Riddle: What is 118 hours long but fits into a 36-hour time slot? Answer: the 32 information-packed seminars, workshops, panel sessions and presentations and 24 committee meetings that were fitted into four nine-hour days of the 1992 USIA National Convention and Ski Area Trade Show in Orlando, Fla., June 1 to 4. The consensus: it was first class. Irv Naylor as chairman of the convention committee had planned the rich and varied content, while the convention staff, headed by Bill Travis, managed to execute with a minimum of glitches
Things started off before the official convention got underway with a useful rundown on the practical workings of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations. Carrie Bowers of ASF led this session Monday morning and had brought along two attorneys, one from the Department of Justice and the other from EEOC, to explain the new ADA regulations and answer questions. Ms. Bowers urged those attending to keep ASF informed of any situations arising from ADA regulations.
All that afternoon there were Technical Workshops put on by suppliers. The standard of these presentations, which varied from thirty minutes to two hours, earned high praise from attendees.
The convention itself opened late Monday afternoon with a return visit by Arnaud de Borchgrave as keynote speaker. He presented his ideas of a “new world order” with wit, plenty of colorful opinions and unsourced facts and figures. Somewhat too much name-dropping of world leaders he had recently dined with was the principle criticism of an otherwise well-received talk.
Marketing and public relations got heavy attention at the convention, beginning with a morning-long group of seminars. While the intention looked good on paper, with travel statistics, value marketing and how to hold a promotional event, the audience seemed less than thrilled with the results, sometimes arguing with and challenging the speakers.
The case history approach was more successful in a marketing session on how ski areas and ski shops can, and do, work together. Among the recommendations from speakers who had had experience in cooperative programs: talk to the retailers before the season gets started and get all personnel, from shop manager down to floor salespeople, knowledgeable about your area.
Star performer at the convention was dynamic Steve Mulvany, who delighted SRO audiences with “Managing for Performance” and “Quality Service … A Competitive Edge” — two 1-1/4 hour spellbinders in one morning. His main thrust in the latter, told through stories of his own experiences as a traveler, was that service has to be a philosophy and a culture in a business in order to work.
Top marks for a new program launch went to the introduction of USIA’s new “Quality Counts” program. Originally developed by Sno-engineering, based on conceptual thinking by the late Jim Branch, the ideas had been enthusiastically endorsed by Bill Stenger, then chairman of the marketing committee, who sold USIA on the idea of offering it through the association. (See May SAM for a description.) It involves various levels of operational quality audits of an area — of seeing your operation as others see it. The concept was warmly received, even getting a spontaneous standing ovation. Negotiations are now underway to get sponsor money.
The convention has traditionally been the occasion for the industry to get its temperature taken in the form of Dr. Marvin Kottke’s end-of-season skier-visit numbers. The news was good. We had climbed out of the 1990-91 war/recession/weather-related pit of 46,7 million skier visits back up to 50.3 million. Predictably, this was mindlessly hyped by one and all as a big percentage increase instead of what it was, a welcome return almost to the five-year average of 50.8.
Other news from the Economic Study Committee was that the annual Economic Study Report would no longer be the responsibility of Dr. Charles Goeldner and the University of Colorado, but would be conducted by the accounting firm of Peat Marwick Mitchell. Given the industry confidence in Goeldner’s work, built over many years, the move was not altogether a popular one. Among the reasons given for it was that the report would be generated earlier, and that distribution could be controlled by USIA and not be dependent on its sale by the University.
Some, though, felt concern about the data becoming part of USIA’s central data base.
Other informational highlights: a sensible session on “Snowboard & Alpine Skiing” … An idea-filled session on “Summer programs that Make Money” told by area execs with the experience to relate … A futurists’ panel, organized by Hugh Knapp, that realistically explored what was coming in technologies for lifts, grooming, snowmaking and computer applications … A consumer panel — sort of a mini focus group — of skiers led by Stowe’s Mike Cobb into giving ski area executives a consumer perspective.
Attendance
Attendance at the Orlando convention was disappointing to some, but pretty much what should have been expected. There were 123 areas represented, of which 15 were Canadian and two from overseas. (This total differs from the “official” tally because of different definitions of what constitutes a ski area.) The U.S. areas were from 28 different states, the Canadians from six different provinces.
The number of area-related registrants — exclusive of spouses, children, press and guests — was 280, including 23 Canadians and two Europeans.
