Skills Questionnaire Update

Reporter: Ian Harford

I am writing to you following the last Ski Club committee meeting to thank you for taking the time to complete our Skills Questionnaire, which was circulated over the winter. The 35 responses have included lots of ideas, comments and offers of help, which have given us plenty to think about as we plan for the next 12 months.

The new ideas included a Quiz night, Saturday morning ski sessions at Chill Factor^e, approaches to University ski groups, a short 20 minutes AGM followed by a buffet and disco, Barn dances, an After-ski medical centre and a walk in Wales.

Overall there was strong support for setting up a junior section of the Club with several offers of help for taking this forward. We aim to involve parents of children here, and this inter-generational approach will bring additional benefits to the Club as well as to the youngsters.

We’ve also had offers of help with existing activities, with recruitment of new members, with introducing non-skiers to the sport and with mentoring. This is very positive and has already meant that three people have committed to helping a group of British Asian young women from Rochdale in April on a Beginners’ course at Chill Factore.

The Club’s Development Plan envisages us branching out into new areas. By encouraging more individual members to assist with these, we anticipate that more can be achieved than by the committee alone. Already our approach is bearing fruit with bodies like Snowsport England and Rochdale’s Link4Life being willing to provide financial and other assistance to support new SCoM initiatives.

Thanks to you we are now aware of SCoM members who are willing to assist, where they can, in what we are hoping to do, and to make joining the Club a more enjoyable and valuable experience. We plan to discuss this further in the committee and will be contacting members who have offered help over the next few months.