September 10 - High Uintas, or?

[SandySteve]

The next scheduled event is a trail run into the High Uintas on Saturday, September 10. Please post up in this thread if you are interested. If the response is the same as for the last few months, we may cancel it or do a different run such as to 5-mile and then down to Little Moab to let people play on the obstacles. I am open to suggestions.

[Jared]

Disband?

[SandySteve]

You should probably be a red-letter member to have such a suggestion taken seriously. However, you are close to the long and short of how this chapter has been functioning, that is, non-functioning.

[POLAR_JEEP_04]

Originally Posted by SandySteve

You should probably be a red-letter member to have such a suggestion taken seriously. However, you are close to the long and short of how this chapter has been functioning, that is, non-functioning.

its mind blowing from an outsiders perspective. there are more active members in ohio, where there is no public land with access to jeeps, than all of the IC and formally AZ chapters combined where its considered to be the wheeling public land meccas.
is the sport/hobby dying or just this type of communication or just this club in some areas?

[dan1977p]

It's mind blowing to someone who moved here to play from Virginia where public land is all but gone. I'm in a club based out of northern utah and sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get a club run and even then it's still only 4-5 of our 10+ rigs. There is always some other project that comes up taking precedence. There are a ton of regional clubs in Utah and I suspect the non-xj exclusive clubs are where the action is throughout Utah.
For me, Naxja has been an invaluable resource for maintenance and new work/ideas on the XJ but has done nothing to fill that void of not wheeling with a group.

[SandySteve]

Two things are working here, I believe. I am speaking as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Intermountain Chapter of , a position I have held these last 3 or 4 years. The longer-term members have many other commitments (kids with school activities, work, etc.) so they are being pulled away from the chapter activities. Second, we have failed to attract new members, particularly young members. I might also add that the Jeep Cherokee on which the club was founded has not been in production for more than 15 years. That makes it not attractive for the young people who want to get into off-roading but don't want to spend a lot of time working on their rigs. They are looking at the Wranglers, Rubicons, FJ Cruisers and similar and spending their parents' money to buy them. Now I'll get off my soap box. If you are wondering why I am still active, my kids are grown and gone more or less and I am threatening to retire from my career so I do have the time for the chapter.

[POLAR_JEEP_04]

I have a hard time thinking that is the case just because chapters like the MWC and SEC (the only two I keep close tabs on) are still active. not nearly as active as they once were but still far from dying. those two chapters also consist of a motley bunch of people. new members, parents, retirees, younger people and so on. a lot of my commination with those members are via phone (text) and social media though we all frequent the forum still too

[SandySteve]

Please move any discussion on the future of the chapter to the general thread entitled "Future of the Intermountain Chapter" and leave this one to who is interested in the September Trail Run.

[XJumpmaster]

If you change to 5 Mile. Let me know on FB. (First time on this forum since 31 May)

(how's that for bluring the topics!)

[SandySteve]

Josh, that's pretty good for blurring topics. I have had zero response for the High Uintas and it's already Thursday evening at 1800 hours. Let's officially change it now and do the 5-mile instead. Anyone else want to chime in? As far as Facebook, I have an account there but finding you may take some work, as I never (and I mean never) post up there.

[XJumpmaster]

dang just saw this! I ended up at Deercreek getting my surf on!