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Southern Section Report The good
news. What a season we had!! This is news? Not only did we
have a heck a year for snow, (Wisp and Canaan Valley stretched their seasons
out into April), but Southern section had three new national patrollers.
Ken Schweinsberg and Bob Snoby of Hidden Valley received their National numbers
for their exemplary work on the regional OEC program. And Jerry Timcik of
Hidden Valley Nordic received a national number for his work with the Nordic
patrol. Did you know that Jerry is only one of only a hand full of
patrollers in the country that are both a nordic senior and an alpine
senior? Hidden Valley Nordic
expanded in a great snow year. After so many years of saying, "It's been
another tough year for Nordics," it's nice to say it was a great year for
Nordic patrols. Hidden Valley Nordic more than doubled its patrol roster
from 3 to 7 patrollers. Not only did many
of Canaan's patrollers get snappy new uniforms this year through Bob Hoffman's
China connection, Canaan Valley is the only other patrol in the section that's
expanding their roster with a great job of recruiting. Take advantage of
the good winter to get people thinking about patrolling again. Some
patrols hand out flyers at local ski swaps to find interested
skiers. The great
news: A patroller from Southern section received a purple merit star for saving
a life. More details later… The bad news. I was at the
NSP Eastern Division meeting in Albany at the end of April and came away from
it distressed over the future of the ski patrol as we know it. Somebody
had an idea several years ago that the division leadership and program
operations (OEC, S&T, etc.) were out of touch with the front line
patroller. So a committee was formed to assess the current
hierarchy and propose changes. Currently, front line patrollers elect
their patrol representative (Canaan is the only patrol in Southern section that
does that). The patrol representatives elect the section chiefs, regional
directors, division directors and board representative. In the new plan
railroaded through the division meeting, each frontline patroller elects the
regional director, and only the regional directors elect the division
director. It would be like if you voted for your senator, but only the
senators get to vote for the president. Someone's fiddling while Rome is
burning! It means that big patrols
will out vote small patrols and control the regional agenda. It means all
programs would be administered by division rather than each region. It
means your dues are going up to run a bigger bureaucracy that is less in touch
with the local needs that the old system. But wait you say,
if I get to vote for the regional director than how can the leadership be out
of touch. You may not realize this but you already had a chance to vote
for the National board of directors in Denver. But wait you say, nobody
asked me about this. A ballot was placed in the National Ski Patrol
magazine. Only 200 people in the whole country sent the ballot in.
NOT sending it in was considered an affirmative vote for the board. This
is the type of thinking that worries me. Three out of four
members of the Western Appalachian delegation (that's us) voted against the
planned changes to the division organization. If you don't like the sound
of what's going on, contact Eastern Division Director Jerry Sherman at
jshernsp@rochester.rr.com
and tell him what you think. |
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WAR NEWS 6 |
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RISK MANAGEMENT
UPDATE BY JOHN GREINER,
ESQ. Over
the past season assistance was provided to some of our patrols in developing
particular forms for release from liability. I am in the process of
preparing a set of forms for various NSP events which will be provided to each
patrol director at the annual officers' meeting in August. The Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was enacted by Congress and took
effect on April 14, 2003. The purpose of the Act is to create greater
privacy for persons in their medical and health records. The Act and its
regulations are wide reaching and apply to providers of health care
services. New restrictions have been imposed on the disclosure of
"protected health information" to persons other than the patient. A
summary of the regulations and their application to patrols and individual
patrollers should appear in the upcoming Trail Sweep Newsletter of the Eastern
Division. Additional information will be provided to patrol
directors at the annual officers' meeting in August. There have also been
some recent changes in Pennsylvania's laws pertaining to withholding or
withdrawal of life sustaining care which are now applicable to emergency
services providers. More information on this subject will also be
provided at the annual officers' meeting. We are continuing to look into
the possibility of presenting a regional lift evacuation and risk management
seminar which will be available to all patrollers and area management, similar
to those programs which are now offered in upstate New York and in Maine.
Planning and presenting the seminar will be a large undertaking and additional
help is needed. If you are interested in helping, please contact me or
Guy Lombardo for further information. I can always be reached during the
day at 724-834-0300 or in the evenings at 724-879-1096 or by e-mail at
jgreiner@beldenlaw.com. |