If you are a race secretary for either a club national or grand prix make sure you have a read of this http://www.britski.org/arbul101.pdf. It has some useful information about the forthcoming season, it has been sent to club secretaries in the past couple of days, been on the website since the end of March, but not emailed directly to race secretaries yet.

In March the ex Olympic skier Alain Baxter visited the Ipswich ski centre for a business morning breakfast followed by a training session with the Vikings race team. Although it was on a Monday morning and a school day many of the team were still able to attend and had a great time with him, not often that sort of thing happens so was good for them.

For a report click here.

A while back Gloucester ski slope was put up for sale along with the nearby golf club. Details can be seen here. Last week was the time when the sealed bids had to be submitted and there are supposed to be a few that have been received. Hopefully it will not go to John Nike as that would be a great shame for racing and definitely sounds like there are some good other options.

One of the things that has been missing for sometime over the past few year in the summer ski racing is a central place or places where reports about various races can be viewed online.

During the final part of 2009 I published a survey on SkiZog to get some feedback from the summer racing season. I did it because there was no other way for people to feedback anonymously and be honest at the same time.

I’ve now summarised the results in the attached PDF file. Some very good feedback there and definitely worth following up and from an ERSA point of view will definitely take a closer look.

Last Sunday we held an ERSA Committee meeting and went through several topics. The minutes will be published shortly on the ERSA website but in the meantime a copy is attached here.

A meeting has been arranged on the 14th March by SSE (ASC and ROTP) and one member from each region invited to attend. No specific agenda has been raised yet but the general aim is to provide ‘discuss any matters/suggestions before the beginning of the forthcoming season’.

Someone from ERSA will be attending the meeting so if you have any matters or suggestions please send them over so that I can collate them for the meeting. I have had much feedback from people over the past few months and will add this feedback.

One of the things that is constantly raised at the club is queries from new parents and racers about where to start, what races exists, what their children should take part in etc. It’s a long list of questions and of course everyone has an opinion. Unfortunately it is incredibly difficult to find anything online and i have yet to come across a parent who has seen this information on the SSE site.

In the current climate it is proving very difficult to gain sponsorship for anything ski related. Last year the club national we were only able to secure one sponsor whereas the first year we were able to secure several who contributed over £2000 to the event.

Have received the following from Lynda Hickey about a fund raising event being organised by Rufus Alcott. Email is as follows.

Good morning,

As you know, Snowsport GB have had major financial difficulties and the team going to compete in the Olympics are left without sufficient funding. I know it's been coming for a long time but it seems so unfair on the athletes who have put so much commitment and dedication to getting to Vancouver.