by Harald » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:50 pm
There is a strange mentality that surrounds being involved In PSIA. If you are not a member, you are considered an outsider. It?s almost like the ones who paid all the dues over the years for their certification and training and have jumped through all the hoops want to maintain that everyone new should have to do the same, which is logical.
They feel like they were used, so why shouldn?t the new guy get the same treatment. It?s weird, they won?t consider changing that situation. The old boys wouldn?t like it if you join and don't have to go through the same hoops that they went through to be a ski instructor, even if it was for the benefit of skiing. For that reason there is no initiative from the top, to change the system, everyone has their place and they hold onto their status within PSIA.
Most ski schools require that you at least join PSIA, but you don?t have to become certified. Although as you find out quickly in a ski school, the first level or two of certification, increases your pay scale. The problem is, many ski schools these days, no longer want fully certified ski instructors, as they don?t want to pay the higher pay scales.
When I was at Winter Park we had a different philosophy, we wanted everyone to get to a higher level every year. We helped to pay for training and certification expenses if the instructor was successful. You could train in the ski school for free any day you wanted. We had some kind of training available every day of the week. In the four years I was in charge, we never had anyone fail an exam. WP went from not being on the top 20 list of ski schools to number 4th overall. My last year there we began to convert many of the trainers and instructors to PMTS. The old guard was furious, you can imagine. It?s an old boys club, once you are a trainer, you can just ride it and milk it forever. I began to change that system. Then and now, within the system, once you made it, you are never subjected to upgrades or higher standards. As long as you go to your pin polishing sessions every year, which are a joke, they just stand around and talk about how to demonstrate a better wedge Christie.
There are examiners in PSIA that are well-regarded just because they have been their forever, not because they contributed or raised the standards. Now when I look back, they had many reasons to hate me, I got my full cert and made the demo team all in the same year. I was an intruder, even though I held all the credentials of the organization. I never felt influenced by this, my motivation was to make PSIA a better instructional body. You always make enemies when you rock the boat. I?m glad I found out that there was no way it was going to change early enough, to make my escape. I had four great years at Winter Park. The Director was a forward thinking man and he let me implement what I wanted. We almost got it done, then he was let go, and WP went back to normal PSIA status.
"Maximum Skiing information, Minimum BS