 Poster: A snowHead
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admin, it would be interesting to know what the age range was on the EoSB. Seemed to me there were loads of young people, as well as those into their 40s, 50s and beyond. Many, many more men than women - is that usual for the EoSB and does it represent the general snowHead demographic?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Pedantica, I was expecting that male:female split, and the age demographic this time was similar to what I've seen previous bashes. It's what some might call a 'target rich environment'  I would imagine that the SH's demographic is defined more by available disposable income than anything else and, these days, that probably covers all ages.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Megamum wrote: |
| the age demographic this time was similar to what I've seen previous bashes |
But haven't you only been on EOSBs? I don't think there were many younger snowheads on the Birthday Bash, (or previously on the Wengen bashes). Also, I would guess the ratio of men to women was different too. Maybe Pedantica could comment, having been on both this year?
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| Masque wrote: |
| PJSki wrote: |
| Well, looking at you bash photos I see what looks like people well in their 40s and beyond. |
It's quite fun watching you stir the midden between ears and slowly work your brain up to dickhead . . . the process on to functioning fookwit will be fascinating "I see what looks like people well in their 40s and beyond"  You must have been a terror to toilet train! |
Ahh, my favourite enunciator xx
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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maggi, I think there was a larger proportion of older people on the Birthday Bash (which is significantly more expensive than the EoSB - Megamum's right to say that available disposable income must be a factor.) As to the ratio of men to women, I'm not sure; I don't remember noticing an imbalance on the Birthday Bash.
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| Meganun wrote: |
a 'target rich environment'
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oh perlease!
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If I hazarded a guess, i'd have put BB at about 3:1 M/F ratio. And wouldn;t really call that an "imbalance".
Average age - hard to say. But there were participants from GCSE age or thereabouts up to senior concessions.
What's interesting for me is the age that new sh and bash enquirers think we are. My feeling is they think average age is about 10-15 years younger than reality, and nowhere near a spread out age range.
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This one's going to be a bit long-winded ... as before, if you're bored with all this SCGB stuff, maybe switch to the WTF Ski Club for alternative musings - https://www.facebook.com/groups/325182624251298/?fref=ts ...
... but I think it's time for a wider airing of certain issues. Tomorrow is the 110th anniversary of the Ski Club of Great Britain, founded at the Cafe Royal in London on 6 May 1903, and it's maybe time to take stock over aspects of how the organisation is being operated, and in whose interests. The following document was handed to members entering the 2011 AGM - the same meeting at which the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner was elected as the club's President. The Ski Club's self-defined mission is "spokesbody of British skiers" [1995] and "voice of UK snowsports" [2008] and therefore its affairs are arguably worthy of public scrutiny.
A response to this open letter was officially promised on the same evening of the AGM - given the seriousness of the matters raised - but that response did not materialise ...
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24 November 2011 From David Goldsmith (joined SCGB in 1962)
OPEN LETTER TO SCGB COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE
Dear Council and Executive
The 2004 decision of the Ski Club of Great Britain to close its public ski forum, coupled with the Club’s threat (May 2011, ongoing) of legal action against a club which sprang up as a result of that decision, raises reasonable questions as to the SCGB’s relationship with British skiers, its own members, its attitude towards freedom of expression and its love of rules [Clubs mean rules!]. Are we one club – a family of skiers on a level with each other, as we were at that founding meeting in 1903 – or are we an echo of old-fashioned British imperialism?
The internet has entirely changed the rules, democratising and motivating people within large social networking sites and news-comment sites (The Guardian, The Telegraph, BBC etc), except that ‘web 2.0’ is essentially just a vast version of what happened in the Cafe Royal in May 1903. The new generation of potential SCGB members is busy on Facebook and Twitter, discussing mutual interests and pursuits - be they movies, skiing or sex. They are less busy with conventional information websites. If they want advice and comment on skiing they want it from skiers who are paying for their own trips – not old-fashioned skiing institutions. They want snow reports from fellow skiers who are on the mountains with cameras and videocams, not marionettes of the tourist office. Good examples include winterhighland.info, snowboardclub.co.uk, natives.co.uk, epicski.com, tetongravity.com and ...
... The ‘snocial networking’ Club snowHeads – which sprang up 48 hours after the SCGB closed its forum - now enjoys a greater web traffic than skiclub.co.uk, at a fraction of the operating cost. This cheeky upstart has the traffic that we have sacrificed! Next week, snowHeads will host 120+ skiers at its ‘pre-season bash’ in Tignes. snowHeads is run from the back of a council flat in Camden Town by a man and his dog, yet this club has significant deficiencies – not least of which is that it is not member-owned – so the opportunities for the SCGB remain largely the same in the long term. Perhaps it’s time to revisit the idea and get it right this time? Perhaps skiers just want to be left to talk amongst themselves on a trusted basis, with minimum rules. This is not complicated to organise.
