2017

Board Briefs 9-14-2017

The Scoop / By

PSIA – Rocky Mountain – AASI

Board Briefs

Salida, CO – September 14, 2017

 

President Joel Munn called the regular meeting to order with the following Board members present: Rick Hinckley, Robin May, Jane Tarlow, Andy Docken, Donnie, Mechalke, Jacob Levy, Andy Docken, Dan Huston, Jenny Cooper, Tom Burch, Ted Champion.  Also in attendance was Executive Director Dana Forbes, Director of Education Dave Gregory, Director of Operations Carissa Eggers, Events & Education Manager Tim Kenney, committee chairs David Oliver, Tony Macri, Chris Rogers, Patti Banks, Stacey Gerrish. Tanya Milelli is absent from the meeting. Carissa Eggers recorded the meeting and prepared the minutes. 

 

EDUCATION REPORT

  • New Freestyle committee co-chairs David Oliver and Tony Macri.
  • New Alpine e-learning module will be in place by November 1st.
  • New Snowboard e-learning module coming as well.
  • National has a new LMS site to host the e-learning, quizzes, workbook, standards, etc.
  • The International Education Taskforce (IET) has been working on relations. AADIDES is the PSIA of Argentina, we are there now holding Telemark exams.
  • Education Leadership Council (ELC) has been active in planning Fall Conference 

 

Alpine Chair Report – Jonathan Ballou: Jenn Metz and Gates Lloyd will be attending Fall Conference on behalf of Rocky Mountain Alpine, Jonathan will be facilitating a group. This year it will be broken down into two groups: one group focusing on creating learning outcomes and the other group focusing on developing teaching fundamentals and identifying key sets for examiners and best practices to train them. PSIA National is currently working with Penn State University to potentially award a degree for PSIA certification. The National team reshot all of the tasks for each discipline that will be housed on the Movement Matrix. Best thing about this is it is no longer on RM’s plate to maintain these videos.

The Alpine RMT process is going through an overhaul. It will be based on a two year process, can complete faster but must be complete in two years. There will be an entrance skiing exam to determine the participants. Non linear pathway with a mentorship program.

New this year for the Alpine Level 1 process if a member is not affiliated with a ski school they must attend a Level 1 exam prep first. It will be $100 for the two day prep and will help out the Level 1 exam.

Snowboard Chair Report – Chris Rogers: RM hired 7 new examiners which is going to help our staffing this season.Last year RM rolled out paired examining at Level 2 and it was very positive feedback from both the candidates and examiners. Hoping to roll out for Level 3, but not sure if RM has the staff to do that yet.

Children’s Chair Report – Stacey Gerrish: Stacey will be attending Fall Conference and Dusty Dyar will be facilitating. Stacey and Dusty have also been tasked with leading the next Children’s Technical Manual. Children’s committee is looking at the National LMS and how that plays into the Children’s workbooks and exams.

Cross Country Chair Report – Patti Banks: Hoping two days of clinics being offered at CCSAA at the National Conference in Colorado will help bring more people and interest in joining. National is taking a more active role in marketing the National Cross Country academies.

No questions on the Telemark and Adaptive reports

Freestyle Chair Report – David Oliver & Tony Macri: FS1 process used to be a 2-day clinic and a 1-day exam but the exam day was very cramped so it will now be a 1-day clinic and a 2-day exam and it will allow participants to come back and re-sit a module piece they failed. Snowboard is looking at coming up with a similar hiring process for Snowboard Freestyle examiners as Alpine currently does. Possibly creating a new online quiz for freestyle.

 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UPDATE

  • National is looking at a new database in the next few years.
  • Carolyn Krueger retired at the end of June, Carissa Eggers has moved into the Director of Operations position. Tim has moved to the Education and Events Manager. Rachel Crispino has just been hired as Membership & Events Logistics Coordinator.
  • New products coming out this year are Training Academy 10 day event. Alpine only in November and then Alpine and Snowboard in April.
  • Management Training course during MSM Fall Training
  • Two new telemark clinics this year.
  • Scholarships will continue around the same as last year, deadline September 30th for most of the annual scholarships with some scholarship deadlines later. The membership scholarship was completely underutilized so we changed the deadline to mid-January. Only about 8 schools participated.
  • Alaska division has now dissolved and Northwest has absorbed them.
  • This year’s biggest budget change is going towards supporting the education staff and increasing pay for CS1, Level 1 and FS1, increasing per diem for lunch, changing travel pay for those travelling more than 180 miles, increasing training pay for ed staff to 12 hours instead of 10
  • The discount for members who joined after Feb. 15th is no longer.

