A Letter To Our Associate Suppliers

I’ll be honest.  This is info-heavy.  It is for all companies that supply the ski industry with goods, equipment, and services and who support its workforce in the northwest.  It has been a disruptive couple of years, for everyone.  In order for us to get back into the swing of things, we have some housekeeping that needs doing and some fun that needs having.  I’ll get to that.

To start, I need to talk about the PNSAA’s Associate Supplier membership level.  The association basically needs a new membership drive for associate suppliers, or a returning membership drive. It’s a combo of both, really.  What used to be a member level that had over 100 suppliers, is now down to just 20 supplier members who are current with their membership dues for 2021-2022.  We have only met 20% of our supplier member budget target this year.  Part of the drop is due to covid, to be sure.  Part of it could be due to me.  We have not sent out paper invoices as often as you saw in years past, relying on email and the invoice being posted openly on our website instead. This was done in the spirit of giving you as much flexibility as possible during these challenging times. As it turns out, snail mail probably still has value.   

With the hope that covid will calm by April, which is the start of our next member year, I’m reaching out to all stakeholders to help us beef up our supplier member organizations at that point.  I’m not concerned about the remaining two months of the current membership year, we will survive.  I would like to ask all you supplier types. You behind-the-scenes magic makers.  Old and new. Please turn your heads toward our new membership year and the return of our tradeshow.  Let’s go bigger than ever.  Your support truly goes a long way in both sustaining the ski areas through your products and relationships, and it goes a long way in helping us to produce our amazing spring conference and tradeshow – and all of the workforce education we strive to provide to our member ski areas. 

The PNSAA is planning on the return of our spring conference and tradeshow in 2022, for which we will be shifting gears a bit as we come back from 2 lost years.  We will be rebranding the conference. The tradeshow won’t be changing. It will remain the high-flow venue for our Tuesday evening welcome reception, and as the lunch and tradeshow on Wednesday.  However, we do need to fine-tune the sponsorships.

Many of our 2020 conference sponsors had submitted payment before we had to cancel that year, and generously let us keep those funds to be rolled over to when we are up and running again.  Most of those sponsorship opportunities will remain the same, so rolling them over is easy in those cases. A few others will no longer be a part of the conference. While these few options are gone, new ones are in their place. If yours is one of the rare cases where the roll-over is now changed, you’ve likely already heard from us. I’d like to fill everyone in on the changes and talk about the opportunities for this year. 

Beginning in 2022 our workforce educational efforts including the conference will now be known as, Mountain Works.  The PNSAA remains the same trade association and non-profit entity, but our workforce education efforts will now be focused under that new name.  Some key points regarding sponsorships for this year are:   

• We will no longer print a conference booklet.  Ads and sponsorships that have historically been placed there are no longer available in that format.  Instead, we will be using the same mobile app that the NSAA has been using for their virtual events and their in-person Mountain Technology Symposium (R.I.P. NSAA Western Winter Conference 2022).  Conference material sponsorships will now be available in the app.  If you have participated in the NSAA virtual events you are already familiar with Whova. We are excited to now use Whova’s onsite components at Mountain Works this spring.

•  We won’t be holding our awards ceremony in the same way that we had in years past.  We will still be recognizing the best of us, just not on Wednesday night.  The entire middle day of the conference will now become an all-member, all-day-long event; The Mountain Works Assembly.  Our awards will be woven into the new event. This means that the sponsorship opportunities for the historical evening awards ceremony are no more. This also means that new Mountain Works Assembly has new sponsorship opportunities.   This replaces the former awards ceremony sponsorships. 

• Our conference educational format will shift a bit.  Because we are using more of the available time for our day long general session, The Mountain Works Assembly, our traditional line of workforce education “tracks” will be disrupted a bit this year.  We are still sorting out those details and sponsorship options, particularly for those who rolled over from 2020. 

• While the above opportunities speak to specific line-item sponsorships, the Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze sponsorship levels are also very important contributions that provide us the flexibility to fund all other aspects of the conference.  Simply put, we need production dollars this year. If you have never sponsored us before, or have sponsored only line-item components, this could be your year to provide the association with maximum flexibility.   

So what do associate suppliers need to do now?

• When conference registration and tradeshow booth registration goes live on February 1st, please know where you stand in terms of your PNSAA membership.  The PNSAA membership years runs from April- March.  So the 2022 conference and tradeshow falls in the next membership year. That makes it tricky to register now, under pretenses of a future member year and the associated levels of tradeshow fees based on your membership status.  That’s always been the case. The honor system remains intact. Associate Supplier Members who are current on their dues are Listed Here.

• If you are current on your membership dues for 2021-2022 (the current member year), register for your booth begining February 1st- at the member rate – and don’t forget to submit your new membership year dues as a separate check made payable to PNSAA in April. The accounts don’t want them now. They want them in April. The honor system is in place.

• If you are not current on your membership dues, but can commit to renewing or joining in April, go ahead and register for your booth at the membership rate, and don’t forget to submit your new membership year dues as a separate check made payable to PNSAA in April.  You’ll see the membership invoice in March. The honor system is in place.  If a supplier ends up taking a booth at the member rate, and then ends up not submitting membership dues in April, they will be invoiced for the difference at the non-member booth rate for the tradeshow.  While the honor system is in place, it will be backed up should the spreadsheets conflict.   

---

If you are interested in becoming an Associate Supplier member of the association, GO HERE.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of The Mountain Works Conference and Tradeshow, GO HERE.

Thank you for supporting The Pacific Northwest Ski Areas.

Sincerley,

Jordan Elliott
President, PNSAA