v41.3_Spring_2014 - National Ski Patrol
Transcription
v41.3_Spring_2014 - National Ski Patrol
http://www.ohionsp.org Ohio Region Newsletter, National Ski Patrol System, Inc. Volume 41, Number 3 April, 2014 News from the Region Director In this Issue: Bill Currier Page 1 First, it gives me great pleasure to announce Guy Day, Boston Mills Brandywine, as the new Ohio Region Director. Guy will assume his new duties on July 1, 2014. Please give him your support as he moves into his new role. My thanks go to Guy for his service as Assistant Region Director for the past several years. News from Bill Currier Page 2 Guy Day & Central Division Meeting Page 3 Snow Trails & Paoli Peaks News Page 4 Elections, Awards, & Outdoor Emergency Care Page 5 Avalanche, Certified & Downhill Page 6 NSP-C Ski School & Tranprotation Page 7 Senior & Assistant Region Administration Page 8 Alumni & Calendar Page 9 Organizational Chart Page 10 Photographs Page 11 Mailing Information While winter has yet to exit the Ohio borders, most resorts in the Region closed the 2 nd enjoying a season of 100 or more days. What a difference a year makes! The only Spring skiing I found this year was at PNS at the end of February. I hope that you were able to participate in the programs that we offered this season, and that you either achieved your personal goals or that you are continuing on your journey to enhance your skiing and riding skills and proficiency. Congratulations to all who completed another leg of their ski patrolling journey. I am now looking forward to our annual Spring Meeting and Awards Banquet that will be held this year at Snow Trails on April 26. Sue Cline and her team are busy making plans for the event which will include a Region business meeting, an Introduction to Avalanche Search and Rescue class, and an awards banquet in the evening. Mark your calendars now and make plans to attend. Thanks to all who participated in our programs this season, and a special thanks to all Region staff, instructors, trainers, evaluators, advocates, et al, who volunteered countless hours and traveled countless miles to conduct our programs . An amazingly large number of staff (more than 100) participated in our Senior Tests this season. Special thanks goes out to the management and patrol leadership at PNS who hosted a Region STW, the Senior Alpine Ski/Board and Toboggan test and the Certified Pre-Qualification Clinic; to Mad River Mountain who hosted the SROEC Test; and to BMBW who also hosted a Region STW. Special thanks also to the management of Mad River Mountain who cordoned off one of their slopes during the weekend of March 9 for the Senior Outdoor Emergency Care, SROEC, test. Thanks to those region staff members who are stepping down from their positions and who will be recognized at the Awards Banquet for the time and effort they have given to the Ohio Region. Also, please welcome the new advisors and assistant advisors who have joined the Region Staff and who will also be recognized at the Awards Banquet. Your time, effort, professional conduct, and dedication in support of the Region and your fellow patrollers are what make the Ohio Region great! Here are a few of these season’s highlights (see articles elsewhere in this issue for more details): • 844 patrollers were registered in December (that’s 20 more than last season). • There are now 9 active patrols in the Region (down 1 from last season because Buckeye Nordics did • 16 candidates, 6 of whom became full Senior Alpine patrollers, completed the Senior S&T Test on • 15 candidates completed the SROEC Test on March 9 at MRM. Also, 6 successfully completed the • Over 20 Ohio Region Patrollers, including 10 Certified Patrollers and 4 Certified Candidates, attended • Other events included: * A Division Skiing &Toboggan Clinic held at Boyne Highlands in December with about 25 Ohio Region present *Ski Trainers Workshops, STW’s, held at Perfect North Slopes and Boston Mills in January *Ski Enhancement Seminar’s, SES’s, and Toboggan Enhancement Seminars, TES’s) held at most resorts in January and February *A Certified Pre-Qualification clinic held at Perfect North Slopes in January *An Mountain Travel & Rescue II Course and an Avalanche Level 1 Course held in November, 2013 *A National Women’s Clinic held at PNS in February Region and National award nominations have been reviewed and winners selected by their respective awards teams. Plaques and certificates are now being prepared for presentation at the Spring Awards Banquet. An election for the Section Chief position in Section O3 has been won by Dave Baumlein, Snow Trails. Congratulations Dave. Lastly, this will be my last