 

MOTION

Donnie Mechalke moved to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Rick Hinckley seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

There is an application from Peter Donahue for NSCD Taos Winter Sports Team S.O. Ski Camp.

MOTION

Donnie moved to donate the total $2,500 scholarship to the NSCD program. Tom seconded. The motion carried unanimously.

MOTION

Joel makes a motion to accept the change in title from Executive Director to Chief Executive Officer.  Rick seconded. Discussion. Motion was denied.

MOTION

Donnie moved to adjourn the regular meeting of the RM at 4:59 p.m.  Jacob seconded. The motion carried unanimously.

 

Non Verbal Communication by Nick Alfieri

The Scoop / By

As snowboard instructors and trainers, we often find ourselves talking and talking and talking and talking—you get the gist. However, I think if you can force yourself to be conscious of the way you and others communicate nonverbally, you will find that you are able to not only communicate better with students and trainees, but also you will be able to pick up on how your students are truly feeling and understand them.

 

First, let’s look at some different types of nonverbal communication:

 

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS – We as humans are constantly making facial expressions whether we want to or not. We can communicate many emotions through this form of nonverbal communication without saying a word. Unlike other forms of nonverbal communication, facial expressions are universal—no matter what the culture, the facial expressions for fear, anger, happiness, surprise, sadness, and disgust are all the same.

 

BODY MOVEMENTS AND POSTURE – Think about what your first impression is of someone by how they hold their head, the way they walk, sit, or stand up. The way people move and carry themselves holds a wealth of information. This includes posture, stance, and other subtle movements.

 

EYE CONTACT – Eye contact is an especially important form of nonverbal communication. The way someone looks at you or you look at them can communicate many things—from anger or interest to attraction. Eye contact is very useful in keeping a steady flow in conversation and gauging the person’s response to what we are saying. This is very useful for us as instructors and trainers when we are communicating an important topic or skill.

 

TOUCH – Try to imagine someone giving you a weak handshake versus a strong one and how you interpret that. Many things can be communicated through this type of nonverbal communication—such as assurance and comfort level. Think about a big bear hug or a controlling grip on your arm and what you interpret that to mean.

 

SPACE – We all have had moments where we felt like our personal space was being invaded by someone in a conversation. We all need a certain degree of personal space, which varies depending on the situation and who we are around. You can communicate things like intimacy, affection, aggression, or dominance by how much personal space you keep.

 

GESTURES – We all wave, point, or use our hands to communicate something more effectively. This type of nonverbal communication is different from culture to culture, so it is important to be aware of the gestures you are making and not offend anyone.

 

VOICE – We say much more than just our words—it’s how we say our words that is important. When we put inflection on our words, we are trying to communicate a specific emotion or attitude toward what we are speaking about. Therefore, we can read people’s voices to better understand them. This includes the pace, timing, and volume at which they speak. You can convey interest, disinterest, happiness, anger, and many more things with your voice.

 

We all communicate nonverbally whether we want to or not. These things affect our interactions with every person we meet. If we can learn to use this type of interaction in a positive way in snowsport instruction, it will greatly improve the quality of our lessons and clinics. But how can we put this knowledge of the various types of nonverbal communication into use in our lessons and clinics?

 

READ YOUR STUDENTS

 

We can read nonverbal communication before we even meet our students. It is possible to learn a lot about a person as they are walking up to you. Try to look at how the student is walking. Do they appear tired? Maybe their shoulders are slouched and they are taking very small steps—this could be a sign that they did not sleep well or are very tired from traveling. From this you can tell that the pace of your lesson may need to be slower to accommodate the energy level of your student.

 

What is the facial expression of the person as they approach you? Are they smiling? Maybe they are excited to be there. Now you know that it won’t be too hard to sell them on the idea of snowboarding, because it is clear they want to be there. What if they are frowning or have a scowl on their face? Maybe someone has put them in a lesson that they really don’t want to be in. You might have to get them in a positive state of mind about snowboarding for them to really give it their best shot.

 

Just from watching this person walk up to the lesson, you have already begun planning a successful day.

 

When we introduce ourselves to our students, we continue to make more observations about how and what they are communicating nonverbally. This is the first time that we are interacting with them, so it is very important that we are aware of our own nonverbal communication. Try to observe things like eye contact, physical touch, and closeness of personal space. If someone doesn’t look you in the eye, keeps their distance from you, and doesn’t offer a handshake or some sort of acknowledgment, it is very possible they are nervous about the lesson. In which case, it will be important for you to address their concerns and make them feel comfortable.

