Week of May 8-14 2005

The purpose of this communication is to foster member awareness and to provide a vehicle for the identification of issues which are important to the membership and the resolution of the same to the mutual benefit of the members and the National Ski Patrol.

Over the last 2 weeks documented support, and membership has increased by 60%.

"The Eastern Michigan Region Board supports the efforts of the Patroller Committee (nationalskipatrol.org) to educate, inform and advocate for change within the National Ski Patrol and to return the NSP to a member-driven organization.

We also support the objectives of: better communication from National; a change in the Mission Statement to reflect the tradition of service to the skiing public; liability protection for local patrollers and the immediate implementation of a more democratic election process and accountability by the Board of Directors."

Every Patrol Leader in the Region also agreed to encourage their patrollers to register on this web site to ensure that their support is documented.

Our next critical activity is participation in the June NSP Annual Board Meeting that will be held on June 24-25 in Golden, Colorado. We are encouraging all registered national ski patrollers to attend this meeting. This would be a great opportunity to interface with the leadership of our organization and a good way to truly understand the issues at hand.

The national board chair appoints a nomination committee to select a slate of directors for the members to vote on. This committee consists of the chairs of the standing committees, two members at large and the executive director. Revised NSP qualifications for Board of Directors does not include that a candidate must be a NSP member. The members are then presented with the slate of candidates that the nominating committee has selected. A positive vote is recorded as follows: 1) one by voting to approve the slate, and 2) by not voting (a non vote is considered an approval).

The chances that a member could successfully vote in a candidate of their choice are essentially negligible. This means that a membership vote is virtually meaningless.

Pass the word, keep the momentum going. This is your chance to make a difference and have your voice be heard. Take 5 minutes this week to contact 5 other patrollers and get them to register on: www.nationalskipatrol.org then ask them to contact 5 others.

Sincerely,
Your PC Team