The Skeeb has rules about members telling the truth on its forum, and threatens sanctions (including termination of membership) for those who do not conform. What rules apply to the White House itself?
THE SKI CLUB OF GREAT BRITAIN AND ITS AGENTS SAY ...
1. “Ski and Board advertisers benefit from reaching almost 100,000 affluent ABC1 readers”
[Source: Publicom (SCGB advertising representatives) website November 2011]
What is the evidence for this?
2. “Ski TV is watched by 33,500 subscribers”
[Source: Publicom (SCGB advertising representatives) website Nov 2011]
“Number of Ski TV subscribers: 33,600”
[Source: SCGB website (advertiser section) October 2010]
What is the evidence for this? Ski TV (now Ski Club TV) subscriptions were discontinued after autumn 2010. What was the number of subscribers at that time?
3. “We continue to sell Ski and Board magazine on the newsstands and we increased our audited ABC circulation to 22,996, against a declining trend for other snowsports magazines.”
[Source: Caroline Stuart-Taylor, SCGB CEO, 2011 Annual Report]
“Britain’s most popular snowsports magazine”
[Slogan on Ski+Board front covers, Autumn 2011]
The latest ABC-certified figure for newsstand sales of Ski+Board is 1193 (giveaway copies have been increased to 4172). Daily Mail Ski sells 7625. The Ski Club’s previous magazine Ski Survey sold over 12,000 copies on the newsstands in the early 1990s. What measure of popularity is being cited here?
4. “What makes the Ski Club’s snow reports different is that it’s not just automated data from the resorts – we have a team that gathers and checks the information every day. This is how we can deliver unbiased and accurate snow reports to you.”
Alyn Morgan, SCGB Information Manager, Ski TV Snowcast 26 Nov 2010
What are the unbiased and accurate sources of the Ski Club’s snow depth figures, and how does the information team verify the data? There are obviously hundreds of resorts, so a handful of examples would suffice (suggested examples: Saas Fee and Cairngorm).
I hope that this letter can promote discussion about the Ski Club’s future internet and information strategy. If we embrace ‘web 2.0’ again, skiers will talk about skiing – sharing their tips, news, photos, snow reports and opinions, linking to videos and other sources of information.
Please publish this letter and your response to it, on the Club’s website.
Yours sincerely, David Goldsmith
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Since that letter was circulated 18 months ago, several other important issues have arisen concerning SCGB-published data and information. I'll go into these in the coming days.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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deleted
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Mon 6-05-13 11:06; edited 1 time in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The Cafe Royal, 1911, by Charles Ginner [Tate Britain collection] A classy place to launch a ski club! And so ... today ... the Ski Club of GB is 110 years old.
In 1993 the Club celebrated its 90th with a slap-up meal at its birthplace - the Cafe Royal, Regent St - and in 2003 there was a champagne party at the venue. Today ... no party, but here's the Club's birthday timeline ...
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/news/story.aspx?intStoryID=8900#.UYd2eUrSzHQ
I was going to nip down to the Cafe Royal today to communicate with the dead, but then decided this would be a sad and peculiar thing to do. Might have drawn unwelcome attention from other patrons. How should we suitably toast the old mothership?
Sadly, I've a terrible feeling that the SCGB really is toast now ... just a useful way for a large number of privileged and ageing people to go on expenses-paid ski trips and jollies ... by plundering the members' subscriptions ... without any notion of cost-benefit analysis (can't have that, old boy!). It's upsetting to have to say this, after 5 decades of involvement.
The founding document. 1903 Cafe Royal menu, signed by the SCGB's founder members.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Comedy Goldsmith, I can somewhat understand your sadness. But as long as the members continue to pay the subscription fee (and vote), there is little you can do to halt the 'demise' (as you see it) of your beloved SKGB, other than shout from the sidelines (or from outside the grounds); and, judging by the sledging coming from SKGB socks on here, it's falling on deaf ears. Better to use more of your time and energy in more productive endeavours, no? Perhaps assisting another, younger ski club?
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ALQ, While your comment is valid, I think there's little to you can do to halt the demise of this thread....