 

If they approach you with a hearty handshake, look into your eyes, and introduce themselves, on the other hand, you can tell that they have confidence and are comfortable in the group setting. You can use this person to your advantage in the group, maybe by asking them questions first to help set the vibe of the group for the day.

 

STUDENTS READ YOU

 

When we introduce ourselves to our students, they will also begin to make judgments about us and how the day is going to go. Typically, nonverbal communication is what is read first by most people, so the better we can present ourselves nonverbally, the better our words will be received.

 

First, think about the way you would like to be perceived by your students. Do you want them to read confidence, leadership, friendship, or dominance? How you choose to present yourself nonverbally will be a large part of how people will interpret you. Then, when you read someone else’s nonverbal communication, you will be able to adjust yours to fit the needs of the student.

 

As human beings, when there is a disconnect between what words and nonverbal communication say, research shows that we naturally choose the nonverbal. When we pick up on a disconnect, it makes us mistrust the person. As snowboard instructors and trainers, it is very important that our students and trainees trust us and what we are saying—so we need to make sure that our words match up with our nonverbal communication.

 

Now, sometimes we misread nonverbal communication, so it is also very important that we use reading it as a tool but not make too many assumptions. Sometimes a student will have had the day of their lives but may not be jumping up and down about it. If we interpret this as them being unhappy with the lesson, we might be wrong, so it is very important that we tune into people on an individual basis the more we get to know them, and not lump everyone into the same category. We all have friends or loved ones who we can read better than most other people, so we know when they are being deceitful, happy, or grumpy—all by the way they are nonverbally communicating. The better we know someone, the more we will be able to accurately read them. This is why the more time we put in getting to know our students, the more accurate our reading of their nonverbal communication will be.

 

TUNE IN TO NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

 

As we go through our lessons, we can use our ability to read nonverbal communication to help us know if what we are saying and teaching is being received well. For example, someone will probably show signs of fear nonverbally before they ever speak up about it. If we can tune into this we could pick up on it and address it before it ever becomes an issue.

 

The more we are in tune with our own nonverbal communication, and the more we are aware of others’ nonverbal communication, the more efficient we will be at communicating our points and understanding others. This is a skill that we can work on and get better at as time goes by. So why not try to become aware of how you are communicating and how you read others in your next lesson? The better we become at this, the better communicators we will be—and that’s good for every instructor and trainer.

Board Briefs January

The Scoop / By

PSIA – Rocky Mountain – AASI

Board of Directors Meeting

Frisco, CO – January 9, 2017

 

Board Briefs

President Joel Munn called the regular meeting to order with the following Board members present: Rick Rodd, Rick Hinckley, Robin May, Jane Tarlow, Andy Docken, John Kirchner, Donnie Melchalke and Jacob Levy.  Also in attendance was Executive Director Dana Forbes. Dave Gregory joined the meeting in progress. Sarah Katherman recorded the meeting and prepared the minutes. 

 

Board Membership

With a few board members recently leaving, the board addressed whether to fill the vacant spots or wait until the election next Fall to do so. Nothing was decided however the board will look outwards to the membership to see if there is any interest within the regions we have vacancies. 

 

Leadership Summit

Joel, Rick H. and Dana had attended the Summit and made commitments to the rest of the country on behalf of RM. There were three main goals shared by divisions and national as a result of the process. Joel stated that Goal 1 would involve the creation of a Member School Management National Task Force. Dana discussed Goal 2, regarding improving consistency of administration and communication, in detail. Dana also discussed Goal 3, regarding consistency across the country in the products offered as well as the member experience of those products. Dana said that the examiner exchange program, which had been driven by the educators, is a big part of attaining this goal. Joel stated that establishing consistency in the standards would be the most difficult, citing in particular the differences in exam pass rates across the country.

Dana reviewed the meeting of the executive directors. She said that they had set up a monthly call and will start by working on a few smaller projects, citing the examples of standardizing the reactivation process and the policies regarding transfers.

Joel reported that he had proposed that the PSIA-AASI Board be made up of the presidents of each division in order to facilitate the creation of a truly national organization.

