Chair’s Report 2008 – 2009
Looking back over the past year I am delighted to report on our continuing success as one of the largest and most active XC ski clubs in the country. This is mainly due to our well-organised and very well supported roller ski and telemark courses. Total membership stands at 111 with 28 new members.
The roller ski programme has continued with great vigour in the last 2 to 3 years organised by Ros and Ralph and fielding a team of six coaches/instructors to manage the winter and spring coaching programmes. It has attracted many of our new members who then go on to tackling the summer tours and ultimately progress to track skiing holidays and racing events. Alan Shepard has been in charge of the summer tours and is pleased with the increasing and extremely good integration of the touring programmes of the three northern clubs. Thanks also to Alan for his time and enthusiasm devoted to any club member in need of extra training sessions and for looking after our club gear and being our equipment guru. Some of our top roller skiers are now banding together for specialist training sessions outside the coaching programme in preparation for races. Congratulations to all members who took part in last season’s Citizen’s Races: 15 members competed in 54 races across Europe. Regarding our use of the Chorlton Cycleway, we are now officially a “Friend of the Loop” with Alison Pawley as the club contact.
The on-snow downhill sessions are now well–established in our second year at Cfe. The club early morning meets have moved from Sunday to Saturday so that we are no longer competing with slalom racers and large coaching groups. We now enjoy the fresh piste with a handful of skiers in training until the public filters in at 9am. It is proving to be a better arrangement. The slope has become too busy on weekday evenings to run a coaching course, so we decided to formalise the Saturday meets as coaching sessions in the hands of Ralph, Chris Stewart and myself. We are very lucky to have Chris, now a member of the GB Telemark team, skiing with us. His enthusiasm is appreciated. Out of a growing pool of skiers, the meets regularly number around 12 – 15 members ranging from beginners to advanced with leisurely debriefing in the café afterwards. We continue to have a very good relationship with the Cfe management who also recommend the club to anyone enquiring about telemarking. Such is the tenacity and attendance of members that the slope staff are commenting on how well the aspirant telemarkers are progressing!
One of the great strengths of our club is the number and commitment of instructors and coaches among its members. This has enabled the club to offer to skiers of all levels an attractive and ambitious programme of events second to none in the country, and accounts for a steadily rising and active membership. The level of coaching skills is continually being improved. Our thanks and congratulations to Ros on becoming a SSE Nordic (On Snow Cross-Country) Coach, to Sue on gaining her Roller-Ski Coach award and to Alison for her strong performance in securing the coaching half of the Roller-Ski Coach Award. We appreciate the time and effort they have devoted to reach these levels, their commitment to developing their own potential and the benefit they bring to the rest of us. The committee expresses their appreciation of our coaching team by offering to pay the annual SSE registration fee to those who are active within the club coaching scheme. This is a discretionary bursary offered annually as a statement of support and encouragement.
I would like to thank all the committee members for another year given to running a large club. Sadly, Geoff Hollins is stepping down from the post of treasurer, which he has held since 1994 when, he tells me, he kept single entry paper records, the bank balance was £104.23 and membership 37. We have moved on since then. The committee have acknowledged his outstanding club service and awarded him Honorary Membership.
The club Personal Achievement Award goes to Ros this year in recognition of her success in becoming an SSE Nordic coach: the first in our club to come up through the ranks. We are very proud of her.
There has been a noteworthy change at the helm of the SSE Nordic Coaching Panel. Ralph has stepped down as Chair after many years of service. SSE has honoured him with Life Membership – a first for the Nordic section, and Ros has taken over as Chair. Congratulations to both.
Thanks to Alistair, our website is how most of our new members find out about the club and they are always complimentary about its clarity and efficient operation. We are presently working on the addition of a suitable style of Forum to provide a user-friendly interface for more efficient communication available to all members which the group club email fails to do.
The expanding membership, the deeply committed enthusiasm of so many club members to help in all sorts of ways viz. Richard Luke sending local snow reports before 8am, telemarkers and roller skiers travelling from the far ends of the country in the early hours to join in the courses and members writing articles for the newsletter or giving talks at indoor meets, are all contributing to a strong and vibrant club. Indeed, some of our new members from London tell me they joined because our club is the most sociable and has most fun. So, keep it up and enjoy the coming season!
author: Sylvia Mercer
publish date: November 2009
This article is copyright of the Author and Manchester Cross-Country Ski Club.
No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means in any other publication without the written permission of the publisher.
affiliated to SnowSport England
© MCCSC 1998-2009 / info@mccsc.org.uk / content altered 31 October 2010