DOWNHILL article as Ohio Region RD. My term will expire on June 30, 2014. Thanks to all of you for your support, dedication and involvement in Region programs and activities during the past six years. You have made my job as Region Director, RD, pleasant and rewarding. I hope you will continue to show the same for the new RD, Guy Day. As you can tell it has been another very busy season. I hope to see many of you at Snow Trails on April 26. Have a safe and happy off-season. Bill Currier, Ohio Region Director April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 1 ** News from around the Ohio Region ** Meet the New Region Director: Guy Day ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM SPRING 2014 CENTRAL DIVISION MEETING, APRIL 5-6 Guy Day and his wife, Mary, live in Cleveland, Ohio. They have lived there for the past fourteen years and have two boys, Alex (10) and Will (7). The entire family likes to ski together as much as they can. This goes back to when Guy and Mary met while living in a Colorado ski town. Guy is currently registered with the Boston Mills & Brandwine Ski Patrol. He joined BMBWSP back in the fall of 2000. Guy started his patrol career at a very small resort in Saginaw, Michigan called Bintz’s Apple Mountain as a Junior Patroller in the fall of 1984. “I grew up as a patrol kid. My dad was always going someplace for some kind of patrol function” mentions Guy. “It is what we did in winter; we skied and were involved in ski patrol.” After high school Guy transferred to the Northern Michigan Region and became a member of the Nubs Nob Ski Patrol while attending Central Michigan University. While he was at Nubs Nob, Guy earned his Senior Classification in 1988 when he turned eighteen. He did not stop there, in 1992 Guy became a Certified Patroller (#381) at age 23. Leaving Michigan for more snow and blue sky, Guy spent two years with the Beaver Creek Ski Patrol in Avon, Colorado as a Professional Patroller. Realizing that a more main stream form of employment was needed, a move to Chicago was next. The time there was spent between Northern Michigan Metro Patrol (2 yrs) and the Wilmot Ski Patrol (3 yrs). Guy and Mary moved to Northeast Ohio when the opportunity presented itself in April of 2000. Over the last 29 seasons as a patroller, Guy has had several leadership roles in the various patrols and regions he was a member. Here is a quick snap shot of some of his roles: Outstanding Patroller Bintz’s Apple Mountain, Training Advisor Nub’s Nob Ski Patrol, S&T Examiner Central D, WEC Instructor, OEC Instructor, Division, Cardiac De-Fib Team Member BCSP CPR Instructor, Ski and Toboggan Trainer & Evaluator, Certified Program OEC Module Lead, Hill Captain Supervisor, Assistant Division Certified Advisor, Region Certified Advisor and Assistant Region Director. Guy was recognized by his peers and was awarded his National Appointment (#10174) in 2005. He was also recognized in 2007 with the Central Division Program Award. In 2010, he received the Division Director Program Award. • New National Chairman, Ed McNamara. • New Executive Director, John McMahon brings ski industry, patrolling and civic experience to the job. • Central Division patrollers holding positions at the national level include Janet Glaeser, NBOD Member, Jim Woodrum, NBOD Member, Deb Endly, OEC, Jay Zedak, OET, Rick King, MTR, Linda Bartel, Women’s Program, Mike Husar, Saftey, and Darcy Hanley, Education Director. • New RD’s include Guy Day, BMBW as Ohio Region RD; Jim Ruzicka, Three Rivers Ski Patrol, as Western Region RD, and Chip Knappen, as Western Michigan RD. • National continues to struggle through a number of IT issues, not the least of which is the lack of email blast capability for Division and Region directors. Ohio Region is working to find a replacement, but this may take a while. In the meantime staff needing to e-blast to patrollers should send their items to the PR’s and ask them to blast to their patrollers. Also, registration data is not correct in all cases, but Cheri Overton will fix if contacted. • A proposal to adapt new standards for the selection of hills that can offer the Certified exam was not approved. A proposal to split the Certified exam into two parts (1) Hold the non-ski/board and toboggan modules at any area in the Division and (2) Rotate the ski/board and toboggan modules among all Regions that are able to host them (some would not be able because they do not have Senior-rated terrain) was approved. The Board asked the Certified staff to develop a plan for implementing the changes and present it at the Fall meeting. Also, it was pointed out that the National Certified