Slated for May 26-28 in Vail, Colo., the meeting is open to members and non-members. Dick Garis, NSAA’s executive director, is attempting to provide a program that will entice not only area managers but maintenance supervisors, legal experts, accountants, public relations men—in short, anyone who has anything to do with a ski area. Of course, in the case of many smaller areas, these men are all wrapped up in one.
To cover more topics and appeal to special-interest groups, the program has been divided into a series of round-table discussions to cover everything from snow-vehicle maintenance to restaurant operations.
The annual meeting will also hear a full-scale presentation of NSAA’s economic study by Case & Co. The survey covers about 130 ski areas, including private areas and those on Forest Service land, and will provide the most comprehensive look at ski area operations ever compiled. A preliminary report was given at NSAA’s mid-Winter meeting in Stowe, Vt., and one interesting figure that came to light was a 2.4 per cent profit, before taxes, for 84 acres operating on Forest Service land.
Most of the meeting activity will take place at the Crossroads of Vail, a sort of shopping center in the village, with the supplier exhibition in two huge tents in the parking lot. The general meetings will be held in the theater there, with group round-table studies scattered in various locations.
Equipment manufacturers will present on-snow demonstrations of their products, weather permitting, at the Eagle’s Nest, at the top of Vail’s LionsHead gondola, opened just this Winter. There will be a luncheon in the Eagle’s Nest restaurant prior to the demonstrations.
The panel on environmental planning will assemble a group of experts in the field to discuss briefly the duties of ski areas with respect to air and water conservation and then provide a detailed analysis of problems with water supply, sewage disposal, esthetics of housing developments and related topics. “It’s a cinch the ski areas cannot afford to finance sewage disposal themselves, for instance,” says Garis, “so we want to look at how government could help us. The water belongs to John Q. Public, and he uses it whether he skis or not, so it makes sense he should foot some of the bill for keeping it clean.”
Other meetings that will be held during the week at Vail include the National Ski Study Group, which has representatives from Ski Industries America, Professional Ski Instructors Assn., National Ski Patrol, Ski Retailers International, Ski Specialists Guild, U. S. Forest Service, U. S. Ski Assn., U. S. Ski Writers Assn. and of course, NSAA.
In addition, the National Forest and Recreation Assn., a group of cattle and sheep ranchers and campsite owners, will meet to talk about coordinating their efforts with NSAA in dealings with the U. S. Forest Service. The Association of Recreational Tramway Authorities, formed at last year’s NSAA annual meeting at Stratton Mountain, Vt., will also meet, bringing together representatives of state tramway authorities.
Other highlights of the NSAA convention include a buffalo barbeque and the annual banquet on Thursday, the last night of the meeting.
Cost of the convention is $35 for members, $85 for non-members, including the banquet; wives are registered for $17.50. Daily registration is $10 for members, $20 for non-members, and covers admission to sessions only, with banquet tickets available at the door, first-come first-served, for $15.
A gala weekend, May 29-31, has been planned following the convention for those who want to take a holiday. The program includes a sailing-skiing competition, with the sailing on Dillon Lake supervised by Larry Jump, manager of Arapahoe Basin, Colo. There will also be a golf-skiing tournament at the Vail golf course.
Part of the attraction for spending the weekend at Vail is the excursion plane fare available for those who stay seven days. Regular and excursion fares to Denver are as follows: from New York $208 and $166, from Boston $223 and $179, from Chicago $132 and $104, from San Francisco $137 and $109. Room rates at Vail are $10 to $18, and accommodations will be at several hotels, including the Talisman, Vail Village Inn, Sitzmark, Pension Isable, Gasthof Gramshammer, the Plaza, Wedel Inn, Golden Peak House and the Holiday Inn.
