Craftsbury Ski Club: useful info to start the season
Hello, skiers and families,
We’re excited to have you skiing with us this year, whether you’re a veteran of our programs or it’s your first time. This blog has some information to help get us all off to a smooth start this winter. Please read through even if you’ve been skiing with us for years.
Save the date for program kickoff meetings!
Sunday, 11/9 @ 11:00am: in-person meeting for juniors and U14s. This is for parents and athletes. Attendance required—email coaches to set up another time to meet if you absolutely cannot make it.
Tuesday, 11/18 @ 4:00pm: BKL info meeting. This will be remote via Microsoft Teams (no special app, login, etc. should be required). It will also be recorded and notes will be sent out after for families that can’t make it. Join HERE.
Masters/adults: y’all usually have your acts together and don’t need a group info session—just reach out to us with questions.
Communication
Emailing with coaches: questions about BKL programs (grades 1-8) should be sent to BKL@craftsbury.com. Questions about U14/Junior programs should be sent to jrskiing@craftsbury.com. Questions about adult/masters programs should go to masters@craftsbury.com. Questions about biathlon programs should go to biathlon@craftsbury.com. You can also reach out to specific coaches (or groups of us) on Slack—see below.
Slack: Slack is our primary communication platform, with lots of information also getting posted on our website (more about that below).
Why we use it: Slack frankly works much better than maintaining an email list for ~300 people, especially because emails wind up in spam. Slack also enables program participants to easily connect with each other for things like carpooling or seeking misplaced mittens without working through the coaching staff. Additionally, Slack is useful for coaches to quickly send out updates for specific groups, like letting junior parents know when we are running late returning from a race due to bad weather, etc.
How to use it: Click this invite link. You’ll need to set up a Slack account in our Craftsbury Ski Club “workspace.” You can choose whether you want to use Slack through an internet browser or download the app to your phone or computer. Once you’ve joined our Slack workspace, you’re automatically part of the “All-Programs” channel. That’s a good start! But also please join the channel specific to your program: go to the channel dropdown in the sidebar, hit the “more actions” dots; go to “manage”; and go to “browse.” A list of channels will appear. Find the one with the name of your program group and join it. Adults/masters should join their specific cohort and also #all-adults.
After you’ve joined Slack and the right channels, configure your notifications how you’d like. And please practice good Slack etiquette—don’t clutter it up. We ask that the #all-programs channel is reserved for coach postings only unless you’ve run it by coaches first or it’s something truly relevant for everyone in the club. To contact specific people, use the direct message function instead of posting to the whole channel.
General program stuff: please make sure you have read through the description of the program for which you are registered so that you know when practices start, what gear you need, etc.
Weekly schedule and updates
Every week (typically on Sunday afternoons/evenings), we post a new blog on our Club Updates page. That page has additional resources, too. The weekly blog has a link to the week’s training plan and whatever other info is relevant for the coming week. Note that the training plan has info for ALL of our groups, so you’ll need to identify what’s relevant for just your group. The numbered columns on the side are for juniors (high schoolers) targeting a certain training volume—you can ignore that if you’re not in the junior group.
When we post the blog for the coming week, we send out a nudge on Slack letting you know it’s up.
Attendance form: we ask that, once your group has started practices, you fill out a very brief attendance form at the start of each week to let us know if you’re coming to practice. It is always linked on the club updates page and in the blog. You just type your name (or your kid’s name) and check off the days they’ll be there. It takes 15 seconds and really helps us make sure we have a handle on numbers. If your plans change, just fill it out again with UPDATE after your name.
Equipment rentals and fittings: learn more about season-long equipment rentals for kids here. Yes, they’re up and running for the season! If you want to rent gear but haven’t done so yet, please hop on it, as rentals get harder to fulfill the closer we get to winter. When you rent equipment, please make a note of the fitting time you select and reach out to us if you need to change it. Note that, starting this year, we no longer have an option for our grade 1-4 skiers to borrow skate gear from the Touring Center. You need to acquire all the equipment for both techniques, whether you rent for the season or go another route.
Team uniforms and jackets: these are totally optional. A few points:
Uniforms/jackets are for sale in the clubhouse for another week, and then will be available in our main office (white farmhouse building).
We do rent out uniforms and jackets. Supply is limited. These are available on the rental platform.
General program information: there’s a whole pile of information in our club handbook, our FAQs, and also just lurking around our website. Please poke around and reach out to the coaching staff with questions.