Program Director has stated that he is strongly against any fixed hill selection criteria such as had been proposed. • A proposal to request that National modify the Senior OEC requirements that the test and candidate training must be held on snow to say that they should be held on snow whenever possible was approved. JT will take this proposal to the next National Board meeting. • Another National Board Election will be held in the Fall of 2014 to fill five openings. One Central Division patroller has already declared an interest in running, and others are being sought. • Division Directors are continuing strongly influence National Board matters. • NSP-C Ski School name will be changed to Snow Sports School • DIVISION CALENDAR UPDATE: *Spring Division Business Meeting, Chicago, IL. Doubletree Hotel, April 10-12, 2015 * MSAA Meeting, Boyne Mountain, Michigan, Aug. 3-6, 2014 *Fall Division Meeting, Eastern Michigan Region, Greek Town Casino & Hotel, Detroit, MI, Mike *Fall Division Meeting, Western Michigan Region, September 2015 *Fall Division Meeting, South Central Region, September 2016 2014 NATIONAL SKI PATROL CENTRAL DIVISION FALL MEETING One of Guy Day’s goals is to have at least one member of his leadership team be present at local & region events. “I believe one of the best ways to support the Ohio Region is to LISTEN to the leadership and the everyday patroller” says Guy. “By sharing ideas, knowledge and traditions with each other, we can help ensure that the Ohio Region continues to lead by example within the Central Division.” September 6/7/8, 2014 Go to: http://www.n spcentral.org/ to register or for more information. April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 2 Snow Trails Ski Patrol, Section 03 Patrol News: Wow! What a winter that was…Snow Trails was open a total of 97 days this season and Snow Trails Patrollers volunteered 15,558.61 hours to Snow Trails. Some of our highlights from this season include the following: *We welcomed 5 new official Red coat wearing Patrollers in early March when our K2 candidate class completed their Ski and Toboggan training. *We also had 9 new K1 candidates begin this season with their Ski/Ride/Toboggan training. A “big Thanks to all” of our Ski/Ride and Toboggan trainers here at Snow Trails, they were all very busy with all of our candidates K1 and K2’s along with fitting in time to help other Patrollers improve on their skills to say the least, not to mention all of the traveling they do to help at the OHIO Region Ski –Toboggan seminars. Your dedication, time and energy is very much appreciated! This K1 class will begin on April 1st with their OEC, so we will be off and running with that program all spring, summer and fall! The training never stops . *January and February “Polar Vortex” (-40 degree wind chill) temps that caused our area to shut down for several days, to keep all of us safe! * Black out in January-a major power outage in the Mansfield area shut down all power at Snow Trails one Saturday evening. All of the patrons at Snow Trails were safely evacuated off all of the lifts and escorted off of the hills, thanks to the team work of our Area Management and Patrollers! *Two heart attacks this season at Snow Trails (one during the black out, the other during our Big Air event) and the quick response of our Patrollers on both, saved lives!!!! *Congrats go out to Amy Arnold who achieved her PSIA Level 3 Ski Trainers. Your dedication to the program is amazing! We are very thankful to have you with us *Congrats go out to Dave Baumlein who will be taking over for Scott Kinnamon at the end of his term for Section Chief 0-3 in July 2014. *Thank you Scott Kinnamon for your time, service, support and wisdom that you have shared in your role as Section Chief. You will be missed! Snow Trails is proud to be hosting the Ohio Region Spring Meeting and Awards Banquet on Saturday April 26th, 2014. We are busy preparing and are looking forward to spending the day with all of you. Please contact Dave Baumlein for questions about the banquet. Snow Trails is also host to a Intro to Avalanche Search and Rescue class April 26, 2014 beginning at 8:15am Please contact Dale Fisher (330-414-8949 or skibcavy@gmail.com ), for more information and to attend ASAP. It has been my pleasure working with all of the dedicated Patrollers here at Snow Trails and across our Ohio Region NSP. Doug M, David A, Mike K, Jackie W, Tim C. Doug M. Tim C. Mike K. *“Snow Rollers” phenomenon- another first for this season. (Photo taken by Rick Armstrong, Snow Trails Patroller) Faithfully yours- Sue Cline, Snow Trails Ski Patrol Director Scline4@neo.rr.com or 419-566-8742 