Toggenburg Ski Patrol

Transcription

1 Toggenburg Ski Patrol Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting February 6, 2013 Present: Andy Aiken, Geff Dennee, Jim Morrison, Walt Shepard, Dave Tiedemann, Evelyn Tordoff Absent: Beau Blair Treasurer s Report General Fund: (Checking and Savings) $ 8, Capital Fund: (Checking & Savings) $ 8, Total All Funds $ 17, Fun Day: Hotdog Sales grossed $466.00; Chili contest donations totaled $ Patrol Room Enhancements Jim Morrison, Andy Aiken, Dave Tiedemann, and Evelyn Tordoff met with Toggenburg s management to discuss our building plans. Jim said that the take-away from the meeting was that management is still committed to providing the building envelope, but needs construction estimates to take to the bank for funding approval. Estimates for the excavation, foundation and pad are complete. The estimate for the building structure should be done by sometime next week. Jim is working on the paperwork for a TSP construction line of credit which should be complete within the next couple of weeks. Our building fund is now at $8, with donations received this month from Carter Riley matched by his employer and 3 donations from non-patrollers. Geff Dennee is working on a grant application. Donations for our building enhancement fund can be made through our Web-site s PayPal account by clicking on the streaming banner in the right hand column on the 2 nd page of the Web-site. Medical Advisors (MA) Presentations On Wednesday, January 21 st Dr. Eugene Bailey Discussed Head Trauma & Concussions. There were 18 patrollers and several Manlius Fire Department members present at the Manlius Fire Department. All present agreed that the presentation was well done and very informative and the venue was great. Thank you Dr. Bailey. We have 2 MA Presentations coming up: o Wednesday, 7:00 PM, February 13, 2013 Topic: Hypothermia Presenter: Dr. Joseph Markham Location: Manlius Fire Dept. o Saturday, 8:30 AM, February 16, 2013 Topic: Shoulder Injuries & Exam Presenter: Dr. Matthew Piccone Location: Foggy Goggle, Toggenburg Our Docs are a very valuable resource which we should take advantage of. We hope to see you all there. Lottery Schedule Geff Dennee sent a memo to the membership about the importance of showing up for lottery shifts or finding a substitute. All patrollers have an obligation to find a sub if they cannot be present for their assigned shifts(s). As we are finding out, a simple request is not always the answer for finding a sub. Some phone calls might be required. 1

2 S&T Candidates Currently we have 9 S&T candidates. Geff Dennee and Jim Morrison said that the candidates are all very talented and are progressing rapidly through the program. Testing is scheduled for March 3 rd. S&T Refresher Our S&T Refresher program is well under way and about 50% complete. This year our S&T refresher is registered with the NSP, which will be monitoring our compliance to the yearly S&T training requirement. Patrollers unable to comply with the training requirement will have to be reclassified. You can expect to see CNY Region staff show up to observe our refresher classes. Policies, Procedures, and Protocols (PPP) Several Documents were reviewed and revised by the PPP committee and submitted to the BOD earlier in the day. They will be reviewed prior to the next BOD meeting. These include: Patroller and Chief of Hill Responsibilities, Program Facilitator Chart, Scheduling Policy, Mentor/Rookie Orientation Checklist, Registration and Duty Day Requirements, and the Snowmobile Incident Report. The next meeting is scheduled for March11 th at 2:00 pm. Bylaws A revised set of Bylaws was presented and reviewed by the BOD. It was agreed that we should submit this latest revision to the membership. Evelyn Tordoff will send out the revised Bylaws for review and comment. Annual Meeting Please mark your calendars. Our annual meeting is scheduled for 10:00am, Sunday, March 24 at Toggenburg. We are hoping that this date is agreeable to all. We need your attendance for voting on the revised Bylaws and election of officers Incident Report Forms On the basis of feedback from patrollers Andy Aiken with the assistance of Jeff Paston has provided a revised incident report form. This will be the final revision for the season and we will be soliciting comments for any changes for next season. Again, many thanks to Jeff Paston for assisting with this form. Copies of incident reports submitted to the rental shop have had some missing or incorrect pieces of information. Reportedly, there have been missing DIN numbers and some reported DIN settings that are not correct (one incident report had a heel DIN setting of 246). If you have a problem with the proper information please ask the rental shop for assistance. Snowmobile Andy Aiken reported that the refresher for those who want to drive the snowmobile is going well. Anyone wishing to use the snowmobile must complete the brief annual refresher before using it. Andy and Rob Winter are our primary refresher instructors. We will need to spend about $ to have the snowmobile prepared for off-season storage. Toboggan Chain Brake Release Last season we experimented with a chain brake release that could be applied and released while in transit and facing forward in the handles of the toboggan. That device did not work well. 2

