XIMS introduces the NEW Hotbox with built-in rotisserie! Treat your skis to a great base coat of wax while you cook up a couple of game hens or a chicken.
Automatic baster applies your favorite marinade to keep meat moist. Sensors monitor internal and external meat temperature. All data is displayed on the digital remote readout panel you can locate in any convenient place.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
The real pulling ponies in Jackson
Jackson Ski Touring's sucess hinges on the serious efforts of some hard workers. Chief among these is the Executive Director, as well as Mrs. Executive Director, followed by the patrol captain I commended earlier. I did not want to dilute my homage to her by commending the other draft horses in the same post. I also don't want to discount the considerable efforts by those making them.
In season, a huge debt goes to Andy the groomer, an artiste of the Pisten Bully. As of last season, JSTF had an extremely promising trainee in grooming as well. It really wouldn't be worth going there without the grooming. But that's true of any large Nordic area.
The present rental manager really just coasts on the superb work done by the first rental manager who set up the shop downstairs in 2000. That first rental manager, an excellent young man named Dudley, really fostered a spirit of cooperation in the building. As soon as the current rental manager took over, that began to erode. Whether he had a hidden agenda or not, he certainly gave that impression. That does not matter to the skiers using the facility, only to people who work there who might find themselves embroiled in someone else's strange intrigues.
The patrollers and instructors definitely pull their weight in season. Sometimes it just comes down to luck. If you pull a shift when there's a lot of shoveling to do, you will shovel. At other times you might get off with a bit of light work and some nice skiing. That's part of the hook that gets people to sign up for the low pay and the threat of unemployment in the event of a big thaw.
In season, a huge debt goes to Andy the groomer, an artiste of the Pisten Bully. As of last season, JSTF had an extremely promising trainee in grooming as well. It really wouldn't be worth going there without the grooming. But that's true of any large Nordic area.
The present rental manager really just coasts on the superb work done by the first rental manager who set up the shop downstairs in 2000. That first rental manager, an excellent young man named Dudley, really fostered a spirit of cooperation in the building. As soon as the current rental manager took over, that began to erode. Whether he had a hidden agenda or not, he certainly gave that impression. That does not matter to the skiers using the facility, only to people who work there who might find themselves embroiled in someone else's strange intrigues.
The patrollers and instructors definitely pull their weight in season. Sometimes it just comes down to luck. If you pull a shift when there's a lot of shoveling to do, you will shovel. At other times you might get off with a bit of light work and some nice skiing. That's part of the hook that gets people to sign up for the low pay and the threat of unemployment in the event of a big thaw.
Hard Workin' Woman
Like any theme park, Jackson Ski Touring depends on a staff that often works largely unnoticed by the visitor.
The patrol captain, at least through the end of the 2008-'09 season, was one such unsung hero. Any group of employees anywhere has its bickering and gossip, but in the final analysis I doubt if too many on the payroll at JSTF would like to trade workloads with this woman. Who else might have to give CPR on the far reaches of a trail and then high-tail it back to the lodge to clean kid puke off the carpet?
JSTF gets real value for the dollar from their multi-purpose employee. She gets all manner of work dumped in front of her: trail crew, errands, shoveling snow onto areas of trail with thin cover, shoveling and snowblowing snow off the walkways, garbage detail, cleaning in the lodge and, oh yeah, patrolling the trails and providing first aid services. And I bet I left something out. She can drive a groomer in a pinch, and has done so.
She achieves all this without a shred of perkiness. That's yet another plus in my book. She's as burnt as any of us who have been in the tourist industry longer than any psychiatrist would recommend, but she still cranks out the work. If JSTF has let her slip away, they are the greater fools. If they haven't, she still has my admiration and just a bit of condolence. But hey: we all gotta work. And if she's still on the job, I urgently recommend that you get your trail pass before skiing and make sure it is visible.