Paoli Peaks Ski Patrol, Section 01 Paoli Peaks 2013-14 season began with our OEC Class starting at the end of August and our patrolling season ended on March 9 when Paoli closed its doors for the season. We were open for 82 days this year. When the Peaks closed on the 9th, there was still PLENTY of snow – what was lacking were riders interested in taking advantage of it. *Our OEC refresher on October 12 went extremely well due to the outstanding planning and work by Mary Ellen Hardy. Mary Ellen has led our refreshers and instructor refreshers since 1988, 26 years! Prior to that she helped with the emergency care training when it was led by sectional instructors. Mary Ellen also contributed to the OEC manual over the years. Enough cannot be said about the contributions Mary Ellen has made to our Patrol’s medical skills and preparedness. *This season we had quite a few patrollers taking advantage of the wonderful training opportunities throughout the Ohio Region. Due to proximity, Perfect North sees more than their fair share of Paoli Patrollers and we are most grateful for the opportunities available to us and truly appreciate the inviting nature of PNS patrollers and trainers. *The SES/SNES and TES held at Paoli were both well attended and very well done. We are truly fortunate to have such skilled and dedicated trainers and resorts willing to host training and events throughout the region. Please make sure your management knows how appreciative we are for being able to attend events at their area. *We had six candidates pass the OEC class, and one Alpine Patroller who took the OEC class again after missing two seasons. This year we had two Patrollers achieve Alpine Patroller status, Julie DuChane and Mike Lewis, and one Patroller obtain Senior Patroller status, Ryan Blackburn. We also added two Toboggan Instructors to our roster, Heather Quillet and Ryan Blackburn. *Special thanks to Leah Morgan, and Bruce Heichelbech for all of their hard work and dedication to our riding and toboggan skill proficiency. What a fantastic season! April, 2014 Rick Jackson, DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Paoli Peaks Patrol Representative Page 3 Section O-3 Chief Election Results Outdoor Emergency Care I am pleased to announce that Dave Baumlein has been elected the new Section O-3 Chief after a close election. Dave is replacing Scott Kinnamon who successfully navigated the Clear Fork Ski Area Patrol difficulties over the past 4 years. Please congratulate Dave and wish him well with his Section Chief position. Respectfully submitted, Senior Outdoor Emergency Care / Aid Room Module The weekend of March 8 and 9, 2014 was very busy for our region, with all the action at Mad River Mountain Ski Area (MRM). I hope all patrollers in our region will join in to congratulate the candidates who were successful with the Senior Outdoor Emergency Care and Aid Room Modules. (OEC) Module: Paula Osorio, Charles Middlestetter, H. Scott Griffith, Ricky Aminaka, John Kreamer, Ryan Blackburn, Brian Harrison, Tim Crum, Kristin Bickel, Colleen Fisher and John Darr. Bryan Loveless Ohio Region Elections Officer Aid RoomModule (ARM): Please contact me with questions, comments and future nominations. 5043 Link Court Columbus, Ohio 43213 bloveless@insight.rr.com, 614-306-5513 Ryan Blackburn, Clara Nin-Hilgefort, Eric Newkirk, Maria Pla, John Kreamer, Ricky Aminaka, H. Scott Griffith, Charles Middlestetter, Ingrid Tenerove and Laura Scott. AWARDS AWARDS PROGRAM UPDATE Everyone mark your calendars for the April 26th Spring Awards Banquet at Snow Trails! Come out and show your support for your fellow patrollers who are getting recognized for their service, from 50 years of service to heroic lifesaving actions. Your awards committee met via conference call to review the results of the region winners. All Ohio region winners have been sent on to Central Division for competition at that level. The Ohio Region was very successful at the Division and National levels last year so we hope to continue to make a good showing at those levels again this year. Please take a moment to thank your local awards advisors and committees for all the hard work they do throughout the year to make sure deserving patrollers are recognized. A full review of the 2014 winners will be printed in the summer DOWNHILL issue after the banquet. You can read the rules and criteria for the Ohio Region specific awards, the National Outstanding awards, the Merit Stars, etc, by going to the Ohio Region awards page http://www.ohionsp.org/members/newprograms/awards/awards.html. You too can get involved in this process by joining your local awards committee. There