THE TEXAS SKI COUNCIL
Hosted by, JAMES
MERSHON, President
GARY BUTLER, V.P. Marketing
- CURRENT EVENTS
- TRAINING TIPS AND OPPORTUNITIES
- BULLITIN BOARD
- MEMBERS FORUM
- SKI INDUSTRY
- MARKETING
Greetings and welcome to the first issue of Inside 0n line. It has been brought to our attention that there just simply isn’t enough information trickling down to those of you who want to know more about the operation of the Texas Ski Council. As part of an all out effort to keep you informed, we will be posting two newsletters a month on the web for your convenience.
From the Inside you will be getting updates concerning the Council’s operations and our interaction with the industry on policy, procedures, and schedule of events. From marketing, Gary Butler, we hope to keep you informed about decisions and operations directly related to the operation of trips, skier benefits, and other club marketing opportunities.
The entire Board of Directors is behind this operation to supply you with the information you not only need, but also information you just might have an interest in. SO STAY TUNED!
THE FORUM: To jump-start this year’s operations, an open forum was conducted Friday afternoon before the bid meeting welcome party. It turned out to be an excellent opportunity for several club delegates and me to discuss club perceptions and concerns, as well as program successes we all feel need to be continued.
As you might have expected, and a major reason for the introduction of the on-line newsletters, communication was of the utmost importance. Clubs have requested more interactions between the TSC and Club Boards. Ok, that’s a reasonable request. Here’s what we’re planning to do.
First off, we plan to have TSC officers in you area attend some, but not all of your board of directors and/or monthly club meetings. Direct contact with you directors and members should provide both of us with important information about operations and on-going concerns as well as successes. Your commitment should be to make contact and provide us with a schedule of activities at least 30 days in advance. The TSC officers also have a busy schedule and it will take a good deal of consideration to coordinate our activities. Secondly, club representatives and officers must also take a more active role to share information with their membership. This is your first line of defense against the uninformed!
The next item that seemed to get a great deal of attention is training. We have talked at length for several months about an on-going program those just never quite gets up and running. We have made attempts to schedule two sessions by attempting to make it convent for every one. Well it just doesn’t work!
Our solution is to provide training at each of the delegates meetings throughout the year, and possibly a special program from time to time. These programs will be especially convenient for the clubs in the host area. Area programs will be designed to cover material that is most pertinent for their clubs, or will cover material deemed significantly important by TSC. At this time Gary Butler and I are planning two training sessions. The schedule is posted in the TRAINING TIPS AND PPORTUNITIES section of this newsletter. These programs will be beneficial to anyone who wants to attend. Your participation will certainly reveal the importance you place on training.
Other topics of discussion included interaction with club delegates, incoming membership, never ever skiers, more assistance in coordinating shorter, less expensive trips, and summer activities. As we address these issues we will keep you updated on the possibilities.
THE TRAINING MEETING: Aside from bombarding the new “freshmen” on the board with rules, regulations, pit falls, and perils, the new board of directors initiated the planning for the 2002-2003 season.
Among the topics we covered were communication and training. We are taking the steps prescribed in the forum discussions, and are open to constructive input from club officers as well as members. If you have an opportunity to speak about an issue that is important to your club, please take the time to inform us. I can’t promise that we will consider every issue presented, but we will certainly listen to what you have to say and see if it will benefit the TSC and member clubs.
We have all taken up our respective
tasks to coordinate trips, make adjustments to the bid process, coordinate activities for
efficient operations, and insure our by-laws, procedures and policies are fair,
beneficial, and equitable. Again, we will
have more to report on these issues after the June delegate’s meeting. A proper course of action can only be determined
after consideration of your representative’s viewpoints.
TRAINING TIPS AND OPPORTUNITIES:
Some of you may remember that we have tried to schedule two training sessions this past year – with no success. We did however, come up with an opportunity to have the open forum and discuss a few ideas. The end result is that we are going to offer the training with enough notice, so hopefully you will be able to make adjustments in your schedule to accommodate them.
Gary Butler and I will be hosting at least two training sessions for trip chairpersons. The training will involve an in-depth look at the bid process and the resort’s proposals, as well as the responsibilities of the trip chair and TSC officer. We also intend to offer leadership training either at a summer meltdown event or the next bid meeting. We will be happy to coordinate training for your club as well, but we will need a great deal of cooperation from your staff as well.