The patrol captain, at least through the end of the 2008-'09 season, was one such unsung hero. Any group of employees anywhere has its bickering and gossip, but in the final analysis I doubt if too many on the payroll at JSTF would like to trade workloads with this woman. Who else might have to give CPR on the far reaches of a trail and then high-tail it back to the lodge to clean kid puke off the carpet?
JSTF gets real value for the dollar from their multi-purpose employee. She gets all manner of work dumped in front of her: trail crew, errands, shoveling snow onto areas of trail with thin cover, shoveling and snowblowing snow off the walkways, garbage detail, cleaning in the lodge and, oh yeah, patrolling the trails and providing first aid services. And I bet I left something out. She can drive a groomer in a pinch, and has done so.
She achieves all this without a shred of perkiness. That's yet another plus in my book. She's as burnt as any of us who have been in the tourist industry longer than any psychiatrist would recommend, but she still cranks out the work. If JSTF has let her slip away, they are the greater fools. If they haven't, she still has my admiration and just a bit of condolence. But hey: we all gotta work. And if she's still on the job, I urgently recommend that you get your trail pass before skiing and make sure it is visible.
Is The Big Guy Actually God?
Up at Jackson Ski Touring, you may be lucky enough to encounter Almghty God in the flesh.
Consider the evidence. Some people worship him. Some people despise him. Some people have never heard of him. He works in mysterious ways. He's prone to say things that sound crushingly insensitive, but the cold pronouncements of an omniscient God might be hard to take sometimes. Other devotees may be comforted and uplfted by what they hear from his lips.
Regarding his omniscience, I offer this example: He was telling someone about a rescue party he had led to retrieve a victim from the Hall Trail. Although the victim was able to walk by the time the rescuers arrived, and he thought he could ski out with an escort, he had hit a tree when he crashed and actually had fractured a vertebra in his neck.
"He called me from Boston to tell me what they'd found at the hospital," said The Big Guy. "He kept saying, 'I didn't know I'd broken my neck. I didn't know.' But I knew."
"I knew," The Big Guy said. He didn't say he knew it was a good possibility. He didn't say that a well-trained first responder would take the proper precautions following any accident of this type. He said he knew.
Was this self-aggrandizement overstepping the bounds of modesty or the all-seeing God letting the veil slip in an unguarded moment?
It all comes down to belief.
As an agnostic I have failed to gain the comforting certainty of either pure belief or pure disbelief. I'm still intrigued by the possibility that genuine divine wisdom may lurk in what might sound to someone else like mere bombast or shallow, cruel dismissal. The truth is always veiled in the clouds that swirl around the Olympian heights. They cloak the counsels of God and the Angels to assure the mortals have to choose of their own free will whether to take up the faith or turn away.
Those who speak most strongly against the Big Guy tend to be rebellious Lucifer types. You'll find no proof from them. Others who grouse are only normal. Who hasn't growled a prayer of complaint from time to time? Those whose devotion weakens temporarily always come back to the faith eventually, usually sooner than later.
So, the next time you're skiing at Jackson Ski Touring, keep a sharp eye and ear out for manifestations of the Divine. You might see the image of a saint in the pattern of yellow snow alongside the Ellis River Trail on a busy holiday weekend, or overhear someone in the priestly hierarchy disciplining a novice whose devotion has slackened.
You could also choose to blind yourself to the miracles and possibilties and simply enjoy the skiing. When the groomers haven't all been pulled off the other trails to work on a race course, the skiing is Divine.
Consider the evidence. Some people worship him. Some people despise him. Some people have never heard of him. He works in mysterious ways. He's prone to say things that sound crushingly insensitive, but the cold pronouncements of an omniscient God might be hard to take sometimes. Other devotees may be comforted and uplfted by what they hear from his lips.
Regarding his omniscience, I offer this example: He was telling someone about a rescue party he had led to retrieve a victim from the Hall Trail. Although the victim was able to walk by the time the rescuers arrived, and he thought he could ski out with an escort, he had hit a tree when he crashed and actually had fractured a vertebra in his neck.
