The idea of the new program was to create a marketing arm of the ski area centered around a ski school. If all the components of learning to ski, such as lifts, lessons, rentals, and transportation could be packaged in various combinations, then the total cost of skiing could be substantially reduced without compromising quality. With reduced total costs, more people would be able to afford that initial ski experience. And if the packages were offered during non-capacity periods there would be better utilization of the hill and less crowded skiing for the students . . . and the program would not compete with the 17 independently owned ski schools which had for years been bringing students (and, of course, revenues) to the area.
The man who eventually ended up running the program was Don Summers, a ski instructor, whose job at that time with a professional freestyle organization had evaporated in one of that organization’s periodic politico/economic upheavals.
One of the first organizations to be presented with the concept was the Seattle Parent-Teacher-Students Association (PISA). The Seattle PISA had exclusively sponsored the ski school for Seattle school students since 1938 making it the oldest continuous ski school in the country. Yet, like other programs its enrollment had been declining from a high of over 2500 students to less than 800.
When the proposal (aptly named “Ski-attle”) was presented to the PISA it was pointed out that the ski area itself enjoyed many advantages to make such a program feasible. Snoqualmie Summit is one hour of freeway driving time from Seattle. There is special parking for buses close to area facilities. The area has 225 acres of beginning-intermediate terrain, three cafeterias, 8 chairlifts (3 of them triple chairs), 2 Pomalifts and 9 rope tows, plus more than adequate restroom facilities, all of which guarantee little or no waiting in lines.
In addition, the rental equipment was to be first class. There would be twelve hundred pair of K2 skis with Spademan bindings. To this package was added 2000 pairs of top quality boots.
The Ski-attle proposal was snapped up by the Seattle PTSA. Snoqualmie Summit was offering to take over contracting all the services to make the thing fly, and was guaranteeing an effectively run program at less cost.
Promoting for the program was done through the schools themselves. Don Summers talked at school assemblies, showed old ski movies and passed out brochures. There was a non-commercial clause in the program contract which stated that Ski-attle would be the only ski school allowed to promote in the Seattle public schools. The program is non-profit and therefore non-commercial. Excess monies from the program provide ski school scholarships to economically disadvantaged students. Thus over 50 kids who couldn’t otherwise afford it have an opportunity to experience skiing each year.
The first year the program generated 2,600 pre-sold students plus 1,500 student visits in the resident ski school. Working twelve hours a day, seven days a week, Don directed the enrollment processing, solved logistical problems (traffic flow through the two area rental shops, double checks on school lists, bus lists, ski class lists, and rental lists) and hired and trained a core of 45 instructors.
“At the end of the first year,” says Don, “we could look back and see a lot of mistakes, but the overall program was an unqualified success. A functional key to the success was an all-purpose badge issued to each student (you can’t issue coupons to 9-year-olds) designed to wear around the student’s neck. The badge, with a number identification, was good for lift tickets and rentals for the dates stamped on the back. We had a rental card on each student filed numerically based on his badge number.”
After the first year, Summers spent all summer working on more efficient ways to administer the program. He called in a computer programmer and together they developed an enrollment format and programming to handle nearly all the enrollment needs.
He also got involved in film-making. “I felt,” continues Don, “we needed a short, snappy film which portrayed the learning experience from a student’s eyes. I got together with a camera man from a local TV station who had done extensive work for an imaginative weekly show for young people. The result is a 10-minute film which keeps the kids continuously laughing and interested.”
But all this preparation for the second year of operation culminated in the notorious “no-snow” year of 1976-77 in the Pacific Northwest.
The idea, however, survived, and during this past season, there were 3,200 pre-sold student packages and 2,800 student visits in the resident ski school.
Part of the increase was due to an auxiliary program instigated by Summers in conjunction with the Seattle Times, the largest newspaper in the Northwest, with a Sunday circulation of 330,000 subscribers, and generating a readership of 800,000. In the interest of providing a community service and promoting good will, the Seattle Times asked Snoqualmie Summit Ski Services to put together a low cost, family-oriented ski school program. The lower cost was possible, in part, because of over $50,000 worth of advertising donated by the paper. But how to provide this service for the Seattle Times and at the same time protect the Ski-attle Program?
Because the program was to be family-oriented, the solution was to provide enrollment forms that disallowed single sign-ups. People had to sign up by twos or more, either with friends or family. In addition, anyone under 18 had to enroll with at least one adult.
It worked! There was an average of four students on each enrollment card and 70 percent of them were from the same family. Eleven hundred students were brought in through that program. Says Don, “It was one marketing idea that not only produced more bodies, but at the same time fulfilled the concept of what the Seattle Times envisioned in promoting skiing as a family activity.”
“We’re a long way from operating the ski area at peak capacity 100 percent of the time,” concludes Don. “There is still lots of work to do. Our aim is to get even more use of the area during off-hours, and the ski school is the best vehicle to promote off-hour business for us. At the same time we have an opportunity to create new skiers in a less-traditional market, the lower economic student. And that’s rewarding . . . for us and the kids.”
