Alan Butler

President

Alan joined the Snoman Board of Directors in 2010 as a Snoman Director for the Western Region. In April 2011, Alan was elected to the Snoman Vice President position and 4 months later at the Annual General Meeting was elected to President.

Alan and his wife and family have been snowmobiling since 1974. Alan & Linda's home for 30 years was in Stony Mountain were they rode a lot of the Interlake trails. Upon his retirement Alan & Linda moved from Stony Mountain to Foxwarren and became a member of the Snowtraxx's Snowmobile Club; Alan's first involvement with the club was taking over the trail signing responsibilities for 40 kilometers of trail. Alan was elected Vice President of the club and it was at this time he attended his first Western Region meeting. Alan was elected as Club President and club represative to the Western Region. In 2008, Alan was elected as Chairman of the Western Region and in 2010 became the Regional Snoman Director.

Alan has always been a strong community supporter and volunteer and has considerable experience on volunteer boards both at the community and Provincial level. Being employed by one of the largest Aero Space Companies in Manitoba for 35 years Alan as Manager of Aircraft Operations was responsible for a work force in excess of 250 employees and therefore has considerable experience in labour relations, budgeting and management.

Alan and his wife Linda raised a family of three, of which all snowmobiled and has one son and his family of two that are avid snowmobilers. There is nothing better than going for a ride with your grandchildren. Alan and Linda usually ride about 2500 miles per season, do not go south but stay at home and enjoy our winters.

Alan believes that the club is the strength in the Snoman organization and we must all work hard to strengthen the relationship between the clubs and the Snoman Board.

Paul Burch

Vice-President, Eastern Region Director

My name is Paul Burch. I was a late bloomer when it came to snowmobiling – the rest of my colleagues have way more seat time than me. I started riding around 1994. The first club I joined was the Snowstompers Snowmobile Club. They are a city club and do a lot of trail riding and help out other clubs with trail maintenance. So I always wanted to do more.

I then joined a grooming club – The Springhill Trailblazers. With this club I became an ERSA (Eastern Region Snowmobile Association) Director which led me to becoming a Snoman Director for ERSA. I have been on the Snoman Board for about 8 years.  

Albert Wyborn

Treasurer

Albert is a member and Past President of the Valleyview Sno-Riders Inc. snowmobile club in the Brandon area. He is currently a director and a past chairman of the Western Region Snowmobile Association. As chairman of the region, Albert was elected Western Region Snoman Director and served on the Board of Directors of Snoman. In 2007, Albert was elected as Snoman Vice-President and served in that capacity until becoming Snoman President for one term from 2008 - 2009. It was during Albert's term as President that discussion and meetings led to an integration commitment in October of 2008. Albert is currently the Treasurer on the Snoman Board of Directors; as well he also serves on several committees.

Albert and his wife Shirley have lived in the Brandon area for the past 20 years and while they enjoy snowmobiling in winter, their summers are spent camping. Albert also has served as an Assistant Director of the Manitoba/North West Ontario Provincial Good Sam Club which is an International R.V. organization. He was recently elected as their Provincial Treasurer.

Bill Musey

Secretary, Western Region Director

Ernie Smelski

Past President

Ernie's snowmobiling days go back to the family farm near Dauphin MB, where in 1963, he would ride his dad's Polaris sled to do the farm chores. His snowmobiling interests continued on throughout his 38 years in Manitoba Conservation. Employed in 1969, he worked through the ranks of a Resource Officer and management throughout the province, working with many communities and organizations until his retirement in 2008. For the past 24 years, Ernie has been involved in the organized recreational snowmobile program, developing programs, policies and guidelines relating to snowmobile safety, risk management and infrastructure. He has contributed significantly for the betterment of Snoman and recreational snowmobiling in Manitoba as the Conservation representative sitting on the Board of Directors of Snoman since 2000-2008.

Shortly after his retirement from Manitoba Conservation, he was elected as Vice President in 2008. Ernie was instrumental in providing direction and guidance for many of Snoman's current programs. Thanks to Ernie's efforts and direction, Snoman has been very successful with the Integration program, Trail Audit program, Sign Training, Risk Management and National Trails Coalition programs, just to name a few. During his time, Snoman gained in excess of a million dollars of grants from the Federal and Provincial governments which has never before been achieved in the organizations history. Ernie has also been active on the national front with the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations as 2nd Vice President. As a result, this provided Snoman Inc. the opportunity to bring new initiatives to our programs.