is always room for new people to become involved, contact myself or your patrol representative for more information. Lori Ringley, Awards Advisor I want to extend a hearty thank you to Mad River Mountain Management for hosting our Senior OEC/ARM Event! Thank you also to MRM Patrol Director Troy Green for organizing the day, securing rooms for our teams and to MRM Patrol for providing lunch for all involved. Also, did you organize the beautiful, sunny day for us as well? Thank you to Mac Logan for organizing the logistics for the stations and equipping each station. Thank you goes out to Dave Baumlein, Senior Training Coordinator (STC) for preparing all aspects of this event, and to Phyllis Mauntel who led and organized the ARM Event. Thank you to all the patrollers who came out to help! This event requires a large Team of people to make it successful! This year 66 people made up the Team: moulage application and preparation of the patients, station managers, evaluators, observing evaluators, secondary patrollers – and, last, but certainly not least, our patients! I heard that the children acting as patients were the highlight of the day! Many thanks to all involved! Steve Werner, our Division Medical Advisor and his son, Derek Werner, our Division Avalanche Advisor, were in attendance for Division Quality Assurance (QA). Thank you to both for joining our region Senior OEC/ARM Event! They both remarked that our event was very well planned and orchestrated! To those who aspire to achieve Senior status, please continue your journey – it is a worthwhile undertaking!! Outdoor Emergency Care It seems that there really is never a “down” season for ski patrol! Many patrols are now organizing and several have begun their OEC classes! Dates for Fall Refreshers will need to be scheduled. Please be mindful of not duplicating the same refresher dates in the same sections. Too many refreshers on the same date makes it difficult to have available Instructor Trainers (ITs) to provide QA, and it makes for much difficulty for patrollers to go elsewhere to make up when unable to attend their home refresher. Sincerely, Contact for Award Questions: 513-895-0259 (h) 513-534-7223 (c) ringley@fuse.net Laura Scott, Region Outdoor Emergency Care Administrator (ROA) Our To view the minutes from the Fall Region Meeting, go to http://www.ohionsp.org/members/Board%20Minutes/Fall%202013%20Draft%20Meeting%20Minutes.pdf April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 4 Avalanche Our next Avalanche class will be held on Saturday, April 26th, at Snow Trails Ski Resort, from 9 to 4:30 pm. The “Intro to Avalanche Search & Rescue” course will last 7-8 hours and count as a Senior Elective. This class is free if you register for the Ohio Region Spring Banquet or if you are a Snow Trails patroller. The normal course fee is $25 for patrollers and $30 for non-patrollers. This fee includes a book (Snow Sense, 5th Edition, by Jill Fredston and Doug Fesler) and some cool swag. If you are attending the class for free and need the book, please let us know in advance and we will reserve one for you for $10. Our last class was also an “Intro to Avalanche Search & Rescue” and was held on Saturday, April 12, with 23 participants. Thanks goes out to Sue Cline and the Snow Trails Ski Resort and Patrol for sponsoring the event with full use of their facilities and providing breakfast and lunch. The Snow Trails’ patrol members helped-out at every opportunity and Sue was even able to save some snow on four of the ski runs for beacon, probe and shovel exercises. With that class we luckedout with a sunny day in the mid-70’s and we want to thank the 17 participants that attended from the following ski patrols: Alpine Valley, Boston Mills/Brandywine & Snow Trails. A huge thank you goes out to our instructors who traveled north all the way from Cincinnati, Dale Mihuta, Lead Instructor and John Korte, a Level-1 Instructor-in-training. Also, we could not have had the class without our program assistants, Mike Abrams and Colleen Fisher for assisting with set-up/tear-down and finally, Jacci and Mark Angel for their hard work with set-up and digging through ice to set-up dozens of beacon holes for the 4 field stations. Many thanks to Colleen Fisher, Mike Abrams, Chris Korte and Dale Mihuta for the hands-on field-station work and ensuring that we had less than a 1:5 instructor-to-student ratio when in the field. Once the record-breaking ski season ends the Ohio Region Avalanche program plans on having additional classes this Fall and Winter. They will include “Avalanche Awareness” classes (2 hours), “Introduction to Avalanche Search & Rescue/IASR” (8 hours), and will be sponsoring “Level-1” (3 days) and “Level-2” (4 days) classes in CO, MI, NH, NY & VT. Also, please remember that the IASR class is an elective for the Senior program and that any avalanche class is a good start towards being prepared for the Certified program’s Qualification Clinic. Many thanks goes out to the dedicated team of Ohio Region Avalanche Instructors that over the last few months were able to teach or audit classes at: Smuggler’s Notch, VT; Mt. Washington, NH; White Face, NY; Sunlight Mountain, CO; and Mt. Bohemia, MI. Also, congratulations goes to Jay Zedak for running a Level-1 class in late March at Mt. Boheima, MI, and having a record number of participants with three days great weather and fresh powder. We wish Dale Mihuta safe travels on his trip representing the NSP Central Division at the National Avalanche Advisors meeting in California in a few weeks and For more information about the Ohio Region’s Avalanche program visit our website (www.ohionsp.org) and clicking on the following tabs: Members/Programs/Avalanche. Also, please feel free to reach out to me to directly at 330-414-8949 or email me at: skibcavy@gmail.com. Next Class in Ohio: “Intro to Avalanche Safety & Rescue” April 26th, 2014; Snow Trails Dale Fisher, Region Avalanche Advisor Certified Congratulations to our candidates Jim Seeger, Rashid Farahati, Dave McKinley, and Harold Park on their success at Marquette! Each of our Ohio Region candidates completed several of their modules on their way to Certified. Only one new Certified Pin was awarded at this year's event to Kerstin Hammarberg from Buck Hill, MN. Ten of our own 15 active Ohio Region staff were able to attend and help evaluate. Additional support from Cheryl Raudabaugh, Yvette Gerdes, Dana Zedak, Matt Kim, Cary Gant, Vern DeHaven, and Mark Branham should be recognized. Their support and enthusiasm for the program is much appreciated! Over 20 patrollers represented the Ohio Region at this year's test in Marquette (See photo). Our continued support of the program is impressive, and we hope to see it continue to grow. Next year's exam will be in Lutsen, MN. The tentative dates are March 5-7, 2015. The Certified Program is a great way to improve your skills and make you a better overall patroller. You must be a Senior patroller with at least 5 total years of patrolling experience in order to enter the program. If you are interested, please contact me or any of the region Certified members for more details and consider joining us next season for our qualification clinic at Perfect North Slopes. Look for more details next season. Eric Z. Massanyi, Ohio Region Certified Advisor Downhill Editor: Leah Morgan As editor of the Ohio Region Newsletter, Downhill, I would like to request that all news items and recent photos be sent to homested@dmrtc.net. Word is fine and/or the articles can be included in the body of an email. If you can use Calibri and 8 point font with single spacing, that would be fantastic! If you send a PDF file, please include a Word file also that is saved as a Word 97-2003 or Word 2010, not 2013. Digital photos should be clear and 300 DPI, dots per inch, or more. Many of the new cameras take 8 or higher gigabit photos, but these are really much too large. One or two gigabit photos are plenty big and take a long time to download. All patrollers are welcome to submit articles to be considered for publication in the DOWNHILL and to send photographs from your area or photographs that might be on interest to our patrollers. The summer edition will deal primarily with “awards”. If you have suggestions for the "Downhill", feel free to send them to me along with information in a timely manner. April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 5 Ohio Region NSPC Ski School The NSP-C Ski School Ohio Region (NSPCSSOR) held 17 events during the 2013 – 2014 winter season. They included 2 Ski Trainer Workshops (STW), 9 Ski Enhancement Seminars (SES), and 6 Snowboard Enhancement Seminars (SNES) - see below for dates and locations. In addition, the NSPCSSOR staffed the Senior Alpine Ski and Snowboard Evaluators for the Ohio Region Senior Alpine S&T Exam held at Perfect North Slopes on Feb. 22-23. We’ve had a number of new and tenured instructors help facilitate our events this year. I like to thank the individuals listed below (15 total) for their dedication to making our program better and successful. Amy Arnold (Patrol: ST), Frank Cleary (Patrol: PNS), Marty Collins (Patrol: PNS), Vern DeHaven (Patrol: PNS), Andrew French (Patrol: PNS), Jon French (Patrol: PNS), Bryan Loveless (Patrol: ST), Dale Mihuta (Patrol: