Toggenburg Ski Patrol

Board of Directors Meeting (BOD) – March 11, 2008

Present: Beau Blair, Moira Blair, Geff Dennee, Jim Morrison, Carter Riley, Walt Shepard, & Paul Steiner

Treasurer’s Report

50 th Anniversary Celebration  91 current and former members of the Toggenburg Ski Patrol, their guests, and 9 invited guests of Toggenburg’s management team enjoyed dinner and camaraderie on Sunday, March 2nd, during our 50th anniversary celebration. Highlights of the evening included: comments from Geff Dennee and Jim Hickey, presentation of 50 year service award to Phil Resch, comments and a brief history of the TSP by Jeff Paston, comments and presentation to Jim Morris for his many years of service by John (JP) Palmer, and comments and a toast by Tom Buckley.  Ed Seigenthaler traveled the furthest (Florida) to attend.  The BOD expresses their gratitude for the committee’s great effort in making the 50th anniversary celebration a resounding success. They expended much time and effort in coordinating this event; from developing the mailing list, putting together the video and equipment displays, working with management on the great dinner, and bringing the whole event to a successful conclusion. A huge thank you and congratulations to Moira Blair, Tom Buckley, Hume Laidman, Jeff Paston, Phil Resch, Paul Steiner, and Evelyn Tordoff for their great efforts.  Many thanks to Toggenburg’s management team, kitchen staff, and wait staff for helping to make this such an enjoyable evening.  Many thanks to Cindy Hoalcraft for the beautifully decorated cakes. Not only did they look good, but they tasted good.  50th Anniversary Commemorative Wine Glasses are available for $2.00 each. Please contact Moira Blair with your order: [email protected]  Copies of the History Slide Show are available for a $5.00 donation by contacting Beau Blair at: [email protected]  A form will be placed on the TSP web-site to enable people to confidentially update their contact information.  Pictures from the celebration will be posted on the Web-site in the near future.

TSP Raffle Winners The following people won the various raffle prizes:  Atomic Skis – Kathy Isgar  Snowboard – Errol Willet  Toggenburg Season Pass – David Lapinski  $100 Ski Company Gift Certificate – Craig Riker  Knitted Winter Hat – Chris Myers

Candidate Update  Congratulations to the S&T candidates who passed their evaluations on Sunday, March 2nd. They include: Jeff Lamarch, Lawrence Puccio, Dave Whiteaway, and junior candidates Eric Schicho and Thomas Shaw. They all passed with flying colors.  Congratulations to Catherine Catranis, Larry Puccio, and Dave Whiteaway for passing their OEC course “On the Hill” tests. Both Dave and Larry are now qualified as full patrollers and Catherine is qualified as an auxiliary patroller here at Toggenberg.

1  Moira reported that we have eight potential OEC Candidates for this fall’s OEC course and five for S&T. Please note: we are always looking for more candidates, please forward any names/numbers/email addresses to Moira.

TSP Logo Items  If you are interested in ordering TSP logo clothing items, please review the order form on the TSP Web-site ( http://togskipatrol.org ) for product options and details and contact Evelyn Tordoff by March 20th with your order. [email protected]  Payment, payable to Toggenburg Ski Patrol, must be received prior to order submission to vendor.

TSP Patches  New TSP patches will be available at the Spring Meeting in April. These patches are available to patrollers (past and present). They are not available for sale or distribution to the public as they are a uniform badge representing membership in the TSP.  Each current patroller will get one patch free. Additional patches can be purchased for $2.00.

Chair Evac Training  A second chair-evac training session for the season was held on March 9. We used Arise and Ski equipment to demonstrate proper evacuation techniques. The exercise was attended by 8 TSP members and 3 Arise & Ski members. All agreed that it was a good session and should be done in the fall, prior to the Arise & Ski season. Information on the various “sit skis” is being gathered and will be included in the Chairlift Evacuation Manuals.

Instructor Mentoring Program  Congratulations to our “Mentoring OEC Instructors” John Bellardini, Tom Campbell, Jim Shaw, and Brian Wengert on their elevation to “OEC Instructor”. They made presentations on Sunday, March 2nd, demonstrating their ability to teach at the standards set by NSP. They presented, to two of next years candidates and several instructors, what is required in a back- boarding scenario, from scene safety all the way through applying the spider straps. Noel Rios, CNY Region Director, performed the evaluations.

Radios  A motion to purchase two (2) additional radios was made by Carter Riley with a second by Moira and approved by all.  These radios are to be purchased and put in service prior to the beginning of the 2008 – 2009 season. They are to minimize having patrollers on duty without a radio. This happens frequently on Sundays, even though several patrollers have their own units.

Incidents Reports  For any incident/accident involving TSP personnel or equipment a report must be written explaining the incident, the cause, people involved, and how the situation was resolved. This information should be recorded on the back of the daily sign in sheet with additional information recorded on the Supplemental Incident Report form.  Report the incident/accident to the TSP Patrol Leader by phone as soon as possible.

Suggestions The following suggestions were made and discussed:  Investigate installation of a roof or canopy over the entrance to the Patrol Room. Geff will discuss with management

2  Investigate installation of a non-slip material in the bottom of each toboggan. Geff Dennee will discuss with John Irwin.  Investigate installation of a weather station. After much discussion, it was agreed this is a management responsibility and the issue was tabled although it will be discussed with management.

Elections  The following positions are up for election this spring: Patrol Leader - Geff Dennee incumbent Assistant Patrol Leader - Carter Riley incumbent Patroller at Large - Moira Blair incumbent Treasurer – Paul Steiner incumbent  Contact Jim Morrison if you are interested in running for a position or want to nominate someone.

Spring Meeting  Our annual spring meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 19, 9:00 am at Toggenburg.  An early lunch will begin @ 11:30. TSP will supply meat and non-alcoholic beverages. Please bring a dish to pass.  Geff Dennee will be seeking comments from the membership on positive things that happened during the year and things you would like to see happen in the future. Look for an e-mail survey in the near future.

Web Site  Go to the Members’ pages of the Toggenburg Ski Patrol Web-site for announcements, meeting minutes, schedules, instructions & procedures, etc. at: http://togskipatrol.org  If you have suggestions for improving the Web-site contact Walt Shepard at: [email protected]

Walter O. Shepard Secretary, Toggenburg Ski Patrol March 13, 2008