3 A new chain brake release, made by Cascade Rescue, has been installed on toboggan #8 for trial. Toboggan #8 has been leaning up against the wall outside the Patrol Room for most of the season, although this location can vary. We are looking for feedback on this device. So if you get a chance to use it please let Walt Shepard know what you think. To operate, simply move the ring over the crossover rope keeper and let go. To take the brake off, stop the toboggan, push back to release the brake, and pull the ring back up and over the rope keeper. The cost of this device from Cascade Rescue is $27.95 but could be made here for much less. Chain Brake Release Radios There are reports of some communication problem areas with the new radio system. If you know of a problem please contact the radio committee (Geff Dennee, John Irwin, and Chuck Bertuch). Areas mentioned recently are the Top Shack, top of the triple chair, and under the double-chair at the top. The short radio antennas on the Wouxun radios have been replaced with a 4-inch antenna which should improve performance. Radio #112, which was reported missing, was found in the snow near the Top Shack by George Davenport. It is currently out for warrantee repairs and will become #113 when returned. John Irwin reports the following: o There is a problem with speaker-mikes for the CP200s not being completely plugged into the speaker mike jack - it takes more force than would be expected. o Patrollers should talk at the microphone hole, not across it or near it. The microphone hole is intentionally very directional, to avoid picking up surrounding noise, and not talking directly to the mike hole defeats this scheme and causes poor modulation. o There are some complaints about the push-to-talk switch sticking, when very cold, on the PowerWerx heavy-duty speaker-mikes. This is a mechanical, not electrical, problem that John will be working on. Please read the advisory information John has posted about the radios on or near the radio cabinet. All of our old radio equipment has been donated to the Longhouse Council, Boy Scouts of America, for use at Camp Woodland in Constantia. Chairlift Evacuation Walt Shepard has been working with Eric Waite and the NYS Depart of Labor Inspector to revise our Chairlift Evacuation Procedure to comply with NYS Code Rule 12 NYCRR PART 32 which was revised in The revised document will be submitted within the next two weeks. On January 16, Walt Shepard led a chair-evac training exercise with the Mountain Crew s day crew and the Wednesday TSP day crew. o We practiced complete evacuation techniques from line launching to lowering 3 people o Eric Waite climbed up to a chair to demonstrate how we would get to a non-cooperative person. o Eric demonstrated lowering a person using a 1-person belay system. 3

4 o We practiced moving the evac rope down the haul cable with a simpler technique. On January 22 nd Walt Shepard and Jim Morrison met with Ron Wheatley, Fabius Fire Chief, to discuss what role the Fabius Fire Department would play in the event of a Chairlift Evacuation. On the basis of this meeting a chairlift evacuation training session is scheduled with the Fabius Fire Department for 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 26. The NYS DOL Inspector might be present to observe. On January 23 at approximately 7:30 PM the Wednesday night crew (Paul Martellock, Bob Hough, Sue Hadzor, and Gary Kahn) and the Mountain Crew were involved in an actual Chairlift Evacuation in weather. We had a debriefing meeting on the following Sunday. A report will be issued and circulated to the Membership when it is complete. We will be reviewing our Chair-evac training program to improve our overall response capabilities and our relationship with the Fabius Fire Department. Fun Day Dave Tiedemann reported that Fun Day was a great success. We had the largest crowd that people can remember. He feels that the chili cook-off announcements on channel 3 Friday and Saturday (thanks to Jeff Paston) had some drawing power as well as all the other activities going on during the day. We sold out of hotdogs and the chili was nearly gone by 1:30. Some Fun Day highlights: o Chili cook off There was a record breaking $ in donations and a lot of happy people sampling 9 excellent chilis. The winners were: #1 - Mrs. Bellardini; #2 - Aiken; and #3 Ms. Tordoff. o Coin Hunt - (also mentioned on channel 3). The motivation of the participants was kicked up a few notches by the great prizes Kimberly Flomerfelt brought. o Hotdogs sold out and grossed $466. o Snow sculpture - seemed to have more participation than ever with a lot of enthusiasm and creativity. o Toboggan rides as always was one of the most popular Fun Day activities. Thanks to all who ran toboggans down and up for dozens of delighted customers on a cold day. o Volley ball - was back again this year and was enjoyed by many throughout Fun Day o Signs - were excellent again this year, as we ve come to expect from John Irwin o DJ - Dave Oot did a fantastic job as our DJ, adding a real enhancement to the day Thanks very much to all who helped Friday night and Saturday to make Fun Day 2013 a success. Special thanks to Chris Myers who pitched in to help fill a sick Carter Riley s large Fun Day shoes. We can t wait to see the pictures Jeff Paston took!! Budgeting To better track our financial needs each program facilitator is asked to develop a budget for each season. Membership in Good Standing We had a long discussion on how to monitor a Patroller s compliance to our membership requirements which includes OEC refreshers, CPR / AED Refreshers, S&T Refreshers, Air and Blood Borne Pathogen training, Chair-evacuation Training, adherence to schedule, AWOL patrollers, on-time patrollers, etc. This will be a topic for discussion at our next BOD meeting. Mercy Flight Training One of our S&T candidates, Dan Taunton, works for Mercy Flight and has volunteered to bring their unit to Toggenburg for a training session. We are on their schedule for March 24 th, the day of our annual meeting. Ski & Board Tuning If you wish to have your equipment tuned at Toggenburg, take your skis or board to the ski shop (with your patrol jacket on), drop the equipment off and return the supplied invoice form back to the office which will have a big fat zero in the amount due section. This has now been formalized as a free service to TSP personnel. 4

5 TSP Logo Items If you are interested in obtaining TSP logo clothing items, please review the catalog on the TSP Web-site for product options and details ( The catalog shows the actual clothing with the TSP embroidery. If you wish to order or you have an item on which you wish to have the TSP logo, contact Evelyn Tordoff Payment, payable to Toggenburg Ski Patrol, must be received prior to the order submission to the vendor. Vacuum Cleaner Does anyone have a beater-bar vacuum cleaner they wish to donate for use in the Patrol Room. If you do please let Walt Shepard know. Web Site Go to the Members pages of the Toggenburg Ski Patrol Web-site for announcements, meeting minutes, schedules, instructions & procedures, etc. at: If you cannot log-in contact Walt Shepard If you have any pictures that would make good background on some of the web-site pages or if you have suggestions for improving the Web-site contact Walt Shepard at: woshepard@verizon.net Next BOD Meeting The next BOD meeting is scheduled for 3:00 pm, Wednesday, March 6, at Toggenburg. Walter O. Shepard Secretary, Toggenburg Ski Patrol February 8,