My Presidency:
Hope you and yours are all well and that you’re all getting the jabs; hopefully that will allow this country and planet to slowly return to the normal we all yearn for!
As many of you know, I’ve been President since the 2017/18 season, so four years (if we include this last almost “non-year”), as well as having held various other Committee positions going back to 2005; first as Webmaster, then WC points, QC Rep and Eastern Canada Rep. Like everything, time moves on and I feel so must I.
I am proud of what I have accomplished, together with some very keen and effective Committee members, but I must pass the torch. I will obviously remain on the Committee as Past-President and if the Committee wishes, I will also take on the role of Canadian Alpine Masters’ FIS Rep.
Your Masters’ National Committee discussed my replacement, and fully endorsed the interest and experience of our Treasurer, Dave Nighswander. Dave served as President in 2012 and became Treasurer in 2017. Dave was on the AOA Board for two years and has been on the Southern Ontario Division Committee for the last two years. Dave is also a coach at Devil’s Glen, where he has helped develop its adult race program, interest in it and adult racing in general. Dave is also CSCF Performance Level trained and CSIA level II certified.
Dave’s experience on the Committee is also deep so we should all feel confident and excited as Dave steps into this new role, effective 1 July 2021.
Open Committee Positions:
Treasurer: Dave becoming President obviously opens up the Committee position of Treasurer.
PR Director: The Committee has long sought a qualified and interested racer to take on this role. This is a great opportunity to have a positive impact on Masters’ racing in Canada, from reaching out to media, organizations, clubs, etc, looking for opportunities to promote Masters’ racing in Canada, and working closely with the Communications Director to help publicize same.
Webmaster: Eric Giroux has been on the Committee, in this position, since 2017 and would like to step down. We are therefore seeking an interested and qualified person to take this on. Ideally looking for a web developer, or at least someone with experience with web design and support using WordPress and PHP at times.
If anyone has an interest in joining the Committee to take on any of these roles or wants to know more detail about them, then please reach out to Dave at [email protected].
Rules of Governance:
I hope you agree with me when I say that it is amazing what your Committee accomplishes, from organizing Masters’ events across the country, (with the national calendar often consisting of more than 40 races), to influencing Masters’ racing in Canada and the world, through FIS and rule change proposals, etc. It may (or may not be) surprising that we accomplish all this through nothing other than a balanced sense of responsibilities and common sense approach. Though these bases will continue, I am happy to report that a sub-committee was formed, over the winter, consisting of Wendy Fursey (current Past-President), Patty Edgar (Western Canada Director) and Jaime Hugessen (Eastern Canada Director), to create the first Masters’ “Governance Policies & Procedures” document. This has been reviewed and revised several times with the input of the National Committee, which will find its home on our website, and Dave will share in an upcoming newsletter. Thank you Wendy, Patty & Jaime for all the work you have put into this!
FIS Masters in 2022:
Due to Canada successfully hosting FMC races at Stoneham, QC, in 2020, CAN has again been awarded FMC races in 2022, to be held Feb 10-13. As was done in 2020, the Canadian Masters’ Alpine Championships will be held at the same time, as well as coinciding with the 2022 Quebec Winter Carnival.
Also for the first time, these races will be held back-to-back with the US FMC races, being held the weekend before from Feb 4-6, 2022.
Current locations are:
CAN: Stoneham, QC
USA: Beaver Creek, CO
Being the first time both North American events are being held back-to-back, we expect this to bolster overseas participation, during which 10 races can be achieved in as many days, so mark your calendars!
Uniforms:
You likely received several emails and/or seen the Canadian Alpine Masters’ Facebook posts regarding new Masters’ uniforms, with an order deadline of May 9th. You snooze, you lose…except for the 23 Masters that placed their orders in time. Watch for them sporting their new swag towards the end of the year. Thank you Victoria & Marianne Fenninger for all your hard work designing, sourcing, announcing, receiving orders and fulfilling to these Masters!
Enjoy your summer, stay safe, stay active and looking forward to seeing many of you on the hills at the end of this tunnel and the coming winter!
Lloyd Sevack | President
Canadian Alpine Masters