Great Northern Ski Society elects new board at meeting

The Great Northern Ski Society elected a new board of directors Wednesday evening at a special general meeting, which was held at Mount Sima's ski chalet.

The Great Northern Ski Society elected a new board of directors Wednesday evening at a special general meeting, which was held at Mount Sima’s ski chalet.
Based on recommendations from the Duncan Report, the board has expanded and will now include both elected individuals from the community as well as nominated members from various levels of government and user groups.
The Duncan Report was commissioned by Kirk Duncan, the area manager of the Eaglecrest Ski Hill in Juneau, Alaska. He visited Mount Sima in May.

The purpose of the report was to evaluate Mount Sima’s facility and made suggestions on how to improve things for the upcoming season. The report was commissioned after a two day review of the hill.
“I am pretty happy,“ said past-president of the Great Northern Ski Society Ernie Berken about how Wednesday’s meeting went. “We have got most (of the board) positions filled.“
Mount Sima was closed for the majority of the ski season as a result of mechanical problems with some of the facility’s equipment and a lack of natural snowfall. As a result of the hill closing for the season in January, Mt. Sima will honour all of the 2007-08 pass holders for the upcoming year. 
At the meeting, four individuals were elected to the new board of directors for the ski society. The elected members include Jim Bishop, Greg Meredith, Keith Thaxter and Peter Wright.
The other six members are Linda Rapp, the Parks and Recreation manger for the City; Jim Bell, who was nominated by Alpine Ski Association of Yukon; Marc Boulerice, who represents the Yukon Freestyle Ski Association; Don Wilson, elected by the Canadian Ski Patrol - Yukon Zone; Sue Deforest, representing Snowboard Yukon; and Craig Hougen, nominated by the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce.
The only two groups who have yet to fill a board position are the Tourism Industry Association and the Yukon Government.
All of the representatives from both the government and user groups are newly created positions on the Great Northern Ski Society’s board, which was formerly comprised of nine members.
Berken said he expects the two vacant board positions to be filled within the next month or two.
He said meetings of the Great Northern Ski Society board require at least five members to be present and with 10 individuals currently on the board the two vacant positions should not be a major issue at the moment.
Berken said there are advantages to having the different group representation on the board.
“They are all stakeholders in one form or another,“ he said. “The governments are stakeholders in that they have money invested in this operation. The user groups are also the ones that rely heavily on having this operation working for them. Last year it was hard for them to do any training without having the ski hill to train on.“
The board plans to hold its first meeting this coming Wednesday. A new president of the ski society will be elected at this meeting.
The Great Northern Ski Society is also looking to create three full-time positions, which will include an outside operations manager, an area manager and a mechanic.
The outdoor operations position will be in charge of areas including the lift conditions, while the area manager will oversee everything at the Mount Sima.
The Great Northern Ski Society has started the advertising process for an area manager in both eastern and western Canada, but the hill can not proceed with any staff hirings without presently having any funding partners.
The Great Northern Ski Society has filed applications for funding with the City of Whitehorse, the territories Community Development Fund and the federal Indian and Northern Affairs Target and Investment Program.
Berken expects the start up costs for Mount Sima to be between $200,000 and $300,000. 
There were three motions presented on Wednesday. The first proposed the new structure for the board with increasing its size to 12 members. 

The second was to dissolve the current board of directors and hold an election based on the new model.
The final motion was to change the existing bylaws with that of the new board of directors structure, which included the addition of the 12 elected directors of the society. All of the motions passed unanimously.
Also established at the meeting was five committees that interested individuals could sign up for. The different committees included finance, marketing, human resources as well as policy and planning. There was an others category, which is just for general volunteers.
Marc Boulerice is one of the new members on the board. He said he is hopeful about heading into the future.
“All of the members here were just really positive in wanting to get the mountain open for next season because we know there’s a lot of really dedicated skiers out there who were a little disappointed from last season,“ he said. “This is the start of it all and we are all very hopeful that things will open up again.“
He said the collaboration with Juneau is a good asset for Mount Sima.
“I think it is a good resource,“ Boulerice said. “ I think it is one that hasn’t been tried in the past. It’s a good avenue to get the ball rolling again and a chance to see how other places do things.“

Thaxter said the primary goal is securing the funding.
“Without that we can’t proceed and that’s got to happen really soon in order to start working on getting these tasks,“ he said. “I have read the Duncan Report and there is a lot of work to be done and some of it should have started last month, but without the funding you can’t start it.“
Despite not having any present funding, Thaxter said he is confident heading into the future.
“We have a lot of work to get done in the next few months and I think the new board is up for the challenge,“ he said. “Let’s just hope we can get everything done and secured in the next month, so we can start this work.“