WESTERN ASSOCIATE MEMBER PROGRAM

1. Purpose

The Associate Member program is a new subcategory of membership aimed at enhancing service to members with unique profiles within PSIA-AASI. The purpose is to better support this cohort’s ongoing professional development while acknowledging the unique paths new members may engage in as snowsports instructors.

PSIA-AASI West remains wholly committed to the integrity of our assessments, delivered in line with National Standards and Performance Guides. We believe our Associate Member program more purposefully engages a growing member cohort, better supporting their professional development to meet the level of excellence we expect of every member of PSIA-AASI.

2. Background

In recent years, PSIA-AASI has seen rapid shifts in its membership demographics. Members with no formal experience working or volunteering at a snowsports school are increasingly present in our membership.  This phenomenon is occurring nationwide but is more prevalent in some regions than others. Associate Members currently make up about 22% of the Western Region, one of the highest rates in the country. Having so many Associate Members present in our events and assessments creates a need to ensure we are appropriately supporting and communicating with these members.

3. Definition

Across all 8 regions of PSIA-AASI, registered and certified members who do not currently and have never worked or volunteered at a snowsports school delivering resort approved lessons will be additionally classified as Associate Members.  

4. Membership Status and Certification

The Associate Member designation is a subcategory description, it serves as an additional descriptor in our database that allows us to better serve members. Being categorized as an Associate Member has no impact on membership status or certification. To be clear:

• Membership Status:  We have four membership classes: Registered, Certified, Alumni, or Lifetime. Associate Membership does not change or impact your current or future membership class. You could be in any of the four classes of membership as an Associate Member (Registered Associate, Certified Associate, etc.). You are only an Associate Member as long as you do not work or formally volunteer for a snowsports school. When you begin formal resort instructing through a member school and update your member school affiliation accordingly, the descriptive tag is permanently dropped from your profile.

• Certification Levels:  Being an Associate Member has no impact on your current certifications. Whatever certifications you have earned and assessments you have passed, continue to be valid and respected nationwide. In the West, being an Associate Member does not limit what certifications you can achieve or assessments you can take. We acknowledge that teaching hours are the single most important factor determining exam success and lack of experience in formal resort instructing will significantly impact a candidate’s ability to successful.

5. Program Benefits

Associate Members in the Western region are provided specialized events and training sessions tailored to build critical skills in snowsports instruction without direct access to resort-based resources. These custom courses increase transparency, foster accessibility, enhance the likelihood of exam success, and help connect Associate Members to a larger professional community.

• Associate Member Forum:  While we recognize the critical role of member schools in providing mentorship, this forum is designed to create a space for dialogue, support, and practical training. These monthly online events, running from November to April are open only to Associate Members. Topics will include training, certification, professional pathways, and education. Attendees will be provided individualized mentorship to meet their professional needs. These Forums are completely FREE to registered participants.
• New Training Courses:  Intro to PSIA-AASI Snowsports has been redesigned to better support and prepare Associate Members for exam success. The new 5-day course covers the basics of delivering student-centered lessons, accurate and precise demos, receiving and delivering feedback, mock assessments, and avenues to participate in the larger PSIA-AASI community.
• Direct Access to Resort Hiring/Volunteering:  Associate Members interested in hiring and volunteering resources for our Western Member Schools will have access to mini-job fairs, facilitated hiring-manager introductions, and a library of resort employment information.

• 1:1 Coaching: This year, we are piloting a new program to provide individualized coaching and training for our Associate Members. All Associate Members are guaranteed a personalized online mentorship session. There are a limited number of on-hill sessions available for Associate Members this year to provide coaching and training. Sign-ups will occur at the Associate Member Forums.

6. Western Associate Member Fee

Western Associate Members will be invoiced a $50 fee every season.

This fee supports the creation and delivery of the Associate Member program benefits, including forums, hiring resources, and coaching. Associate Members who are unable to pay the $50 should reach out to the Western Region office to submit a financial hardship petition.

7. Our Promise to Western Associate Members

While dedicated to the integrity of our assessments and the professionalism of our industry, PSIA-AASI West also remains devoted to ensuring our region is a welcoming and inclusive community for all former, current, and future professional snowsports instructors. We are committed to the following:

• Western Associate Members have equal standing in the region; they have the same value, voice, and opportunities as any other member in our region.
• Western Associate Members have equal access to public events and exams and will be registered for events on the public calendar in the order those registrations are received.
• Western Associate Members will never be charged more than the publicly listed price for events, exam fees, or event lift tickets.
• There are no limitations on certification opportunities for Western Associate Members, these members may register for any event they have met the prerequisites for.  We strongly recommend adhering to the highly suggested prerequisites for each level to ensure exam success.