"He called me from Boston to tell me what they'd found at the hospital," said The Big Guy. "He kept saying, 'I didn't know I'd broken my neck. I didn't know.' But I knew."
"I knew," The Big Guy said. He didn't say he knew it was a good possibility. He didn't say that a well-trained first responder would take the proper precautions following any accident of this type. He said he knew.
Was this self-aggrandizement overstepping the bounds of modesty or the all-seeing God letting the veil slip in an unguarded moment?
It all comes down to belief.
As an agnostic I have failed to gain the comforting certainty of either pure belief or pure disbelief. I'm still intrigued by the possibility that genuine divine wisdom may lurk in what might sound to someone else like mere bombast or shallow, cruel dismissal. The truth is always veiled in the clouds that swirl around the Olympian heights. They cloak the counsels of God and the Angels to assure the mortals have to choose of their own free will whether to take up the faith or turn away.
Those who speak most strongly against the Big Guy tend to be rebellious Lucifer types. You'll find no proof from them. Others who grouse are only normal. Who hasn't growled a prayer of complaint from time to time? Those whose devotion weakens temporarily always come back to the faith eventually, usually sooner than later.
So, the next time you're skiing at Jackson Ski Touring, keep a sharp eye and ear out for manifestations of the Divine. You might see the image of a saint in the pattern of yellow snow alongside the Ellis River Trail on a busy holiday weekend, or overhear someone in the priestly hierarchy disciplining a novice whose devotion has slackened.
You could also choose to blind yourself to the miracles and possibilties and simply enjoy the skiing. When the groomers haven't all been pulled off the other trails to work on a race course, the skiing is Divine.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
As Jackson Turns...
As long-time Jackson ski retailer Jack Frost pulls out to a new location down on Route 302, a vacancy opens in their former space in the Snowflake Inn. Snowflake Inn management contacted us to see if we would like to put a year-round shop there on the loop.
Imagine how much fun it might be to have a location adjacent to the Jackson Ski Touring trails without having to be in the building and under the thumb of their intrusive management.
We need to crunch some numbers.
Imagine how much fun it might be to have a location adjacent to the Jackson Ski Touring trails without having to be in the building and under the thumb of their intrusive management.
We need to crunch some numbers.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Jackson Ski Touring Foundation Retail Challenge
Jackson Ski Touring is a bit like a religious institution. It isn't simply a large-scale commercial Nordic touring operation. It has some direct roots that extend as far back as the beginning of New England skiing, which is to say as far back as skiing in the United States. Yet it also has tributary streams that spring from each freshening of skiing interest.
The real nuts and bolts operation that exists today descends fairly directly from the founding in 1972 of the non-profit organization that oversees it. But some of the people involved at the time go way back. Just as the founding of the first organized Christian churches came decades after the death of the individual for whom the faith was named, so did the founding of JSTF merely pull together a number of threads in the skiing faith. And those original saints and martyrs, or their descendants, still live around there. This is hardly obvious to someone who might be a competent skier and technically capable, but who was raised an agnostic skier, without heroes, devils, or much supporting mythology.
The founders and their families represent just one group in the complex clientele. The customer population sorts out along many lines: skiing ability, financial status, resident, non-resident, seasonal resident, visiting tourist, visiting racer, visiting sport skier, and many more. Most local enthusiasts have favorite shops already, where they can shop before November and after April, when the touring center retail location cannot operate.
For the Jackson touring center shop, the bulk of the revenue comes from visiting skiers. These are mostly beginners and intermediates. Some are buying their first gear. Others are upgrading. Most Nordic ski customers tend to hold onto their equipment for a long time. Thirty years is not out of the question. Ten or fifteen years is common.
