PTBA provides working support for trailbuilders, helps to raise the level of trailbuilding professionalism, acts as a unified voice for trailbuilders, provides opportunities to meet with agency representatives, and more.

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	Bellfree Contractors, Inc. Santa Ana River Trail, San Bernadino NF, CA Morrison Trailblazer at work on a steep, rocky face
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New PTBA members are usually:

• New or established trail contractors. Contractors seeking to learn more about trail contracting and become more professional seek to join PTBA.
• Former senior agency staff. With ongoing cutbacks in senior staff from federal agencies, PTBA is becoming an "experience bank" for agencies which are slowly losing in-house trail skills as trail work increasingly moves into the private sector. PTBA is so successful that retiring government officials join as members and get consulting jobs from the private sector through the Association.
• Former trail crew staff or advanced volunteers. At some point, trail workers who are working for others develop sufficient expertise to form their own companies and will seek to join PTBA to learn more about trailbuilding and trail contracting.

PTBA’s reputation
Founded in 1974, the Professional Trailbuilders Association has earned respect from and a good reputation with federal land management agencies, especially the USDA Forest Service. Agencies of all types see PTBA membership as a positive mark of professionalism. As members do more work with state and local agencies, PTBA’s reputation will spread wider.

PTBA’s well-established website
In the past few years, the Internet has given us powerful new capabilities. PTBA’s website, www.trailbuilders.org, is registered with all major search engines and attracts ever-increasing traffic. As a member, you’ll automatically have a presence on the website. Many members have learned of opportunities and won jobs that were sent to them because clients found them on the PTBA website. Site visitors visit the contractor listings and other site resources including our job lists. The site grows continually.

The PTBA site is registered with all the major search engines and has an extensive keyword list to bring maximum hits for any trail-related query. With an increasing number of other domains linking to us, www.trailbuilders.org is climbing higher in the rankings for search engines such as Google.

Your own company web page(s)
For a one-time fee, you can have one or more custom web pages within the PTBA website. (To see existing members’ pages, visit the members list and click on members whose names are clickable links.) Our webmaster, a professional graphic artist, will build the page(s) for you based on your photographs and information, and PTBA will take care of all site maintenance. This is much easier and less expensive than registering and developing your own domain. To make your page(s) easy to promote, the address of your first page will be www.trailbuilders.org/yourcompany.html. After your pages are built, there are no maintenance fees and your pages will remain on the website for as long as you maintain your PTBA membership. More information.

National affiliations and contractor marketing
As a non-profit association, PTBA enters into partnerships with or sends representatives to other organizations to market professional trail contracting services. Our most recent affiliation is as one of 13 founding members of the National Trail Training Partnership, an affiliation which has already brought agency staff from all levels of government, as well as non-profits, to PTBA’s members for professional trail training.

We also market the association through other channels in the organized trail world, attend major/national trail conferences with a PTBA booth, and occasionally advertise in print media. All marketing seeks to promote both the concept of trail contracting and members as individual contractors.

Member email listserve
PTBA maintains a members-only email listserv by which all members can communicate with each other through your existing email. Any message sent to a special email address is forwarded to all members. No special software or extra effort is needed on your part. We regularly have discussions, post and answer questions, make announcements, plan events, and have member-to-member conversations through email. Nearly all members have email and participate in the listserv.

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	Donald Hays Trail Contractor MacArthur-Burney Falls State Park, CA Installing geoweb underlay for a paved trail.
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A wide variety of trail contractors
PTBA’s members range from single-person companies to large trail construction outfits. Their skills run the gamut from design to design-build to build-to-spec, from designing and/or building the simplest trails and trail structures to paved trails, large bridges, boardwalks, and even campgrounds. Their backgrounds run from ex-USFS to forestry to soils to general building contractor to software engineer to ballroom dance instructor, making them a rich source of diverse experiences and a lot of talent. Our free-flowing email and communications encourage networking among members—even when those members are competing for the same jobs. Learning from other companies’ projects and working styles are one of membership’s most significant benefits. To see current PTBA members by name, location, and expertise, visit www.trailbuilders.org/contractors.html.

Professional representation with government
PTBA helps shape government policies affecting trail contractors. For instance, the Forest Specifications for Construction of Trails (EM-7720-103 & EM-7720-104) upgrade the old version using diagrams and text from the experiences of PTBA members.

At our upcoming conference (see below), we have a session to sit down with USFS to discuss ways that USFS can further standardize trail bid documents so that information and important details are handled consistently by COs across different forests. Vagueness causes contractors to bid unnecessarily high, and unexpected “gotchas” that disqualify otherwise low and acceptable bids waste everyone’s time. We want to create a “win-win” situation in which both USFS and trail contractors can operate more efficiently by better knowing what to expect in preparing bids.

Annual Trailbuilders Conference
The Trailbuilders Conference, held during early March in Reno, Nevada, is our annual meeting. But it’s much more than that. Attend sessions on trailbuilding topics ranging from trail design to explosives use. Informally network with fellow trailbuilders and agency staff during parties, banquets, meals, and on-your-own. Bring pictures of your recent projects to share over beers. Perhaps more than anything, it’s fun. It’s also inexpensive since Reno is an economical place for conferences with low-cost lodging and easy transportation. In addition to having a great time, members enjoy greatly reduced conference fees.

The next conference is in March 9-14, 2008.

Contractor support
PTBA helps trail contractors with business support including web-based and other resources for obtaining bids, appealing contracts, etc. A new feature is a web page listing names and backgrounds of individuals seeking employment on a trail crew—potential employees for your company (www.trailbuilders.org/resources/joblist.html). While anyone can visit the page, PTBA members receive an emailed description of each new individual even before the person is added to the web page, giving members first choice.

General networking
Of course, the best benefit for many members is just being part of a group of like-minded people who freely share their experiences. Freely discuss the pros and cons of this tool or that technique, share experiences about different clients and agencies, get the inside track on lots of information, and just have fun. For trailbuilders, there’s no other venue for this.

Exclusive, selective membership
PTBA will only accept members who are sole proprietorships, partnerships, or corporations generating income from trail design, trail construction, or related activities. To help ensure that all members are professional-level trail contractors, new members must be sponsored by an existing member, and we do NOT automatically accept all applicants. Keeping our membership at a high level of professionalism helps continue PTBA’s excellent reputation—and ensures that you look more professional by being a member.

If you meet the above qualifications, we invite you to apply for PTBA membership. If you don’t have a sponsor, we can arrange one for you.