Comments on Missoula Nordic Ski Club

Craig Krueger

August 7, 2009 (minor updates Sept. 30 and Oct. 5, 2009)

I am writing this to give a little background about the process that’s going on right now.

My perspective is very limited. As I became involved with actual work of the club, it became clear to me that in order to maintain the work others before me had done and to accomplish some of the goals I’d heard from members, we would need to be organized and we would need the information and effort of more club members. That’s why we’re talking skiing in June, meeting more frequently, and soliciting the information, ideas, skills and efforts of club members.

My formal involvement in club business began at the general membership meeting, in late fall of 2007, when I volunteered to “help with whatever the club needed most”. Before I finished the sentence I was vice-president. By the end of the meeting I was informed that the vice-president didn’t do much, but did become president following their tenure as vice-president. Made some sense to me, time as the vice-president would allow me time to learn all the things I would need to know about the club functioned, given I knew basically nothing.

In December of 2008, I participated in my first board meeting. The minutes from that meeting are available at: Minutes of Dec 8, 2009. I learned a lot from this meeting; a lot of work had been done in the past, there was a lot of work that needed to be done, and many of the people who had important knowledge and experience had either felt they had exhausted their ability to participate or moved out of town. The club did sign an agreement with the Forest Service that allowed us to groom the Rattlesnake and Pattee Canyon and ski season was a success through the continued efforts of the groomers and other board members. The club certainly entered the ski season unprepared. Only grooming, grooming support, a delayed and scaled down Ozone race, a short newsletter, and placing membership envelopes at the trailhead occurred, no grants, no general membership meeting, no orchestrated attempt to build membership and dues. I filled the role of vice-president magnificently, doing nothing, well, except learning and skiing.

In the spring of 2009, motivated by self preservation, because I did not want to wait until December to start all the work that needed to be done, I initiated contact with club members that I met with in December of 2008. I suggested we begin the process of getting club business in order. It is my goal for the club to define some goals and develop strategies to distribute the effort required to reach the goals. There is a vast reservoir of knowledge from people who formerly worked for the club as well as current members who share knowledge and a desire to help the club. It was my hope that by getting people together over the summer we’d have a chance to both hear about the clubs history as well as include new energy to invigorate the club. That process began in June. The plan is to invite all interested people to meet every third Monday to continue the process. The minutes from the June, July, and September meetings are at: Minutes June 15, 2009, Minutes of July 20, 2009, and Minutes of Sept. 21, 2009.

The next meeting will occur at 6pm, on October 21, 2009 at the Press Box banquet room on East Broadway. If you have info or a desire to help, please come. If you can’t make it, send info/ comments to: feedback@missoulanordic.org.