Ernie was a very dedicated President, serving 3 terms from 2009-2011. He worked tirelessly, his interest and dedication to the Snoman organization was second to none and as a result through his efforts, Snoman will be able to move forward with a very good foundation. Ernie did set a Snoman President record; he is the first President to have four Executive Directors. Thanks to Ernie's efforts Manitoba has one of the safest trail systems in North America. He continues to provide guidance and recommendations to the Snoman Inc. organization in the active capacity of "Past President".

Kevin Klassen

Central Region Director

Allen Cuthbert

Central Region Director

Tonya Kemball

Eastern Region Director

Tonya is a member of the Maskwa Snowmobile Club since 1993 and a Director of the club since 1995. She was voted in as the Eastern Region rep for her club in September 2009 and became the Vice President of the Eastern Region in September 2011.  Tonya joined the Snoman Board of Directors in 2011 as a Snoman director for the Eastern Region.
 
Tonya is married with 3 children. Her and her family spends much of their time riding in the Pine Falls/Powerview area where they live.  Tonya was the owner of the local Chicken Chef restaurant until September 2011 when she sold it and is looking forward to spending more time on the club as well as the trails.
 
Although Tonya is fairly new to the Snoman board, she is looking forward to working with the individuals that all put in many hours of time and work to make snowmobiling a great, fun, safe way to spend time with family and friends. She is dedicated and excited to learn and grow with the organization and the people.

Wayne Vandersteen

Interlake Region Director

Les Thordarson

Interlake Region Director

Sylvain Paquet

Western Region Director

Sylvain has been a member of the Dauphin Snowmobile Club since he moved to Dauphin, Manitoba six years ago.  He has enjoyed being the President of the Dauphin Snowmobile Club for the last three years.  After serving as the Alternate Director for the Western Region for two years, he was elected Director last fall.  In addition, Sylvain was recently elected Chairman for the Western Region Snowmobile Association and he is looking forward to working with both the Western Region's Club and Snoman's Board of Directors.
 
Having a fulltime job really makes it challenging to manage these three volunteer positions. With the help and experience of past presidents, directors and great executive members, Sylvain can manage his time and efforts to accomplish the tasks at hand.
 
Sylvain and his wife Linda really enjoy being involved with the community and are not afraid to volunteer their time promoting an outdoor life style and active living.   Every season has its benefits.  Snowmobiling is one of the most challenging activities to promote with its very short season and it really depends on Mother Nature's kindness.

Rob Vipond

Northern Region Director

In 1970, I founded local snowmobile club: The Pas Track & Trail Club. This was a race club and we organized local track, cross country, obstacle, and drag races into the late 80's. We were part of the Northern Manitoba race circuit with Thompson, Flin Flon &The Pas. Our members raced in SSRA events, as well as Winnipeg, St Paul, and Regina Minot events. Over these years, we also snowmobiled extensively to various parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, as well as Edmonton.

The race club folded and I founded the Kelsey Trail Snow Riders as a trail building club in the mid 80's, thus I became involved with Snoman. I have been a Snoman director for a many years dating back to late 80's, as well as Northern Region President. Yes - snowmobiling has been a passion for me, my family, and friends.

I was involved in the RV business as employee in the 60' - 70's, partner of Hot & Cold Sales 1977-1989, and owner of Northland Leisure 1989 - 1999. 2000 and beyond, I continue semi retired in mechanical, teaching, contracting and Geothermal business. Over these many years I have been involved with many local organizations & groups, including Chamber of Commerce director. I continue to be involved with various groups and enjoy personal interaction.

Snoman has offered me the opportunity to work with interesting and dedicated individuals with common goals. I trust offering some of what I have learned over the past 40 years is a benefit to organizations I continue to support.

Kelly Martens

Northern Region Director

Brad Wall

Alternate Eastern Region Director

Carol Mikula

Alternate Interlake Region Director

Dan Taylor

Alternate Northern Region Director

Dan’s snowmobiling started in 1964 when a neighbor took him for a ride on a Snowcruiser and he was immediately hooked on snowmobiling. After doing summer jobs - delivering papers and shoveling sidewalks, he was able to purchase his very first snowmobile in 1967. Dan was a proud owner of a Polaris Colt SS snowmobile and thus snowmobiling became a passion for him and continues to be a big part of his life today.

He is his currently president of Kelsey Trail Sno Riders and is a dedicated groomer for the club who takes pride in making the trails look like white pavement. Dan got involved as a Northern Alternate Director in 2010 and is also currently a Trail Auditor with Snoman. Dan loves to ride and doesn’t need much coaxing to climb aboard his sled and go for a cruise on the white pavement.

Murray Eagle

Alternate Western Region Director

Rebecca McKay

Policy Analyst

Richard Romaniuk

Chief of Park Operations Central Region