A small portion of income comes from sales of top-end performance gear. High performance skiers tend to like a lot of technical wizardry around their purchases, so they are easily discouraged from buying at any shop where they have the faintest notion that the person helping them is beneath them. Upgrading intermediates, however, are often happy to have a simpler summary of technical points, even if they're moving up to their first really expensive ski. They want to know how it works, often in detail, but they don't drop a lot of insider tidbits like code numbers for specific Fischer ski cores and flexes. They don't really care of you pull out the super-zoot ski flex tester and convince them the ski is tailored to them to the nearest gram.
Whoever works the floor in the Jackson touring center retail shop needs to be ready to deal with this entire range of customers as well as ringing up hundreds of sales of hats, lip balm, gloves and hand and toe warmers.
Because the retail provider is an outside contractor, whoever ends up managing the outpost will find him (or her) self squarely between the Foundation management, his own shop management, and those among the locals who like to try to call the shots whether they're in the chain of command or not. In various ways these secret shoppers can insert themselves into JSTF's decision making process in ways that may not be readily visible to the field commander. You soon find out that a lot of decisions are made well above your security clearance level.
Jackson faces the daunting task of finding a shop that reflects the image they are trying to project, of the most formidable cross-country ski center in the northeast United States. They've negotiated with some large names in outdoor retail. But a place like L.L. Bean, for instance, is going to want to put its stamp on the operation in a big way. This threatens to eclipse the independent greatness and heritage of Jackson Ski Touring itself.
Jackson might prefer to use a retailer with strong roots in the Mount Washington Valley, because the Valley has its own reputation in American skiing. Unfortunately, the most popular Nordic shop in Mount Washington Valley is barely in the valley at all. It sits at the bottom of the Mount Washington Auto Road, at the Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center. It is staffed by a crew of likable locals headlined by Nate and Eli, two really nice dudes who are also really great skiers. They've been with Great Glen from the beginning, as I understand it. Did I mention they're really nice dudes? However, they don't own their shop
For Great Glen to open a branch at Jackson Ski Touring would put both places at risk of losing their independent identities. Sure as fate, the word would start to get around that Great Glen was part of Jackson or Jackson had been taken over by Great Glen. Along with all the other things that are hard to explain about JSTF and how it all works, this would be one more. No one really NEEDS to know, but curious people would WANT to know. The confusion could create unnecessary turbulence for both parties. Whose name goes on top? Who pays what to whom? And who gets custody of Nate and Eli?
Other contenders, like Reliable Racing or Gorham Bike and Ski, would have to see considerable advantage to themselves to be willing to undertake the hassle of setting up a shop that has to completely disappear no later than the second week of April, only to be painstakingly rebuilt the following November. Mount Washington Valley-based staff would be ideal, but how do you assure their allegiance to the home office and keep their quality control at a level that reflects well on the home office's image?
Valley-based staff for Jackson Ski Touring's retail shop would be able to take advantage of their local connections. They'd have a short commute, helping them arrive punctually and refreshed. On the down side, all outdoor sports are somewhat competitive, and Nordic skiing actually includes racing, so your local talent might have a few detractors as well as friends. Anyone who hires them inherits the bad with the good. In a little fish bowl like The Valley, some people have long memories and not a lot of forgiveness. So your retailer from away might accidentally hire someone who interviewed well but who had serious issues with some key people in the customer base or Jackson management.
Open lines of communication not only between the two businesses, JSTF and retail but also up and down the chains of command in both businesses will be vital to creating a truly productive working relationship for them.
I've been aware of their dilemma since 2004, and acutely aware of it since the fall of 2005. I've even been sympathetic to it, but as long as no one was going to approach me to discuss it, I wasn't going to bring it up. I observed various potential candidates, such as the short-lived Hurricane Mountain Multisport shop. I figured them for a shoo-in, but it never happened. If JSTF had been smart about it they would have thrown that guy the bone, even if one of the local deep pockets had to bankroll him for a while and coach him on management and customer relations.
