Thursday 8^th May, 2008

As promised, I’m pleased to report on the highlights of a meeting of the National Alpine Committee (NAC) of Ski & Snowboard Australia held on Saturday 3^rd May 2008.

This was one of our most productive meetings for a long time and I’d like to thank my fellow members of the NAC Executive – Lachlan Clark (Chairman of Selectors), BJ Kaufmehl, Greg McCormack, Stephen McKittrick, Carolyn Parry, Michael Kennedy (SSA CEO) and our guest for part of the meeting, Dean Gosper (SSA Chairman).

One of the most exciting and far reaching decisions was acceptance of a proposal coming from a joint meeting over the weekend of the Chairs of SSA’s Freestyle and Alpine Committees (together with the OWI), that the new Olympic discipline of Ski Cross in Australia become part of the Alpine pathway and be administered by the NAC. Ski Cross is naturally an alpine event with our currently ranked number five in the world Jenny Owens, originally being an Olympic Alpine athlete.

More details of this decision and plans for the transition from freestyle to alpine will be circulated in due course, but in future, all alpine registered athletes will have ski cross as an alternate path in their ongoing development and the OWI is seeking additional funding for ski cross at the elite level as part of their support for the alpine discipline.

You will be aware from my update last week that the NAC is finalising the results of a tender for provision of Program Management Services (Program Director) and high level coaching for the southern hemisphere season in support of our National C-Team athletes and National Development Team. These teams were announced yesterday along with our National B-Team. The teams announced are:

You will also be interested to know that the NAC has committed to contributing the sum of $20,000 toward the National C-Team and Development Team program for this SH winter, thus reducing the likely cost to participating athletes. These funds come directly from the alpine development levy all athletes pay as part of your racer registration. The results of the tender process will be announced within days but we are excited by the quality of proposals received and the benefit of these to athletes.

Other major decisions include a commitment of support and involvement in the external review and strategic plan for alpine to be conducted by Mark Sharp, Alpine Director of Canada, in July/August this year. The NAC is contributing $5,000 to this review matching a similar contribution from the Board of SSA. It is expected that Mark Sharp will want to have input from athletes through surveys and workshops to be conducted.

It was agreed there would be a renewed effort to bring the underpinning junior development programs offered by Victoria and NSWACT closer together to form a truly national junior development program that could be “branded” to attract sponsorship. Discussions on this topic are proceeding at present between David Reeves and Kim Easdale.

The NAC agreed to support and work with the proposed restructuring of all disciplines by the Board of SSA. This will involve adopting a new set of discipline Bylaws and the appointment of executive committee members by the Board after receipt of expressions of interest. This change will occur gradually over the next 2 – 3 months and will see the Board taking greater responsibility for discipline matters.

Polices regarding the qualification and appointment of Selectors, the National TD program, SSA points races and Officials Training are being updated and will be posted on the website shortly. The NAC also finalised its position on FIS representation and various proposals being presented to the FIS Congress in Cape Town later this month.

I want to put on record my appreciation for the excellent work of Lachlan Clark in managing the Program Services Tender for the National and Development Teams ably assisted by Greg McCormack. It’s been a huge job conducted in a short period of time. We trust that all athletes will support and get behind this program to make it a success.

Cliff Mason
Chairman

National Alpine Committee