 

Education Director Update

Dave reported on the International Education Taskforce (IET) as detailed in his report. He noted that all international events will be processed through the IET to ensure that PSIA-AASI is protected, that its brand is properly represented around the world, and that the processes employed internationally are consistent.  Dave noted that one of the goals of establishing a consistent process internationally is to bring it back to the U.S. so that the domestic processes will be consistent across divisions. Dana reported that a new Member School application process had been developed for the international market to ensure consistency across divisions. This will offer added protection, as well as transparency.

Dave reported on the examiner exchanges that had occurred so far this year and those that are being planned.

Dave reported that he feels very supported in moving forward with finding ways to offer reasonable accommodation for certifications in order to comply with ADA. Dave cited the Adaptive Alpine Standards Exam Supplement that describes alternate tasks.

Dave reviewed that Chris Packert would be assisting with the development of a new Level 1 e-learning program and a plan to develop future curriculum. He said that the e-learning would wait for the LMS being developed by PSIA-AASI.

Dave reported on the First Chair with PSIA-AASI podcast channel, noting that the individual podcasts offered on the channel would be specific to each division.

Dave said that RM would be hiring this year in Children’s, Alpine and Snowboard.

Dave reported that the Education Directors (or their equivalents) from all divisions will try to get together twice per year.

 

Ed Staff position on Board of Directors

Joel introduced the topic of whether a seat on the Board should be designated for a member of the Ed Staff. There was general consensus to further investigate the possibility of allowing an Ed Staff member to sit on the Board in an ex officio capacity. It was decided that next steps would be to consult attorneys as to whether this would pose a conflict of interest.

 

Candidates for the Board Election

Rick H. reported that the rules and processes for background checks vary significantly from state to state, but that RM has now been authorized and trained to use a service which will make the process quite simple moving forward.

 

Award and Recognition nominations

Dana reviewed the national Lifetime Achievement, Distinguished Service and Educational Excellence awards. Nominations are due by the end of February. Joel Munn, Linda Guerrette, Clark Rothey and Brian Dunfey were approved for lifetime RM membership.

 

Scholarship

Dana reported that the individual scholarship funds had been awarded. The deadline for Member School scholarships has been extended.

Regarding the TTP program, Dana stated that impediment to expansion is staffing, particularly in Snowboard. She said that they are tracking who is attending the clinics to ensure that the TTP serves as effective marketing, and as a driver of growth. She noted that membership is up, as are event sales despite a slow start due to cancellations.

 

Executive Director Update

Dana reported that the office staff and seasonal employees are currently very strong and doing a fantastic job.

Dana said that moving forward all expense reports will be done online.

She said that at the Summit meeting of Executive Directors there was a discussion of looking at different database systems.

Dana reviewed the RM budget and highlighted some minor adjustments, as outlined in her report. She mentioned an increase in health insurance costs and legal fees had a larger impact than expected.

Dana reviewed the EF budget, which is projected to end the year in the black. The budget includes the increases in Ed Staff salaries.

Dana reported that Volkswagen would be providing RM with two cars under the new 3-year deal.

Dana reviewed the spreadsheets showing the 8-year revenue projections for different levels of annual or biennial dues increases. Following a discussion of the projections, the Board agreed that establishing a long-range plan was advisable.

 

MOTION

Bob moved to approve the $1.00 increase in RM dues for the 2017-18 season. Donnie seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

MOTION

Bob moved to approve the eight candidates for the ballot, as recommended by the nomination committee. Rick H. seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

Rick H. read the names of the candidates. Dana said the election should be completed within 2 – 3 weeks. Rick stated that the at-large position goes to the 2nd place finisher with the most total votes.

Joel, national board member reported on nationals finances. He noted the high cost of sending the Team to Interski. He said that PSIA-AASI is setting aside money towards this, but not enough to cover the cost. He suggested that the return on investment of Interski is open for discussion.

 

Board Elections

MOTION

Bob nominated Joel to serve as President for a 2-year term. Jane seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

Joel stated that this would be his last term as President. Really.

MOTION

Joel nominated Rick H. to serve as Vice-president for a 2-year term. John seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

Joel stated that Rick R. would be stepping down from the Board, and commended his service as Secretary/Treasurer. He reviewed the duties of the position, noting that the Executive Committee is very involved in the ongoing business of the Board and provides necessary support for Dana.

MOTION

Joel moved to nominate Jacob to serve as Secretary/Treasurer for a 2-year term. Andy seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

MOTION

Donnie moved to adjourn the regular meeting of the RM at 3:30 p.m.  John seconded. The motion carried unanimously.

 

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