Thank you for remaining vigilant with the COVID policy and mask wearing. I hate masks but it is a minor inconvenience compared to the alternative.
Thank you for saying something, it is nice to hear the positive. Our Leadership, Covid Response Team, and entire team really came through. Reading the news about Whistler, Revelstoke and Big White having to shut down this past week made it clear we are doing a lot of things right. - Matt Troskey, VP People
Hang in there, team! I've heard a few "I'm done" comments from teammates. Not so fast. April will have days of sun, snow and fun still. we got this!! I for one am sad to see the end of the season! I'm using my skis this month. That silly bike can wait until May.
Thanks for the positive outlook. Time to enjoy the last couple weeks of riding!
-Jeremy Riss
This has been a very enjoyable season for me, no complaints here.
Meadows has done an outstanding job in my opinion.
Thank you!!
Thank you for taking the time to write that. Let's finish strong! - Matt Troskey, VP People
I think we should ban alcohol at the resort. It doesn't promote wellness, a core value here at Meadows. Alcohol slows reaction times and clouds judgment, and we are at a resort where people are doing extreme sports in dangerous terrain. I think everyone would be safer and Wellness would be better served if we didn't encourage people to drink and ride by selling and allowing alcohol at the resort.
Thank you for sharing your concerns. An outright ban would likely be disappointing to many but we do want to do what we can to ensure those who do decide to drink alcohol at our resort are doing so in a responsible manor. I would hate to take it away for all based on the actions of a few. Perhaps we could discuss some of the places you are seeing issues and brainstorm how we might address them. Not sure if you are seeing some different patterns this season vs. past seasons with more guests drinking in their car who might be starting earlier in the day? Please feel free to reach out to me to discuss.
-Jeremy Riss
Jeremy.Riss@skihood.com
I believe we have a culture issue at Meadows that mirrors some of the major culture challenges of our society, namely labeling others as “they” and judging them harshly because of their association with some “group”. Racism is a form of this. Here at Meadows it’s about racers. Before coming to Meadows to work I had no personal history with ski racers. To me they are just people. Last year, I would shrug off the nasty comments made by team members about racers. This year, I wanted to show up even more authentically, specifically to speak up about things that I saw as being harmful to either exceptional service or personal human satisfaction. I feel I have done this in some ways - speaking up about the bus, about the struggles of being a front line, low wage worker, about ways we can improve our operations - but there was one issue that I never felt comfortable standing up to - and that is the vile in which people talk about racers. This weekend something happened that has made me garner the strength to speak out. I am sorry it took this long.
At guest services orientation, someone made a public comment about how they were going to handle themselves when the “racers behaved in the horrible manner that they do”. Nobody said anything in response, in fact most people laughed. I wanted to say something then. Something like what you expect from people is what you will get. If a group of people acts in a manner that people find unacceptable, why don’t we work to change that? Is that really true, does the ski race community act badly? For me it was not a pleasant experience, and one that quickly showed me how difficult it is to speak up to long established norms.
One day I asked one of my team members why some of the racers didn’t know to load the lift at the load here sign. The team member went into a long dissertation about the evils of racers, their parents and everything about the whole scene. Instead of sharing my thoughts about how that was most likely NOT the case, but was instead the narrative that they had heard over the years and chosen to accept as truth regardless of their personal experience. Every time I heard a comment about “racers” I kept quiet.
As we all know, when you group people into a category and say that everyone in that category is [fill in the blank: stupid, rude, lazy, exceptional...] you will most certainly be wrong in most cases about the person you are judging based on their association with a group. I cannot tell you how many people think certain things about me because I’m a Deadhead that are just not true. And as it exists in society, the same liftys that judge racers harshly will complain about how people judge them harshly for being a lifty.