A local deep pocket could try to buy Nate and Eli away from Great Glen, but they would have to arrange summer employment, either by setting up Nate and Eli in their own shop or just by putting them on some sort of summer retainer. Buying the boys away from Great Glen would probably start some sort of ugliness between regional power players, so that's probably not a good option.
As you can see, someone faces a considerable challenge in sorting through all this. No retail provider is perfect. The powerful ones pose a threat to Jackson's own brand in the marketplace. Any lesser shop runs the risk of looking too dinky or like an upstart to the people who are really in the know up there. As always in business, are the risks worth the gains? A really big outfit like Bean or REI risks a much smaller percentage of their capital to extend a small feeler into what is actually quite a tight retail space. A smaller shop stands much more exposed financially for what could be proportionally greater gains, but also greater wounds in case of a bad snow year or other setbacks.
Whatever happens, Jackson will go on. Ultimately, for the people who really love it, Jackson is about the skiing, not the shopping. They do the skiing better than anyone in the region. Maintaining that alone is an exhausting job. The rest of the stuff has to be there because that's part of the Big Touring Center experience. Jackson Ski Touring started in the back room of a shop and now has a shop in the back room. Putting together the right blend of businesses and a level of services that not only looks impressive but actually works economically is not a simple task.
We wait to see what the next solution looks like.
The real nuts and bolts operation that exists today descends fairly directly from the founding in 1972 of the non-profit organization that oversees it. But some of the people involved at the time go way back. Just as the founding of the first organized Christian churches came decades after the death of the individual for whom the faith was named, so did the founding of JSTF merely pull together a number of threads in the skiing faith. And those original saints and martyrs, or their descendants, still live around there. This is hardly obvious to someone who might be a competent skier and technically capable, but who was raised an agnostic skier, without heroes, devils, or much supporting mythology.
The founders and their families represent just one group in the complex clientele. The customer population sorts out along many lines: skiing ability, financial status, resident, non-resident, seasonal resident, visiting tourist, visiting racer, visiting sport skier, and many more. Most local enthusiasts have favorite shops already, where they can shop before November and after April, when the touring center retail location cannot operate.
For the Jackson touring center shop, the bulk of the revenue comes from visiting skiers. These are mostly beginners and intermediates. Some are buying their first gear. Others are upgrading. Most Nordic ski customers tend to hold onto their equipment for a long time. Thirty years is not out of the question. Ten or fifteen years is common.
A small portion of income comes from sales of top-end performance gear. High performance skiers tend to like a lot of technical wizardry around their purchases, so they are easily discouraged from buying at any shop where they have the faintest notion that the person helping them is beneath them. Upgrading intermediates, however, are often happy to have a simpler summary of technical points, even if they're moving up to their first really expensive ski. They want to know how it works, often in detail, but they don't drop a lot of insider tidbits like code numbers for specific Fischer ski cores and flexes. They don't really care of you pull out the super-zoot ski flex tester and convince them the ski is tailored to them to the nearest gram.
Whoever works the floor in the Jackson touring center retail shop needs to be ready to deal with this entire range of customers as well as ringing up hundreds of sales of hats, lip balm, gloves and hand and toe warmers.
Because the retail provider is an outside contractor, whoever ends up managing the outpost will find him (or her) self squarely between the Foundation management, his own shop management, and those among the locals who like to try to call the shots whether they're in the chain of command or not. In various ways these secret shoppers can insert themselves into JSTF's decision making process in ways that may not be readily visible to the field commander. You soon find out that a lot of decisions are made well above your security clearance level.
Jackson faces the daunting task of finding a shop that reflects the image they are trying to project, of the most formidable cross-country ski center in the northeast United States. They've negotiated with some large names in outdoor retail. But a place like L.L. Bean, for instance, is going to want to put its stamp on the operation in a big way. This threatens to eclipse the independent greatness and heritage of Jackson Ski Touring itself.
