Hi everyone, I want to thank everyone for the great work this week. Overall every multi week program this week ended the day as a hugh success. Nice work with continuing to be “Best in the West”.
There are several noteworthy topics to mention.
Rehire Training Clinics:
There are still quite a few of us that have not been able to attend a rehire clinic yet this season for many different reasons. If this is you I am happy to say that beginning this Saturday and Sunday (17th, 18th) we are offering (2) 2-hour weekend and (1) 2-hour weekday evening sessions so you can get your important rehire training completed.
Each session will run for two-hours and you are required to attend both sessions. We are offering the following options to be completed no later than February 1.
Session 1 Offerings:
1/14, 1/17, 1/18, 1/24, 1/25
Session 2 Offerings:
1/21, 1/24, 1/25, 1/31, 2/1
Wednesday Evenings:
1/21, 1/28
Extra Instructors Needed:
We are still in need for a few more instructors (alpine and snowboard) for our Friday evening programs. These programs get underway around 5:30pm and are a lot of fun. Even if you are not available on all of the Friday evening that the programs are here we would still appreciate the extra help.
MLK weekend is upon us. Historically this and Presidents weekend are the biggest busiest weekends of the season. Please notify me or Sue an email if you are able to pick up some extra shifts.
Weekend Morning Meetings/Huddles
Snoblasters: If you were assigned to snoblasters last weekend for all of you that are available we will meet in the snoblasters room at 7:45am.
All of Teaching Assignments: Morning meetings in your assigned teaching areas at 8:45am
Below is very useful information from Tracy. Please read.
Hello all.
I just wanted to say what an amazing start to programs. You all have done an amazing job and I wanted to share how much your hard work is appreciated, especially from me.
We had 137 Snoblasters attend on Saturday and 194 attend Sundays session. WOW!! That’s pretty amazing.
A few things that I would like to touch upon to help/aid the following weeks programs run as smoothly as they can;
- Snoblasters room is pretty tight with the high numbers that we run through the room. Let’s all do our best to try and keep our kids contained as much as possible. This program we do allow parents to be in the room as well so we really need to do our best and remind our students and the parents that we do have a limited amount of space. That means also we all could do our best to limit the amount of extra gear and other items we all bring into the room.
- On Hill Splits are something that we all inevitably have to handle in our groups as we go out on the hill. Just a reminder that we need to handle these carefully and adequately for guest satisfaction as well as our own. It’s best especially on the first few days of the program to chat with the other instructors of similar ability levels and even arrange ahead of time to go to the same ski run so that we can shift our students between each of the groups seamlessly.
- Proper Terrain choices are also something that we really need to really be aware of, especially at the start of programs. Every child loves to tell you how awesome they are or that they want to ride with their friends who are of an ability level that may be inappropriate for our skills. Next thing you know you are on Shooting Star with a child who is terrified and is in survival mode. Every lesson, REGARDLESS of their stated ability level needs to EASY STYLE IT and make smart decisions about heading to the appropriate terrain as we head out onto the hill.
- Rental Equipment damage is something that we should be aware of and be making sure that smart decisions are once again being made on the hill to limit the damage that may happen to our Rental fleet as well as our guests. We all know that we currently have obstacles that are unmarked out on the hill but we should also not be putting our students into a position into which these conditions may affect the lesson. The damage that occurs to our rental fleet is the responsibility of the student or their parents and our Rental Department can charge the guests for repairs or replacement so let’s all try and limit our exposure to the conditions that may cause damage.
- Parents and guest’s comments or suggestions are something that will happen and should be directed to the proper person. I know we all want to help out as best we can when a guest has a comment but let’s be sure we are giving out the correct information to them so that the guest isn’t given incorrect information or that the issue isn’t properly addressed. The first week of programs we see lots of pass/rental issues that appear and we need to be sure that the guest has the correct information. So let us all be sure that if you don’t know the correct information, please direct the guest to a supervisor so we can respond correctly.
- Teaching Tip… Old Terrain/New Task vs New Terrain/Old Task
We all want to give our students the best possible chance for success in their lessons and in their skiing or riding. A great method of keeping our guests fear threshold in check is to introduce a new skill or task on old familiar and easy terrain for our student. After the student has mastered the skill or task then we can take and introduce new terrain to our students and have them perform the old task which they know so well.
Tracy Thomsen
Programs Supervisor
Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort
503.337.2222 ext. 1329
I hope everyone has a great rest of their week and I hope to see you all very soon,
Mark
Mark Fischer
Ski and Snowboard School Manager
Adaptive Snow Sports Manager
Mt Hood Meadows Ski Resort
503-337-2222 ex1288