Hello Meadows Learning Center Instructors!
Winter in March – I love it! I haven’t seen this much snow in Hood River in March for quite a while – and the conditions on the mountain have been amazing! This weekend should be super busy with the final Toyota Night happening this Saturday night! Guest are still coming to the mountain to take lessons with you, so please read on! Oh and by the way, your part time schedule commitment of 18 or 24 shifts is the minimum shifts you can complete to meet your commitment – why not go for more? It would be greatly appreciated. As we move into next season the “goal teaching hours” will be a way for you to potentially meet your commitment in fewer days as long as your teaching hours meet a threshold (or in more days if they do not). More on that later – let’s get through this season! Be sure to set you clocks ahead 1 hour on Sunday morning at 2am …
NWABA Coming Saturday – we need your help!
Schedule Commitments – have you fulfilled yours?
Guest Comments – You Rock!
Picking Up More Shifts – Calling In Protocols
The Last Toyota Night AND Toyota Afternoon Days coming soon!
March is Training Month – Upcoming Level I, II & III Exam Info
MHM Scholarship Info
Deep Snow Safety – Tree Skiing/Riding
Spring Ahead – Sunday March 10
Northwest Association for Blind Athletes coming Saturday
There will be 9 skiers and 2 snowboard athletes coming each of whom will need an single instructor. This is such an enriching experience that you will not want to miss out on. Come be a guide for a visually impaired skier or snowboarder. If you are able to help with this group, or help in our other lessons operations on Saturday, this will be a huge help as these athletes require a single instructor per athlete. If you can help on Saturday please send in a Pickup Shift submission here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/schedule-change-requests
Schedule Commitments – have you fulfilled yours?
With all the call ins lately from broken toes to car problems to the flu and my neighbor’s pet squirrel died and we’re having a vigil … I assume there are quite a few of you that need to review your schedule commitment days and see where you need to pitch in to meet your commitment. There are plenty of great days ahead to ski, ride and teach, and it would be a bummer if you have no more scheduled days on your profile and you have NOT yet met your schedule commitment – i.e. oops – your pass no longer works. So dig deep into your memory banks – recall that day you called in early season, and make the commitment to your team to fulfill your commitment. You can add shifts here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/schedule-change-requests
Guest Comments – You Rock!
Greg – I LOVED MY INSTRUCTOR. HE IS THE BEST, BUT YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW THAT.
Louis – Great instructor, very knowledgeable and friendly!
Misha – There is a reason I keep taking my daughter for lessons at Meadows. She has a fantastic time, has been motivated by each of her instructors, and has greatly improved her technique! She truly enjoys her lessons and looks forward to going each time. Thank you to everyone that makes it so she has a blast and stays safe!
Kristin Lago – My daughter had a blast with Kristin. My daughter after the lesson felt confident and excited to ski the rest of the day. She helped our family with what will surely be a lifetime of memories. Thanks!
Derek Grant – Derek was the best instructor we’ve had so far. Great teaching technique, outgoing, friendly, and just a pleasure to be around. We learned a ton and had so much fun:)!
Steven – I had two classes and enjoyed Eric, Art, and Steven very much.
Forrest – Thanks for the clever ways to remember where to keep your balance and useful suggestions for what to work on
Beau – Beau had a really great attitude as an instructor. I could tell that he is very passionate about the sport, and he wanted to share his enthusiasm. When I got frustrated with my own ability during a run, Beau patiently talked me through it which made me want to keep going. Thanks Beau!
Jesse – Jesse was very friendly and a knowledgeable instructor!
Eric – Thanks for providing a good first experience for my son…he wanted to go back the next day!
Ryan Coussens – Ryan is a very skilled instructor and skier, extremely personable, very hands on, he demonstrated every single drill he wanted me to perform, cannot have enough praise for him!
Eric – The facilities and the instruction we received were both wonderful aspects of our visit to Mt. Hood Meadows that we would recommend enthusiastically to friends.
Jessie Cook – Great job, thank you for taking the time to really push her to learn even more!