Jackson might prefer to use a retailer with strong roots in the Mount Washington Valley, because the Valley has its own reputation in American skiing. Unfortunately, the most popular Nordic shop in Mount Washington Valley is barely in the valley at all. It sits at the bottom of the Mount Washington Auto Road, at the Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center. It is staffed by a crew of likable locals headlined by Nate and Eli, two really nice dudes who are also really great skiers. They've been with Great Glen from the beginning, as I understand it. Did I mention they're really nice dudes? However, they don't own their shop
For Great Glen to open a branch at Jackson Ski Touring would put both places at risk of losing their independent identities. Sure as fate, the word would start to get around that Great Glen was part of Jackson or Jackson had been taken over by Great Glen. Along with all the other things that are hard to explain about JSTF and how it all works, this would be one more. No one really NEEDS to know, but curious people would WANT to know. The confusion could create unnecessary turbulence for both parties. Whose name goes on top? Who pays what to whom? And who gets custody of Nate and Eli?
Other contenders, like Reliable Racing or Gorham Bike and Ski, would have to see considerable advantage to themselves to be willing to undertake the hassle of setting up a shop that has to completely disappear no later than the second week of April, only to be painstakingly rebuilt the following November. Mount Washington Valley-based staff would be ideal, but how do you assure their allegiance to the home office and keep their quality control at a level that reflects well on the home office's image?
Valley-based staff for Jackson Ski Touring's retail shop would be able to take advantage of their local connections. They'd have a short commute, helping them arrive punctually and refreshed. On the down side, all outdoor sports are somewhat competitive, and Nordic skiing actually includes racing, so your local talent might have a few detractors as well as friends. Anyone who hires them inherits the bad with the good. In a little fish bowl like The Valley, some people have long memories and not a lot of forgiveness. So your retailer from away might accidentally hire someone who interviewed well but who had serious issues with some key people in the customer base or Jackson management.
Open lines of communication not only between the two businesses, JSTF and retail but also up and down the chains of command in both businesses will be vital to creating a truly productive working relationship for them.
I've been aware of their dilemma since 2004, and acutely aware of it since the fall of 2005. I've even been sympathetic to it, but as long as no one was going to approach me to discuss it, I wasn't going to bring it up. I observed various potential candidates, such as the short-lived Hurricane Mountain Multisport shop. I figured them for a shoo-in, but it never happened. If JSTF had been smart about it they would have thrown that guy the bone, even if one of the local deep pockets had to bankroll him for a while and coach him on management and customer relations.
A local deep pocket could try to buy Nate and Eli away from Great Glen, but they would have to arrange summer employment, either by setting up Nate and Eli in their own shop or just by putting them on some sort of summer retainer. Buying the boys away from Great Glen would probably start some sort of ugliness between regional power players, so that's probably not a good option.
As you can see, someone faces a considerable challenge in sorting through all this. No retail provider is perfect. The powerful ones pose a threat to Jackson's own brand in the marketplace. Any lesser shop runs the risk of looking too dinky or like an upstart to the people who are really in the know up there. As always in business, are the risks worth the gains? A really big outfit like Bean or REI risks a much smaller percentage of their capital to extend a small feeler into what is actually quite a tight retail space. A smaller shop stands much more exposed financially for what could be proportionally greater gains, but also greater wounds in case of a bad snow year or other setbacks.
Whatever happens, Jackson will go on. Ultimately, for the people who really love it, Jackson is about the skiing, not the shopping. They do the skiing better than anyone in the region. Maintaining that alone is an exhausting job. The rest of the stuff has to be there because that's part of the Big Touring Center experience. Jackson Ski Touring started in the back room of a shop and now has a shop in the back room. Putting together the right blend of businesses and a level of services that not only looks impressive but actually works economically is not a simple task.
We wait to see what the next solution looks like.
