Room for more
“Virtually all of the major ski areas in the U.S. are NSAA members,” says Garis. “Our membership, in fact, now numbers 475 and constitutes well over 90 per cent of the dollar volume of the ski area business in the U.S.
“There are, however, hundreds of small ski areas which are not members. This is unfortunate for several reasons. First, the non-member areas do not receive the volume of information that NSAA puts out every year. Secondly, these ski areas, because they aren’t getting the word, often make decisions which are not in their own best interests.
“While many of these small areas have limited resources, minimum dues for NSAA membership are only $50, or $15 more than a single ski instructor pays his association in annual dues.”
Areas interested in obtaining more information about NSAA should contact National Ski Areas Association, 99 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016.
Fee system revised
The U.S. Forest Service and the NSAA agreed over the summer to an interim compromise on the proposed graduated rate fee system. The key elements of the agreement are a 20 per cent break-even point (reached when area sales are equal to 20 per cent of the area’s gross fixed assets), a rate base of 2 per cent (the fee charged against revenues up to the point where area sales equal investment) and a balance of sales rate (levied when sales exceed investment) of 5 per cent for lift and ski school income. The original Forest Service proposal had included a 15 per cent break-even, a base rate of 3 per cent and a balance of sales rate of 8 per cent.
“We’re still pursuing a flat fee system,” says Garis. “The graduated rate system is simply too complicated. It poses a tremendous administrative burden and just isn’t consistent with accepted bookkeeping practices.”
Midwinter meeting set
Snowbird, Ted Johnson’s new Utah resort, will become the site of NSAA’s 1973 Midwinter Meeting January 15-19. A “Deep and Steep Slope Maintenance Conference” will be held at the same time, and it will be run under a slightly different format than in years past. There will be no competition or trophies. Instead area operators, using a prepared evaluation form, will rate the equipment features and performance on a 0-10 scale. The forms will be summarized and the results announced at the end of the meeting. “This,” says Garis, “should prove much more useful in designing vehicles to meet the operators’ needs.”