8. Implementation Timeline

• Request to Western Members to update their Member School Affiliation: Aug 30
• Announce transition from Unaffiliated to Associate: Sept 9
• Reminder to update Member School Affiliation: Sept 24
• Last chance to update Member School Affiliation: Sept 30
• The Associate Member subcategory goes live: Oct 1
• Fee invoiced to all Associate Members: Oct 4
• First Associate Member Forum of the 24/25 Season: Nov 18

9. Future Goals

• Evaluate the program’s success, gauge event participation, and gather participant feedback to continue to evolve the program in service of Western goals and strategy.
• Continue to increase training opportunities for Western Ed Staff to ensure we are prepared to productively engage Associate Members while fostering professionalism and inclusion across the region.
• Track hiring and volunteering turnover rates to gauge the interest of Associate Members in moving into resort instructing roles.
• Explore ways to improve the visibility and relationship of Associate Members with other Western Members and Member Schools.
• Expand offerings to meet the evolving needs of Associate Members.
• Leverage data and regional experiences to support the evolution of Associate Membership in other regions across the country.

10. Questions

Please contact Marisa Cooper, CEO PSIA-AASI West with any questions (mcooper@thesnowpros.org).

Join us online on Tuesday, December 19th at 5:oo pm for a Member Meeting and vote on potential changes to the Western Region Bylaws.

YOU MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND THE MEETING: Member Forum

BYLAW VOTE RESULTS: 

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:

By-Law Change Summary: 

We believe that the region is best served by board members who bring applicable and beneficial skills and experience to the group, improving our capacity to operate strategically and sustainably.

We believe that as member interest in running and voting for the board has diminished over the last decade, we would be well served by additional avenues to appoint necessary talent to the board.

We also believe that by providing more clear qualifications for board candidates, we ensure a minimum level of engagement in the regional mission.

In summary, there are two material changes being proposed.  First, to clarify that certified members must be active if they wish to run for a board seat, stating that Active Certified members, Alumni members and Lifetime members are eligible to run for the Board of Directors.

Second, the new bylaws propose 6 seats voted in by the membership and 3 seats appointed by the board of directors (with the intention of appointed seats bringing necessary skills and expertise to the leadership).  The bylaws currently permit for 7-12 board members, voted on by the membership.  For a full break down of logistics and term cycles, please refer to the bylaws posted below.

Please refer to the boards rationale in the document below.

Do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions prior to the vote: mcooper@thesnowpros.org

Use the document below to help organize your thoughts on each of the suggested changes.

DRAFT of Bylaws up for membership vote on 12.19.23

DRAFT of Bylaws tracking all changes up for vote on 12.19.23

Interski 2023

Levi, Finland

Submitted By: Barclay Moore

A true education vacation.  I will try to give you a feel for what I experienced attending the Levi Interski23 Congress.  The flight Reno-Dallas-Helsinki-Kittila-Levi was flawless, even extra seats over the water and they picked us up in a bus at the Kittila airport.  Bonus, out of the window over Greenland we got to experience the Aurora Borealis, northern lights.   An excellent way to start the trip on our way to the arctic circle.  Levi is way up there close to Santa Claus and reindeer, (those we ate everyday).

Sunday was a free day to be guided around the mountain and get used to the lift system and snow.  Levi supplied the guides.  Did I tell you it was cold?  Well it was a bit.  Squeaky snow everyday. Some nasty wind one day, but good all in all.  Slopes were mellow and groomed with some fresh snow mixed in.  Snowmaking everywhere and lights on all trails.  Its dark all day in December and January, yuk no California sun.  Now the days are long and the sun sets about 9pm, soon in summer it won’t set at all.  Opening ceremonies and some show skiing to start everyone off with music and fun skiing.

Mike Porter started the day off with a nice bit of history of Interski and what to expect from various countries and why they do what they do.  He really helped to set the stage.

Each morning began with Technical Demos from 6 or 7 teams showing and explaining their skiing philosophies on the demo hill.  Slow maneuvers through dynamic skiing, snow plow through carving, short and long, etc.  Very interesting to watch and discuss with my friend Mike Porter.  Then at 10 am every day we went to our chosen workshops from different country’s demo team clinicians.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon, nine in all, missing just one Wednesday slot to have some free time to explore.  Lectures in the afternoon before dinner and maybe a keynote presentation in the evening followed by show demos under the lights, great choreography, some of it scary.  That went on for five days pretty much non stop, pretty much tiring with jet lag and all.   Food was plenty, 3 meals a day, buffet, all you could eat, I ate and ate, and gained 4 pounds, yippee.  Rooms were quiet and adequate, and each had it very own sauna, nice when you are cold.  Northern Lights again the first night at the hotel, everyone just standing in the parking lot taking photos and enjoying the effects of the solar wind smashing into the upper atmosphere.

