Minutes of Region Meeting
Western Michigan Region, NSP
October 17, 2007 Brann’s, Grand Rapids
Region Officers Present: Region Director, Tony Wolfer; Secretary, Colleen Wolfer; Assistant Region Director, Gregg Hoppe; Assistant Region Director, Erica Krol; Treasurer, Larry Klose.
Region Advisors Present: Awards, Patrick Mulvihill; OEC Advisor, Karen Hadden; Alpine NSPC Ski School, Chip Knappen; Alpine Toboggan, Shawn Rhoda; Alpine Proficiency, Britt Gustafson.
Section Officers Present: WM1 Section Chief, Ken Young; WM2 Section Chief, Jack Katerburg; WM3 Section Chief, Tom Fisher.
Patrol Representatives Present: Bittersweet, Dan Navis; Caberfae Peaks, Deann Jenkins.
Guest Present: Mike Patterson; Ron Vrba, John Jenkins.
Meeting called to order at 7:05 pm.
Secretary’s report: Accepted as written.
Treasurer’s Report: Larry Klose directed people to check the finance page www.nspc203.com/FinancialPage.htm for detailed financial information. The Division Treasurer’s meeting held in Sept included a memo on “appropriate use of ski patrol funds”. It is not appropriate to buy first aid supplies unless they are used for training. Every year three regions will be audited. They will ask only for Region information this year but in the future they may request everything down to the patrol level. Larry will inform patrol representatives.
Advisor Reports
OEC – Karen Hadden
Crystal's Basic Final had one pass from Caberfae. Two other candidates will retest. Date TBD.
Section I, II and III Refreshers are complete. QA for all three refreshers were excellent. OEC IT Meeting Sunday Oct 21. Will recert instructors due in 2007 and ITs. OEC Basic Finals Section I, Nov 3 and Section II, Nov 29, Senior Emergency Management (SEM) Clinic Dec 16 at Cannonsburg, contact Mike Fick. SEM Evaluation Jan 26 at Cannonsburg, contact Mike Fick. I will continue to update the Region Senior Elective Excel sheet. Since this meeting Dan Goldberger has accepted the Region OEC Advisor position.
Ski Proficiency: Gregg Hoppe -Going through the roster to get an active list together. Toboggan clinic agenda, December 8-9, will be to get enough trainers out to the individual patrols. Working on clinic structure – there is a restructuring of who is in charge of programs. Proficiency Brit Gustafson, Toboggan Shawn Rhoda, Toboggan IT Coordinator Jackie Bottomley, NSPC Ski School Chip Knappen.
Awards: Patrick Mulvihill will be assisting Kathy Young. Awards are due January 24.
Elections: Erica Krol – Section III Section Chief and Region Director are due for election. Nominations open Dec 1 to Dec 30. Erica will then contact the nominees to see if they are open to the nomination. Information from the candidates is requested. If there is only one candidate, the election will not be run and that candidate will automatically win.
Section Reports:
Section WM3: Tom Fisher – Regarding the Regional Banquet – Sat May 3 – held at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant. Estimating 100 people – rooms reserved – menu available. First class rooms $159 – block of 15 reserved. Rooms reserved for Friday and Sat. Reservation form will be on the web site shortly. For more information, go to www.SoaringEagleCasino.com.
Section WM2: Jack Katerburg - Candidate midterm held last week with 12 candidates. Refresher was last weekend with about 160 patrollers and 50 instructors. Ken Young (and Dan Goldberger for QA) says great refresher with a great number of instructors available. Ski swap second weekend in Nov – contact Becky Steiner. Candidate final will be Nov 29 for OEC.
TES: Shawn Rhoda will be conducting TES in each section focusing on instructors and those patrollers who want to become instructors. Dates are being set.
Section WM1: – Ken Young – Ski Swap coming up. 16 candidates in the OEC classes with Bittersweet and Timber Ridge combined. Dan Goldberger and Brit Gustafson are instructing. Final is Sat Nov 3 – 7:30.
Patrol Reports
Bittersweet: Dan Navis - Bittersweet is having an addition on patrol room. Wild Rose bump run will become part of the terrain park.
Cannonsburg: Mike Patterson - moving a rope tow.
Pando: – Tony Wolfer – area snowmobile stolen – tracked and recovered.
Caberfae: Deann Jenkins – Refresher – 31 people went through with a lot of instructors and a glowing report from Pat Livingston. Six people taking Instructor Development. Expanding variety of snowmaking. They welcome people to come patrol with them – they start at 8:30 and quit at 5 – or come ski with them – please call.
Crystal Mountain: Tom Fisher -Crystal added a new well and increased pumping capacity and added guns. Building is now red. Gregg Hoppe – resort will buy them a new snowmobile this year. Snowmobiles will be equipped with flashing lights, sirens, and a flag. There will be preset trails and snowmobile training for anyone who will be using the snowmobile. New law will be part of the Michigan Ski Safety act and they are being proactive about their program to comply with it. Crystal will no longer have any tabletop jumps due to the decision on a lawsuit out west. Crystal is short patrollers and would like to have anyone who is interested contact them.
New Business
Tony Wolfer: New from Division – can’t use patrollers to fill in for anything an area would normally pay staff to handle. Deann Jenkins suggests that the conversation should be handled between patrol and management.
Jack Katerburg: Asking about candidate hill test. Any interest in a region wide candidate hill test. Cannonsburg would be willing to host the first one. Gregg Hoppe suggests that areas may choose to combine as this is a local test. Possibility that Timber Ridge and Section II may work something out.
Tom Fisher: Looking for telemark proficiency program. Gregg Hoppe says this has been local protocol but Crystal is requiring on duty patrollers to patrol on only the equipment they have been certified on.
Meeting adjourned at 9:01. Next meeting Jan 9 at 7:00 PM.