Daniel Ayers, NSP

23/03/2023

01/12/2022

Last chance to vote in this years NSP Election
Www.NSP.org

28/11/2022

I would appreciate your vote.

Don’t miss your chance!

Voting for NSP’s Board of Directors closes at 4 p.m. MST on Thursday, Dec. 1.

Learn about the candidates and then vote on the Elections page of nsp.org.

27/11/2022

Very important PSA while driving.
Tires are required.

Also, please vote at NSP.org

25/11/2022

Happy Thanksgiving

23/11/2022

If you want to learn someone’s true character, ski with them for a day.

I am proud to say when I witnessed someone being bullied online I picked up the phone and I called him. This lead to an invitation to come ski for a weekend. It was a great weekend.

I learned that a medical injury five years prior lead to the individual not being able to pull a toboggan and the individual worked with my resorts toboggan instructors; did great! Can easily pass the alpine test today.

Today this member is now actively patrolling with multiple resorts. The resorts need people now more than ever and the individual and spouse have much needed skills and a warm personality.

I am looking forward to patrolling with the individuals in the photo this winter.

Don’t believe all the cyber bullies on-line. Make up your own mind after you get to know someone, spend a day skiing with them.

Everyone who participates in ski patrol activities is intelligent, capable, cares about doing their best and wants to improve. Anyone who initiates cyberbullying of others shouldn’t be a patroller.

I am a candidate for the NSP Board and I am committed to ending cyber bullying within the national ski patrol and towards NSP Members by outsiders. We improve when we support each other.

15/11/2022

Vote at nsp.org Thank you.

11/11/2022

Benefits of being a working at a Midwest ski resort. After the hill closes for the season we turn a run into a staff-only tubing lane for an afternoon.

Check your local ski areas website. They probably have a hiring event going on this month and even if they aren’t building epic tubing lanes they probably are doing something fun.

06/11/2022

I believe every member of the NSP is intelligent, capable, cares about doing their best and wants to improve.

05/11/2022

02/11/2022

A few days ago, I shared a review by another patroller I read. Here is part 2.

I will say that of this list, there are patrollers I personally like, and I hope I have the opportunity to serve with them.

The following are the words of another author which I am sharing with permission from the author:

Here is the review of all of the remaining candidates.

With the BOD election coming up, we have made our recommendations 2 days ago. To be fair, here is the rest of the field that we evaluated but did not recommend and why:

Marc Abend (Current BOD) – [Pro/Eastern Division] Marc is a certified patroller, with bike patrol experience, and he is the Eastern division OEC supervisor. He is also a patrol director. In short,Marc is first rate patroller, but regrettably, with our debts, and other problems, more than traditional patroller skills are needed. We need people whose skills more directly address budgetary, IT and organization restructuring skills.

Eugene Bifano (Running for the first time) – [Eastern Division] Eugene is a former Marine and mayor of Briarcliff Manor. He has a resume containing some IT consulting including IBM., MasterCard and Citicorp. He doesn’t have quite the financial resume of the candidates we did pick (Paul and Maria).

Donald Cavallo (Running for the first time) - [Eastern Division] Don has a spectacular law enforcement resume, just not the specific needed skills the NSP published this year.

Michelle Karpinski (Running for the second time) – [Central Division] Michelle has a great resume
of public activism and fundraising, but none of the skills the NSP requested for this election. Her progressive and organizational change views are already well-represented by other candidates
we did recommend, like Maria who has vastly better financial training and skills.

Richard Pietrafesa (Running for the first time) - [Eastern Division] Richard has a rock star resume for management of hotels, real-estate and even Ralph Lauren. Had he been running to replace Chris Castilian, he would have been on the top of my list. His posts show that he has the same ideas for organizational change as Michelle Karpinski and Maria Chan. Since we already recommended Maria, those views are accommodated. We chose Maria instead, because her skills more directly address our immediate financial problems.

We already recommended BOD candidates from 4 different divisions, with Paul representing the Eastern Division. 4 out of 5 above are from the Eastern Division. A conscious effort was made to have representation from multiple divisions.

28/10/2022

26/10/2022

Written by another patroller but I completely agree with his assessment. Posted here with permission of the author.

National Ski Patrol BOD Recommendations
This year, the NSP has posted a wish list of needed skills for potential Board of Director (BOD) candidates. I’ll summarize them:

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
You are knowledgeable about or have had a role in organizational change, either in the public or private sector. You can identify and analyze social and industry trends, and leverage these findings to achieve the organization's strategic objectives.

EDUCATION
You have experience with educational models and instructional design, and can help guide the development, delivery, and measurement of NSP education programs. You understand modern techniques and technology that can create effective educational resources for a diverse audience.

FINANCE
You can help guide the board’s key duty of oversight for NSP's financial affairs. You have experience in areas such as accounting, budgeting, finance, strategic financial planning, financial modeling, development and fundraising, investments, and real estate asset management.

COMMUNICATIONS
You can provide strategic guidance for communications with a variety of constituencies, including members, partners and sponsors, resort ownership, and outdoor sports enthusiasts. You understand the importance of ensuring accurate and appropriate organization-wide messaging across a variety of platforms. You can help the NSP protect, improve and enhance awareness of our brand and, most importantly, who we are.

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE / POLICY
You understand models for effective board governance and can guide efforts to revise and update important organizational governing policies and procedures, including bylaws. You have a thorough understanding of NSP’s existing legal and governance documents. You have a familiarity with how regional, state, and federal regulations can impact NSP’s and our membership’s interests.