Now for some content.

First of all the best content was visual, no translation necessary.  There were 200 demo team members skiing all over the hill.  Next to you, in front of you, under the lifts and near the T bars.  Never seen so many great skiers.  And my general thought was “they are all good”.  When skiing up to speed they all look pretty much the same.  In other words skiing has become almost universal because of the skis.  Everybody knows how to carve a turn.  The best of the best are dynamic and versatile.  The differences occur in their early development philosophies.  The technical demos showed some serious differences up through basic parallel turns.  For example:  the Croatian’s snowplow parallel opens with the uphill leg and with a definite up motion and tipping the upper body outside. As they went faster their upper body tended to lean in a bit more than others.   Germany has a nice blend of skills not too much of anything, more like an American process.  Switzerland moves tall up and forward at the beginning of a snowplow turn.  Snow plow steering turns aka wedge christies almost everyone shows with a uphill ski opening to a definite weight shift, how much steering of the ski varied.  Argentina opens the downhill ski first to start their wedge christie, that was different, to promote inside leg moves early on, but possibly an abstem imo.  Americans show a bi-wedge and narrower snowplow.  Mike Rogan even called it a snowplow when he described it over the PA system.  Its still a wedge turn no matter what the translation.  Japan shows a lengthening of the outside leg early in their progression and carry it through to their level hip thoughts later on.  Korea not too much up and down, and have calmed down the retraction turns from years past, strong and compact.  There are differences inside each team as personal glitches show up, but I could not say they were national guidelines.  Austrian went up and over the outside ski when slow.  Bulgarians dropped their inside hands in general but the skis ran well.  Belgian’s had high inside hands.  Take a look on line at some of the Technical Demos and you will see what I mean, good fun to have heard and seen the differences and more importantly the similarities.

Every demo team member and I mean every one skied on slalom skis.  There was no fat skis at Levi.  Europe likes narrow skis.  France and Italy were not present, politics in the ski instruction world, go figure.

Workshops

I did all possible 9 on hill clinic slots.  Two each day excepting Wednesday afternoon.  The group sizes were big so were more of a show and tell format with some skiing of exercises and drills.  Certainly some collaboration and reciprocal teaching going on, but not always.  Very little personal feedback in groups of 15 -25 participants.  But no matter there was a bunch of good info even if not the greatest teaching.

Monday AM, UK BASI, Pretty straight forward explanation of how they evaluate instructors at Level 4, short turn focus.  Started out with flat skis and added grip to the turn after the fall line, added tails to follow track of the tips to start carving.  Finished with short turns and longer short turns.  Nothing inspiring here, basic QR code sharing and reading off the phone.  www.basiinterski.org.uk

PM  Australia, Richard Jameson.  Description of the Aussi skills model and teaching philosophy.  Four skills: Rotary, Edging, Pressure and Stance(not balancing!)  He used a DJ sound board with sliders to mix the skills to describe any maneuver.  I was a great analogy that he drew in the snow each time we stopped after a task.  The stance never changed and only the mix of the other 3 skills developed the skier and outcomes of the ski on the snow.  Steering, carving, railing and pure carve discussion.  Carving is not the same as pure carving in their descriptions.  I will show it to you sometime on the hill.  Similar to our skill model as it was born from the USA in the 70’s.  Really nicely done by Richard, clear concise presentation.  Bravo.  www.apsi.net.au/interski23

Tuesday AM, Japan, Ryu Takeda, hope I got the name correct.  National Technical Ski Champion of Japan.  The group was large and he spoke no english, so everything was through a translator.  He was describing the national philosophy of Japanese skiing.  We started with finding your dominant eye and how that research could relate to your dominant turn. There are 3 main points to their skiing:  the Set position, edging, and pressure.  He started by showing the set position something that is evident through all skiing. A very ankle and knee focused stance that carries your static weight over the inside edge of the outside ski, with pelvis level with slope, traversed in that set position.  Very precise in everything he did.  Added edge release and grip again in traverse, then some no edge turns, always in the set position.  As he demonstrated sitting on a toilet, “PLEASE, not like this.”  Bend the ski from the middle.  When asked if he goes front middle back on the ski, “No only middle”.  Stand on your foot where you would crush a can, more toward heel than ball of foot.  When asked how he dissipates the pressure at the end of the turn, “You don’t “ was his answer. That was easy to understand.  Good thoughts that made perfect sense when you watched him ski.  Precise, precise, precise.  Best demos I have ever seen.  Awesome workshop.  Find him on you tube to see him ski.

