Mountain biking and skiing nonprofit recruits from the West Coast
By Mike Lynch
The Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) has hired a West Coast recreation leader as executive director.
Glenn Glover replaces Josh Wilson, who announced this spring he would be stepping down to relocate to Virginia to be with his family. Wilson has held the position since 2015.
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“We were seeking a candidate with a special blend of experience, passion, personality, and skill to lead BETA. Glenn is that person,” said BETA board president Patrick Carey.
Glover’s experience includes six years as the head of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, four years as president of Washington State Trails Coalition and three years managing statewide recreation and resources for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
“As I came to know more about BETA, I was really excited by the opportunity to serve the community,” Glover said.
Glover grew up outside of Boston and currently lives in Washington State. He said he doesn’t have ties to the Adirondacks but people were very welcoming during a recent visit with his wife.
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“We were just so excited by the people of the Adirondacks – how friendly and genuine everyone was,” he said.
BETA is a small recreation-based nonprofit focused mainly on mountain biking and Nordic and backcountry skiing. As of this past spring, it had more than one thousand members.
The alliance creates and maintains trails in the High Peaks region, in addition to promoting and advocating for them.
In recent years, BETA has had two full-time positions: an executive director and an outreach coordinator, plus a seasonal trails coordinator.
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As BETA’s first full-time director, Wilson played an active role in all aspects of the organization, in part because he was the sole employee when he started. He replaced Tony Goodwin, founding director of the Adirondack Ski Touring Council, when the groups merged. BETA started as a collection of volunteers.
But Glover said he’d likely not be as hands-on in trails maintenance and building aspects because that’s not his skillset.
But he sees a lot of potential in the organization and hopes to grow it. He noted the job aligns well with what he did at the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, which went from a small club to a statewide organization with chapters.
“I want to see more people served,” he said.
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Glover wants to retain the nonprofit’s focus on skiing and biking but also be inclusive of dog walkers, runners and others using the trails.
“It’s all important,” he said. “That’s what we did at Evergreen… we grew from a small organization that was having trouble making payroll to a very, very large organization, one of the largest single state mountain bike organizations in the country.”
Evergreen had more than 9,000 members, according to its 2021 annual report. Glover was there until 2015 and is credited with growing the organization from near bankruptcy to having $1 million in revenue. When he left the organization, it had about 1,000 members, five full-time employees and about a dozen seasonal staffers.
He is currently working for BETA part-time and remotely as he learns the position.
Glover will start full-time Oct. 30. BETA is planning a series of public events in early November to introduce Glover to the community.
(Editor’s note: This story was updated to provide more history of BETA and to reflect that Josh Wilson was its first full-time director.)
How much will he be paid? And where does the funding come from? If the organization only has two or three full time employees what exactly will he be doing?
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