Single Track Communications aims to explore and share the means by which successful trail organizations achieve their objectives and become the organizations communities value.
Through published articles, shared documents and templates, along with consulting and grant writing services, Single Track Communications aims to help the world of single track trails become the well respected and appropriately funded infrastructure it deserves to be.
Single Track Communications advocates for trails by offering niche trail experiences, consulting, management and leadership.
At least one trail organization out there has already done what another is trying to do or create a solution for. By seeking out, sharing, and combining our stories and experiences, countless hours of work, frustration, and time will be saved along the way.
If it directly relates to a trail organization, that topic will find its way here; from the tiniest of details (i.e. landowner use agreements), to planning brand new trail parks from the ground up (what to look for and expect along the way), to communication strategies with the public, land managers and decision makers. How about best practises for membership management, volunteer retention, fundraising, winter trail grooming, multi-use trail management, and more?
Single Track Communications does not have all of the answers, but through relationships with trail organizations and trail leaders across Canada, the United States and beyond, best practises will be collected, studied, and shared here for the collective good.
* While the sustainability side of Single Track Communications is meant to be supported by consulting and grant writing services, a portion of those billed hours will be matched with volunteer time, collaborating with trail organizations and decision makers to help them with trail projects, without the needs or pressures of remuneration.
Dave Ternier
In 2018, after nearly two decades off the bike, I rediscovered what it felt like to be on two wheels. The mental and physical energy it provided my nearly-forty-year-old self was like nothing else I’d ever experienced. The thrill and joy of it were on another level entirely. Despite breaking a leg on the bike just one year after getting back on it, I felt a drive to explore the world through dirt trails like never before.
In the time since rediscovering the bike, trail running has become another great love of mine, giving me yet another way to experience trails—and a greater number of them.
In just a few short years, I went from discovering a deep love for single track, to leading the Board of Valley Life Recreation. Valley Life Recreation is a not-for-profit trail organization brought together around the idea of building a professionally designed and constructed multi-use trail park. Through that organization, I led our team in raising $700k+ in less then 36 months for the trail park and discovered that this was the world in which I wanted to spend the second half of my full time professional life. (Spoken like the true 40-year-old I had just become.)
I loved the slow but purposeful task of creating an image and story out of our trails organization and communicating it out to the public and with local decision makers. I loved the planning that was involved. I loved creating and launching fundraising campaigns. And this might sound weird, but I loved, the nuance and details of grant writing. (I know, weird, right?)
My professional life to that point had primarily been of the entrepreneurial type. I’d built a wedding and special event business that started out as a simple DJ company, but evolved to one that became highly specialized in MCing weddings. After 25 years of incredible success in that world, collaborating with wedding couples across 3 countries, and becoming fortunate enough to share my knowledge with countless peers from around the world, I closed that chapter in October 2022, ready for a new adventure.
The wedding and special events world taught me how to tell stories in an emotionally engaging fashion, how to build authentic and valuable relationships with and between people and ideas, what the creative process can look and feel like, and how to effectively communicate my services to others (which used to start at $4,500/wedding).
I quickly realized that all of these skills served the trails world incredibly well as we raised large sums of money and a lot of publicity for our trail park project. Not only that, our community became highly engaged with our organization as we effectively communicated many topics with not only local Mayor and Council, but the public of trail users and non-trail users.
During that time, I discovered the incredible Front Lines MTB podcast, hosted by North Vancouver’s Brent Hillier. This podcast demonstrated to me just how vast the world of trail advocacy was (and could/should be), and the historical places from where that advocacy had come. It also taught me about the work yet to be done, particularly related to equitable access, diversity and representation, and the role trails have in the critical reconciliation conversation we are all engaged in with Indigenous communities. The energy, insight, and guidance provided by Brent’s thoughtful questions and commentary with his guests helped create the foundation for the world I now seek to create here with Single Track Communications. Thank you Brent.
In addition to serving as the volunteer Board Chairperson for Valley Life Recreation (2020-present) I am also a volunteer Board member with Trails Manitoba (2022-present). Through Trails Manitoba, I am fortunate enough to serve alongside an incredible team as we assist trail organizations across the province achieve their goals. I am involved in the Trails Manitoba Grants Committee, serve as the Marketing & Branding Committee Chair, and am the lead planner for Trail Talks, the annual trails summit event I helped create for our region. (Due to my involvement with the Grants Committee, I am unable to write or assist any organization with applying to Trails Manitoba for funding.)
As I have joked with many friends, my hope is that Single Track Communications might simply fund my volunteerism! My young family, on the other hand, are more practical in their assessment that Dad needs to have some income. Rather than step outside of the trails world for a career, my hope is to create enough of one here, so that I am able to remain fully engaged with the community of trail advocates.
If you have read this far, I want to say thank you for giving me some of your attention today. I understand the value of time and attention and the careful way each of us needs to manage it. I hope we get to speak or cross trails soon.
If you’d like to reach out with an idea for sharing on this site with others, a challenge you might currently be facing that needs some venting/brainstorm time, or you want to inquire about having my formal help with your organization, please get in touch. (And if you have a place I should come and ride or run, DEFINITELY get in touch!)
With many humble thanks,
— Dave Ternier, Single Track Communications