Updates/Climate Collaborative Charter/Priority System/Rank by Segment
from Christine Baker
Hi Mountain Sports School,
We have been open for about a week and it has been fun to see smiling faces. We’ve seen lots of guests and the biking off Ram8 has been fun. Let me know if you’d like to take a lap. If you’re interested in a season bike haul pass, send me an email and I can get you on the discounted pass list.
Updates:
· Charlie Hirst graded and added drainage in front of the Madison Base instructor locker room. He also added fill and raised the bus stop, and added fill next to the walkway from retail to HWG. Stay tuned for more Madison Base updates.
· 6-Shooter and White Otter gear boxes are getting rebuilt this summer. Last year the tension rams were rebuilt and a new drive (motor controls) were installed. Also, on six shooter we will be upgrading the tower circuit which cause a lot of the headaches last year.
· See the bottom of this page for a time lapse of Swift 6 progress.
· Glading projects (with a new Fecon Masticator) for the summer: Lone Moose and Ambush Glades.
Climate Collaborative Charter
Since the fall of 2019, the idea of the ski industry’s four largest operators coming together to define a united effort and create a united message to address climate change has been in development. The idea has formally reached reality
As companies rooted in the great outdoors, we and our Charter partners each recognize the significant threat of climate change and feel a responsibility to protect and preserve the majestic environment in which we operate. One company alone can’t solve the climate crisis. This Charter signifies the start of our collaborative partnership to collectively drive climate change mitigation. By coming together to share best practices, establish goals and set strategies, we’ll accelerate our progress. This is a significant step forward for our industry and beyond… and you can take pride in being part of it. To aid in this endeavor and help with more resort specific projects, BSR has hired a Sustainability Expert, Amy, who will start the second week of July.
Wage and Bonus Feedback
Thank you for the feedback on our wage and bonus system. Over 70% of the feedback is in favor of the proposed bonus change. Some popular reasons for supporting it:
· More uniformity in pay opportunity across instructors and time of year
· New employee retention
· Easier to understand and easier to predict earnings
· Easier to recruit new instructors
Concerns:
· Less incentive to take additional students and help each other out
· Concern/question about assigned private lesson and specialty private lessons (these products can all earn request wage by reaching out to the guests ahead of time).
We will wait until closer to August to finalize the bonus plan, so feel free to reach out with questions and concerns. There were numerous recommendations to look for alternate ways to recognize and celebrate good performance. We will look to do so.
Priority System
Our current priority system can be found in our mountain sports manual:
and is referenced in relation to group and assigned private lessons:
In theory, this system is followed for all private lesson assignments. I know that there isn’t complete trust that we follow it 100%, and there is good reason for that. Guests request certain skill sets and personalities.
We’d like to set up relationships that are likely to be a great fit for both the instructor and the guest. If we do that well, then long-term relationships are more likely established and we are working toward building that lifelong passion for the mountain environment (which is our mission). What is the solution? Rather than saying that we are doing one thing and doing another, we are considering creating instructor segments and having a “best fit” model for assigning lessons within each segment. For example, if one segment is "Private Select” instructors, then each instructor that fell in that group would be the same “priority.” Taylor Greene and the private lesson booking team would then assign the lesson based on the guests’ preferences/profile with the aim to create matches that would create fun, long-term connections. Another “Group Flex” segment could include experienced instructors who are mostly on groups, but transition into privates during busy times.
Over the years, instructors have recommended that we have instructor bios available to help facilitate good matches. Bios could be a piece to help the new program be successful.
Another reason to go with this model – we want instructors to collaborate with each other, rather than compete against each other for work. Our current system values private request hours over all else. The impact felt is that instructors have to outperform each other to increase earning potential. Going forward, we’d like to reduce the friction points. We can’t get rid of them, but we’d like to minimize them.
We are considering moving to this model for this coming season. The feedback from the last survey was helpful, if you have feedback on this topic, please fill out this survey or send me an email.
Cheers,
Christine
Christine Baker
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Director of Mountain Sports | Big Sky Resort
(P) 406.995.5736 | www.bigskyresort.com