by Tim Franz, Bike Supervisor | Dec 16, 2023 | Division News
As of the fall of 2023, the Eastern Division is working to develop other opportunities for our members, including working on developing its bike program. With bike patrollers and bike hosts serving their community in other areas, this brings considerable visibility to what we do as part of NSP. This provides an opportunity to get more individuals involved in patrolling, renewing the organization, and providing a service to a developing sport.
What is the bike program?
There are different types of bike programs in the division. Some are bike-only units that work in the summer, which is typically the NSP off-season. Some serve alpine patrols that have biking in the summer. Some are stand-alone, lift-served alpine bike patrols that aren’t affiliated with a winter patrol unit. These patrols are proliferating.
The NSP Bike Program aims to identify, implement, and share best practices, develop and expand bike patrolling skills, assist bike patrol and host units with recruitment and retention, and continuously provide value to the NSP organization and its membership.
Who is the new bike program supervisor?
The board appointed Tim Franz, from Genesee Valley to the Bike Program Supervisor position. He comes to the division with 12 years of NSP experience, including positions as patrol director for a bike patrol, an alpine patroller at Bristol Mountain, bike patroller for GROC Mountain Bike Patrol (an International Mountain Bike Association patrol that Tim helped transition to NSP), and OEC instructor.
What’s going to be happening with the bike program?
The bike program is rolling out quite a few new educational programs. If you’re interested in bike patrolling, watch closely for these programs. Only one, bike fundamentals, is available in the LMS so far, but two more hybrid classes should be coming soon. There are several bike patrolling sessions at Powderfall this year, one of which comes from the Eastern Division.
What’s next for the bike program?
You’ll be hearing more about the bike program in the coming months. We’re working to get the program organized and up and running. If you’re interested in more information, please reach out to Tim Franz.
by Allan Miller, Alumni Supervisor | Dec 10, 2023 | Division News
Occasionally, life and circumstances get in the way of the things we love to do. When this happens, you have those who can provide information to help you stay connected to patrolling and make decisions that leave you options for returning to patrolling when appropriate.
Every region in the division has an Alumni Advisor who can help you. Contact them to start a conversation, or contact me, Allan Miller, Eastern Division’s Alumni Advisor, and we will guide you. Our goal is to help all NSP members stay patrolling or get back into patrolling without losing the certifications earned over the years.
by Laura Tucker, Editor | Nov 15, 2023 | Division News, Spotlight Articles
The history of the Eastern Division newsletter, Trail Sweep, stretches back a long time. I have copies going back to Volume 29, No. 4, Spring/Summer of 1986. Looking through the issues, I am amazed at how far we’ve come and all the changes that have been made. We used to publish four issues a year, then three, and finally, we were down to two, although as we reduced the number of issues, they gained in size. We removed some information, like the division and region rosters and event calendar, and the list of awards and obituaries increased. We are an aging organization.
But even though we’re aging, our members are savvy and connected. An electronic survey sent to Eastern Division patrollers in late February asked their opinions about Trail Sweep and how information is being conveyed to patrollers. More than half of those sent the survey opened it, and more than 650 people responded. Nearly 200 comments were received with some interesting results–both good and bad.
While respondents said they got their information about division events almost equally from both Trail Sweep and division emails, most people preferred to get their information electronically. Increasingly, people want their news to come in a timelier manner, in short bursts, and to be readable on their portable devices. Most of the respondents (75%) read Trail Sweep every time or most of the time, and a strong majority (5 to 1) preferred to receive news monthly rather than twice a year.
Trail Sweep has been printed and mailed to the patrollers of the Eastern Division for decades, long before the age of sophisticated personal computers, the internet, and cell phones. As production and postage rates increased, we began to email a PDF file of Trail Sweep to our members. My records show we were still printing copies in 2007. I’m not sure exactly when we converted to electronic delivery.
Now, we’re responding to what our members told us in the survey. Starting with this issue, we will be publishing monthly and formatted differently. Short excerpts of articles will have clickable links to take you to the complete article. We will cover programs, events, people, and other interesting and informative subjects spread out during the year. Trail Sweep does not have an editorial staff. We depend on program advisors and administrators, as well as patrollers, for the articles we receive and publish. This is more important than ever. We want everything to be timely. If there’s something you’d like to see, let us know or, better yet, submit an article to Trail Sweep. Just remember when you’re writing that “less is more.” Photographs are always welcome.
