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BASI CEO leaves after 3 years

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Fergus Waters, CEO of BASI - the British Association of Snowsport Instructors - is leaving after 3 years in the post.

For the official BASI statement ...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/325182624251298/
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
glad they finally told the members
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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?
I'm not sure that this information has, in fact, been published to members. [I got it from an independent source and checked its authenticity with the BASI office].

It was circulated by email to some ski media people (not me, or at least two others I know) and perhaps others ... I couldn't find the news on the BASI website, the BASI Facebook page or BASI Members' Group Facebook page.
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Comedy Goldsmith, members were emailed today. Info has been out there for several weeks.
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rob@rar wrote:
Info has been out there for several weeks.


Officially communicated info in writing?
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Comedy Goldsmith, no, but reliable info from people who knew what was happening.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Email arrived in my inbox this afternoon.
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Not unusual for CEO to move on after 3 years is it?
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skimottaret wrote:
glad they finally told the members


Another compromise agreement Puzzled
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rob@rar wrote:
Info has been out there for several weeks.


rob@rar wrote:
... reliable info from people who knew what was happening.


I'm sure that's the case, though one could go back a good bit more (more like a year) to discover that a parting of the ways was probably in the offing. By the time of BASI's prestigious 50th anniversary lunch last January [guest of honour: Sir Steve Redgrave, as BASI president] ...

BASI blows out 50 candles at the House of Commons
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2203714&highlight=basi+50th#2203714

... there was speculation of a change of executive leadership.

What is striking about the BASI statement ...

Quote:
STATEMENT
Issued 11 October 2013

BASI, the UK’s snowsport training and grading agency, supplier of professional snowsports teachers globally announced today that Chief Executive Officer, Fergus Waters is leaving after three years with the company due to personal reasons. The senior management team remains committed to the business and a continuity plan is in place.
Gareth Roberts, BASI Chairman commented “I would like to thank Fergus for his hard work and efforts over the past three years as CEO for the new ideas and connections he has bought to the company and wish him all the best for the future.”


... is the second sentence. "Continuity plan" = CEO job advertised/headhunters on it?

There does seem to have been plenty of advance knowledge of a probable change of leadership, though the situation may have been complex to resolve.
The question mark above is rhetorical - anyone know any more about the continuity plan?

The other striking phrase in that statement is the description of BASI as "supplier of professional snowsports teachers globally".

When I BASI-qualified in 1975, the organisation was purely a qualifying body and dedicated to low/moderate-cost provision of its training and exams. At a cost of around 6 weeks pocket-money-wages as an unqualified instructor in the Spey Valley (my accommodation costs were covered) I was able to do the 2-week BASI course - based at Glenmore Lodge at the foot of Cairngorm - and qualify. Now ... 38 years later ... and one obviously acknowledges that professional standards are more exacting ... teaching people to ski seems to have been turned into something vastly more complicated. In the main, we know the reality: it's a walk in the park, if approached with commonsense.

Somehow BASI seems quite an expensive and exaggerated organisation to be engaged with these days. Shouldn't young people be able to get an instructor ticket at reasonable expense, with the focus on that ... rather than something a bit commercially over-blown?

"Supplier of professional snowsports teachers globally ..." Discuss!
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Comedy Goldsmith wrote:
"Supplier of professional snowsports teachers globally ..." Discuss!
It's a statement of fact. Why does it need any discussion?
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rob@rar, poor grammar!!
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
under a new name wrote:
rob@rar, poor grammar!!
Yes, it is that. Supplier is an odd word to use in the context, but the sentiment seems just fine to me.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
under a new name wrote:
rob@rar, poor grammar!!


Is that a sentence? It doesn't contain a verb.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
That whole statement is rather odd. It reads as though BASI is a commercial enterprise rather than a membership organisation.
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 Poster: A snowHead
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laundryman, any surprises there ?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
skimottaret, not really, but it seems unguarded, or brazen.
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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?
laundryman, agreed
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Comedy Goldsmith wrote:
rob@rar wrote:
Info has been out there for several weeks.


rob@rar wrote:
... reliable info from people who knew what was happening.


