The phenomenon of Bill Norton, perennial secretary of the Eastern Ski Areas Association, perennial officer of NSAA, was first explained to me by Stowe’s Sepp Ruschp 15 years ago. As Sepp explained it, nobody need question his adequacy to serve as president of Eastern because Bill would be association secretary and that obviously took care of everything.
Despite my unbounded confidence in Sepp’s judgment, I listened to his rather sweeping statement with a tinge of skepticism. Unjustifiably, it turned out. I discovered that with Bill Norton unobtrusively by your side, running any meeting is a breeze. Since that day I’ve enjoyed watching a succession of Eastern presidents, to say nothing of NSAA presidents, make the same discovery.
This is because Bill always does his homework. For all these years he has been coming to meetings not only with agendas carefully planned by officers and directors, but also with the facts and figures to support both sides of any question that might arise. He likes to examine a problem from every angle, can play Devil’s advocate to needle the complacent, and is adept at dropping an explosive question into a one-sided discussion, sometimes prefacing it with an innocent, “Now let me ask you this.” His mind stays open 24 hours a day, including legal holidays.
This explains a curious thing. Although Bill has had more effect on the thinking, policies and actions of ski area industry associations than anyone else, nobody ever seems to feel that Bill is imposing his thinking on a meeting. When he expresses an opinion he frequently concludes by pointing out that it is merely his opinion, and maybe the wrong one. He wants to find the association’s opinion, the general concensus, and seeks it with all the thorough, patient single-mindedness of a bird dog.
Once the covey is found, however, his impatience at endless repetitive discussion is hard to conceal. He does not suffer people enamored of the sound of their own voices gladly. After an agonized period of chair-squirming he sometimes blurts out, “Damn it, you people have got to make up your minds.”
He doesn’t tell you how to make it up, though. Just make it up, one way or the other. And with the decision made, he is impatient to translate it into action. Things tend to get done with Bill around. You can almost see his mind start churning, organizing the job at hand.
His chairing of the B-77 committee illustrates this ability to organize, to put things in clear, logical order. We’ve all had a hand at one time or another in revising or amending some document. We know the potential confusion in deletions, insertions, transpositions, additions, cross-references, etc. When the document is as complicated as the B-77 Code, designed to regulate in detail the engineering and safety requirements of an entire industry, and when the committee writing and revising it includes representatives from every segment of the industry, the threat of confusion is horrendous. I speak feelingly, having preceded Bill as B-77 chairman.
Bill takes this kind of thing in stride. He recently sent the B-77 committee 40-odd pages of proposed code amendments. They were meticulously prepared, down to the placing of one small but important comma. The method used to present the proposed changes in text was exceptionally clear and logical. The point that committee members had better complete their homework and return it on schedule was gently but firmly made. This is indicative of what NSAA can expect of its next president.
While the administrative responsibilities attached to the NSAA presidency are considerable, let’s not overlook the after-hours activities. Bill Norton is well qualified to handle this part of his job. Some of us like fishing and some like chamber music, imported cheese, macrame or foreign travel. But if you’ve ever seen Bill sitting talking to friends — or to strangers for that matter — in his animated, staccato fashion, you know what he likes. People.
Incidentally, so does his wife Sibyl, a warm, friendly and attractive addition to any social gathering.
Clams on the half shell are another of Bill’s likes. Digs them himself. He once arrived at an NSAA directors’ meeting straight from Cape Cod with a couple of bushels. We had to fill the bath tub with ice to chill them. It was quite a challenge to room service.
And so, after weighing the pros and cons judiciously, we may safely say that NSAA can look forward to a couple of lively years with the Bill Norton phenomenon. That’s only my personal opinion, but it’s right.