At The Business Meeting, Tough-minded Debate
The USIA convention and Trade Show at Orlando was, in many ways, the most successful such ski industry event ever.
But the four-day affair played out also at another level — on a darker, more threatening stage — which even the good news of rebounding skier visits and a recovering economy could not relieve. It was the stage on which the United Ski Industries Association, after three years of frustrating and contentious life, struggled to “find its role and soul,” as President David Ingemie put it; struggled to come to grips with member dissatisfaction and to find a new road to the future.
Industry leaders knew from the outset that a storm might be brewing. There had been negative reaction to the announcement of a proposed dues increase — irritatingly euphemized as “a dues structure revision” and “change” — and this reaction was coming from mainstream, bedrock players who could not be dismissed as the “usual fringe elements.”
As the business meeting droned on for most of its allotted time — minutes, reports by chairman, president (see Page 8) and treasurer and other housekeeping boilerplate — the audience was quiet and attentive. Was this to be another of those uneventful, by-the-books, acquiescent association meetings, typical of recent NSAA and USIA conventions?
It was not to be. The minute the meeting was declared open for new business, the doughty founder of Jackson Hole, Paul McCollister, took the floor. “Our industry association,” he said, “has lost its way.”
Confessing he had been an enthusiastic booster of the merger three years ago, he said he now had come to the conclusion it had probably been a mistake and that the industry leadership should set up a broadly representative “blue ribbon” panel to study what was needed and to report its non-binding recommendations to the USIA board before their March meeting. McCollister made a motion to that effect, which was seconded. The focus suddenly was not the dues increase alone, but the whole question of the purpose and functioning of the trade association as it pertained to the expectations of ski areas.
Others spoke, among them Dennis Eshbaugh, GM of the highly regarded Holiday Valley operation in western New York, who read a letter that he and executives from six major ski areas had sent.
“Member services are weak at best,” the letter read, and concluded, “We challenge the vision of USIA today and we question its sense of purpose. We hope it can be changed, otherwise we question our future support or membership.”
The letter had been sent to Chairman Stahler and President Ingemie four weeks earlier, but astonishingly had produced no response, which was why Eshbaugh decided to make it public.
More bad news for USIA came from Grady Moretz, a former NSAA board member, and a forceful leader in the Southeast Ski Areas Association. That group, he said, had just met and had changed their bylaws to remove the requirement that USIA membership be a prerequisite for membership in their regional association.
Other speakers, several of whom were prominent industry leaders, echoed the frustrations, but sharply opposed the creation of a blue ribbon panel, saying the board was perfectly capable of listening to the problems and of setting whatever course was appropriate. This turned out to be the consensus position when a tally was counted. The motion was defeated by more than two-to-one, but not before the message was delivered that there were a whole lot of things that members were unhappy about that went far beyond the dues issue.
For the rest of the convention these matters were seldom off people’s minds — or out of their conversations. (See page 16 for news of subsequent USIA board decisions.) D.R.
Future Convention Plans
Arrangements were confirmed for the next two conventions: the 1993 Convention and Ski Area Trade Show will be at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, Calif., May 3-6. The associate members at their meeting decided to make this a no-limits affair for the trade show, meaning exhibitors will be able to use as much space as they want.
The 1994 convention at Marco Island, Fla., May 22-27, will be quite different, however, since the suppliers decided to have no trade show presence at all, concentrating instead on a “Super Show” in early March, probably at Squaw Valley, Calif.
Ski Area Design Awards
Winners of Snow Country’s National Ski Area Design Awards were announced at the Orlando convention. Top places in six categories were:
- Overall resort design – Whitetail, Penn.
- Trail and slope design – Beaver Creek, Colo.
- Day lodge – The Outpost, Keystone, Colo.
- Hotel, inn or condominium – SaddleRidge at Beaver Creek, Colo.
- Historical preservation – Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood, Ore.
- Special project – Children’s Center, Mont-Ste.-Anne, Quebec
Awards of Excellence
Certificates of merit went to ski areas with exemplary workers’ compensation programs. Winners in three categories were:
- Class I (0 to 4,999 VTF) – Jiminy Peak, Mass.
- Class II (5,000 to 9,000 VTF) – Dodge Ridge, Calif.
- Class III (over 10,000 VTF) – Sugarbush, Vt.