I'm sure that's the case, though one could go back a good bit more (more like a year) to discover that a parting of the ways was probably in the offing. By the time of BASI's prestigious 50th anniversary lunch last January [guest of honour: Sir Steve Redgrave, as BASI president] ...

BASI blows out 50 candles at the House of Commons
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2203714&highlight=basi+50th#2203714

... there was speculation of a change of executive leadership.

What is striking about the BASI statement ...

Quote:
STATEMENT
Issued 11 October 2013

BASI, the UK’s snowsport training and grading agency, supplier of professional snowsports teachers globally announced today that Chief Executive Officer, Fergus Waters is leaving after three years with the company due to personal reasons. The senior management team remains committed to the business and a continuity plan is in place.
Gareth Roberts, BASI Chairman commented “I would like to thank Fergus for his hard work and efforts over the past three years as CEO for the new ideas and connections he has bought to the company and wish him all the best for the future.”


... is the second sentence. "Continuity plan" = CEO job advertised/headhunters on it?

There does seem to have been plenty of advance knowledge of a probable change of leadership, though the situation may have been complex to resolve.
The question mark above is rhetorical - anyone know any more about the continuity plan?

The other striking phrase in that statement is the description of BASI as "supplier of professional snowsports teachers globally".

When I BASI-qualified in 1975, the organisation was purely a qualifying body and dedicated to low/moderate-cost provision of its training and exams. At a cost of around 6 weeks pocket-money-wages as an unqualified instructor in the Spey Valley (my accommodation costs were covered) I was able to do the 2-week BASI course - based at Glenmore Lodge at the foot of Cairngorm - and qualify. Now ... 38 years later ... and one obviously acknowledges that professional standards are more exacting ... teaching people to ski seems to have been turned into something vastly more complicated. In the main, we know the reality: it's a walk in the park, if approached with commonsense.

Somehow BASI seems quite an expensive and exaggerated organisation to be engaged with these days. Shouldn't young people be able to get an instructor ticket at reasonable expense, with the focus on that ... rather than something a bit commercially over-blown?

"Supplier of professional snowsports teachers globally ..." Discuss!


I couldn't agree more.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
It appears ... taking in this story ...

BASI’s 50th anniversary year concludes
http://www.theskitrade.com/2013/10/basis-50th-anniversary-celebrations-conclude/

... that the BASI CEO's departure was announced to members one day after the annual trainers' conference in Aviemore from 8-10 October. I've had word, but not from a primary source, that the mood at the meeting was for urgent action towards appointing a new CEO. A BASI members' newsletter was published on 15 October - i.e. three days ago - so maybe this has some further information about the "continuity plan".

A special 50th anniversary BASI book was due for publication by December 2013 (BASI was founded in early 1963). Not sure if that's happening. Anyone know?
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Comedy Goldsmith,

Dodgy dealings indeed at the BASI office. How about this as a really good question for the Chairman. "When was the last time that Mr Waters spent 1 week 'behind' his desk?" Gardening leave was a common phrase I understand.

There has been much talk in the 'the valley' and in Grantown about what might have occurred which caused the CEO to be 'unavailable' for such an extended period of time.

Anyone else find it strange that an elected member of the Board is now working as a 'consultant' for BASI. AND by all accounts taking a leading role at the Trainers Conference, though he was a bit sheepish at the London General Meeting. Isn't BASI lucky that such a competent person was able to 'drop' his other obligations and commit to the Association.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Comedy Goldsmith wrote:
It appears ... taking in this story ...
A special 50th anniversary BASI book was due for publication by December 2013 (BASI was founded in early 1963). Not sure if that's happening. Anyone know?


I had noticed the proposed author of the 50th anniversary BASI book (James Cove) has clearly spent the last 6 months using his Planet Ski blog (& media contacts) to stir up anti french / ESF sentiment in the main stream UK press over the French ski hosting issue. IMHO any official BASI historian should probably be avoiding such clearly provocative and politically motivated antics ? Though perhaps the book isn't happening now... ?

Frith Finlaysons book is a good read for anyone interested in a BASI history.
A rambling but entertaining read from one of the founding members. Political in-fighting is clearly nothing new Wink
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Bindingcheck,

I understand the gist of the presentation, at the trainers conference, was to revert to colonial days and conquer the world Puzzled
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