So what happens in the background?

A lot!!

But what am I on about now? Skiing of course and what happens in the background for the various races that go on.

At the regional level there are things going on throughout the year even in the winter months when there are no races. We are always on the look out for helpers with different skills, not just to help out at the races but also before the races in the preparation of each race. During the winter we have also been looking at the ERSA database making long awaited changes to the before the start of the new season and that’s still in progress. Other areas include the website and updating that so we can improve the information we pass on to the region and make it more flexible. That’s just a couple of the things that are going on, there are many others so if you would like to help then drop me a line.

There’s no harm in a little self publicity and in fact is good to let people know what really goes on behind the scenes. Periodically I send out emails asking for help from people in the region and spend time at the races chatting to people and more of that this season.

Another area that could do with a bit more self publicity is the committees behind the organisation of the summer season races, English Alpine squad and English Champs. This is headed up by the Alpine Skiing Committee, ASC, with a sub committee called the Race Organisation Technical Panel, ROTP. As with all committees there is a lot of hard work going on in the background here to help move racing forwards over the coming years. There is a small group of people running these committees, some have been there a very long time others fairly new.

In a previous post I talked about the costs charged for a club national but haven’t said what comes from a grand prix, but there are many other questions around all of this charging but that is for another time. One of the common questions I hear from people is what does the money go towards. Well it contributes to the cost of a number of things such as;

- TD expenses for the race

- Level 2 training course

- TD forum in November

- meeting expenses

- admin

- TD training

So as you can see quite a few things and I am sure there are others I have missed out. These are things that need to happen but the question is how they are financed. At the moment it is all a bit of black art. For example ERSA has offered to fund a Level 2 course in future thus reducing the onus on SSE but there are also other options such as approaching other regions for better use of shared resources, I have suggested this but don’t think the penny has dropped yet.

But in the meantime there is a lot going on elsewhere which mustn’t forget about it would just be good if more was made of it.