Archived Information

New Chairman

Many thanks to Dave Shappee for serving as the Northern Division Chairman for the past three years. He did a great job of organizing our races and finding sponsors willing to donate dollars and prizes (great beer at every race and skis for the Rookie of the Year to name but two). Your enthusiasm and dedication to the sport will be a benchmark for future leaders of the Northern Masters organization. Have fun just showing up and racing Dave, you deserve a little time off for good behavior!

Dave, shown here with incoming chairman Rick Murphy, receiving a token of appreciation after the awards ceremony at Lookout.

New Web Site Maintainer

Thanks are also due to Brad Leonard who has done such a great job of keeping our Web site up-to-date and Sue Falsey for setting up our races on active.com, converting the race results for the Web, and taking great pictures. They are a tough act to follow so please be patient as I get up to speed. You'll note some of the links aren't active yet but as summer is short and ski sea03/28/2008nue to add to the site as I get time. Check back often and please give me feedback on content or errors. Thanks. Laurie

Northern Members in the News

Sanctioning Efforts

We are under pressure from USSA to run sanctioned races. We need to show a good faith effort in this regard or face losing some USSA benefits; i.e. schedule publication. We need the coordinators of each race site to begin the sanctioning process by getting the necessary USSA officials onboard. The race departments at the ski areas (Big Sky, Lookout, Snowbowl, Blacktail and Whitefish) should be able to help in this regard. Also, we need Northern members to register with USSA as officials and/ or coaches (on the USSA membership application) to provide a traveling pool of officials for our races. Our goal should be to have many of our races this season and all of our races next season sanctioned.

Fall News Letter

Winter is approaching and its time to think ski racing. Our season starts in just two short months at Big Sky. We have been busy in the off season preparing for the upcoming year. Here are some highlights:

TIMER FUND
We are close to our goal of purchasing a wireless timer. Thanks to Bob Anderson’s research, it was decided that the Brower XS wireless timer best fits our needs. We want to thank all the individuals listed below for their generous contributions:

As you can see, we are $550.00 short of our goal. This is now a plea to our other members for contributions. Please send donations along with your signed membership and dues to: 19 Mill Ave.Whitefish, MT 59937. Sooner is better than later and more is better than less.

MEMBERSHIP
In an effort to increase membership and conduct USSA sanctioned races for our members, we offered a special incentive to new members of Northern.(see Great Deal). We are please to announce that as of this date,we have seven new members and anticipate more.

NORTHERN HATS
Purchase your own Northern ball cap for $25.00/$30.00 shipped, before supplies run out. Moneys collected from purchases will supplement the general fund and stop this whining for money.

USSA OFFICIALS
We had four members attend the Official Clinic in Spokane. Assuming we all passed our test, we will have certified officials for race sanctioning. Thanks Bob, Patti and Laurie.

Black & White Challenge

A new event debuts this year on the Northern schedule: the Black & White Challenge. The times for GS and SL for men and GS for women at the Blacktail Ski Resort and Whitefish Mountain Resort races, will be combined and handicapped to determine the Challenge champions. Scoring will allow all ages to compete against each other to determine the winner. Special prizes will be awarded to the two champions and goodies will be given to all contestants.

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Reminder: We still have a few of the new Northern Division ball caps for sale. These good looking caps are great for every day wear and will also come in handy to cover the dreaded after race helmet hair. They'll also make nice stocking stuffers for that special some one this Christmas or as a treat for yourself. Priced at just $25, they are affordable and all proceeds go toward helping finance our organization. Rick will personally deliver your hat at a race or mail it to you for $30 (gift wrapping not included).

Montana Incorporation

12/04/07 - We took our first step towards non-profit status. Our application for incorporation as a nonprofit entity was accepted by the Montana Secretary of State. We are officially: NORTHERN DIVISION MASTERS ALPINE RACING, Filing number: D-176765-810025. Our next step is to write our bylaws and create a board of directors. After that we can file for acceptance with the IRS. We’ll talk about this at our upcoming races.

Northern Division Championships

We had a great turnout for our final divisional race of the season with over 60 racers competing in slalom and giant slalom. Thanks to our many sponsors we had some great raffle prizes (check out Percy in the speed suit he won). Race results have been posted and a few more photos added to our collection. Special awards are:

• Rookie of the Year - Alexandra Melhuse
• Pair of Skis from Lone Mountain Sports
• Sotheby Cup - Fran Noel
• A handsome travelling trophy
• Black & White Challenge (Male) - Fran Noel
• Embroidered Big Sky Brewery fleece jacket
• Black & White Challenge (Female) - Laurie Murphy
• Embroidered Big Sky Brewery fleece vest