President's Annual Message
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Hello SCSC Members,
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Thank you to all those who have joined and welcome to new members and those who are considering membership in the Stampede City Ski and Snowboard Club for the upcoming 2024 -2025 season. This upcoming year will be our 55th year as a Club and 10th year on Meet-up.
I’d like to thank the 2023-2024 Executive Team and Board. Derrick, our past President, continues to work diligently behind the scenes as our current Webmaster ensuring that our Event Meet-up posts correspond to the ones on our skicalgary.com website. He has also worked to update the skicalgary.com website and make it more interactive for our members. Also, I’d like to thank our 2023-2024 Board members, Pippa Warhurst, Jeff Dashkin and Pauline Schmidt for their annual contributions to the SCSC. From an Executive perspective, they have been a supportive Board over the past year. As well, a special thanks to our newly appointed book-keeper Jodi Gingras, who has provided us quality feedback and guidance on the daily financial operations of the Club throughout the season.
For the upcoming season, I am happy to announce all three Directors on our Board will be returning for this upcoming season. And for our 2024-2025 Executive, I’d like to welcome Calvin Storey and Susan McCord as our newly elected Executive Directors at Large. I’m sure they will provide some new ideas and different perspectives. Derrick will continue in his role as Past President and Webmaster for the next season, even though he will be working in the High Arctic for most of its entirety. Remember Clubs are run and maintained by volunteers. WE are no different.
Last year’s winter was very unusual one… in fact, almost chaotic. For a Ski/Snowboard Club to work successfully, it can be incredibly hard to work around the weather… it was either too cold, or not enough snow, too warm, not enough snow, too warm then too cold and then too much ice! … then so much snow as the season winded down but by that time everyone had already started thinking about golf and hiking! And the resorts had just closed or were closing. Interestingly last season started out well. Many of the resorts opened early, or on schedule… November showed great promise … it looked, oh, so good. Our first day “Almost Free” bus trip was to be off to Sunshine Village on Dec 16th. However, it was postponed due to lack of snow - TWICE, finally re-scheduled to Feb 10th with 25 registrants on board. Calvin Storey, our Sunshine Day Host, was sure diligent and determined to assist SCSC for this Trip; he hung in there to coordinate this visit to this mountain even after the few postponements. Thankfully all the participants got to ski/board in a variety of terrain that day, finishing up at the base in the nice warm bar with a few drinks in hand, not having to worry about the ride home.
The SCSC then moved into the overnight trip part of the season. In total, SCSC hosted 4 overnight trips …first to Fernie Alpine Resort (FAR), Family Weekend at Whitefish Mountain Resort, a condo-on-the-hill stay at Panorama, with the final overnight Club Trip to Marmot Basin in Jasper. Thanks to the Hosts – Derrick, along with a Vince inspired Hawaiian themed evening on arrival night at Fernie, Myself at Whitefish, Rowena for Panorama, and Kim and Julie for our stay in Jasper while we skied/ boarded Marmot Basin. All these hosts stepped up to the plate to ensure all members had a great experience. For two of these overnight trips, the Club provided “free bussing” to be part of the package for all registered participants. The first was to Fernie Alpine Resort, the other was to Whitefish Mountain… overall well received by the registrants.
For this coming year, the Club has 1 day trip planned … currently to Sunshine Village with an “Almost Free” bus for our members. Another could be potentially planned if a Host would like to pitch an option/resort for the Club to support. Perhaps a Trip to Castle Mountain, coordinating with one of their famous Demo Days. Additionally, we have 3 overnight trips planned. The first is to Fernie Alpine Resort, the second is to Panorama Mountain Resort, and the final trip is to Whitefish Mountain Resort at a special new time, the St Paddy’s Day weekend, with accommodation on hill at the Sherpa complex. These three resorts were chosen by our members to be the highest ranked resorts for the Club to visit. WE also invite our members to approach the Club if they were interested in hosting a trip. So far, I have heard from one member who is interested in planning a trip and the Executive is waiting to see where we can assist in making it a Club event. Please note each trip takes a lot of planning and extra thought from morning gatherings, to lunchtime meetups, and onto apres ski, hot tub excursions and dinners extraordinaire. Please ensure you thank your Event hosts this coming season. We welcome anyone who is interested in heading up an Event as a Host as we have some Events without hosts yet. Please note if we are unable to find a Host for an upcoming event that event may be cancelled.
Again this past spring we once again collaborated with the Calgary Ski Club and the Seniors Alpine Club in offering our members a significant discount (Savings of $90) to the Mountain Collective Pass. This is our third year in providing this valued benefit to our members. We hope the membership supports this initiative. Last year for the resort cards, we offered the “WOW card” hosted by Castle Mountain, at a discount to Club Members, as most popular resorts like Lake Louise and the Sunshine Village are covered by the Mountain Collective Card.
We are also looking at collaborating and helping other ski and snowboard likeminded communities with events we can all benefit from. There are many other events we would like to be part of that support the upcoming ski and board season. If you would like to host any of these types of events and invite your fellow SCSC members, please see me so that we can provide support and promote it on our website. The greater the number to attend, the greater the event will be.
Finally, I would like to thank our sponsors who helped us out last year, and in advance, thank those who will be continuing their support this coming year. Last year sponsors include, Castle Mountain Resort with “Wow” cards as door prizes, Paradise Skis with some great swag and Techno Sport who provided us with some great prizes for our end of the year wrap-up.
Finally I’d like to provide you a quick update on one of our long term members – Vince Ohama – for whom the Club held a Fundraiser at our Year end Wrap-up. Vince has been recovering at the Red Deer Hospital and then at Ponoka Rehabilitation Centre for the past 6 months. This past week he had another surgery to continue the progress he has been making each month on his road to recovery. We continue to support and send well wishes to him as he continues his rehabilitation and look forward to the day he can once again be part of the SCSC.
As the returning President, I can vouch that the Executive works really hard to provide its members value, along with a great experience as we venture into the mountains to ski and board. We hope you will tell your friends about this terrific Club and that you join us in carving memories into friendships with the SCSC, the fun place to ski and board on the slopes of the marvelous mountains nearby. Cheers to enjoying great snow and meeting great people for the months to come!
Andrea Svenningson
SCSC President
2021 -2025
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