PNS), Dan Moss (Patrol: MRM), Harold Park (Patrol: PNS), Chris Raudabaugh (Patrol: MRM), Jim Seeger (Patrol: PNS), Troy Southwick (Patrol: MRM), Tom Worley (Patrol: PNS), and Jay Zedak (Patrol: BMBW). The NSPCSSOR had a very successful year in having our membership advance their PSIA certification credentials. On behalf of the Ohio Region proficiency team, we like to extend our congratulations to the following individuals for their achievements: Ralph Eckart (Patrol: BMBW) – PSIA I ,Jacqueline Ferini (Patrol: ST) – PSIA I, Colleen Fisher (Patrol: BMBW) – PSIA I, Vern DeHaven (Patrol: PNS) – PSIA II, Christopher Korte (Patrol: PNS) – PSIA II, Amy Arnold (Patrol: ST) – PSIA III, and Harold Park (Patrol: PNS) – PSIA III. We also had a successful NSPCSSOR instructor/evaluator trainee mentor program where the individual listed below have completed the necessary shadowing required to be included in the Traveling Instructor Staff pool for the 2014-2015 winter season: Tracy Pinkerton (Patrol: BMBW) – Senior Alpine Evaluator. During the 2013 – 2014, the NSPCSSOR was successful in expanding its Social Media presence by adding Google Plus (http://plus.google.com/103300524737660568609) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/NSPCSSOR) to the existing Facebook (www.facebook.com/NSPCSSOR) page and twitter (www.twitter.com/NSPCSSOR) page for additional exposure of our program. Please friend or follow our sites and post comments or pictures to share with our membership. Thank you again for your continued support in the program and we look forward next winter season. Humbly yours, Matthew Kim, NSP-C Ski School Ohio Region Advisor Low Angle Rescue Practice at the Ski Trainer’s Workshop Wow, was this a great winter for skiing and patrolling! Our typical snow challenges were a thing of the past this year as all of our Region events had plenty of great show offering lots of fun. Once again, I had the opportunity to meet some of our best patrollers who came out to learn, share and improve their skills. We held 2 Ski Trainers Workshops (STW) and 5 Toboggan Enhancement Seminars (TES) throughout the Region. Thanks to everyone who strove to improve themselves and become more confident in your toboggan skills this year. Collectively, we had over 50 participants at our STW’s (that’s huge) and 87 participants for our TES’s which were accompanied by 15 Instructor Trainers and 7 local Trainers. Ultimately, we have over 153 individual patrollers (removing a few overactive trainers) involved in the Ohio Region Toboggan program in various capacities. I am also excited that we have added many new trainers this year who will be a great asset to their local patrol: • Ryan Blackburn- Paoli Peaks • Heather Quillet- Paoli Peaks • Les Fisher- Mad River Mountain • Ralph Eckart- Boston Mills/Brandywine • Michael Berman- Alpine Valley Congratulations to our newest trainers and thanks to all the trainers for making themselves available throughout the season. Thanks for a great season and enjoy your summer… April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Richard McNitt, Ohio Region Transportation Advisor Page 6 Ohio Region Senior Program Mother Nature gave a great ski season this year, especially for those working toward the goal of becoming Senior Alpine Patrollers. I want to especially thank everyone who helped with each exam. This truly cannot happen without your help and support. It’s you, the patroller, that makes these events happens. I can’t thank everyone enough for their support to the Ohio Region Senior Program this season. Enjoy your summer, and I look forward to an exciting 2014/2015 season. Here’s the list of those that achieved their Senior Patroller status or their Senior Alpine Patroller status: Alpine Valley Mad River Paoli Peaks Perfect North Laura Scott – Senior Ingrid Tenerove – Senior H. Scott Griffith – Senior Andrej Gutik – Senior Alpine Laura McCabe – Senior Alpine Charles Middlestetter – Senior Ryan Blackburn – Senior Ronlad Stertzbach – Senior Alpine Dennis Courter – Senior Alpine Adam Heist – Senior Alpine Brian Harrison – Senior Alpine Kristen Bickel – Senior Alpine Boston Mills/Brandy Wine Colleen Fisher – Senior Alpine Seok-Joo Kim – Senior Alpine Snow Trails Ben Radley – Senior Alpine Congratulations again to these patrollers! For those that began their journey or are continuing it, please stay encouraged. The region is here to support you and will do everything to help you achieve your goals! David McKinley, Senior Advisor Assistant Region Director – Administration “Thanks to a Superb Staff for Jobs Well Done” Let me begin by congratulating Guy Day on his election as Region Director