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Ski Club of Great Britain Chief Exec resigns

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Quote:
...
not clear why a rep is needed who ski with each group


To satisfy your every desire.
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Seems like the "chat forum" has been dumped now. Can't find it on the home page and when you access directly there is pretty much zero content (all "archived") somewhere.

It's tumbleweeds blowing through an empty club house.
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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?
davidof wrote:
On the rocks wrote:


The SCGB will soon end up as nothing more or less than an up-market holiday company


There are a lot of similarities between snowheads and the SCGB

Both are principally a package holiday business.

Really?

Is Snowheads even a business? Genuine question as I didn't think it was.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
@Layne, well, it's not altruistic
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
holidayloverxx wrote:
@Layne, well, it's not altruistic

Is it not?

I sure Graeme gets a free spot on the bashes and what not but does he make a living from it?

Does Snowheads have any assets?

Is it registered at Companies House?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
@Layne, don't know the answer to the last 2 points, and not really interested...but there is paid advertising, subs from super-mega snowheads
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Somebody has to feed the hamsters.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
davidof wrote:
Seems like the "chat forum" has been dumped now. Can't find it on the home page and when you access directly there is pretty much zero content (all "archived") somewhere.

It's tumbleweeds blowing through an empty club house.


It's there on the home page but you are right about tumbleweed. It does throw up the occasional eye-opener though.

In the absence of that report from the Interim Chairman, now nearly 2 MONTHS LATE, here’s one from the forum that caught my eye.

According to Pisteoff there is to be an austerity-style cut to the one service many members hold dearest, the reps program:

Quote:
The £60k cut is insulting to members and reps - and totally unnecessary - there are other places we can make cuts, and it is a fraction of the amount wasted on a CEO (recruitment, employment and over generous termination), a fraction of office refurbishment costs (now to be written off) a fraction of amount wasted on "ego marketing" and excessive office costs, and we still spend what £250k pa on finance ... we need to cut head office costs, not member services.


I hope Pisteoff doesn’t mind me quoting that but he can blame the Interim Chairman for not doing what he said he’d do.

Aside from cutting a vital Member benefit (and the one remaining USP) when it’s the overheads that are at fault, the line that stands out is “over generous termination” payment to the outgoing CEO. By “over generous” I’m assuming he got more than he was contractually entitled to? Why is the very person being blamed for all this getting that and how much was it? As we know the rest of his package, surely no harm in hearing about this too.

Why was there a recruitment cost for a CEO who simply went from Treasurer, to acting CEO and then got wafted into the hot seat before the CV was thoroughly checked. Google him and it’s all a bit of a blank and there are mutterings about that. Maybe, at the very worst, pay a ‘kill fee’ to the headhunter, but there shouldn’t be a recruitment cost.

Office refurb? Last time I leased a building it came all beautifully done up already. A write off? Already?

£250k pa on finance?!?! To who? The financial control has been appalling.

As they say on Dragons’ Den “I’m out”.
ski holidays
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Pruman wrote:
davidof wrote:
Seems like the "chat forum" has been dumped now. Can't find it on the home page and when you access directly there is pretty much zero content (all "archived") somewhere.

It's tumbleweeds blowing through an empty club house.


It's there on the home page but you are right about tumbleweed. It does throw up the occasional eye-opener though.

hmm yes, in a dull grey box, my bad. It is a "chat forum" lacking any chat. They may as well kill it.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Quote:

It is a "chat forum" lacking any chat. They may as well kill it.


Missed out on the dead parrot sketch? snowHead
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Layne wrote:
davidof wrote:
On the rocks wrote:


The SCGB will soon end up as nothing more or less than an up-market holiday company


There are a lot of similarities between snowheads and the SCGB

Both are principally a package holiday business.

Really?

Is Snowheads even a business? Genuine question as I didn't think it was.


I always thought kind of. Happy
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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.
Layne wrote:
holidayloverxx wrote:
@Layne, well, it's not altruistic

Is it not?

I sure Graeme gets a free spot on the bashes and what not but does he make a living from it?

Does Snowheads have any assets?