We hope that this change will serve our members well.
by Jonathan Wilson | Oct 30, 2023 | Division News, Program News
Jonathan Wilson, Certified SupervisorThe first article of the season for the Certified team is an opportunity for the newest members to thank all who have helped, influenced, and driven their hard work and determination. Certified has a three-year completion window, so hard work is mandatory, travel is necessary, and help is always appreciated.
Each year, I have the pleasure of presenting newly minted Certified members their pins and numbers. This takes place at the end of the annual exam at our banquet. This past season, the Certified team added two new members to our ranks: Kevin Hartka, #859, and Jessie Miller, #860.
Of note – Jessie Miller #860 is a legacy Certified member; her father is Dave Ronald #171. Unfortunately, Dave is no longer with us, but the Elk Mountain Certified team members presented Jessie with her father’s pin. In addition, Jessie Miller completed her Certified candidacy in one year. It has been 27 years since the team has had a member complete all components in one season.
Congratulations to both, and please go to the Program News section and take some time to read about their Certified Journey found at Kevin and Jessie.
by Melinda Mingus, Patroller Stress Awareness Advisor | Oct 27, 2023 | Division News, Program News
Melinda Mingus, MD, Eastern Division Patroller Stress Awareness AdvisorThe Patroller Stress Awareness Team (PSAT), led by Melinda Mingus, MD, is a team of highly dedicated and experienced professionals, including those in healthcare and mental health. Working together with the Safety and Medical programs, PSAT also collaborates with the NSP Wellness Task Force to help develop a national initiative on patroller well-being.
Our mission is to provide and promote continuous physical, mental, and emotional well-being for our patrollers, candidates, and staff and to support the NSP Statement of Intent on Well-Being: “National Ski Patrol is committed to creating and supporting a culture of wellness, safety, and resilience for all our members and those whom we serve. Honoring NSP core values, we will provide our community with the awareness, leadership, guidance, education, and resources needed to help ensure their emotional and mental well-being.”
We continuously research, develop, and deliver educational resources, including videos, PowerPoints, posters, wallet cards, and more – available under the Resources tab at NSPeast.ORG website.
At no cost, we provide an essential patroller stress education course, Stress Injury Preparation for Patrollers (SIPP), at patrollerschool.org. Produced and written by Ollie Neith, it upskills participants on what they need to know about the potential for stress injury, how to prepare for it, and what to do to help mitigate its impact.
Contact Melinda Mingus for more information and resources. The ED PSA Program is made by patrollers, for patrollers. We Support Patrollers.
by Ollie Neith, MSW | Oct 26, 2023 | Division News, Program News
I still wake up from time to time wondering what’s happened to John. He probably doesn’t remember me, but I’ll never forget him and that night while sweeping the mountain 17 years ago when I found him in the trees off the side of the trail.
He was wedged like a folded multi-tool between two trees, unresponsive, with very shallow breathing and a barely detectable pulse. I called in to send everything to my location and to put the helicopter on standby.
It still replays in my mind: I hear Mark, the second patroller on the scene, saying, “I can’t get his jaw open,” and I remember saying we’d need to pull him out from between the trees. I remember vividly telling Sam to try to maintain c-spine stability as we did so. But most of the rest of the entire rescue is missing from my memory. I have since learned that such partial memory is not uncommon. It’s like a movie that’s been chopped up into 15-second segments with only some saved and the rest thrown away.
That night and for days after, I replayed the rescue in my head whether I wanted to or not. I didn’t sleep through the night and was edgy and distracted.
Worst of all, I didn’t understand what was wrong with me and why this was happening to me. It was only after a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing that I began to understand that nothing was wrong with me, that what I was experiencing was to be expected given the traumatizing nature of John’s rescue.
I wasn’t ready for John. I wasn’t prepared. As a result, I was blindsided and overwhelmed by the thoughts and emotions that followed.
I have since learned that many patrollers have had similar experiences and have memories of their own that haunt them to one degree or another. Indeed, as patrollers, all of us have been or will eventually be exposed to rescues that are especially complicated, life-threatening, objectively traumatic, or that stick with us long after the “all clear” has been sounded.
Rescue events like these are potentially traumatizing for us, meaning that they can challenge, compromise, and sometimes overwhelm our capacity to cope and function effectively.
When this happens, a stress injury is sustained. Stress injuries can be mild and transitory or profound and long-lasting and can be aggravated by stressful life circumstances. They may result from exposure to a traumatic event or multiple exposures over time.