It's falling on deaf ears.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Alan 'Midge' Whyte of Bawbags Aerodynamic approaching Fluhalp, Zermatt
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yesterday I said I'd decided not to visit the Cafe Royal to honour the 110th anniversary of the SCGB. In the end, the opportunity (I had to go into town to get a watch fixed at John Lewis, Oxford St) got the better of me and I fancied a cup of tea in a tea cup of GB ....
TEA FOR ONE AT THE CAFE ROYAL
A solo commemoration of our national ski club, at its birthplace
I guess the Cafe Royal in Regent Street, which has grade one listed interiors, is fully aware of its glorious history and that it hosted the founding dinner of the Ski Club of Great Britain in 1903 [that’s 110 years ago yesterday, 6 May]. But from the reaction I got from front-of-house staff yesterday this is not certain. “That’s very interesting” said a receptionist, keen to reveal some less mountainous sporting action that took place within the building itself. Until recent times the first floor of the Cafe Royal housed a boxing ring, where cash was once thrown at prize-fighters (sometimes bare-knuckled) by their spectators. Those turning their eyes from the bloodied noses and eyes of the boxers could glance from the windows to shoppers strolling along the pavements below.
The Cafe Royal (which began in 1865 and is celebrated in striking oil paintings of the famous dining rooms, held by Tate Britain) recently underwent a huge restoration with a substantial extension to convert it to a 5-star hotel, so when I approached the entrance in a Californian surf shirt and matching sneakers I wasn’t sure how this would go down with three commissionaires guarding the door (yesterday’s weather was rather warm for Edwardian skiwear). One of them scanned me from head to toe as I meekly requested a cup of afternoon tea. A couple of minutes earlier I’d discreetly locked my pushbike to a lamppost around the corner, since the possibility of valet parking seemed unlikely.
This was, you see, the beginning of a personal (and slightly sad) commemoration of the Tea Club’s 110th birthday. On 6 May 1903, fourteen Edwardian skiers met at the famous venue for dinner (not tea) and took a significant decision. The affluent chaps had doubtless enjoyed a great season’s sliding, probably in Switzerland and very likely in each others’ company. What better than to spread the joy by forming a club and telling the nation? Central London has given birth to countless clubs and societies over the centuries, many of which have influenced and shaped the politics, science and industries of their times. A short stroll from the Cafe Royal takes you to amazing places like The Royal Society, The Athenaeum Club or the Institute of Directors. And so it was, on 6 May 1903, that fourteen skiers signed a copy of the dinner menu and edited the document with a revised heading: “Ski Club of Great Britain.”
When I explained this to the smartly suited doorman he’d already lightened up and was quite charming – my attire was ludicrous enough to disarm any interpretation of the dress code he might be there to enforce – and I was led to the Ten Room, a venue for “British informal all-day dining”. Easing my backside into a padded red leather dining chair, in an almost empty space (it was 5.30pm and a bit late for tea), I was attended to very attentively by the waiter. “Here’s the menu, sir” he said, opening a portfolio of ritzy snack and drink investments that would set me back up to £38. I humbly selected a pot of English tea ... “Would you like biscuits with that, sir?” ... and was offered a newspaper ... “Which would you like, sir?” Deciding on The Times, since this is the paper most closely linked with the SCGB’s long history - it once published exclusive daily snow reports from the Club’s reps around the Alps, telegrammed to London - I found an interesting report about the recent violence between Sherpas and European climbers on Everest.
Meanwhile, the tea had arrived, in plain white understated but classy crockery. The waiter tipped the pot to my cup as if he was serving vintage wine, with classic care. He’d placed a strainer across the rim of the cup and the dark liquor (I’d selected the Cafe Royal’s special breakfast tea) rose to a level at which I could add the requisite milk. The milk jug, I have to say, was a little tiny in proportion to the teapot. As the waiter returned the pot to horizontal, I noticed that a drop of tea was dribbling down the outside of the spout to the base. Sure enough, as he placed the pot on the pristine white linen tablecloth, the teadrop formed an unsightly stain. My pathetic cheapskate attendance at the venue, which would prove to be astonishingly good value, would now necessitate laundry.
“Never eat tea-stained snow” I thought to myself, as I struggled to think about skiing and why I’d entered the building in the first place ...
[More about the Tea Club, the Cafe Royal and its famous Grill Room ... where the SCGB’s first après-skiers may have convened ... to follow. Along with the bill.]
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Comedy Goldsmith, spiffing stuff.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Thank you, Swiller. It was going to be spliffing stuff but I decided (in the end) not to smoke that joint while writing it.
