Team Check-in Email
Message from Jake
I appreciate the input I received from all of you regarding my suggestion to remove the anonymity and make the surveys open. The feedback was as expected – we all like our privacy and wish for this survey to remain anonymous.
I believe in full transparency. A transparent organization is a healthy organization. Transparency in this regard is synonymous with trust, accountability, follow through and responsiveness. I used to think about how our relationships would be if we were all telepathic. It’s scary at first, but radical transparency is freedom to focus. The neuroscience suggests our brains work best when we no longer feel the need to hide or cover up our mistakes. I believe we as humans thrive and perform at our best when we feel accepted.
I will not change the anonymous aspect of this survey. Please continue providing the great feedback anonymously!
-Jake Bolland
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It sure is nice to have some snow back in the forecast and I hope many of you have gotten a chance to enjoy the cold snow and excellent conditions. You can take the survey this week at https://team.skihood.com. We have responded to many comments from the last survey, if you filter by the start date of 1/23/2019 you will only see comments from the last survey period.
This weeks Highlighted Comment
Last year and over the past few months I have been teaching my four year old daughter to ski. It has been by far the most enriching experience in my life to date. Not only is it empowering to see a small human awaken to the wonder and joy of the mountain environment, an environment that many here, myself included, sometimes take for granted. But over the past month or so I have noticed that as she gets more and more stoked about skiing, people start to take notice and she is able to pass on her stoke to everyone she comes in contact with. Stoke is infectious, as are people who obviously enjoying themselves. My challenge to myself and to all of my team members is to take a moment out of our busy days and either pass on your stoke to someone you come into contact with, or on those difficult days maybe borrow a little stoke from someone who is obviously enjoying the experience we provide.
On a more operational note. I have heard it voiced in my department that some here wish there was a little more interaction between my department and the Director/Executive team. I think it would mean a lot to some of our newer people if Jake, Steve, or Mel came to the shop and checked in every now and then.
Thanks Keep up the Good work,
Micah G. McNulty
Lift Maintenance Supervisor
Management Response
Micah thank you so much for the awesome comment. I feel teaching people to enjoy the sport and environment you love can be one of the most rewarding and fun things you can do. Sometimes even more fun than free skiing or riding yourself. Especially when it is your child. I got to build a snowman for the first time with my 2 year old daughter earlier this week and I couldn’t believe how much fun it was.
I really appreciate you and others mentioning a desire to see the leadership team have more interaction with team members and departments. We met on Saturday and that is one of the subjects we discussed. We do attempt to make rounds and check in with all of our departments but we will put more emphasis on it. That being said there are a lot of departments and team members so even committing more time to it doesn’t guarantee we will hit everyone.
One thought I did have is to invite anyone who is interested to ski a few runs with me and discuss anything that is on your mind. I’ll plan to be at the ticket booth on Wednesday Feb 13th at 10:30am to take some runs with anyone who is interested. If you plan to join please shoot me an email. Hopefully it will provide a good opportunity to connect with those that are interested.
Most of the other comments that mentioned wanting to see more of the leadership team visiting their department did not leave their name or the name of their department. If you’d like someone to check in with your department more at least leaving the name of your department would be a big help. I commend Micah for signing his name to his comment.
Below are some positive comments we received about team members recently
Just wanted to give a shoutout to an employee – name of Topher.
I noticed him on January 24 between 9:30 and 10:15 am shoveling access to the area leading to the stairs next to the ticket glass house. He may also have been in charge of ski check. He was very interactive with the guests, many of whom were more senior-ish than we usually see. He escorted some of them up onto the area where I was waiting for my private lesson, talked nicely with them and was concerned with their safety.
He didn’t appear to be doing just his job. He went beyond what would normally be expected at that position – and I just wanted to make sure someone was made aware of what a great representative he was for the area.
Not sure where this should end up but would greatly appreciate it if someone would shake Topher’s hand and say “good job.”
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Demo center staff was very friendly and efficient and appeared to enjoy their job and showed concern for efficiency of the process. Trevor was very helpful and knowledgeable and did a great job explaining everything.
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As I mentioned earlier, every single staff member I encountered from the rental area to the lift operators was extremely friendly and helpful. Whoever is doing the hiring should get a raise 🙂
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Morgan at the Alpenstube was awesome!
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Every single person I encountered was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable! I even commented on it to my family members.
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My ski instructor Connie (green/blue lesson) on Tues. Jan. 29th was great.
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Thank you to Matthew Drake or whoever decided to give the substantial Veterans ticket discount these last couple of years.
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Kudos to ski patrol! They didnt help me with an urgent matter or anything but I had a nice conversation with some of them at the top of the mountain. Kindness is always appreciated!
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Chris P is often the lift operator at Mt. Hood Express. Chris P. is very helpful and informative and takes time to let people in the lift line know what to expect during the day at Meadows. Other lift operators should emulate the helpful, respectful example Chris provides.
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EVERY person I encountered was friendly, smiling, and engaged. The lift operators were great ( I am new to skiing) the guys on buttercup had great music and were festive and efficient with their instruction.
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Had a snowboard clinic from Andy James – excellent instructor really enjoyed the day and learnt so much.
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I enjoy reading the daily report. Whoever is writing that does an excellent job!
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Lady selling Googles was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. Impressed me
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I took Snowboarding lessons with Cha, This has to be the best instructor I have ever had.
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Bryn was excellent! Very kind and attentive.
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Spencer was great! There was no pressure to rush us out the door and he was very attentive. The food was great. The drinks were little weak for the price, but overall, it was great!
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My name is Jennifer Newgard. I was given your name by a friend of mine that works at Timberline. 🙂 I reached out to her to find out who I might be able to connect with about relaying a message about one of the snow boarding instructors that my son has had, through his Middle School program. She shared your name with me. I hope that this is okay? If you aren’t the best person for this, would you kindly let me know who might be?
My son, Colin, has been up for the last four Friday’s, with his Oregon City Middle School. He has been blessed to have the same instructor for three of the four weekly evening lessons. Although I will say that the young woman that he had, one time, (Ally was her name I think) was amazing as well. 🙂 The young man that he got to know the best was named Caleb. I felt compelled to share how wonderful he was. This was Colin’s very first experience on the mountain. Caleb was warm, welcoming, connective, incredibly patient, and very encouraging. He intuitively seemed to know when to gently nudge him on, as well as when to teach Colin to listen to his body and to know and understand his limits. He taught him to respect the mountain, the terrain, and to be a good person while enjoying the sport. He found ways to connect with Colin on a personal level, and to relate his other hobbies and interests to snowboarding.
I just can’t say thank you enough. Colin said that Caleb made a huge impact on him, and his experience with this sport. As a parent, that is exactly what we hope for. 🙂 Colin’s Middle School will be up again the month of February, and he can’t WAIT to take all that Caleb taught him and explore more!
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We had an outstanding race last Sunday on Stadium!
We managed to get 174 PACRAT racers two runs throughout the day on some great race courses. We couldn’t have done without the support of you and your staff. And thank you for going the extra mile to dig up some salt which worked ideal for our second runs.
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Jeremy Riss