The reason I speak up now is because this weekend I witnessed, and was a part of something that caused me a great deal of personal pain. I was asked to stop the chair, because the young racer on the chair had not scanned through the RFID gates. He was given a stern lecture - very nicely but sternly - and asked to jump off the chair. Like he had to jump down into the pit and ski make his way out of it. The poor kid was in tears. Yes - everyone needs to scan the gates. I cannot speak to the intent of another, but my guess is if that had been anyone other than a racer they would have been treated differently. My heart went out to this child and I hope that this interaction didn’t lead to a chain of negative reactions. [distraction leads to injuiries]. My team member is a great person and treats people very kindly, I just think that they have also accepted the narrative about racers and it affected their decision making.
This has to stop. How can we as a society learn to live in harmony when we can’t even do it while we are all doing something we love. Why do we make jokes about skiers? Snowboarders? Jerry’s? (I still don’t understand the Jerry thing) Is it really funny to make fun of others?
Finally - I want to note that other than the not loading at the load sign, I have not had a single negative interaction with anyone from the racing community. They are pleasant. They say thank you. They are just like everyone else on this mountain. Perhaps that’s because I’m not looking for them to behave badly. Perhaps that’s because I believe that they are human just like me.
To the young lad whose day was not enriched, I am sincerely sorry for not speaking up at the beginning of the season.
Thank you for having the courage to speak up on this. I completely agree with you that assuming all members of a group behave a certain way because of interactions you've had with a few members of that group is unfair and unfortunate. I have seen it with departments as well which always makes me sad to see generalized comments thrown out assuming all members of a certain department act a certain way because of interactions with a few.
In my opinion striving to get to know people as individuals and not making assumptions about them because of any group they might belong to will lead to making more diverse connections than you otherwise would and treating people more fairly. We are at the beginning stages of a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion effort that I am very hopeful will improve the sense of belonging for our team members and make progress on some of these challenges.
-Jeremy Riss
Spring would be a perfect time to get a jump on making next season exceptional. Here’s some ideas:
Training Videos for guests: (For blog posts and maybe you could even make a longer video of all this info that you send to everyone when they buy a ticket)
How to load a lift. Why is the Load Here sign where it is? Does it matter if we load behind that point? What happens when your backpack strap gets caught on the chair? Why do you remove a foot from your bindings, or your poles from your wrists? Everyone is a beginner, and not every beginner will take a lesson that teaches them these things.
What goes into getting the mountain open? What does it take to open Cascade? What is happening behind the scenes? What about parking??
An introduction to the lifts, parks and the mountain terrain: With this I also suggest that an effort is placed on giving each lift it’s own identity/vibe. It exists, but if it’s your first time on the mountain will you know that? Will you feel that? Will you even know what lift you are on? A good home has a place for everyone, but everyone needs to know how to find that place.
Training Videos for the Team: We hire people and then throw them into their jobs during the busiest time of the season without adequate training time. It is the nature of the schedule, but early season exceptional performance can come with a much heavier emphasis on learning/retaining information and proper training via videos. Doing lift ops training in November with no snow is basically pointless. Having some videos that show proper ramps, what a bad ramp is and why and how it can be fixed -
How to shovel snow without getting hurt. What are and how do you use the tools of your job. Essentials of excellent customer service? How do you make an impact on the customer experience from your non-customer facing job? How about a simple new employee welcome - a tour of the facility including the mountain (if you only hire people who are mountain people, you will soon not be able to recruit a full workforce), riding the bus, sustainability, guest service from all vantage points... I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Let’s use the time now - and use those front line workers, their ideas, passion for their job to make these things happen. Don’t wait for the summer when it’s just full time employees doing the work to prepare for another season and hope that the work you do resonates with front line workers. Those doing the jobs are the best ones to work on projects like this.
Dial in the operations - I can only talk from my experience but everyone in their own position can most likely do the same for their position. Here’s my list: Before next year I would like to see a complete lift set up for what tools are needed at each lift. What does the maze at MHX look like? How many PVC’s are needed? Are PVC’s the best sustainable option? How much rope line is needed? Why do we use so much material that is breakable in a cold environment? (Rope reels, tools). Isn’t there a seat squeegee/ ice remover that is ergonomically correct, works and doesn’t break? If not, how about designing something in the off time. (And then prototype it and sell it to other resorts cause I’m sure every lifty out there would like to have a tool that actually works...talk about revenue generation....) Having only worked two seasons it does appear to me that we start over from scratch every year and it takes a LONG time to hit our stride. And we certainly don’t hit our stride during the busiest time of the year. That said, I know a LOT of work goes in over the off season by management, but it doesn’t have to be that way if the time is used now. (Instead of taking a ton of ride breaks).
