It was an excellent USSA Congress last week in Park City. Season reviews and proposals were heard with sport committees taking this to provide direction for next year. The annual awards banquet honored the best of the best in our sport with the highest honor, the Julius Blegan Award, being given to Bob Dart posthumously.

Review proposals, reports and minutes here.

Message from Jeff Weinman,

With some of the peculiarities of Vola, we’ve heard that we haven’t gotten everyone’s work credit applied properly with all of the races this year.

I’m not sure how widespread this is just looking at the number

As we prepare for USSA Congress next week, I wanted to share a few developments with you and ask for your input and assistance with improving systems.

I once again want to thank you for your commitment to ski racing and all the hours you have put in this past winter to support, set up and run ski races for our USSA competitors. Throughout this past fall and winter, I was able to meet with and work with many of you and I learned a lot about what makes our organization work. Alpine ski racing could not exist without the efforts of people like you.

The changes associated with Vola timing systems this winter were not without challenges. I am well aware of this and many of you have given us considerable feedback on how to improve and help you organize and run events. Feedback included not only comments on how to improve Vola, but many of you also asked to have flexibility in choosing your timing software.  As you know, were in a situation last fall that led to our focus on Vola as the only approved system. For this coming season, we have forged a strong relationship with Split Second that allows us to approve both systems for use in timing USSA sanctioned races next season. Split Second is now a strong partner and we look forward to having them back as we envision a marketplace with both choices and flexibility.

Going forward, the live timing system will list races together from both systems and will be supported by both companies. All races run on both systems will be listed and available on ussalivetiming.com. Improvements and enhancements to USSA Live Timing are currently underway and we will be soliciting feedback directly from users soon. This survey information will be shared with both companies so that their support of Live Timing and its features and performance will benefit.

Since both Vola and Split Second are entering their cycles of software revisions and improvements, we are soliciting RAs, timers and others like you to help us prioritize and summarize the desired feature additions and changes. If you have used Vola’s timing and data platform please help us improve it by participating in this short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2016USSATiming

Again, we cannot thank you enough for all that you do to support the USSA, your clubs, competitors and families.

Tiger Shaw
President and CEO
U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association

Please mark your calendar for the FIS/USSA Clinics this fall

FIS North American TD Update (One location this year)
October 28-30 |  Calgary AB CAN

November 5  |  Rocky USSA TD/Officials Update
November 11-13  | RMSRO Officials Clinics (specialty and update)

Detailed information will be posted when the event draws near and schedules have been set.  Officials MUST attend update every other year so if you did not do an update last fall, you need one this fall.  You can of course update every year (preferred) to remain current an up to date on all rule changes.

All,

From the results of the Doodle Poll it appears the preferred time for the Advisory Committee call is this Thursday April 28^th at 4:00pm MDT.  With this in mind I’m setting up a conference bridge for Thursday.

The Bridge information is:

Dial-in Number: 712-770-4010
Access Code:      1517030

Looking forward to the call and the opportunity to share information related to successes, challenges and potential initiatives with Volunteer recruitment.

Thanks,

Ken

All,

Earlier this winter RMSRO announced the formulation of an Advisory Committee as a forum to discuss volunteer recruitment, retention and training (see attached email distributed in January).  With the close of season we would like to schedule the first end of season call.  Not knowing the best time for everyone to participate in a call I’m attaching a link to a Doodle Poll site to accumulate availability.

Using the link below please go to the Doodle Poll site and note when you are available for the call.  Options are for Thursday April 28^th @ 4:00pm, Saturday April 30^th @ 10:00am and Monday May 2^nd @ 6:00pm.  Tuesday evening I’ll check the results of the Poll and send out details for the call including conference bridge information.

http://doodle.com/poll/2ccfb6adbckyk2uz

Agenda for the call is as follows:

General Discussion

Primary Club Challenge related to Volunteers

Success stories –

Status of Skill Position Volunteers

• Chief of Race
• Chief of Course
• Race Administrator
• Timing
• Start/Finish Referee
• General Support

Source of Volunteers

Recruitment

Support Discussion Topics

Training/Certification

• Classroom
• On Snow Clinics

Mentorship Coordination

Recognition/Motivation

Retention

Volunteer Resource List

Other Ideas

Thanks again for participating in the RMSRO Advisory committee!

Ken

Club Leadership,

We are writing to you representing the Rocky Mountain Ski Racing Officials (RMSRO) Board of Directors. As the organizing and managing body of certified officials and skilled volunteers in the Rocky region, we recognize the need for more officials and volunteers throughout our region. The board has recently passed a resolution to start an advisory committee composed of representatives from clubs and ski areas with race programs to address ways RMSRO can assist in the development and training of ski race volunteers.

We would like to invite your organization to appoint a representative to the advisory committee. No one knows your areas and clubs as you do, and we value your expertise. Currently we are proposing the committee join an annual conference call to discuss how RMSRO can be of value to you at your area or club. We hope to host our first call at the end of this season.

In the interim, we would like to gather your input for what we can do to support new and existing certified officials in your area. In our discussions, we’ve had several ideas we would like to share. This year we had more people attend satellite clinics than ever before.  Possibly additional entry level clinics could be hosted at the club level. We’ve also discussed the idea of mentorship for new officials and additional training materials. And finally we’ve discussed the possibility of early season “on snow clinic” practical training in a true race day environment.  We welcome your feedback on these and also proposals for additional ideas.

Our goal is to be an asset and support for your organizations as you run races throughout the year. In order to do this, we would like your input. We look forward to working with your representative as we continue to put on some of the best races in the nation.

Sincerely,

Ken Gay
RMSRO Board Member

USSA Congress registration is open!
May 11-15
Park City, UT