Membership & Volunteering – Page 2 – High Park Ski Club Blog

2022-01-192022-02-15

President’s Message – After nearly two years . . .

January 19, 2022

Dear HPSC Friends,

It has been a long haul to finally get to this point. We are very happy that this past weekend, after nearly two years, the HPSC Snow School was finally able to again provide lessons to our members. And despite the cold on Saturday at MSLM I understand that most who participated were very happy to be back. I personally was excited to reconnect with a number of our members at Blue Mountain on Sunday. As a reminder, lesson registration opens up on the Friday one week prior to the trips.

While we are all disappointed that we are not able to run buses just yet, we are closely following the public health guidelines and will start bus trips as soon as it is feasible.

I personally want to thank all of our club volunteers who help make the club run. Please remember that we are a fully volunteer run club and without the time and passion put in by your fellow members we would not be able to function. Much like all of you, we have been frustrated by the ongoing pandemic. And although we have not been able to function as we would have liked, the amount of work that has been put into planning has far exceeded what would be required during a regular season.

One thing that the pandemic has shown is that many people in the GTA are tired of being stuck inside and have a strong desire to get outside and enjoy the winter. The snowstorm/blizzard on Monday provided the opportunity for many of our members to do something that has been virtually unheard of in Toronto in a long long time, the ability to do some urban skiing and snowshoeing. I personally snowshoed down to my local Starbucks on Monday, while a number of other members posted photos of their urban snow sport adventures in the HPSC Facebook group. And with the exception of a very short warm up, the forecast for the next two weeks in favourable to keeping most of this new snow in the city. Enjoy it!

Cheers!

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club

2021-11-292021-12-16

President’s Message – Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

November 24, 2021

The Cowbell of Office – HPSC Information Night and Social, Liberty Common, Liberty Village, November 17, 2021 Photo by Amy Lam

HPSC Friends,

This week it is really finally feeling like winter is about to arrive. And with it a new HPSC season.

Over the last week, we held a very successful Club Information and Social Event in Liberty Village (thank you Amy), the last SkiFit of the season (thank you to John, George and Cynthia), and a successful on-line event, Cross-Country Skiing 101: Sliding on Skinny Skis (thank you Heather). The cross-fit series continues until the end of the month (registration is open for the remaining session)(thank you to Michaela).

We also found out this week that the federal government, as of November 30^th is lifting the testing requirement for vaccinated Canadians returning to Canada from trips of less than 72 hours. For the club this means that there will be no testing requirement for our weekend trip to Holiday Valley at the end of January. And on a higher level, the approval of vaccinations for children means that we are one step closer to the end of this pandemic and getting back to a much more normal season.

Thank you as well to the almost 70% of current members who have provided their vaccination proof to the club. A reminder that as of November 6^th, members cannot register for any in-person events including socials, daytrips, or long trips if they have not had their vaccination status verified. Please do so as soon as possible instead of waiting until you want to register for an event.

As well, a reminder for those who did not join last season due to COVID, last year still counts towards you club seniority, but to retain it you need to rejoin this year.

I have said in the past, people may come to the club for a specific sport, but they return year after year because of the friends they make and the community that is HPSC. This past year has challenged our ability to make those connections. We sincerely hope that this coming season we are able to get back to providing opportunities for members to meet their new lifelong friends!

Cheers!

Justin Graham, President, HPSC

2021-11-232021-11-23

Ask not what your ski club can do for you . . . but what you can do for your ski club

High Park Ski Club is fully run by dedicated volunteers. Everything you enjoy about the club is based on the volunteering by your fellow members. The current term for all directors and the president ends in April 2022. All directors and the president can stand for re-election.

However, our current Director of Membership and Volunteers, Ruth Schefter, has let us know that after two terms, she will be stepping down and will not be running for a third term.

As such we are looking for someone who would be interested in shadowing Ruth for the reminder of the year and then standing for Director of Membership and Volunteering. The person should be organized, tech savvy, a good communicator, and accountable.

Time commitment: ~6 hours per week, mostly in the fall. Attending monthly board meetings.