Recruit for next season: I’ve got a few ideas bouncing around in my head about this, so if anyone cares they can reach out personally. I am a big believer that if you say “that’s how it is” than you’re going to always get it just “how it is” and how it is, at least in lift ops (and maybe other departments as well) a team that is never complete (still hiring???!!!!!!!!!!!), where call offs are often in the double digits (and this is NOT a Covid issue) and the number of people that work the entire season is an appalling percentage for a SEASONAL (meaning you’re not locked into working this job forever) job. Sorry to not be the queen of sunshine on this one, but this is a business that takes LOTS of people to make it work so we should put LOTS of attention on how to recruit, train and RETAIN an EXCEPTIONAL staff.
• We are in the process of creating some new training videos for our department. At the beginning of the season I tasked the training administrators, Maria and Marshal with creating content that we could send to new hires prior to the orientation. I agree 100% with your comment that training without snow is pointless which is why I am in the process of proposing to my boss that we hold off on our new hire orientation until we are open. This will only be able to work if we get enough returning employees to run the lifts for the first week or two so that the supervisors can work on training all of the new hires. If you are interested in helping with this please reach out to me directly.
• Recruiting and retention are both on my mind. I am working on our strategic plan for next season and this is at the forefront of that plan. I have also brought it up to Mel that I would like to focus our efforts locally next season to tap into the large employee pool that we have in our own back yard.
• Lift inventory will be done at the end of the season while we are breaking down so that I know what I need to order for next season. There should be a lift inventory sheet at each lift which lists out exactly what is at each lift. If the lifts that you work at do not have this please let a supervisor know that so they can get a new one out to that lift.
• As far as the other videos that you mentioned, I am on board but I feel like these should be a collaboration between lifts, MLC and Marketing. I would love to help with this but I would definitely want assistance.
-Cody Howe
None - I've had a great season (despite stupid COVID) but I am looking forward to being done. Lots of cleanup in my yard and I'm itching to have the free time to get at it.
I'm ecstatic that we've been able to operate through the season. This seemed like a huge unknown going into the season, and have been really pleased with how MHM has handled operations during covid overall.
A couple small comments/suggestions:
1) the conditions page: the partial giraffe/stag/food truck is a weird way to give a visual for the snowpack. It seems like if we want a visual for it, we should pick something that is the same height/depth and show the whole image. The stag in particular seems very out of proportion.
2) Potstickers: the amount of potstickers is super inconsistent, ranging between 4-7. It would be nice to have a consistent number (it seems like 1 per dollar would make sense)...it's a bummer to grab some for lunch and discover that it is basically a half order to sustain you for the rest of the day.
Thank you for the feedback on the website condition images. Those were part of the original design of the site so I'm not sure we would easily be able to change them but we are looking at a website redesign likely in the summer of 2022.
I asked about the pot stickers and there is supposed to be 5 in each order. Chef said that US foods changed the size of the product which caused some confusion but he did follow up with the team to make sure they know there is supposed to be 5 in each order.
-Jeremy Riss
-Jeremy Riss
Meadows needs to hold up to its core values and do something about these racist managers. Its morally wrong, but also super Illegal. We told you what has been going on. We filled out the forms. Do something about these managers or we will go beyond meadows and deal with these situations with our own workers rights lawyers.
We take these reports very seriously and ask that you follow-up with someone in Human Resources or on the leadership team with more information regarding this matter and the forms you mentioned filling out. You may also report this information anonymously by calling the MHM Anonymous Reporting Line at 503-337-2222 x1227 which is available to all team members solely for good faith reporting of wrongful conduct.
- Lara Yeats
I really miss the level three on the snow training