials. Also, be sure to have counterpoints to present when dealing with opponents. Provide solutions not just emotions.

Roy Denner of ORBA spoke of the recent Washington DC summit and was delighted at the participation and the results. Representative Richard Pombo gave a personal thank you, through Roy, to all who attended, saying that he feels “we” as the motorized recreation community, are very much responsible for the revised ESA bill passing through the House with such ease. We now need to develop a sense of urgency with the Senate for them to develop their version ASAP.
Roy also mentioned that just one ant-access group out west had already filed 16 different lawsuits for 16 different species in the Glamis Dunes area… just an example of the ridiculous stuff happening there and throughout many parts of the country. They do that and hope that if even just one of the lawsuits sticks, then they can use that leverage.

As a group we spoke on using one defined word for the green extremes and we decided o upon “anti’s” or “anti-access”.. Reasoning behind this is that WE are environmentalists too and we are green too… calling “them” greens can pull that environmentalists image very quickly away from us, singling the anti’s out as the real enviros. Stacie Albright, Del’s new wife, came up with what she feels is THE reason NAMRC was created and an acronym for what it is we are/do… We need to create a shared mission among ALL users… That shared mission is ACCESS! Communication and Education (not only of our own people but mostly of the JQ Public so they what we REALLY do, not what they see in commercials. The acronym is GLUE. Gaining Land Use Empowerment, The GLUE that holds us all together!

We finished up with some action items:
1) Build a list of grant writers among our groups and gather the various grant options that exist out there, aside from the RTF.
2) Develop a coordinated, unified, vision for OHV recreation. Coordinated and unified in our media presentations. Develop a unified strategic plan for OHV recreation, nationwide.
3) Get working on the free video “documentary” with Brenda Summers.
4) Insurance: ideas, companies, etc.



David Brill