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INDUSTRY EVENTS 2006 SAVMI CONFERENCE TRADE SHOW Nearly 300 ski area employees, suppliers and speakers attended this year’s SAVMI Conference and Trade Show here May 8-11. With more than 200 area personnel on hand, employee attendance was up by more than 25 percent from the previous year, reflecting the commitment areas are making to employee education and training.As usual, many sessions focused on specific maintenance issues, from drive and tiller electronics to hydraulics and engines. And there were several sessions devoted to employee issues such as training and conflict resolution (the latter being the most thorny employee relations issue in business generally, not just the ski biz). Training and retention of key technical staff have been hot topics throughout the industry for the past few years and show no signs of abating. Among the new topics: updating your Spill Prevention Containment and Cleanup Plan. Ski areas have a particularly difficult task in meeting the requirements of new government regulations that take effect October 2007; course leader Roger Moore of Storage Tank Technology observed several times during his presentation and Q & A session that the rules present unique problems for winter resorts, such as snow piling up inside spill containment walls around outdoor storage tanks. There are solutions, but they all cost money. A two-part session on workers’ comp and how to reduce incidents in the vehicle maintenance shop highlighted the need for internal incident investigations to help prevent repeats. Leader Wally Shank of Acordia explained the ex-mod (experience modifier) and how an area’s workers’ comp history determines its yearly premium—which means that areas can, by reducing incidents and the resulting claims, drastically reduce this expense. Though incidents are relatively infrequent in the shop, they are potentially serious, and many can be avoided entirely with careful thought about procedures and attention to a shop’s cleanliness and organization. In keeping with SAVMI’s focus on employee training and excellence, it recognized top performers from the past year. The winners and their awards: Dave Hagerman of Winter Park, recipient of the Tim Krouse Memorial Award, for mechanical and technical excellence; and Wayne Morrison of Kassbohrer, the Vehicle Maintenance Support Award. Walt Henderson, who has serviced just about every type of equipment in his 34 years at Cummins, received the Lifetime Achievement award.
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EVENTS WRAPUP 
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