The NSAA Convention: What’s in store
Financing and the environment will be heading the agenda when ski area operators gather at Sun Valley for the Tenth Annual NSAA Convention and Trade Show next month. Seminars will be short and there will be more of them this year. According to NSAA’s Dick Garis, under this format, a departure from the longer seminars of years past, the area man can pick and choose among several areas in order to focus on those that are most immediate to his needs.
Environmental planning, an issue that already has many talking—and some acting—will be the first order of business. Case studies will be the medium, with North Star’s Ron Anderson, Copper Mountain’s Charles Lewis and Elkhorn Village’s Kalvin Platt narrating their experiences in master planning and community development. The nuts and bolts of things environmental will also be covered with talk-ins on legislation, water supplies, the Sierra Club, Forest Service policy, sewage treatment and agronomy.
There’s plenty that’s new in lifts, and SAM’s Bob Kinney and Charles Dwyer of the Forest Service will be telling area operators all about it. And Winter Park’s Steve Bradley, a recognized pro in the field of slope maintenance, will be joined by equipment suppliers in discussing new techniques in slope maintenance. As for new equipment, you’ll see it all—snowmaking, too—when the doors to the Trade Show swing open at 3:30 on June 6.
In the wake of NSAA’s “Economic Analysis of the Skiing Industry,” published in February, there has been plenty of talk about area financing—how to go about it, finding the means, financing hangups on Forest Service lands. Four experts in the field—United Bank of Denver VP Tom Swanson, Jack Eachon of the Small Business Administration, Harvey Kelsey of James Talcott, Inc., and Allen Freiman from Bach & Co.—will be on hand to brief operators on area financing developments and to field their questions.
On the less cerebral side, there will be plenty of activities at Sun Valley—tennis, golf, swimming, skeet shooting, pack trips, raft excursions—all the outdoor diversions for which Bill Janss’s go-go resort is famous for. A tour of Sun Valley—its lifts, maintenance, operations—is also scheduled with mountain manager Ken Zimmerman at the reins.
Organized golf, tennis and broomball (in the West’s home court this time) competitions are also scheduled, and for sit-down diversion there will be a East vs. West pie-eating contest.
The ladies have also been well-provided for. Tours of the valley, its shops and cultural and sports activities will highlight their program.
