ELECTION 2008 —for Assistant Division Director
Two-year term June 1, 2008 – May 31, 2010. Incumbent: Ron Evenson. Please note the following dates: February 4, 2008—Date of Election, ballots will be distributed to eligible electorate. March 3, 2008— Date all ballots to be received/postmarked by for Assistant Div. Director position. April 7, 2008—Results announced (sooner if all eligible ballots are returned)
Only one candidate has applied for the position of Assistant Division Director. That is the
current Assistant Division Director Ron Evenson. The attached is his platform statement for the
term of June 2008-May 2010.
2008 REGION DIRECTOR ELECTIONS:
Also be advised that Arizona, Mother Lode, and Southern California regions are due for
Region Director elections, in spring 2008. Positions are for 2 years — June 1 –May 31. Region
directors may serve no more than 3 consecutive 2 year terms.
Nominations are now open and will be accepted to later than February 4, 2008. Consult a region
officer or your region’s by-laws, officer’s handbooks, and ski patrol manual for qualifications.
Nominations are to be submitted to the Division Election Chairperson, Janice Waits
2008 REGION ELECTION TIME LINE
February 4, 2008 —Pronouncements of Candidacy and letters of acceptance of candidacy due to Elections Chair/committee April 7, 2008 — Ballots sent out along with candidates platform and statement May 5, 2008 — Date all ballots to be received/postmarked — results announced
Platform statement for 2008 Assistant Division Director Election
Ron Evenson
4322 El Macero Drive
Davis, CA 95616
January 5, 2008
National Ski Patrol Members
Far West Division NSP
I would appreciate your vote to continue in the position of Assistant Division Director of the Far West Division of the National Ski Patrol.
I have enjoyed working with our FW board of directors during the last few years.
I would like to continue to utilize my background and experience to help solve existing
challenges and plan for the future of our organization.
In the last few years, I have been involved in helping to restart the Community College Program
and helping to reestablish a functional Far West Division BOD.
I have been a member of the NSP since 1982. Before that, I taught skiing and I am still a member
of PSIA. I understand many of your needs having been the Patrol Representative for the Donner
Ski Patrol from 1996-1998 and the assistant from 1994-1996. I received the Far West Division
Outstanding Patrol Representative award in 1998 and I had the honor of receiving National
Number 7830 in 1994. In addition, I received a Distinguished Service Award in 2005. I am
active in both the OEC and Ski and Toboggan programs and I am an IT in both. I have been
involved in teaching at the Sacramento OEC class since 1992. And I have helped in teaching Ski & Toboggan skills to our patrollers and assisted in the evaluation of both OEC and Toboggan
skills for Basic and Senior candidates. Also, I had served as the Mother Lode Region Secretary
for 4.5 years.
I would like to request your support in giving me the opportunity to help guide our organization
into the future.
Respectfully yours,
Ron Evenson
The NSP Far West Division
2007-2008 Vision
The Far West Division is on track with and will continue to align our energy toward the National Ski Patrol’s Charter and Mission Statement. From that core and using these as guidelines; we’ll continue to Educate and Train, through the delivery of our well-established NSP programs in: Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC), Safety, Transportation, and Leadership and in Divisional sponsored educational events: like our FWD Summer Conference, Tri-Advisory, Spring Fling, and newly added support for APP’s Certified Spring Clinic. If you were one of the 150 attendees at the Summer Conference in Davis California, you were exposed to not only every one of NSP’s core program disciplines, but to other opportunities for us to serve in an emergency responder role. I’ll introduce each of these events and highlight where we are headed and conclude with other accomplishments the FWD BOD, Staff, and Program Supervisors have prepared for you this season.
Tri-Advisory. This mature educational event is held every November (first weekend 3-4) in Yosemite. It features engaging guests’ speakers in and around the Avalanche, Nordic, and Mountain Travel and Rescue (MTR) NSP disciplines. On its own dedicated page, you’ll find this year’s guest speakers, Andrew McLean, Howard Donner, MD, and Deputy Chief Matt Scharper. The event includes breakout group sessions where FWD Supervisors and instructors and patrol members meet and network. Contact any of the TA staff – see their page at www.farwest.org or call Karl at 714.267-4095 for additional information. This is a very popular event and is growing. Last year we had visiting patrol members from the Eastern Division attend.
Spring Fling. A newly sponsored event, scheduled Feb 29-Mar 1 2008, hosted by the Sky Tavern Ski Patrol. This event is the “on-the-hill” compliment of Tri-Advisory. It is a coordinated set of enhancement seminars in: Outdoor Emergency Transportation (OET) (aka toboggan), Snowboard, Ski, and Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) – all Senior program electives. The fee is only $119, and Ski Tavern will reserve the entire hill exclusively for Ski Patrol members and their families – Dudes, that is the whole hill for just us, that’s slammin!!. To get some steep conditions, arrangements have been coordinated with Mt Rose, right next door. This event, as you can imagine, requires a tremendous amount of resources to staff all these seminars. So plan your trip, and weekend, and we’ll see you there. Contact Jimi Francis at jfrancis@unr.edu, or call her at 775.303-3849.
APP Spring Clinic. The Association of Professional Patrollers runs the Certified Program. This program offers some of the highest levels of training and education available in the National Ski Patrol, and it has been gaining in popularity since the time it has been made available to the volunteer membership of the Far West Division. Everyone I talked to commends the educational experience of this program. Our contact is FWD Certified Program Supervisor David Rhodes, [drhodes528@sbcglobal.net], or the APP President, Scott Hoffman at lokesh@aol.com, or contact our FWD Professional Representative, Richard Bailey at rbskis4lvn@aol.com , who was a past APP President.