and sincere thanks to Bill Currier for his years of service leading the best region in the Central Division. As per Ohio Region policy, my tenure as ARD-Administration comes to an end with this election. I have had the pleasure of having a very competent and self-directed group of people in this line that has made my job very easy indeed and they deserve to be recognized. Here are the people who got many jobs done for the Ohio Region (in order of their appearance in the org chart). First, the Awards Advisor, Lori Ringley, who I deem and have aptly called on many occasions the “Awards Queen”. Her tireless efforts behind the scenes have grown the Ohio Region awards program and not only have provided much deserved recognition to many patrollers, but have produced multiple division and national recognitions. Greg Schoenman has continued to manage the National Appointments and Leadership Commendation Awards in his role as the NSP Appointments Award Chair. I think we have had people recognized in this area each year with Greg’s efforts. C. Richard Ike, our Alumni Advisor, continually communicates with all Patrols encouraging participation in the Alumni Program and providing guidance and resources to do so. His efforts continue to grow the activities of alumni patrollers to keep them connected to our patrol family. Chad Dworkin is always available to provide very professional legal opinions and advice and it is nice to know that he is there when we need him as our Region Legal Advisor. John Norris stepped up during my term to fill the vacant position of Historian. John has the formidable task ahead of going thru the many documents the Region has amassed and trying to organize them in an electronic format so they can be preserved for years to come. Marty Collins is assisting John in this endeavor. Chris Raudabaugh has continued to manage our Ohio Region website in addition to managing the Central Division site and his many other duties. His technical expertise keeps us all connected in so many ways. After many years in creating fantastic editions of the Downhill, Max Davis passed the reins of this formidable job as Downhill Editor to Leah Morgan. While Max produced big shoes to fill, Leah has continued the production of this publication and has some great ideas for the future. Please help her out by providing timely articles, pictures and information so she can keep The Downhill a useful, interesting information tool. During my term Bryan Loveless stepped up as Elections Advisor and from day one, hit the ground running, expertly managing all region elections in a timely manner with excellent communications to all involved parties. Again, it has been a pleasure having this group of people to work with and I personally want to thank them for all they have done. They all have asked little and needed little from me which is a sure sign of very competent, confident leaders in their respective areas. Many of them will continue in their current roles while some may move to other ventures but each of them have contributed their time and energy to continue to make the Ohio Region a leader in the Central Division. I appreciate you all. Respectfully, Bruce Heichelbech, ARD - Administration April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 7 Alumni Mad River Mountain Spring Carnival and Alumni Day Dick Nau & Delma Robinson… notice the blue and rust! Dave & Carol Cobb; Clem Gilliland & Daughter Cheryl Nicol Alumni Advisor: C. Richard Ike, Food and Lunch, of course! Slosh Pit with a snowboard attempt! crike@bright.net For the most up-to-date calendar go to http://www.ohionsp.org/calendar52122610.php April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 8 April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 9 For a great view of the Ohio Region Staff Chart, Go to http://www.ohionsp.org/members/staff/Ohio%20Region%20Organizational%20Roster,%2011-1-2013.pdf Pictures from around the Ohio Region! Senior OEC, Mad River Mtn Senior OEC (only one in region th this year) - March 9 , Tim Crum Bill Currier and Guy Day at Division Meeting Central Division Meeting - Oak Brook, IL Those shown from Ohio - Jim Woodrum (National Board Member), Chris Raudabaugh (ADD), Cheryl Raudabaugh (Admin Asst), Guy Day (RD Elect), Bill Currier (RD) Toboggan Seminar and Senior Training, Perfect North Slopes Andrej Gutik and Laura McCabe April, 2014 Toboggan Practice with Senior Group and Tom Worley DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 10 First Class Mail Volume 41, Issue 3, April 2014 OHIO REGION NEWSLETTER, NSPS, Inc. Leah Morgan 15772 Murray Road, Mitchell, IN 47446 April, 2014 DOWNHILL Volume 41.3 Page 11