President’s Perspective

I am excited to restate what you already know – the 2008/2009 cross country ski season in the Chicago Area and the entire Midwest is one of the best in years. Record snow fall, for this point in the winter season, has occurred in our area and there are excellent skiing conditions in Wisconsin and Michigan. This leads me to ask some our members - what are you waiting for? There will never be better conditions and your dues have been paid so why not attend one of the remaining local events listed elsewhere in this newsletter?

With that nudge in place, our annual trip to the UP was very successful with 26 people there for all or part of the week and the best overall snow conditions in years. This attendance represents over 25% of the total club membership. In addition, four of us went on to Marquette for the Noquemanon Ski Marathon. Looking to the future, we have 12 people signed up for the Traverse City trip. If you have not skied in the Traverse City area, I strongly encourage you to consider joining us. We have two rooms remaining on our reservation. If you are interested we must have a firm commitment not later than the club meeting on Thursday February 5, 2009.

Our annual ski lesson at Arrowhead originally scheduled for January 3, 2009 did not occur due to the early January meltdown. It was converted into a hike with 22 people followed by an excellent buffet at Ron and Dria Ridenour’s. We rescued the lesson by rescheduling it to the afternoon of January 17^th. More than 15 people participated, including a significant number who showed up as a result of the meetup.com efforts by Rita Butler.

For those who are not aware of it yet, the ski lessons that our club has put on in conjunction with the Wheaton Park District and Northern Illinois Nordic have been A HUGE SUCCESS. All lessons sessions have been full to capacity (two lessons per Saturday with 15 people in each lesson). On January 17^th when Scott Smith and I taught, an extra session had to be added to accomodate a total of 48 people. The lessons will continue to be offered every Saturday morning through February 14^th. Sign up is at www.signmeup.com/skilessons.

It continues to be an excellent year for club membership. As of this writing we have welcomed fifteen new members which makes our total membership 92. We also continue to receive regular inquires from the website about places to ski, availability of lessons and club membership.

In closing I would like to stress the importance for all members to check their emails regularly as this is our primary means of communication. This is particularly important for members that attend the local weekend skiing events as their primary club activities.

Art