week 2

During this week I thought Resort management went well with group actives focusing more on group relationship then individual efforts. On Tuesday we participated in activates consisting of a relay race and low ropes course, that I thought was too early in the morning for any physical activates. Even thought it is was early in the morning I took the competition seriously, like any good American. I swore a little, possible kicked my feet around but it was all in good harmless fun. In the end the group that I was in came in second, which I didn’t mind but if your not first your last. After the first activity was over we moved on to the low ropes course to do an exercise on team building. It was a little hard because you had two teams coming from two different sides and trying cross over each other on a tiny wire. I did not realize it till it was over but the low ropes course really built a foundation for being part of a group and a community. I felt the two activates were fun and proved valuable leadership skills.

            The second part of the class took place on Thursday, where we went to the New England Ski summit in Sunday River, NH. Over all I though the event went well, with lots of different business men in the ski industry that really knew what it is like to be in this industry. The first group I talked to were Ramp ski and snowboarders, which is a small company based out of the west. I thought the skis were ok, the design was the better part of the skis, The company is doing quite well, having an X game winner riding their board and may do some demo’s at Burke mountain. The next group I went to was the Mountain dew/ vertical challenge booth.  The question I asked was, what is the vertical tour, do you run the dew tour, and do you need any help at these events. Simple questions that where answered quick, the vertical challenge is an event combining of snowboarding and skiing. Apparently they do not run the dew tour and they do need help for the finals of the vertical challenge at mount snow. After walking around seeing all different booths I went to a meeting in one the conference rooms that was about Sustainability on a mountain. The room only six people in it but I though it was perfect information for the Lyndon outing club project because it had a web site that you could put the information of the club in and figure out how it is doing on sustainability, also what can you do in the future to help it more. Interesting meeting that had a lot of information I did not know. I hopped around to piston bully and couple of snow gun companies. The only company I found interesting was Techno Alpha that does an automatic sun gun system. This new technology is getting developed everyday and can simple be controlled from an I pad. The question I asked the guy was where is this system most used east or west? The answer I got was more in the east around the south part and is big in Pennsylvania. It was interesting to know that everything today even in the ski industry is becoming micro sized, makes you wonder what lifts are going to look like in fifty years. The second conference I went to was a NSAA meeting about risk management where they talked what to look for in accident and what to look for at the scene. It had some information about the procedure and going through the steps but nothing i had not learned before. After the second conference I went to a few more venders and then came upon tubing. Talked for a few minutes about how tubing is coming up in the United States because it allows non-skiers to come to the mountain. Now of days most ski slopes have tubing area so there is no more building just up grading.

            Overall I thought the day went well and had good experince with meeting people in the ski industry and getting information of what i am going do on the mountain.

sustainability

I thought over all the project at the Lyndon outing club went good. There was a lot communication between groups and during the situation test, where my group used every bodies knowledge to figure out a best positive out come. For our situation my group had an old retired couple from souther NH going to Bretton Woods on an package deal during the week , in mid January. We went through the stages of who and where the couple will in counter on their trip. The problem we in countered how ever was it rained the one day during their trip. Instead of sending them home with half their money we decided that to have them spend a day in the spa, half off, to accommodate their lift ticket for the day. I thought instead of loosing the guests we could give them a little brake and in the end they stay a little bit longer, spend a little more money, and in the end have a good time over all. Sustainability is an important part of the mountain dealing with long term decision that will latter help the mountain. Our group's main effort was to focus on saving the Lyndon Outing Club some money to help it in the future. We looked at the fuel cost, the cost it would take to scrap the metal around the club and finally we decided to focus on electricity. First decision we made was to change the all the light bulbs on the ski slope. Every day the run the lights on the slops it cost them 150 dollars a night, not that bad but they could do better. If we installed energy efficient  light bulbs then their bill would be cut in half, saving their money for something else. It's still a good plan but we do need the money for this to happen and thats were marking and events comes in.
Another thing The Lyndon Outing club is one of the last ski town mountains in Vermont. There used to be Over 150 mountains in Vermont, most of them were local ski town mountains, now there is less then 50. Lyndon Outing clubs is one of the last and i though that is a good marking tool because people always like to see one of the last.