Stress injuries are characterized by common, predictable, and, most of all, normal post-event reactions—feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that we usually don’t experience in our day-to-day lives.
And while any of us can get hurt, all of us can get better, especially when we understand how stress injuries are formed and, more importantly, when we have the knowledge and tools to help us navigate the aftermath of a particularly bad scene.
That night in the woods with John is what started me on my mission to ensure that patrollers are not blindsided but instead are ready for rescues like John.
To that end, I’ve created a new course, “Stress Injury Preparation for Patrollers,” for the members of the Eastern Division.
It aims to enable ski patrollers to better understand stress injury—its MOI, signs and symptoms, formation, and mitigation—and thereby be better prepared to help themselves and their fellow patrollers respond to recover from exposure to on-the-hill trauma.
I encourage you to check the new online course called “Stress Injury Preparation for Patrollers.” It can be found on the front page of the Division’s educational event website known as PatrollerSchool.ORG.
The author, Ollie Neith, is a Northern Vermont Alumni Patroller. In 2018, he founded the Camelback Ski Patrol “Disruptive Event Response Team” (DERT) to combat stress injury after living through his episodes. Successes learned from the Camelback team contributed to the creation of a Stress Awareness Team for the entire division and helped peak interest at NSP and several other divisions.
by Marty Silverman | Oct 20, 2023 | Division News
Awards are a great way to recognize our patrollers for their outstanding performance and dedication. Yet, many patrols either don’t have an awards advisor or don’t submit awards because they find the award process daunting. Making these five mistakes is the biggest source of frustration to patrol awards advisors, especially new advisors.
1. Waiting until the last minute – The process of writing an NSP award application can be intimidating. It’s easy to put it off until the last minute. Awards have their busy seasons – fall refreshers, spring end-of-season events, and the end of February when the Outstanding awards are due. To be a successful award writer, you need time to prepare, research, and write the award application. The fall and winter are too busy. The best time to start is in the summer when fewer distractions exist. If you have a presentation date in mind, be sure to submit the award application at least 50 days before it’s needed. During the busy award season, it’s a good idea to allow even more time.
Tip: Step one should always be the re-reading of Chapter 12 — the Policies and Procedures (P&P) manual on the NSP.org website to learn the rules and requirements for each award. Step two is to read about the Eastern Division Awards available on the Awards page of NSPEast.org.
2. Trying to do it all by yourself – The research needed to write a successful award application can be intimidating. Don’t try to do it all by yourself. Ask your shift or team supervisors for background information about the nominee. A best friend or spouse can be a great source of information that will help the application stand out among the others. The Outstanding Awards require a lot of information. Recruit a team of 2 to 4 people to help you. Outstanding awards are due no later than March 1st, though some regions have earlier deadlines to allow for review and corrections.
3. Using an out-of-date form – Nothing will stop an award from moving up the line faster than using the wrong application form. Even if you wrote an award recently, always check to make sure you’ve got the most current version. Get the National award forms from the NSP.org Documents page or get Division award forms from the NSPEast.org Awards page every time.
4. Spelling errors – The second fastest thing to kill an award is poor writing and bad spelling. You don’t have to be Hemingway. Just put the facts into a story that’s interesting and compelling. The award application forms don’t have spell check. Nominations must be submitted in WORD format. Write your nomination, spell-check it, then copy and paste it into the form.
Tip: Before starting to fill in the nomination form, put the cursor behind the grey box and click the backspace button twice. This will remove the grey box and make it easier to return to make corrections.
5. Starting with the toughest award first – Everyone wants to go for the gold – Outstanding awards – first. Start with the easier stuff and learn the award process – Years of service, the Patroller Cross for an injured patroller, the Patriot Star for a patroller with military service, and the Patroller Achievement award. Then, move up to Merit Stars, which require more research and documentation.
Outstanding awards are the toughest to write and the least rewarding (pun intended.) We’re lucky to have so many great patrollers in the division. Your nominee could be great, but they are competing with many other wonderful people. I’ve been an award judge. Everyone looks good, so the judge makes the best decision he or she can. If your nominee doesn’t win, don’t be discouraged. Gather more information, rewrite the award, and try again next year.
Should you have any problems or questions, a good source of information is your region awards advisor. You can find a list of advisors and their contact information on the Eastern division website under Programs, Awards.