Is it registered at Companies House?


ans

1) possibly

2) free spot... I dont care

3) Assets... None of my business and don't care and certianly doesn't affect me on snowheads. BUt I assume so because I've seen him on a laptop. Happy

4) companies house...... Heck I've had a sole trader business before and not been registered at companies house. As are most plumbers, taxi drivers, electricians etc etc.

In a nutshell. I couldnt care less.

Are you Davine golden balls? Happy
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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
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
@GlasgowCyclops,
Very Happy
Quote:

3) Assets... None of my business and don't care and certianly doesn't affect me on snowheads. BUt I assume so because I've seen him on a laptop.


Neck buffs and snowHead stickers too? Perhaps the main asset that differentiates from SCGB in recent years is goodwill?
snowHead
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
AL9000 wrote:
Quote:
...
not clear why a rep is needed who ski with each group


To satisfy your every desire.

Hmm!
Well yes but seems an expensive overhead on members when most travel companies reps are often not seen unless called in case if need?
Especially when a real guide is included anyway
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
PeakyB wrote:
Neck buffs and snowHead stickers too? Perhaps the main asset that differentiates from SCGB in recent years is goodwill?
snowHead


And of course a few years back when the annual Birmingham ski show was still a thing the sHs stand (unlike the SCGB stand) had spacehoppers for visitors to use...... Madeye-Smiley


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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Legend goes, the last summit meeting between the heads of SCGB and SH was at that very ski show, and on that very space hopper...
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Legend further suggests that the SCGB on noting this initiative immediately hired consultants on the the basis of Chap A's cousin does a bit of that doesn't he and can spell "technology" and for the modest investment of £0.5bn of members funds created the SCGway (skeg - way)which had to be scrapped when it was found to explode injuring all squirrels hearing in a 2 mile blast radius.....
snow conditions
 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?
@Dave of the Marmottes, I think I remember it well - they were testing it down on Wimbledon Common. They say that the test pilot appeared on the Heathrow approach radar for a full minute...

The problem was when they tried to combine the hopper with the ski poles...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
@Richard_Sideways,
Well with just one hopper it's way too similar to snow boarding don't you know.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Was that the same test pilot who tied a bunch of helium balloons to his chaise lounge and was sighted by airline pilots? True story; he violated airspace at LAX and ended up in power lines. Which sort of capsulizes this entire thread!
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Meanwhile Gerry is threatening to resign from council and cancel his membership. He seems a tad peeved with SCGB member's apathy.
ski holidays
 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
esaw1 wrote:
Meanwhile Gerry is threatening to resign from council and cancel his membership. He seems a tad peeved with SCGB member's apathy.


Maybe the majority of members are dead but their SO just go on.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
esaw1 wrote:
Meanwhile Gerry is threatening to resign from council and cancel his membership. He seems a tad peeved with SCGB member's apathy.


Say it ain't so. Which hero/vigilante will drop into the batcave to wear the cape and cowl and defeat the joker's bedwetting forces Laughing
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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.
esaw1 wrote:
Meanwhile Gerry is threatening to resign from council and cancel his membership. He seems a tad peeved with SCGB member's apathy.


Or maybe the gravy on the train has dried up?

Angus Maciver, the new General manager, has given an update and looks like Reps (inc @Gerry) will have to part fund their fun!

Quote:
Long post warning!

The job we have for this year is a fine balancing act. Cost versus conservative revenue assumptions versus Covid uncertaintly/risk.

We are unsure of what the holiday season will look like so we have reduced our holiday programme and ensured it can make some money by increasing the prices and focussing on the most popular destinations.

We have cut the cost of Ski & Board (which is seem as more important for more members than Reps are), cut the brochure cost by 40%, reduced the team by 30%, reduced the cost of the GM significantly (by 60% for the moment) and overall reduced our spending by 50%. We'd like to cut the office cost and are actively marketing it but these are not the best times to find a new tenant!

These are uncertain times and cutting the finance team right now, just when we have a good grasp of what we are doing was felt to be a risky move.

We have been conservative on Partnerships income and reduced the assumption on insurance - we may be wrong but we don't want to over promise this year. As for the team, it's easy to say "cut them more" "we don't need 18 people" - we have been through each role and our judgement is that to maintain the services we provide to the number of members we have would be difficult with fewer people.

