Hello MLC Instructors!
It’s hard to believe it has not even been two weeks since we closed at 4pm on March 16. So much has changed in that time. I hope you are all weathering this storm as best you can. I’ve been in contact with some of you, but also I miss hearing from you all – I miss seeing you enriching the lives of yourselves and our guests; I miss seeing you at the Ballroom Carpet Maze with your lessons; I miss seeing you at Line Up, at clinics, out on the hill or coming in from some epic powder runs – I miss it all!
Yesterday I was at the mountain solo, putting away the Kids Fun Zone props and Seymour’s Fort fencing and signage. The mountain was sunny with fresh snow on the ground. Looking up the hill, there were no tracks, no lifts running, no one on the hill. It was surreal.
Below is some information you may find helpful.
Seasonal Hourly Team Members paid through March 27
As you heard from Greg Pack previously, we are paying all seasonal hourly team members who were scheduled during the last two weeks for those scheduled shifts. Some of our full time team members worked night shifts, however we switched those shifts to day shifts for you. We know these are challenging times for everyone and putting the perpetual stoke model in play with a team first philosophy is important. If you worked, or were scheduled to work, after our suspension of operations on March 15 at 4pm you will be paid for these days/shifts. We looked back 6 weeks, totaled your individual gross earnings by pay period then divided this total by the number of days you worked to get an average per day gross pay. We then looked at your scheduled days from March 15 at 4pm through end of day today. For each day you worked in the current pay period (March 14 or 15) you were paid based for those specific hours and activities, and those that were scheduled to work after March 14, we applied your gross daily average per day and added this to your payroll as a manual entry for those scheduled days. If you review your on-line statements you will not see any teaching hours or non-teaching hours. If you do not participate in direct deposit, please be sure to update your mailing address in Dayforce as checks will be mailed out to the address on file.
Team Resources Webpage
As a reminder, there are lots of moving parts to close the resort, and all seasonal, hourly team members will be laid off immediately. We have built a team resources page with tons of great info on it to help you with everything from unemployment to food assistance – please go here for details – https://team.skihood.com/covid-19-layoff-resources/ You will continue to have access to Dayforce for your paystubs and personal info.
Exit Interview – Please Complete On-line
Please complete an exit interview on the Instructor Portal – no log in required. It’s short and sweet: Are you planning to come back next season? What are 1 or 2 things that went well this season? Please share what we can do better? Complete your exit interview here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/current-staff/exit-interview Also, only 73 out of 342 MLC team members participated in the company survey, so if you missed that opportunity you can share your experiences as part of the MLC team via the exit interview, too.
Season Award Nominations – Submit Yours Now!
We need your help nominating Co-Worker of the Year and Trainers of the Year. Once nominations are in we will prepare an on-line ballot. Usually the voting happens at the end of the season party but it is uncertain when this is going to happen so we need your help now nominating who you feel fits these roles. The Co-Worker of the Year is that instructor who was always there doing an amazing job both in their role as an instructor, but also was seen going above and beyond to help other instructors – Leads are not eligible for this award as The Best Supporting Role award recognizes the top Lead(s). Supervisors and Managers are not eligible for any MLC Awards. Please go to this link to submit a nomination: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/current-staff/award-nomination Your nominations will be followed up with an official on-line vote, so please submit your nomination today!
Operational Update: Uphill Travel, Lockers, Existing Lodge Repurposing
At this time the resort is still closed. You have probably heard that uphill travel within the permit area has been halted – you can read more about this here: https://www.skihood.com/about-us/meadows-blog/posts/2020/03/uphill-public-access-prohibited
Given the financial uncertainty of the next several months we have revised the plans for the repurposing of the North and South Lodges. That said, we are NOT moving the MLC locker room or hallway lockers this summer. At this time we are putting together a plan to manage social distancing while allowing team members and guests to come to the mountain and retrieve their personal belongings out of their lockers. This plan will be communicated as soon as it is in place. However, there is still no urgent need for anyone to come retrieve their personal belongings from their lockers. Again, your items are safe in your locker until further notice and we are maintaining the Stay at Home orders and social distancing for everyone’s protection.
Sahale Lodge, New SnoBlaster Program Room, Twilight/Nordic Lot Expansion
Despite the season being cut short and uncertain financial times we are proceeding with the Sahale Lodge build out as planned. This is going to be a massive improvement for next season. Construction starts on Monday March 30, 2020 with the plan to have our final occupancy by December 12, 2020. As you may know, the top floor of Sahale will be a new F&B operation, with the main level a new Rental Center and Children’s Learning Center. This is going to be a significant operational change for our department affecting many aspects of our daily operation. These are exciting times as we seek to improve your experiences here as an instructor and our guests experience in lessons. This will also take some stress of the existing lodges that were at capacity on peak days and weekends as you all experienced. The SnoBlaster Room is still planning to move to the current CLC location, creating a more centralized and secure meeting location for many program lessons. The Twilight/Nordic parking lot will be completed expanding our available parking hopefully reducing the number of guests who are “parked out” and miss their lesson start times.
The abruptness of the resort closing did not allow for sufficient time for Josey, Peter and I to thank you all for your hard work and dedication to enriching the lives of our team and guests. These unprecedented times shook many of us to the core. We will be assessing the possibilities of getting together this summer for a MLC social if this pandemic gets under control. I am hopeful we’ll be able to give hugs and high fives then. We will keep you up to date on Your Mountain Home news throughout the summer.
Yours in snowsports,
Tyler
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Tyler Barnes
Learning Center Operations & Training Manager
O: (503) 337-2222 ext.1276