| Who was there?
Sue Slick, Carol Draper and Rusty
from Whitetail joined about 47 others to gang up on Bob Shostek (our
Regional director). Angelo Ross (representing the
Education committee) and some guy (but I forgot his name - representing
Region 4 on the Snowboard
education committee) were the only committee member present. Missing in
action, but giving Bob their news to pass on were:
Robin Reid - Children's Committee
Mark Siekierka - Certification Committee
Ed Miller - Management Committee
Paul Hoda - A brand new snowboard examiner from our region was there.
|
Other people news:
We're sad to note the passing of Otto Frei and Rudi Kuersteiner. They both
were major forces on the examiner staff for a long time.
We're glad to announce a new executive director, Michael Mendrick.
Although Michael does not have an instructor background, he does have a
lot of association management experience. He must be good if he can
impress Bob.
Also glad - 3 of the 9 new ETS squad members came from Region 4.
New office staff - Janice Pryor and Liz Kingston
Cherisse Rabl is working fulltime for the adaptive foundation at Windham
(except for one day a week helping out on the PSIA-E web site)
|
Membership has leveled
off over the past couple of years. PSIA-E has 11,200 members, with an 89%
retention rate. The 1448 new members just outnumbered the 11% of those who
did not renew their membership.
7,295 members attended 376 events (total for all disciplines)! 855 riders attended 72 snowboard
events. |
| The big news is the certification changes
that take effect this season. These notes apply to
alpine only!
The entry level into PSIA-E will now be called First Tracks. This takes
the place of the "registered" level of membership. A 2
day education event clinic is the main part of
the process. Level 1 exams will go from a 2 day event to a one day
event. Level 2 exams will go from 3 days to 4 days and be split into a
skiing part and a teaching part (similar to the current level 3 exam).
First year instructors can do first tracks (suggested 25 hours of
training and/or teaching experience) and the level 1 exam. Level 1 candidates will need 50 hours of experience. Level 2 candidates will need 2 seasons and 200
hours of experience (i.e. can not take the exam until year 3). Level 3 candidates will need 3 years and a zillion
hours (just kidding) of experience. There are
grandfathering rules for those who took prerequisites and those who are
eligible for retakes. It will all be in the next SnowPro, but Rusty says they are reasonable. The general rule
seems to be if you earned something last year, you get the equivalent this
year. The level 2 written exam is being changed. Previously, if your
score was over 70, you only needed two examiners to pass the pro knowledge
portion of the exam. If you scored 60-70 you could pass if all 3 examiners
passed you on the hill. Now you will need a minimum 66 to pass. There
will also be some changes to the level 3 part 2 exam. Details in the next
SnowPro. One of the reasons for
splitting the level 2 exam into two parts was to make it easier to study
and prep, given that most takers are only part time instructors.
Supporting this was an 80% pass rate on retakes and feedback from Level 3
exam candidates.
There is a new accreditation program: Teaching Beginners Specialist. Study
tracks include: Working the Learning Environment, The Communications Loop
and Assessing Movement for Beginners. |
| Dues are going up next year. National wants $10 more (they
currently get $30 out of the $70 yearly dues - hmm that's a 33% increase).
The Eastern Region is debating whether to also increase dues or not.
Eastern has successfully fought increases for several years now.
Nonetheless, our dues are CHEAP compared to other associations and we all
should be proud of how our dues money is conserved (e.g. ed staff staying
at local housing instead of hotels). Eastern is very sensitive to the potential loss of
current or potential members who can not afford the increase. Rusty's
suggestion to those who consider dropping out - apply for an EF
scholarship instead and save the $10 or more on your next event!
Rusty says that any division increase in dues would probably go to
increasing money available for specific action plans. This is how the last
dues increase was spent and it brought us a lot of good stuff that we now
take for granted (i.e. programs that have been moved into the yearly
budget, new manuals, videos, etc.). That said, if you've got ideas on
programs our division should be doing, write them up. They could get
funded next year!
Got any opinions on dues increases? Let PSIA-E know! You can talk to
your local rep or just whisper in The Rusty's ear.
|
Last Year's Exam numbers
Alpine
Level 1 exams - 952 passed (99%) (one guy was a victim of a joke!)
Level 2 exams - 185 passed (71%) (continuing the upward trend)
Level 2 retake - 32 passed (88%)
Level 3-1 exams - 69 passed (49%)
Level 3-2 exams - 37 passed ( 64%)
Snowboard
Level 1 exams - 368 passed (100%)
Level 2 exams - 46 passed (58%)
Level 3 exams - 6 passed (31%)
Adaptive
Level 1 exams - 9 passed (60%) (down from 89%!!)
Level 2 exams - 6 passed (60%)
Level 3 exams - 3 passed (60%)
Nordic
Level 2 Track and Skate exams - 1 passed (25%)
Level 2 Downhill exams - 7 passed (78%)
Level 3 Downhill exams - 9 passed (100%)
|
| Budget
news: Last year the PSIA-E budget was $1.6 MILLION. The good
news is we finished with a $71,000 profit. This year's budget is set at
1.7M, with a $4,000 deficit. Thanks goes to Kim Seevers for tight fisted
expense control, without sacrificing quality of the of the product. |
Bob talked about the trend in skier visits declining over
the last several years. The forecast was for skier visits to hit 40M by 2010 if nothing was done.
PSIA is supporting the NSAA Model for Growth (i.e. the "6+1 plan -
attract 6% more first timers and get 1% more returnees). The shocking stat
is that only one out of 15 first timers ever come back. (editors
note: the real stat from NSAA is that only 15% return - that's only one
person out of your group of 8 first timers.) One of the
key changes PSIA is making is increasing the emphasis on customer service.
Many changes to the exams are service focused.
Rusty did some surfing and found that NSAA
is reporting 57M skier visits for last season (2000-2001). This would be an all time
record, reversing a 7 year downward trend. While the number were helped by
good weather, NSAA's number for level 1 lessons shows an 8% rise. Hey -
we're on plan!
|
| Michael Mendrick is considering handling the Education
Foundation responsibilities vs hiring a director. |
| PSIA-E's web site
needs some TLC, but Charisse Rabl is helping to
update it. |
| Bob gave out some tips for getting Education Fund scholarships.
The preference is to give money for events over exams. Also, the fund
tries to award scholarships for each Region and each discipline. And they
appreciate when you write articles for Snow Pro after you've attended the
event. |
| The Spring/Summer Snow Pro has a ballot to approve proposed
bylaw
changes. The impetus behind this is the realization that it takes
experience to be able to effectively manage the association. The current
bylaws allow a whole new board to be voted in all at once. This could
spell disaster if a group of total newbies found themselves unable
to perform the task. The proposed bylaw changes to stagger elections are
similar to bylaws of other (more experienced) professional
organizations. |
| Children's committee update. The theme for this year's
Children's Academy at Bromley is "hurdles and milestones".
There are two proposals in the works: subsidize getting ACEs to areas and
building a bag of tricks. |
| Who's your PSIA-E area
rep? (Whitetail's is Mike Hicks) This person is supposed to
maintain a bulletin board in the locker room and pass on all of the great
PSIA news that gets sent to the Ski School Director (who just throws it
out). |