Great Trails. Difficult People.
I had to seriously revise this post. Some idiot thought it was about parking. Still, I like the raw frustration in it. And hey: no one has objected directly to me about it, just talked to someone else. Par for the course.
Working with the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation is like getting on the Tilt-A-Whirl: it seems like it should be fun, but long before the ride is over you're ready to puke and just want it to end.
All Nordic areas, particularly in the eastern USA, labor under various handicaps.
Corporately-owned areas like Bretton Woods and other networks attached to alpine areas often find themselves treated like useless appendages or even hemorrhoids by their corporate owners. Nordic never turns impressive dollars compared to lift-served sports, golf and land rape.
Small private areas hope they can find the right size for their niche to allow them to survive the stresses any small business faces, compounded by the similarity between operating a touring center and operating a small farm. You need the weather to cooperate so you can produce the crop. Then you need people hungry for it to show up and consume it before it shrivels.
In Jackson's case, the particular handicap is the management of the non-profit corporation by a board of directors, and the relationship the touring center has with the town from which it takes its name. They're big, with the appetite of any large organism, but held together by tenuous agreements and a never-ending battle against encroaching development as well as the usual whims of weather and fitness fads.
As a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, the Foundation can only derive income from limited sources. In order to preserve its delicate balance with local business owners, it also has to be careful about how it introduces competitors into the local economy. Yet, as a big-time cross-country ski area it wants to be able to offer a high level of skier services to the vacationers and day trippers it ceaselessly trolls for with its marketing campaigns and relentless attempts to get inserted into the news hole of various print media.
Because a private service provider like the retail concessionaire has to be a separate entity, the Foundation has to coexist with an entirely independent business under its roof. We're all in the fun business. We all want to keep the sport of Nordic skiing alive and well, if not growing. But the diverse and secretive board, filtering its wishes through the persona of the executive director, has a great deal of difficulty managing this symbiosis.
As the retailer there for the past nine years, the shop I work for has operated under the critical observation of many sets of eyes. Because the board seems to relish its anonymity, they do not share with us who might be active on it from year to year. Only individual members of it might mention their status to qualify for a discount. In fact, I can find no readily accessible published list of the board. There's no easy link from their website, nor is it published in a sidebar in the newsletters piled on the front counter, as other non-profits frequently do.
If the foundation and its board dealt openly and cooperatively with their retail contractor, the touring center could be a great place to work. Instead, their management displayed a competitive and condescending attitude toward us from the outset. Whoever tries to fulfill the retail role will face the same critical scrutiny as they try to run their business in an enclosure reminiscent of a pony ride at a spoiled little girl's birthday party. In spite of this I personally did not start out with a negative attitude toward them. I'd heard stories over the years, but I was going to wait and see. Others in my organization either lost their patience early or never had any to begin with.
Jackson Ski Touring does a lot of things well. Unfortunately, this gives some in the organization and among its supporters the misconception that they can do no wrong. Only others can do wrong. These wrongs will usually not be pointed out in a constructive fashion.
A large number of extremely cool people ski at the facility. It's just the small number of whiners, snobs and stuffed shirts who make a poisonous atmosphere in which to work. Of course there are always difficult people among the transient visitors during any season as well, but that just goes with running an amusement park. Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth! (smiley face). It's the local sneaks and snakes who create the insurmountable difficulty of unrealistic expectations.
This was my gut reaction to the news that the management had finally decided to sever our retail arrangement. People can take it in a bad way as an affront and an attack or they can step back and analyze what they might be doing to inspire such feelings. Whether they intended it or not, some of their tactics amounted to psychological warfare. In the best psychological manipulation, the manipulator preserves deniability and the victim can never be sure what's intentional. That's what makes it effective. But it could also just be a lack of social and business skills on the part of the people originating it, in this case known and unknown players in Jackson.
Working with the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation is like getting on the Tilt-A-Whirl: it seems like it should be fun, but long before the ride is over you're ready to puke and just want it to end.