Team: Work along with the Membership and Volunteer Assistant, the Volunteer Coordinator, and the Ambassador Program Coordinator.

Duties: Monitoring membership registration and membership statistics. Communicating with members. Answering member and non-member questions regarding the club. Maintaining the list of Bus Vouchers distributed, and the list of club volunteers. Coordinating the Annual Membership Awards and planning, along with the Social Director and the Volunteer Coordinator, the annual Volunteer Appreciation event. Attend New Member and Information events, the Club Strategy Session in the summer, and the Annual General Meeting in September.

Compensation: Directors build an understanding of the inter workings of the club, get to know a lot of the club members, work with a fantastic team, and have a say in the direction of the club. All directors receive an annual honorarium, as well as two bus vouchers. For younger members it is also a great experience to have on your resume.

If you are interested or would like to learn more about the opportunity, please contact Ruth at membership@hpsc.ca .

2021-11-102021-11-29

President’s Message – A nip in the air!

November 10, 2021

Dear HPSC friends!

One of the great things about being a member of the club is that we are all lovers of winter. You are not viewed as strange for actually looking forward to colder weather and the winter. This was brought home to me when I was on a zoom call last week with a number of other ski clubs and ski schools from across the country (regarding insurance) when someone out west mentioned that it was getting colder, and we all agree that was fantastic news.

With the nip in the air and the return to Standard Time, we are coming closer to an actual ski season. Over the past weekend, the downhill daytrips schedule was posted. Our charter and long trips are available for registration if there are still spots available, but only for those who have provided their vaccination proof.

At SkiFit this past weekend we had the largest turnout all fall. It is interesting that the cooler it gets, and the closer we get to the season, the more people start to come out for SkiFit. As a reminder there are just two more weeks left for SkiFit. Registration opens each Tuesday. I would personally like to thank Karen Evans, who is now out west for the season, and John McHutchion, for their excellent help in leading the program this season.

I would also like to thank the two-thirds of our current members who have provided their vaccination proof. For the rest, please do so as soon as possible. As a further reminder, only those who have provided their proof for verification will be able to register for any in-person event (including drive-up for daytrips) or charter/long trips with the club this season.

SnoBiz is a one of the key ways to keep up with what is going on in the club, so I encourage all members to read all of the articles in the current edition. There are some important announcements.

Looking forward to the coming season and meeting up with as many members as possible!

Cheers!

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club

2021-11-072021-11-08

Membership

Since the summer, we have made it clear that members need to provide their vaccination proof for visual confirmation in order to participate in any in-person event with the club during the coming season.

Since the new Ontario QR code version of vaccination certificates are now available that include only the critical information we require, as of November 7, only members who have provided their proof will be able register for any in-person event, charter or long trip.

There are currently three ways to arrange for verification:

1) Sending in your certificate via email to vac@hpsc.ca. This is a special email address that is only accessed by our Director of Membership, Ruth Schefter. Documents and emails will be delated after verification.

2) Showing up at an in-person event. These will be after SkiFit on Saturday mornings in High Park between approximately 10:45am and 11:15am by the Maple Leaf garden near Grenadier Pond.

3) Arranging for a video call by sending a message to vac@hpsc.ca. The call will not be recorded.

We greatly appreciated your cooperation in this process.

2021-10-24

Membership fee goes up November 1st

For those who did not renew last year due to concerns over COVID we understand and your seniority in the club was maintained. However, for it to continue you will need to rejoin this season.

For returning members the current early bird fee is $150 (+HST) until October 31^st. As of November 1^st the rate increases to $170 (+HST). For new members the rate remains at $150 (+HST) for the enter season.

As of October 22^nd, Ontarians have been required to provide the new QR code vaccination document for most non-essential locations. If you haven’t done so, please download yours ASAP.

This new document includes only the information we need to see, we are hoping to have all members vaccination status verified by November 6^th. If you haven’t provided your vaccination proof yet to the club please send it in to vac@hpsc.ca .

