Chair's Report To The SCoM AGM, October 11th 2013

The chair, Ian Harford started by reminding members how much had been achieved in 2013. Numbers and participation in activities were considerably higher, despite the fact that we had had a decrease in members following the raising of the annual subscription. As examples of growing activity and confidence he referred to the following:

• A record 125 places had been taken up on 3 holidays and one of these was a new venture—the December Val d’Isère Ski Instruction holiday.
• Ski coaching at Chill Factore had been improved after discussions with the Chill Factor^e staff with clearer outcomes agreed for each session.
• Attendances were up with 45 at the last AGM and 39 at the Xmas meal
• Summer & shoulder season SCoM programmes had grown in number.

Not everything however had worked out as expected—Go Ski, Go Board the very attractively priced programme for workplace groups of beginners, promoted by SSE, had failed to elicit support. There had also been some difficulties in finding speakers for SCoM social evenings.

Collaboration with partners was important and had required a new mindset. Chill Factor^e is a key partner as it provides the venue for much of our year long activities. We established good links with the Chill Factor^e management and staff and a new 15% ticket discount had been agreed with Chill Factor^e for SCOM members. In addition we now have close contact with Snowsport England (SSE) staff—so we are well placed to gain Snowmark accreditation

SCoM opened up discussion with SCGB about the way we can work together and about the proposed removal of capitation fees for SCGB members in the North West. This latter question was successfully resolved.

The Committee had been concerned to involve more members actively in the work. With this in mind we have detailed SCoM job roles so that it is clear what work is involved for new entrants. Involvement in the organization of the walks and cycling programme through the year has increased as well as member contributions to the Newsletter.

We have continued to develop ways to use new technologies to support the work, blending the new with old. A new Facebook page for SCoM was created and we plan to extend use more widely. The SCoM website is growing all the time with lots of useful information & great discounts. It has been also a 1st port of call for many new members

The move to an electronic newsletter with added colour and photos had proved very successful, saving SCoM a lot of money. It had been expanded to provide information about resorts, how to wax skis and other features.

SCoM has continued to provide a great offer with excellent skiing opportunities and a range of social and outdoors activities, but it is still only a minority of members who participate actively throughout the year. We will need to explore this position further.

On a personal note Ian wished to thank SCoM members and Committee for their support over the last 8 years, while he had been Chair of SCoM. He was delighted that Vanessa Miller would be taking on the role. He ended by thanking Committee officers and members, buddies, auditors and events and other organisers for all the work they had done throughout the year.

IH - 21 October 2013