Welcome to the home of the Professional Ski Patrol Association. The Professional Ski Patrol Association is dedicated to promoting the highest standards of ski patrolling. PSPA tests and certifies patrollers in ski safety, first aid skills, toboggan handling and ski techniques.

News

• 2022 Season Update from the PSPA President
  The Board held a meeting on February 2nd and based on the information presented at that meeting we have once again cancelled this season’s exam. None of us were happy about it, but it was / is the right thing to do.

  There were numerous factors and a lot of discussion that played into the decision to cancel the exam. Probably the most important, at our core we are a healthcare organization. As such it just seemed inappropriate to take the chance that someone at the event would get sick and bring the virus back to either their family, their patrol, or both.

  We had no doubt we could hold the S&T events since they are outside and basically “individual” events. But then we started thinking about the First Aid exam. For each candidate it would be close hands on contact with multiple “patients”, and for the volunteers there would be close contacts with candidates from all over New England. It generally takes around 4 to 6 volunteers per station which adds up to approx. 30 to 40 people, all with close contact. Then we consider the banquet, the Examiners meeting, the Examiners discussions around the scoring for S&T and First Aid, and lastly the housing / lodging concerns. All close contact indoors.

  We considered the current covid numbers which seem to be dropping in some areas. Hospitalization seems to be lessening in some areas. But home self-tests aren’t generally reported, and would things continue to trend in a good direction. That’s anyone’s guess.

  Bottom line, with everything to consider, we opted for the safe route and voted to give everyone yet another bye rather than try to force an event that may or may not be successful. We will be back at Sugarloaf next season.

  We are looking to hold an open zoom meeting towards the end of the season to recap where we are and what we hope to see for next season. Once we get that date/time setup we will send out a link.

  In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the season and stay safe.
  Carl

• 2021 Annual Meeing
  As the foliage changes and the weather starts cooling off its time for our PSPA Annual meeting. This year as we did last season we have chosen to go with a Zoom meeting rather than a face to face meeting. There are two main reasons for this. First and foremost is the current situation with covid. Secondly with a geographically dispersed member base we saw a larger attendance with the zoom platform. Please email Carl Chaplin for a link to the call.
  
  The meeting is set for Wednesday evening October 20th @ 7:00 pm. We anticipate the meeting will be approximately 1.5 to 2 hours. We will have our normal agenda, chair reports and review of last season (should be relatively short since last season was extremely thin) , review the upcoming season schedule of events, review and vote on the slate of officers for the upcoming season, as well as a few other topics.

• Ongoing Call to Members
  Remember that day you achieved your PSPA certification? Most likely it came as a result of lots of hard work and training. The process is not simple and requires candidates to push themselves to vastly increase their patrolling skills and knowledge.
   
  As a member of PSPA you bring these increased skills back to the patrolling world every day. The strength of the organization is the diversity of its membership. As a member the organization is calling on you to promote PSPA within your respective patrols. Often this may simply mean answering questions about the certification process or pointing the person in the right direction to get information. Motivating and helping others to also strive for certification is the best gift you can give to a fellow patroller.

Congratulations to:

	Tom Sutton shows off a good snowplow technique.

New Certified Members:
   Christine Rholl (Sugarloaf)