If you have already sent in or shown your proof, we do not require to see your new QR document.

See you on the snow!

Ruth Schefter, Director of Membership

2021-10-24

Long Trip Sign-up Night on October 28th

After the success of our charter trip signup nights (there are still a limited number of spots available), our long trips sign up is this Thursday, October 28 at 8pm sharp.

Only those fully vaccinated are qualified to register for any trip. If you register and cannot provide your vaccination proof to our Membership team by November 6^th, you will be removed from the trip and will lose your $100 non-refundable deposit.

If you still need to renew your membership, or send in your vaccination proof, and want to sign up for one of the long trips, please do so by Tuesday October 26th. This allows the time for our membership team to process your materials prior to the trip signup on Thursday night.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING CHANGE: The first weekend trip in December to Tremblant, that is the instructor training weekend, has been changed from a bus trip to a U-Drive trip, with a corresponding decrease in cost. Regular members are still welcome to register, however, please note you will need to arrange your own transportation to the resort. Also note that there will be no reception on this trip as originally planned.

We have arranged eight bus trips for the upcoming season, including three mid-week trips, and a specific weekend cross-country/snowshoe trip (and a cross-country option for the mid-week Tremblant trip). Three of the trips are cross-border, including the return of our very popular weekend trip to Holiday Valley, just outside of Buffalo.

Members have been asking questions about what the rules will be on the bus. At this point, since all members on the trip will be verified as fully vaccinated, we plan on running the buses at almost full capacity. Similar to when flying, members will be required to wear masks while on the bus and remain in their seat as much as possible. Eating and drinking should be limited, and food should not be passed around. For this year, there will be no ‘party’ table seats at the back

We understand that this is much different than our normal bus trips, but please recall that last season we were not even entertaining running long bus trips at all. Our greatest hope is that by this time next year we will again be back to worrying about trips selling out too quickly!

2021-10-132021-11-08

President’s Report – Many things to be thankful for!

October 13, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving to all in the HPSC community!

As we move into mid October, it really does feel that things are slowly returning back to normal, or at least as close to normal as possible right now.

On September 30th we held the club’s Annual General Meeting virtually. A thank you to the 70+ members who logged in, and to Kerry Kupecz for acting as the Chairperson for this year’s meeting. The club Annual Report is available to members on our website under About Us/Club Documents.

This past Thursday we had a successful Charter trip sign up, with three trips reaching initial capacity! We honestly were unsure about how enthusiastic members would be. While some trips are full, if you are interested, please put your name on the wait list – sometimes additional spots can be negotiated, and frequently people’s plans or situations change opening up spots. Also please consider the other available trips – all are to great resorts!

I personally want to say thank you to the members of our Long Trips Committee for all of their hard work over the last two seasons. It really has not been easy. And a thank you to all the members who have stepped up to be Trip Leaders this year. Without each one of our volunteers our club could not function.

As a reminder, you must be fully vaccinated to sign up for any of the trips, so please send in your vaccination proof (vac@hpsc.ca) as soon as possible; or at least as a first step please go into your membership profile and click on Edit and acknowledge your vaccination status, (as well as the Code of Conduct, and waiver). At this point about half of our current members have provided or shown their vaccination proof. You must do at least one or the other prior to long trip signup on October 28^th in order to register for a trip. You will eventually need to show us your vaccination proof.

I will be available in person to review your vaccination proof after SkiFit for the next two Saturdays, in High Park (just north of the Maple Leaf by Grenadier Pond) between approximately 10:45 to 11:15am. If you would like to arrange a different time and place, please contact me and we can try to work something out.

If you didn’t join last season due to COVID we understand and would really like to see you back as a member. Just a reminder, the early bird rate of $150 (+HST) for returning members ends on October 31^st. As of November 1^st, the fee increases to $170 (+HST). (For all new members the $150 rate continues for the entire season.)

And personally, this week my 2021/22 Ikon pass arrived in the mail which always lifts my spirits in anticipation of the coming season. Hope to see as many of you on the hills and trails this coming year!

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club