Picking Up More Shifts – Calling In Protocols
The best way to let everyone know you are adding a shift or calling in sick is to: a) Send a personal text message to your manager or b) Use the appropriate form on the Instructor Portal or c) Don’t tell anyone and receive a No Call / No Show on your profile? Yes, the answer is “b”. If you want to pick up a shift, please use this form: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/schedule-change-requests If you are going to miss a shift and you are “calling in” for a shift please use the call in form here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/calling-in-sick
A note about Call Ins – they are getting way out of control. Last Saturday alone 21% of the scheduled instructors would not / could not come to work on their scheduled day! This time of year your schedule shift is VERY IMPORTANT as many of our instructors have actually fulfilled their schedule commitments, so the idea that 
“Oh, they’ll be fine we have 350 instructors, I’ll just call in with Pretendinitis” is super stressful on everyone. If you are sick, then please, don’t come to work – and please let us know well ahead of time. If you are scheduled, please be here on time ready to rock and roll!
If you oversleep – then set your alarm on your phone AND the manual alarm clock. If you’re just too tired, go to bed a little earlier. If you stayed out too late on Friday or Saturday night, skip one round, take a Vitamin D and Advil before bed with a full glass of water. That’s how the pros do it!
Calling in “late, tired, missed the bus, don’t have a snow shovel to dig out my driveway, don’t want to help my fellow instructors, just want to watch day time TV, my neighbor’s squirrel died, yadda-yadda-yadda” really puts a huge amount of stress on the rest of the team who do get here on time ready to enrich your teammates’ and students’ lives. So, please, think twice about calling in for anything other than really being sick – your team really needs you!
The Last Toyota Night AND Toyota Afternoon Days – Coming soon!
The last Toyota Night is this Saturday night and we need your help. We are sold out – there will be 100 skiers and 100 snowboarders here for lessons on Saturday night. This is where you come in. If you are not already scheduled for this shift and want to earn a lift ticket for a friend or family member (up to a $109 value), please join us Saturday night. We need 5 more ski instructors and 5 more snowboard instructors for the night shift! How do I sign up to teach? Please use this form: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/schedule-change-requests and in the comments be sure to include that this added shift is eligible for a lift ticket voucher.
We will also be offering a Toyota Afternoon lesson on Friday and Saturday at pm, driving business to the afternoon lesson time that is notoriously slower than the morning lessons. This is in an effort to make March and April sustainable for our team who want to teach but tend to only get lessons in the morning. It is also a way for our department to be profitable because the new lodge is looking more and more promising as long as we continue to be profitable this season.
March is Training Month – Upcoming Level I, II & III Exam Info
There are two more Level I exams being held at Mt. Hood Meadows this season: Thursday, March 28 and Saturday, April 13. You can find out more information about the Level I exam here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/training/level-1-exam-info The deadline for the Alpine and Snowboard Level II and Level III exams have either passed or are passing soon. You may still be able to sign up on the PSIA-NW website. Please check the event calendar on the PSIA-NW website here: https://www.psia-nw.org/events/ Once night operations have concluded for the season we will be offering clinics at 1:15pm for those who aren’t teaching lessons. This is a great opportunity to get better at X, Y and Z and either just become a better skier, rider or teacher and/or prepare you to pass that next level of Certification. Keep an eye on the training calendar for upcoming clinic opportunities here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/calendar
MHM Scholarship Info
Mt. Hood Meadows has a scholarship program that helps our instructors attend PSIA-NW Certification Exams, Specialist Accreditations and Educational Events. The financial support is for the registration fees associated with the PSIA-NW event you wish to attend. Our scholarship monies do not cover personal expenses like travel, food or lodging. For more information see this page: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/current-staff/scholarship-information
Deep Snow Safety – Tree Skiing/Riding
With the tree well hazards recently improving somewhat the ban on skiing and riding on “tree runs” with child students in lessons (i.e. those under 18 years of age) has been lifted, as the snow has settled somewhat. Please keep in mind that the danger still exists. Those “small” trees on HRM are actually 20’ trees with 8 feet of snow piled around them. If you are within 6 feet of a tree you are at risk. To learn more about Tree Wells and Snow Immersion Suffocation see this link: http://www.deepsnowsafety.org/index.php/
Spring Ahead – Sunday March 10
Day Light Savings time BEGINS Sunday morning at 2am. Your smart phone will likely “spring ahead” for you, but your body might not. You’ll be getting up an hour earlier than normal, so don’t be late Sunday morning because we’ll both miss you and NEED you! I’ve warned you – calling in because you forget to “spring ahead” would be pretty lame – just sayin’.
See you this weekend!
Tyler
