priorities

Doug: I agree with all of your suggestions or wish list. If we hit management with all of these, they may be overwhelmed. Perhaps we should prioritize them and decide which is the most important. That way we can focus on issues that we have a real chance of succeeding on.

For me personally, I'd set the top three items on your list as:

1. reduce night patrolling (3 is way more then enough for those of us who are non-locals)
2. better snowmobiles (my rotator cuff is just about shot)
3. improved patrol room facilities

The bottom line though is that I think the patrollers are getting the feeling that we're second class citizens, ranking in importance to somewhere in between a first year lift op and the guy that directs traffic in the circle. Its especially tough to hear stories about how Highlands gets this or that and we don't (assuming these stories are true). This certainly leads to resentment by the patrollers. I realize we're not revenue generating, but we need a certain level of support from management to be successful at what we do. If we don't have the tools, it makes life frustrating.

I for one talk up the hill all the time to skiers and non-skiers alike. I always recommend Boyne to people looking for a vacation outing. I like to think that although we are not directly revenue generating, the public certainly likes to see us there and we're a strong source of goodwill to the hill.

Bob