So to the cost of Reps - everything else is cut by 50%, we have reduced the Reps budget this year by around 30% to provide less risk to the plan. If we have a better year, it may be that we can repair this sooner or later but it doesn't seem unreasonable to ask Reps for some relatively small contribution in return for the accommodation, pass and meals they enjoy in resort for the c.2000 members who ski with them (10% of the membership). The plan would be to keep the Reps service pretty much as it is to members, perhaps expanding the service a little with volunteers both for on snow and in resort social reps. So to members they would see little difference, for Reps they would have to contribute some more for the next year, the early feedback is that most Reps are willing to do this to help out - at least for a year.

If we do all this we have a strong chance of a break even year from which to build a stronger membership offer and a more active Marketing programme in future.


Good to see some openness but some big cuts there.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
@Pruman, Classic symptoms of the gravy train drying up - they all start turning on each other, trying to make sure they get as much as possible of what's left.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
@eblunt, Or maybe just an old skool toys-out-of-pram-wet-nappy tantrum? Madeye-Smiley
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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.
Wow only 10% of membership use the reps - the rest are paying £60 a year for a holiday brochure or a tired magazine of what 5 issues?
snow report
 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
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
@Dave of the Marmottes, are you bovvered? Is it not up to the 90% paying £60 a year for a holiday brochure or a tired magazine to decide whether that's what they want to do? It's their call.
snow conditions
 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
achilles wrote:
@Dave of the Marmottes, are you bovvered? Is it not up to the 90% paying £60 a year for a holiday brochure or a tired magazine to decide whether that's what they want to do? It's their call.


Agreed, though of course the numbers prepared to make that call will be reflected in the SCGB's membership numbers over the next few years....
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
Wow only 10% of membership use the reps - the rest are paying £60 a year for a holiday brochure or a tired magazine of what 5 issues?
And those 10% are more likely to vote, which will be why senior management are taken from them as per a previous post.
I think this was the essence of points made by DG years ago.

My understanding is that the pseudo-guiding business in France was a loss maker, so that 10% needs to come down.
If they want to maintain scale they could increase the number of non-service-using punters.

What did I miss?

----------
As far as the "Long post warning" posted earlier. 426 words isn't very long - perhaps it too was cut?

The problem with the stated approach is that anyone who's any good will jump ship at their leisure,
rather than wait until "management" decide they're no longer affordable.

Looking at their digital assets, I don't see much which speaks to the qualities of their staff,
so I'd go the other way and cut as hard as possible immediately, and focus on
net-contributor members (not the 10%, then) until the burn-rate is in control.

Or you can play defence...
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
achilles wrote:
@Dave of the Marmottes, are you bovvered? Is it not up to the 90% paying £60 a year for a holiday brochure or a tired magazine to decide whether that's what they want to do? It's their call.


Not directly but it's interesting to understand what people are willing to pay for more generally as the world moves increasingly to a subscription model for many services and even goods. For all the fuss made about leading services I expected rather more than 10% of the membership to avail themselves of them, given it seems to be the only unique thing the SCGB has going for it. Maybe I've missed it and the magazine is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius etc.
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Has @Gerry gone? He seems very active in the other place all of a sudden (possibly doubling its post count this year).
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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?
philwig wrote:


Looking at their digital assets, I don't see much which speaks to the qualities of their staff,
so I'd go the other way and cut as hard as possible immediately, and focus on
net-contributor members (not the 10%, then) until the burn-rate is in control.

Or you can play defence...


Yes, it struck me that the current policy is death by a thousand cuts. They need to drastically reduce office costs - but they seem to want to continue with those and cut services. So they'll end up with an office staff, subscribers and no real services to offer.

BASI with its near bankruptcy has started on the route of cutting office costs to a level that can be sustained by the membership.
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@davidof, "our judgement is that to maintain the services we provide to the number of members we have would be difficult with fewer people.

Therein lies the problem. Obviously maintaining a service with fewer people will be difficult, it's whether you have the guts to face up to impending financial problems and tackle them. Plus the fact it's people who you know and making those decisions is much harder than cancelling some marketing.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Quote:

We'd like to cut the office cost and are actively marketing it but these are not the best times to find a new tenant!


