End of Season Report - 2009
21st May 2009
Chairpersons report
I would like to start by thanking all the people who have helped Gordon Skiers during the season; committee members, coaching staff, the dry mat centres of Alford and Aberdeen, the ski centres of the Lecht, Cairngorm and Glenshee, the club racers and of course the parents themselves who support their children so well during the year. Bringing all these resources together ensures Gordon Skiers continues to be successful in racing, both in the UK and overseas. We must also thank Snowsport Scotland for their support throughout the year along with other ski clubs and associations that have contributed to our achievements and wider success in ski racing.
This has been a year of change for the Club where there has been a focus within the Committee to drive forward our ambitions to increase club numbers from the fall in membership seen last year. We have also pushed forward a policy change on snow training to try and overcome changing climatic conditions in Scotland. There was also a need to re-direct our coaching strategy based on feedback from parents and racers with input from our experienced coaching staff. The need to adapt to change is not something we can ignore as we have seen with Aberdeen Ski Club which no longer exists in its past form.
Reviewing our progress this year we can see that our efforts to adapt have had mixed results. On membership we have almost maintained our numbers with an overall membership of 138, down 2 from last year. The membership is made up of 34 Bairns, down 13, 20 Children 1, up 4 from last year, 14 Children 2 up 3 from last year and 6 Juniors up 5 from last year. We had 64 adults with 1 Honorary and 1 Life Member. We still need to do more to attract new racers into the club which will be made more difficult next year in light of no weekend training slots available at Aberdeen Snowsports Centre for our autumn dry mat coaching sessions. This means we will have to revert in full to Alford for dry mat coaching. I have tried to overcome this situation but to no avail at this point.
We decided to chase the snow this year by looking at the ski centres of the Lecht, Cairngorm and Glenshee to pursue coaching for our racers. In a season that dropped significant quantities of snow in the UK in February, the most seen in some parts for around 20 years we struggled to either fight our way to the Lecht or be beaten back by high winds and then huge temperature swings to clear the mountains of snow. Our option to use Cairngorm had mixed results based on the weather again but the committee did take a big step change in the club's ability to respond to changing conditions, working with parents. Clearly the weather frustrated us all and did impact training and the ability to run races.
We met with the new committee of Aberdeen Snowsports Club and Centre in December to assess how Gordon Skiers and its commitment to racing fit into ski club plans for the North East of Scotland. It was identified Gordon Skiers fill a valuable gap for ski racing that does not exist elsewhere at this time and should continue to use its successful tried and tested approach. The club also moved away from Freestyle training this year leaving Aberdeen Snowsports Centre to take on coaching, after we developed the discipline with mixed results.
Moving to the various committee roles, on Administration I would like to thank Anne Lyon for her input throughout the year. Managing two dry mat training locations with changing requirements and our changing snow training locations has meant capturing additional information. Anne has attended many of the ski training events, both on mat and on piste to ensure the administration activities were managed well with parents. This was much appreciated especially when her family were not engaged in training this year. Anne as ever has strongly pushed the raffle for the club. Her husband Alan has provided a significant contribution to fund-raising, via the selling of raffle books offshore this year and in previous years. Please pass on our thanks to Alan.
Anne has decided to step down from the committee after being six years as Administrator. Anne has been a very hard working member of the committee over the period and I could always count on her to give me a true reflection on her thoughts on issues or changes we were going to make as a club which I valued. She also has the racers and parents interests at heart which is most important where she was keen to push racer groups for training, allowing consistency for parents and racers. Thanks again for your contribution to the club.
Our Training Convener, Jane Troup, has also had a busy time over the season, not just within the club but outside as she went into full time employment, with Petrofac, following a university course she has completed. Some of the challenges that Jane has faced has been a refresh of the coaching team. We went through a period of change there, where we identified a shortage of coaches for various reasons, and a new team had to be formed, working alongside the Head Coach. There is still work to do here but Jane has ensured we are geared up to allow coaching to continue without affecting training.
The running of the dry mat centres of Aberdeen and Alford also presented some issues which she worked through. The changing weather patterns also meant that Jane, working with Neil Campbell, rose to the challenge of moving training to Cairngorm for some sessions. By all accounts this worked well but even the weather caught the club out on some occasions, even with Cairngorm Mountain ltd providing free coach passes! Jane has now joined the FAST Executive within Snowsport Scotland, supported by Mark Presslie, to manage the Xmas FAST camp for the club, as I stepped down from the role last month. Jane; thanks for all your great work this year.
Dave Tilley, our Race Convenor, has probably had the most frustrating time over the last season given weather conditions, where all snow races to date that were supported by Gordon Skiers, except the Bairns Bucket were cancelled. Dave has been innovative by organising the Lecht Bairns race at the Snowdome at Braehead on 31st May 09 to allow our racers to compete in a snow race and gain experience. On a wider front there were very limited races that managed to run within Scotland, a great pity, while this was certainly not the case in Europe. The club excelled in races overseas. I will let Dave provide an overview of results but thanks to Dave for his input into racing and the wider club this year.
Neil Campbell took over as Treasurer this year. Neil has been active in running the accounts himself rather than using external sources to complete the payments to coaches. This has saved some money for the club but added additional effort to Neil. The Disclosure element is still managed by Neil where he is the expert on procedure within the club. I will let Neil review the finances with you but thanks for his contribution this year, not forgetting thanks to his wife Tessa who audits our books, due shortly.
Mark Presslie joined the committee this year as Sponsorship Convener. Mark has been enthusiastic in his approach and it is good to get new blood into the Committee to provide new thoughts. Mark has been looking at sponsorship options, a club ski team and work with Craigendarroch, Ballater on use of their dry mat. Thanks to Mark for your input this year and he will follow up on detail.
In conclusion I believe Gordon Skiers have had another successful year, pushing forward with change to adapt to changing weather conditions, we have maintained our membership numbers, in spite of the wider economic conditions and we have made major inroads to resolving our coaching deficit with a plan going forward. But at the same time we do need to be mindful that the club needs cohesiveness among members, meeting regularly to pursue their sport.
To finish the theme on change I have decided to step down from the Chair after a very enjoyable five years. There are too many areas to highlight but what I can say is I have thoroughly enjoyed working with so many good people, seen many of our skiers grow in experience and achieve some great wins, both on the piste and personally, and most importantly having fun along the way. I wish Gordon Skiers the very best for future and thanks very much.
Brian McIntosh
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