Training Schedule
WHAT: TRIP CHAIR PLANNING & RESPONSIBILITIES:
WHEN: Sunday, August 18th & Sunday, December 8th
WHERE: Odessa and Houston respectively. To be held in conjunction with the delegate’s meetings.
TIME: TBA Either a morning or afternoon class. Times will be announced in next month’s newsletter:
FOR: Any club trip chair or other parties interested in a better understanding of the TSC bid process and trip operations
- We will be more than agreeable to offer similar programs in the Dallas and Austin/San Antonio areas. Scheduling will be announced after discussions with the delegates.
Monthly Training Tip:
Don’t tell your volunteers what to do. Let
them know what you want done, give them advice and a set of guidelines, and let them
surprise you with their results.
BULLITIN BOARD:
HEAR YE! HEAR YE! If you would like information about your clubs activities posted for others to share. Please send your notices to me, James Mershon, at lamurian@flash.net.
- TSC Calendar
June 2002: Saturday the 8th – TSC Delegate’s Meeting, Embassy Suites Love Field, Dallas, Texas
Friday the 28th – Newsletter mail-out:p>
July 2002 Monday the 1st – Club deposits due at the resorts
August 2002 Saturday the 3rd – Board of directors meeting, Houston
Saturday the 17th – Delegate’s Meeting, Odessa
Sunday the 18th – Trip Chair training with the TSC
- Los Amigos 2002 Membership Contest now under way. First prize is a $500 credit on the 2002 ski trip of your choice.
THE MEMBERS FORUM:
- The Texas Ski Council would like to extend an invitation to you to express your ideas, concerns, and most of all your successes. If you would like to initiate an open discussion please feel free to send your comments to me, James Mershon, at lamurian@flash.net. There will also be a member’s conversational forum prior to each delegate’s meeting. Tell your representatives to pass along any pertinent information. Thank you.
SKI INDUSTRY:
This is from a report to the National Ski Council Federation. Some of the items you should be hearing more about during the 2002/03 season are:
- Soft Alpine Ski Boots -- These boots use softer materials over the boot's forefoot and pressure points for comfort while maintaining performance through lateral and torsional rigidity. These boots will be intended for most levels of skiers. Manufacturers believe these new soft boots will work with shaped skis since turning movements are more lateral.
- X-Edge Board Rest --- This product is a small rubber wedge that attaches to the toe top of a snowboard boot so that riders are able to hold boards more comfortably on chairlifts.:p>
- The Quarterback Map --- The waterproof, wearable product will be available with various ski area maps. The tear-resistant map is folded into an accompanying armband wallet with an easy to open flap. It is intended to avoid cold fingers, lost maps and the hassle of looking at trail maps while on chairlifts.
- RECCO RESCUE SYSTEM --- This system uses harmonic radar technology. Small tag reflectors are attached to skiers and snowboarders' clothing. Participating ski areas use detectors (hand held devices) to help locate buried wearers. While this system is not intended to replace avalanche beacons and dogs, it will be another tool available to rescuers.
- National Snowsports Registry --- A new national product registration system developed to find lost or stolen skis, snowboards and other equipment. Consumers will need to mark and register their equipment in a national database. Registered equipment is labeled "return for reward" and comes with an 800 number and web address. Law enforcement organizations, most major hotels, airlines and Amtrak will also have the information. Suppliers and retailers will also use the database for marketing purposes.
MARKETING:
As you can tell by now our focus this year is to “bring the Texas Ski Council to your club.” Besides the training mentioned earlier in the newsletter we are attempting to bring you a wider, more attractive range of activities from the TSC. We are looking at running a Summer Meltdown later in the summer, the Costa Rica trip next summer and possibly look at a summer cruise the summer after that. I am also looking in the TSC running a Learn to Ski Trip in December so as to assist our club’s in attracting new members from the large pool of never skiers or not very good skiers.
Through the power of the Internet we are attempting to further spread information out to the clubs by increased use of email lists and posting more useful information on the TSC web site. Besides posting this newsletter to our web site, www.texas-ski.org, we are also attempting to store all our forms and manuals so you can download them as needed. A long-term project is to convert existing training manuals to a format that can be downloaded reasonably.
At this time we are rounding up the last of the club’s marketing surveys and as the information is crunched we can see where we spend our “ski” money and get some ideas for the 2003-2004 ski season. With our next issue I should have more definitive information on the results and directions of many of our projects so keep in touch.