Taupo Ski Club March 2017 Newsletter

2017 is shaping up to be an exciting year with some quite substantial investment coming from RAL in the development of both Whakapapa and Turoa skifields. See the item below for more detail.
Please note a few important dates coming up - subs due this week, Seasons Bookings open early May, Work Party mid May, Happy Valley opening early June, Whakapapa opening early July. Actual dates are in the Calendar on the right.

LATEST CLUB NEWS
Marty Staines was awarded life membership of the club at last years AGM. Marty is part of the Staines Dynasty and has been in the club since a child having held a range of positions over the years (child prodigy, reckless youth, irresponsible young adult, committee member, responsible adult and now club president). Life membership is a recognition of the effort members have put in to the club over many years and as such Marty is now in a select group of people. He will of course still be our catering officer.
Due to increasing costs especially in the areas of insurance, electricity and rates the committee has had to review the nightly fees and from this year there has been an increase in fees. See the details below.

2017 COMMITTEE
The Club has had a couple of changes for this coming season with the resignation of Ian Chamberlain as Works Officer and Paula Amrein coming back on. Their contact details are on our website.

PATRON Rod MacFarlane
PRESIDENT          Marty Staines
SECRETARY         Maggie McCaughan
TREASURER        Marion Fournier
BOOKINGS Vicki Moss
CATERING Marty Staines
WORKS                Nick Staines
CLUB CAPTAIN Simone MacFarlane
NEWSLETTER      Greg Bennett
LOCKERS             Marion Fournier
GENERAL             Thomas Schwarz
David Rankilor
                             Paula Amrein

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
REMINDER - These are due next week on the 31st March. If you have any queries or have 'misplaced' your invoice please contact the Treasurer

2017 SEASON WORK PARTIES
There are 2 work parties held each year. One prior to the season and one after. The first one is on the weekend of 13/14 May and the end of season date is 11/12 November.

This is an opportunity for club members to help towards the general up keep of the Lodge.

We rely on members to maintain the club and without your input we will have to pay for commercial/professionals to do this for us with resulting price increases.

The Work Party is over the 2 days of the weekend with free accommodation and meals available on both Friday and Saturday night. The Works Officer will assign jobs for the weekend and in most cases this revolves around a spring clean. Duties include cleaning (windows, storeroom, bathrooms kitchen, exterior etc), firewood stacking, minor painting/touch-ups and so on.

This is the opportunity for new members to get to know the workings of the club as well as new senior members meeting their membership criteria.

We see the work parties as an extension of each individuals ‘ownership’ of the Lodge and as each member treats the lodge as they would their own home then we will easily see another 60 years of use (well some of the juniors will).

Bear in mind that work parties are compulsory for new membership and also for Intermediate members moving up to Seniors.   Book in now.

LODGE FEES
As mentioned above we have had to increase the night fees for the upcoming 2017 Winter season. Full details are on the website but are summarised below:

WINTER RATES - per night
(rates include dinner and breakfast)

Members (13 years and over)
Sunday - Friday: $20.00
Members (13 years and over)
Saturday: $30.00
Members (13 years and over)
Fri & Sat or Sat & Sun: $43.00
Members (under 13 years)
Sunday - Friday: $14.00
Members (under 13 years)
Saturday: $24.00
Members (under 13 years)
Fri & Sat or Sat & Sun: $31.00

Associate Members: $28.00
Non Members (adult): $60.00
Non-Members
(pre-school and school children): $35.00

SUMMER RATES
(no food provided during this period)
TSC Members $11.00
Non Members $25.00
Entire Lodge for exclusive use $255.00
    - a senior club member must be present

RAL NEWS
Of interest at Whakapapa will be the replacement of the Happy Valley access chairlift with two elevators, new snowmaking in Happy Valley which will greatly extend their operation along with a covered surface lift. Elsewhere on the field will be new and extended snowmaking in Tennants Valley, Rockgarden and Turtle Run as well as probably the biggest change being the new Delta Quad chairlift which will replace the Waterfall T-Bar.
However, offsetting this good news is that pass rates have gone up for this season:
Pass rates
Adult day $119, Youth day $69
Adult season $515, Youth season $309

More details are available on RAL’s website.

SKI CLUB APPAREL
A reminder that we have softshell jackets and merino tops available with the club logo embroided on the left breast These are available here.  Hoodies and T-shirts will be available from May in time for the 2017 season.

BUY/SELL/EXCHANGE
The club won't be running the annual ski sale this coming June. Due to the effort/return ratio (even though we have had great sponsorship in previous years) we have decided to cancel it for this season.
However, we still see a need for the exchange of ski gear amongst members especially in the area of kids gear so we will be offering the facility through this newsletter and on our face book book to buy sell and exchange. if you want to be included just email the details to the newsletter editor.