TECHNOLOGY
You have a good understanding of how technology serves NSP members and can help develop goals and initiatives to ensure our systems meet current and future needs. You can provide guidance on best practices, specialty software needs, and internal analytics projects. You have solid critical thinking skills and business intuition.

It is also clear that leadership turnover has been a problem, and should be avoided. The 4 candidates I have selected cover 4 different divisions, including the two largest, eastern and central, which alone represent half of all patrollers. My recommendations are designed to best align with stated needs, turnover, and area of representation.

1.) Paul Kelly (Current BOD) – [Eastern Division] Paul is currently a federal bank examiner and heads the NSP Finance Committee. I have interviewed Paul, and believe he is committed to resolving the NSP’s financial woes. Removing the committee head of finance would introduce more leadership churn at the worst possible time. We have to keep Paul for FINANCE.

2.) Liz Dodge (Current BOD) – [Pacific Northwest] Liz currently heads the NSP Governance Committee. She has extensive experience in forming/modifying NSP governance, bylaws and P&P. In my conversation with Liz, she held governance in highest regard, and explained the many facets of NSP policy that need to be organized or fleshed out. Removing the committee head of governance would introduce more leadership churn at the worst possible time. We have to keep Liz for GOVERNANCE.

3.) Maria Chan (running for first time) – [Western Division] Maria is an experienced NSP treasurer, and brings needed financial experience to the BOD. Maria is the International Tax managing director of Binder Dijker Otte, which is an international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firm. She has the skills to help us right the ship financially. We need to add Maria for FINANCE.

4.) Daniel Ayers (running for first time) - [Central Division] – Daniel runs the NSP discussion group on FB, and is the Central Division webmaster. He has an exceptional grasp of social media and IT, which cover the communications and technology needs of the NSP. Our relationships with our sponsors and our outreach to potential new members both hinge on the skills Daniel brings. He self-started the popular discussion group, which now reaches 2200 NSP members. Daniel adds moral courage, another characteristic we are seeing this week on the discussion group [Formerly called National Ski Patrol NSP Discussion Group]. This is the single most important asset for any leader in a time of crisis. Daniel is all about TECHNOLOGY and COMMUNICATIONS.

25/10/2022

Agree?

23/10/2022

with my kids this evening

22/10/2022

A photo of my beautiful bride! Yesterday, was her last day at the company she has worked for over the past 16 years! I’m so proud of her, she makes every day a delight!

21/10/2022

When you’re skiing with division directors at Powderfall you become the cameraman; looks like Cal from Eastern Division of the National Ski Patrol may have been still getting ready when I was taking this photo. I’m sure the photo on his camera turned out better than mine.

I loved skiing with these three and I appreciated the encouragement to get more involved with such a wonderful organization National Ski Patrol System Inc

20/10/2022

One of the joys of being a Ski Patroller is capturing moments like this where he proposed at the top of the mountain, and asked me to photograph it. Of course when I suggested a photo for the resort website and social media he said yes.

I think one of them ended up working for the resort a couple years later.

19/10/2022

I always enjoy walking into the patrol room on a Saturday morning to see what munchies the other patrollers have brought, I try not to poison people with my latest creation but I’m usually good for a dessert.

Nothing brings people together faster than food.

Drop your favorite patrol room dish (or memory of one) in the comments.

11/10/2022

Fidelity for what will be a mid-shaft femur fracture scenario.

This is me circa 2010 planning out the moulage. The femur was broken during the previous oec class during a demonstration where the oec candidate used only their pinkey fingers to break it.

I later would rip the pants and tape it in place. Adding some tan putty, blood, and color for realism. I powdered it down so you could touch most of it.

Just for fun, I gave the patient an iv bag filled with blood and located it near their armpit, anytime they squeezed their arm, out comes more stage blood.

08/10/2022

This is how you do a when you’re a Ski Patroller.

08/10/2022

Brooks-Range Mountaineering Equipment In 2010 the National Ski Patrol hosted an avalanche workshop in Boulder, CO. I don’t remember where it was but I somehow gifted this orange sweatshirt from Brooks Range Mountaineering. This thing is probably my favorite sweatshirt I’ve ever owned. It’s great for watching my 8 year old play baseball on a cool Friday night. Even though they are aren’t current NSP Sponsors, I need to hunt this group down, buy more of their stuff.

07/10/2022

Another day, another site, another coffee.
Cold front hit Kansas City it was easily ten degrees lower. I’m looking forward to the first snow .

07/10/2022

Just another day at the office.
This was Pre-Pandemic

07/10/2022

A Scout is Helpful

Finishing up today at the scouting program fair Boy Scouts of America

06/10/2022

This greeted me when I got home today.

I’m committed. I love to ski. I love to help people.

Snow Creek National Ski Patrol System Inc Vail Resorts

06/10/2022

It’s a beautiful day in Kansas City!
A crisp 55 degrees but not cold. Apple Crisp Macchietto and sandwich from tops it off after an workout is the setup for a great day.

I’ll be running around all day but if I get the opportunity I’ll post a nice skyline photo later today.

Behind me to your right is the building where I designed the technology systems for a new medical simulation center which gets installed this fall. The tall building on your left is where I did a number of conference rooms last summer and in front of me (off camera) is a hotel where I worked hundreds of events over the past two and a half decades.

23/09/2022

23/09/2022

Today is National Redhead Day!
Here is a celebratory photo

Everyone in the photo is a member of the National Ski Patrol