Dear ISIA members, dear friends,
While I am writing, many of you are already active on the slopes and enjoy the snow, which is abundant everywhere. The season in the northern hemisphere has started very promising and we are all looking forward to a successful winter.
2019 was a very intense and eventful year, in many different aspects. As for the events, I am pleased that the ISIA members were the main players at the Interksi in Pamporovo. The congress has made it clear that the snow sports instructors of the ISIA are the world’s elite in terms of development, concept, demonstration and execution of snow sports.
On the regulatory side, Europe now has a new framework, which is dictated by the delegated act and which has been in force since March 2019. It is a new situation, and as previously announced during the 2018 Assembly of Delegates, ISIA takes into account the way the scheme can be embedded in its standard to ensure that ISIA qualifications are always up-to-date and globally recognised. ISIA will support all members interested in the new regulation and need help to interpret and fulfill the content properly. Our Secretary General Peter Hennekes has already prepared a guide that is available to every member association. The Technical Commission, in cooperation with some of our members, is planning a pilot trial that will be useful to check how the new rules are to be applied on the ground.
With the aim of providing new and better services, ISIA launched a member survey last winter (the result was presented in Pamporovo) which was very useful to address priorities for the future. The first result was the new voting system adopted by the 2019 Assembly of Delegates in Pamporovo, creating a better and more balanced relationship between member associations.
According to the results of the survey, the board and commissions are working on a number of new projects. Among other things, an ISIA quality standard for the ski schools should be mentioned, in the definition of the “blue level”, which would be very useful to recognize the ski instructor entrants as members of the ISIA community, and the ISIA World Forum, which will be the new formula for success for the ISIA World Championship. This must be a new platform for exchange, which, in addition to the races, also hosts other events aimed at gathering the stakeholders of snow sports to share experiences, improve our work and imagine together how we can continue to develop and build new and stronger relationships in the interest of all members.
With the aim of better communication between the members and the association, as well as the goal of a better globally coordinated identity, each member association now has a new e-mail address on the domain isia.ski (in the form “nation@isia.ski”) available. Each member has already taken over the new address. It is an important tool that helps to propose the idea of a globally unified community of professional snow sports instructors.
There is much more we can do together for ISIA and our members, so the office, the board and myself are always available to listen to your suggestions and discuss your ideas. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you want to tell us something.
I look forward to hopefully meeting you on the slopes this season and definitely at the next delegate meeting, which will be held in Budapest in June.
I wish you all a successful winter season, full of positive experiences and emotions.
Enjoy the snow!
Vittorio Caffi
ISIA President