FWSA Convention in Portland, OR

The Public Affairs sponsored panels at the 2002 FWSA Convention in Portland were again very successful. Guest panelists included Mike Heilman, Regional Special Use Coordinator and Kimberly Evart Bown, Director of Recreation, Lands, and Minerals Resources, both of the Pacific Northwest Region, USDA Forest Service. A third guest panelist was Scott Kaden, President of the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association.

This esteemed panel was assembled two different sessions to address the wide variety of Public Affairs areas, to handle the tough questions and address the major issues. The first panel focused on the areas that Public Affairs cover, including development, safety, ski area concerns, legislation and transportation. The second session extended those conversations and covered the Forest Service, area development and history.

We updated the delegates on the most recent activity in group insurance coverage based on "source of injury". Mike and Kimberly were very enlightening on the NFS views concerning lease management, event management and area development, including the recently announced plans for Mount Hood Meadows. Scot also provided great insight from the ski area management perspective.

As always, helmet wearing continues as an issue of a very personal nature. FWSA ensures widest dissemination of helmet-related information and encourages members to consider helmets as attractive, on-mountain apparel. Several helmet-related issues appear on our web page.

The Forest Service panelists also provided interesting discussions of forestry and why we should all be concerned about preservation and management of our forests. Their wide ranging knowledge of how that bureaucracy is managed and its priorities were very enlightening. I was also able to provide insight on my trip to the Forest Service Winter Recreation Officers meeting held in March of 02. Specifically, a discussion I had on how we can help. The particular points made were that FWSA provides a ready made advocacy group, knowledge in many of the current issues, a good sounding board for issues, a willing partner in wise development issues and a strong proponent of the good work done by the NFS.

Each panelist was very adept as they fielded a series of thought provoking and sometimes funny questions from the assembled delegates. We feel strongly that we are providing the very best in qualified panelists for your enjoyment and will give careful consideration to our panel construction for Portland in '02. As always, your inputs and feedback are welcome. All in all, it was an exciting panel series! Thanks to our esteemed panelists. I know they had as much fun as we did.

During the weekend and at the dinner we also had special guests and former Olympians Billy Kidd, AJ Kitt, Deb Armstrong and Bill Johnson.