All Nordic areas, particularly in the eastern USA, labor under various handicaps.
Corporately-owned areas like Bretton Woods and other networks attached to alpine areas often find themselves treated like useless appendages or even hemorrhoids by their corporate owners. Nordic never turns impressive dollars compared to lift-served sports, golf and land rape.
Small private areas hope they can find the right size for their niche to allow them to survive the stresses any small business faces, compounded by the similarity between operating a touring center and operating a small farm. You need the weather to cooperate so you can produce the crop. Then you need people hungry for it to show up and consume it before it shrivels.
In Jackson's case, the particular handicap is the management of the non-profit corporation by a board of directors, and the relationship the touring center has with the town from which it takes its name. They're big, with the appetite of any large organism, but held together by tenuous agreements and a never-ending battle against encroaching development as well as the usual whims of weather and fitness fads.
As a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, the Foundation can only derive income from limited sources. In order to preserve its delicate balance with local business owners, it also has to be careful about how it introduces competitors into the local economy. Yet, as a big-time cross-country ski area it wants to be able to offer a high level of skier services to the vacationers and day trippers it ceaselessly trolls for with its marketing campaigns and relentless attempts to get inserted into the news hole of various print media.
Because a private service provider like the retail concessionaire has to be a separate entity, the Foundation has to coexist with an entirely independent business under its roof. We're all in the fun business. We all want to keep the sport of Nordic skiing alive and well, if not growing. But the diverse and secretive board, filtering its wishes through the persona of the executive director, has a great deal of difficulty managing this symbiosis.
As the retailer there for the past nine years, the shop I work for has operated under the critical observation of many sets of eyes. Because the board seems to relish its anonymity, they do not share with us who might be active on it from year to year. Only individual members of it might mention their status to qualify for a discount. In fact, I can find no readily accessible published list of the board. There's no easy link from their website, nor is it published in a sidebar in the newsletters piled on the front counter, as other non-profits frequently do.
If the foundation and its board dealt openly and cooperatively with their retail contractor, the touring center could be a great place to work. Instead, their management displayed a competitive and condescending attitude toward us from the outset. Whoever tries to fulfill the retail role will face the same critical scrutiny as they try to run their business in an enclosure reminiscent of a pony ride at a spoiled little girl's birthday party. In spite of this I personally did not start out with a negative attitude toward them. I'd heard stories over the years, but I was going to wait and see. Others in my organization either lost their patience early or never had any to begin with.
Jackson Ski Touring does a lot of things well. Unfortunately, this gives some in the organization and among its supporters the misconception that they can do no wrong. Only others can do wrong. These wrongs will usually not be pointed out in a constructive fashion.
A large number of extremely cool people ski at the facility. It's just the small number of whiners, snobs and stuffed shirts who make a poisonous atmosphere in which to work. Of course there are always difficult people among the transient visitors during any season as well, but that just goes with running an amusement park. Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth! (smiley face). It's the local sneaks and snakes who create the insurmountable difficulty of unrealistic expectations.
This was my gut reaction to the news that the management had finally decided to sever our retail arrangement. People can take it in a bad way as an affront and an attack or they can step back and analyze what they might be doing to inspire such feelings. Whether they intended it or not, some of their tactics amounted to psychological warfare. In the best psychological manipulation, the manipulator preserves deniability and the victim can never be sure what's intentional. That's what makes it effective. But it could also just be a lack of social and business skills on the part of the people originating it, in this case known and unknown players in Jackson.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Welcome!
After a few weeks this blog will contain notes on nine seasons in The Big Time. It will not be homologated, as it cannot be approved by the international governing body that sets standards. Instead it will take whatever turns the trail builder chooses to explore.
Anonymous comments are not allowed. That ought to keep the clutter down.
Anonymous comments are not allowed. That ought to keep the clutter down.
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