Yup, so whatever they do in terms of reducing headcount or encouraging staff to work from home, they're still on the hook for a lease which they can't cancel (the latest accounts say "the Group had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases" which in 2019 totalled £121K). This is not a huge amount per year, but with a 40% cut in staff and people now more keen to work from home, that's even less of a wise decision now than when it was taken. I wonder if that was a 5, 10 or 25 year lease signed in October 2017...
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davidof wrote:
... They need to drastically reduce office costs - but they seem to want to continue with those and cut services.

The indication above is that there are now 18 staff, which is a significant cut from the 32 further up the thread. But I agree that 18 still seems a lot for a membership of around 20-30,000, if for 90% all they have to do is send renewal and AGM notices, collect a subscription, and issue a magazine 5 times a year.

I guess the 10% that use the reps are the proportion in any one year. It would be interesting to know what proportion have used them at all. If say 50% use them once every 5 years, because in other years they go to resorts where reps aren't available, the model suddenly looks a lot more sustainable.
ski holidays
 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
ecureuil wrote:
... I guess the 10% that use the reps are the proportion in any one year. ... the model suddenly looks a lot more sustainable.
The number is only meaningful if computed as you suggest. I'm sure they spotted that, but it's true they did not spell it out.

If they mean "10% of people use the service at least once in a 5 year window", then the costs for the service per
member per use is increased, and the amount of cross-subsidy are higher because the number benefiting is reduced.

I'm thinking that "club for people who want to pay to follow someone around a resort" isn't a great
company name, but it may be more accurate than "scgb". If that is in practice the purpose of the organisation.

In North America free "leading" services are usually included with the lift ticket. The cost is the same
if you use these services or if you don't, like the scgb. The key difference is that the ticket price is mandatory,
and the amount of the cross-subsidy is negligible as the "hosts" just get a free lift pass.
ski holidays
 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
eblunt wrote:
@davidof, "our judgement is that to maintain the services we provide to the number of members we have would be difficult with fewer people.

Therein lies the problem. Obviously maintaining a service with fewer people will be difficult, it's whether you have the guts to face up to impending financial problems and tackle them. Plus the fact it's people who you know and making those decisions is much harder than cancelling some marketing.


I think I'd challenge whether the "services" they provide are actually something the members notice and value. Is it they receive the magazine passively and maybe flip through it cos it's there or they eagerly anticipate it? Is it that really value "exclusive" freshtracks holidays or just like the idea of ability targeted holidays but may never take them.

I'm a member of the National Trust - I value my entitlement to car parking and entrance to properties when they open up. I rarely if ever open the magazines, newsletters and thick handbooks. Occasionally open the app but simply to check opening/closing times & dates which I'd just google otherwise. Now all that print media takes a bunch of resource and people but it's wasted on me (in fact should probably see if I can opt out of physical mailings).
ski holidays
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Quote:

Looking at their digital assets, I don't see much which speaks to the qualities of their staff,


@philwig

About a year ago I spotted they were advertising a role as a content writer at something like £22-24k p.a.
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Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
eblunt wrote:
@davidof, "our judgement is that to maintain the services we provide to the number of members we have would be difficult with fewer people.

Therein lies the problem. Obviously maintaining a service with fewer people will be difficult, it's whether you have the guts to face up to impending financial problems and tackle them. Plus the fact it's people who you know and making those decisions is much harder than cancelling some marketing.


I think I'd challenge whether the "services" they provide are actually something the members notice and value. Is it they receive the magazine passively and maybe flip through it cos it's there or they eagerly anticipate it? Is it that really value "exclusive" freshtracks holidays or just like the idea of ability targeted holidays but may never take them.

I'm a member of the National Trust - I value my entitlement to car parking and entrance to properties when they open up. I rarely if ever open the magazines, newsletters and thick handbooks. Occasionally open the app but simply to check opening/closing times & dates which I'd just google otherwise. Now all that print media takes a bunch of resource and people but it's wasted on me (in fact should probably see if I can opt out of physical mailings).


A very good analogy. I too am a member of the National Trust, and I've finally trained them not to waste money sending me stuff. All I want is to visit places and use free parking at some beaches. I would think the SCGB magazine is similar ( I've seen a few copies in the past ). If I was stuck in an underground mining disaster I'd possibly get round to reading it once I'd finished all the copies of "The Actuary".

I wonder how many members of staff are employed to prouced something as unwanted as that.
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