The Cafe Royal could be just your sort of joint (in the other sense of the word). Excellent swilling location, with a definite air of mystery about the place. It's unbelievable how much money has been spent poshing up that end of Regent Street. The Monopoly board's gone mad - the Crown Estate, who own all the land around there, have clearly decided it's time to get serious. Quite amusing to look across at Lillywhites, whose re-owners definitely aren't in the 'up-market' market!
Seems to have gone rather quiet around here. Is everyone in Monte Carlo?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Lillywhites? Blimey, didn't realise they were still going. Long time since I was in Regent Street.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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achilles, Indeed, it was rather good when Lillywhites was part of the Forte empire and I got 30% staff discount plus another 10% off when paying with a shareholders credit card! Genuine bargain ski ware particularly in the annual winter sale 
Sadly those days are long gone both for Forte and Lillywhites which I think maybe an offshoot of JJB sports or some such now.
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boredsurfin, now the 'flagship' store of the Sports Direct empire. Soon to be overhauled and returned to a more upmarket state so I hear. Despite being untidy and rammed full of 70% off Lonsdale etc, Japanese tourists still flock there. The place has some real history - Mallory bought his base layers there for his ill-fated Everest expedition for example.
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Bode Swiller, Careful your last line is strayin in to David's specialism on here
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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boredsurfin, yeah, but I get paid £20 per post.
Anyway, well I never:
| Quote: |
| In the 19th century, several members of the Lillywhite family were leading cricketers; another, Fred Lillywhite, organised the first overseas tour by an England team to North America in 1859. In 1866, the Lillywhite "No. 5" football was chosen for a London v. Sheffield challenge match organised by the Football Association; the same model in the early years of the FA Cup and was the ancestor of the International Football Association Board's modern ball specifications. In 1886, the Ivy League chose the Lillywhite "No. J" as the standard for American college footballs. The shop has been based at its current location of 25 Regent St. on Piccadilly Circus since 1925, catering to the London market with specialist departments for croquet and real tennis. Lillywhites' policy was to compete on quality products (which were charged at premium prices). For many years the company was owned by Forte Group. |
Where was it before 1925? Your starter for 10.
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Bode Swiller, Haymarket?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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geepee, yes, number 62 from 1863. You may take the rest of the day off.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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No release until you both identify where before that ....
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Agenterre, Euston Square.
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You know it makes sense.
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Yes ... definitely time off for good behaviour now.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Agenterre, Bode Swiller, geepee I'm amazed that you can all still remember that far back!
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Poster: A snowHead
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CG, about these biscuits man, WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE BISCUITS?
Being classy like, hopefully they were pink wafers 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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The SKGB rep in Sauze had BBRs. I don't remember him as having a leopard skin jockstrap though.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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boredsurfin, yup, I bought a pair of RC4S skis in the early 80s at a very good price at their sale. Happy days.
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Fri 10-05-13 15:03; edited 1 time in total
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| musher wrote: |
| The SKGB rep in Sauze had BBRs. I don't remember him as having a leopard skin jockstrap though. |
Well we all know how the SKGB likes to ignore anything associated with Scotland...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Chasseur wrote: |
| Well we all know how the SKGB likes to ignore anything associated with Scotland... |
WTF Ski Club does not ignore the Scottish ski scene, as it's based in Aviemore and excludes Aviemorons, such as the gentleman on the right.
It's true that the SCGB has stopped snow reporting for Scotland, despite the fact that Cairngorm continues to run - on 10 May - with 5 lifts and over 1000ft vertical of sliding.
The SCGB listing does include ski resorts in Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand etc. ... which won't be open until various dates in June (snow permitting).
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| Comedy Goldsmith wrote: |
| Chasseur wrote: |
| Well we all know how the SKGB likes to ignore anything associated with Scotland... |
WTF Ski Club does not ignore the Scottish ski scene, as it's based in Aviemore and excludes Aviemorons, such as the gentleman on the right.
It's true that the SCGB has stopped snow reporting for Scotland, despite the fact that Cairngorm continues to run - on 10 May - with 5 lifts and over 1000ft vertical of sliding.
The SCGB listing does include ski resorts in Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand etc. ... which won't be open until various dates in June (snow permitting).
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So Imran Kahn was on the campagin trail in Aviemore?
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I'm not sure that Imran Kahn skis. This is our 2014 ski test, where we're looking at how much air you can get with various models.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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cDG (small c) - sad to say you are a drunk in a revolving door. The boat sailed a long time ago and you still mourn it's passing. Move on.
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FAQ