1. Switzerland.An overview of their technical skiing system.  In a snowplow there is a bit of shift to the outside ski as the pressure builds in the turn.  A slight angling at the hip to coincide with hip angles at higher speeds.  Common movements through the whole progression was emphasized.  We skied cross over, cross under and ultimately cross through, where leg lengths, long and short, change simultaneously as pressure and steering go to outside ski.  Nothing new here just good traditional skiing.  Some counter at all speeds.

Wednesday AM. Canada, JF Beaulieu, the you tube phenom.  Unbelievably the group was only 6 people and it made a huge difference.  We were able to interact and talk in the gondola.  JF is an amazing coach and skier.  He overviewed the Canadian system using the triangle diagram, see it on their website.  Ski performance is key in his eyes.  Dealing with pitch, roll and yaw of the ski on the snow.  Like the USA along the length of the ski, edge the ski  side to side and twisting the ski around a pivot point.  We played with the pendulum ideas of front to back as well as the more common side to side ideas.  Start on the fore ski and move to the middle and rear as the turn progresses.  Move only 2 centimeters!!, not enough to see, but enough to effect the steering angle at the beginning of the turn.  Tails will displace just a bit to control the speed at the beginning as you gas pedal the middle to end. Lead with the inside knee to make the initiation simultaneous.

Less lead change, less counter, strong outside leg gluteus involvement.  Too much content to write about.  But all good stuff.

Thursday AM.  Sweden, Demo team members both taught part of the session.  Experiential Learning. Explaining that the Swedes want to incorporate experiential learning into all aspect of the association.  We paired off and did some reciprocal helping of our own skiing.  It worked because everyone in the group was a level 4 teacher or coach.  Well done but just good teaching to me, nothing new or earth shattering.

PM Czech.  Demo team member, Roland.  Improving the short turn.  Good energy and teaching style. Very traditional content.  Start with up-unweighting, calm that down, stabilize the upper body  etc.  The ski is nothing without you.  It is you that must talk to the ski, add energy and make it do what you want.  Skis don’t turn by themselves.  Used traditional exercises but kept the group laughing.

Friday AM.  Slovenia, No Base No Race.  Demo team members, former racers.  Their idea is to have every child be given the opportunity to become a world cup racer.  So they make sure every lesson deals with good fundamentals and the start of using brushes and gates very early on.  We ran 4 different brush and gate courses on firm snow.  Corridors, turn shape courses and real gate intro courses.  Good fun and I learned a few things to set next year to train instructors.

PM Austria.  Half indoor Half on snow.  Indoor was a talk about their system to get new instructors certified all the way through demo team level.  Approximately 900 hours of required training and evaluations to make it all the way.  Outside we skied through their lower level methodology. They emphasize the basic position.  A position that is evident throughout the skier development.  From a snow plow they rise and open the uphill ski transfer the weight to an edged and skidded ski, closing to a parallel turn.  They do not say that the snowplow turn is steered but wait until the parallel portion to call it steering.  Not sure what they call the activity in a snowplow turn.  Lost in translation, although his english was perfect. We had time for a couple of more runs but they quit early. :-(

That’s enough stuff, for now.  Obviously I could not attend every county’s workshops or lectures but this was a start into the mindset of international ski teaching.  Maybe other ideas will come from other attendees.  Hope so.

Keynote with Ann Shorling was a huge hit, Gender Equity in the Snow Sports Industry.

Its on you tube and worth the time to look.

A keynote from the Slovenian childrens development ski program  www.skieasy.eu

Good stuff.

Lecture panel discussion with Germany and Switzerland outlining similarities and differences in the instructor certification programs.  The only difference is that the Swiss use slalom skis and the Germans use all mountain skis. Got some smiling heated looks.  Interesting.

Lecture by the USA on Decision making in Ski teaching.  Our team did a nice job of it with 3 coaches each adding something.  I think it was pretty darn good but cannot decide.:-)

No decision has been made as to where Interski 2027 will be.  If you have the chance I think it is worth it.  If you want to talk about what went on call me or email me anytime.

barclaymoore@sbcglobal.net    530-525-7608