On the National Level, NSP has been working relationship building with Federal Emergency Responding Agencies, FEMA and HHS, that being the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). The members of this Division are very aware of both the natural and made-made threats facing the states of California, Nevada, and Arizona. On 13 October 2007, I attended 2nd Annual National Emergency Preparedness Conference, hosted by the Sacramento Region Office Homeland Security. This three-day conference highlighted our vulnerability, our current state of preparedness, and emphasized the need to coordinate volunteer emergency rescue and medical resources, if and when a disaster occurs. Whether it’ll be quakes and floods in Sacramento, quakes in LA, or fires in San Diego or Lake Tahoe, it is clear that local Fire, Police, and Utilities resources will be overwhelmed. The answer is a combination of a state of self-preparedness of the population, and coordinated volunteer responders with rescue and medical training. Well it is clear where the membership of the National Ski Patrol fits in. The conference culminated with the Nation’s Largest Volunteer Emergency Exercise to date. I participated (along with another Donner Ski Patrol member), wearing my NSP ski patrol jacket, which was loaded and ready. During the exercise, it was clear that Ski Patrol Outdoor Emergency Care training and education fit-well within and alongside the CERT and MRC team members. I networked and made strong contacts with the CA Governs office, with Fire Department Chiefs throughout the State and Country, and by participation, served to make our skills as first responders and medical providers known to these disaster responding organizations. I will continue to forge relations with MRC and CERT and work to bridge our resources so that we can assist in serving our country in her time of need. This was an introductory topic at the last FWD Summer Conference, and lets expect additional progress to be reported at the FWD Summer 2008 Conference, again in Davis California.
Other Fine accomplishments that the Far West Division Board and its committees have accomplished include:
Signed Memorandum of Agreement between the FWD and the Northern California Public Safety Training College. As of 1 November 2007, the FWD has contracted the JPA to contract negotiate and manage the College Community Program throughout the State of California. This program has provided educational opportunities for members in the FWD, and now has been re-established. It is now designed to be better managed and more available to the larger membership (all of the CA Regions). If your ski patrol is interested in participating, your Patrol Representative needs to first contact Mickey Bennett at BennettM@SacHomeland.Org . There are very specific participant and reporting guidelines for this program that must be understood and adhered to. This program is an enabler of education and training, but its participation is a privilege and will be managed very closely. Enjoy. Thanks to the committee efforts of Ron Evenson, Steve Newman, Nancy Stromswold, and Stewart Foreman.
Use of Funds Document– Our second version of Guidelines for the Acquisition and Expenditure of Ski Patrol Funds is posted. This is such an important issue for non-profit organizations; and let it be known that National is in the process of revising its policies on use of funds. So any national document published will supercede this document once it is available. This document provides guidelines for the acquisition, expenditure, and reserve holdings of funds by ski patrols. It is intended that this guide support compliance with IRS 501(c)3 rules and NSP regulations for the use of non-profit tax-exempt organizations. Thanks to Chuck Hebert, John Levy, and Stewart Foreman for their efforts on this important work. This is a very important and helpful guideline for all of us. These forms are available online at www.farwest.org within the document library.
FWD Program Liability Release Forms and Procedure. A committee revised for us another very important document. The FWD is providing this document to all members, patrols, and instructors for the use with every event and NSP educational program. The committee, led by FWD OET, Lance Vaughan, and FWD Legal, Stewart Foreman, with review by NSP’s National Legal Advisor, did a great job on this form and procedures for its use. Like the Use of Funds document referenced above, this effort is also being used by National to generate National Release forms. These forms are available online at www.farwest.org within the document library. Use these forms; protect yourself, and this fine ski patrol organization. Great work guys!!
FWD Program Guide 2007-2008. This is the second year of this FWD program guide.
Within this document is the mission and objectives for the NSP programs that support safety, OEC, and transportation services. Each program supervisor has been tasked to identify and communicate their objectives and goals, build a program around them, and implement their plan. From each program plan evolves a budget for the season. It is a major piece of work (14 sections, 19 pages); it describes the education and training planned throughout the Far West Division. As you read this, and if you do not see your education/training need being met; let any FWD program supervisor or any staff member understand your educational and training need, and we will strive to meet your need in the next program cycle – talk to us folks, Patrol Representatives, and let us know your needs. So if you are interested in how we are conducting business, just take a look at this document available online at www.farwest.org document library. This was a collaborate effort involving every one of the 12 program supervisors, FWD ADDs, and myself.
Bylaws. The gruesome process of keeping our rules of conduct updated and current is again underway. Bless this committee’s efforts; for we are expecting a much thinner, easier to read set of bylaws to be produced for your reading pleasure soon. Thanks for the bylaws committee efforts of: FWD ADD Bill Gibson and FWD Secretary (for ~30-years) Janice Waits.
On behalf of the FWD BOD, staff, and appointed Program Supervisors, it has been a pleasure to serve this organization – You are the 1,800 ski patrolling membership that volunteer and dedicate your time and efforts to ski patrol and make up this Far West Division. We will continue to focus on the National Ski Patrol’s Charter and Mission statement.
Have a great 2007-2008 Ski Season.
Kind Regards,
Stephen Simi
Director, Far West Division 2007