(This is a work in progress.
Your ideas would be very much appreciated.)
Leaving active service doesn't have to mean saying good-bye to the NSPS. Not at all! If patrolling has been an important part of your life, and you'd like to continue that enjoyable relationship with the NSPS and your Patrol or another Patrol, why not consider the Alumni Membership status?
Here are just some of the ways in which you could continue to participate:* **
Here's the official scoop.
If you are a former patroller and you would like to maintain an affiliation with the national Ski Patrol, there's a place for you as an NSP Alumni Member.
An alumni member is a special registration category for people who, for various reasons, no longer wish to provide emergency care or rescue services but wish to continue their involvement with the National Ski Patrol.
The NSP alumni members started in 1977 to maintain contact with former members and keep them informed of national events and activities. Today, the alumni members total more than 2,200 nationally.
By joining as an Alumni Member, you can continue to be a part of the largest winter rescue organization in the world. Better yet, your involvement provides you with an opportunity to support the national organization on a new level.
To become an Alumni Member, you won't be required to fulfill any additional skill or educational requirements; however, depending upon local needs and your experience, you might be asked to serve in an advisory capacity to local units (e.g.. Patrols) of the NSP, for example during annual refreshers or as an OEC instructor**.
Several areas have already taken advantage of their alumni's local knowledge and experience. A valued force within the NSPS, alumni members often attend ski patrol public relations events, help recruit new members, provide administrative and OEC help, give safety talks, and participate in other community service activities.
Regardless of the scope of your involvement, becoming an alumni member enables you to contribute to the success of ski patrolling at the local or any other level within the NSPS.
As an Alumni Member, you will receive
Regular fee: Alumni dues are only $27 annually, $17 of which covers administrative costs and the remaining $10 is returned to the Division with which the alumni member is affiliated.
Lifetime membership fee: Active patrollers who are lifetime members keep that status upon becoming an alumni member. Patrollers who wish to become an alumni member, as lifetime members, may do so for a one-time fee of $400, which helps support the NSP endowment fund. They will receive a Lifetime Membership Pin and a walnut framed Lifetime Membership Certificate.
Simply print and fill out the application form and mail it, along with the membership fee, to the National Ski Patrol, 133 South Van Gordon Street, Suite 100, Lakewood, CO 80228. Please make the check payable to National Ski Patrol. (To print the application form, first display it with your browser, and then either click the "print" button, or choose "File" and then "Print..." from the menus.)
Alumni membership benefits you personally, and your financial support helps ensure a strong and viable organization dedicated to ski safety and quality education programs.
If you are planning to be affiliated with a Patrol, perhaps the first person to talk with would be the Patrol Representative. You could begin to discuss the assignments and responsibilities you might assume.
If you are planning to participate at the Section, Region, Division, or National level(s), you should contact the appropriate advisor(s) or officer(s) and begin a similar dialog.
"To utilize the expertise, knowledge and energies of those who have retired from active patrolling while extending them recognition, dignity and rewards that they have earned." Have fun!
*We wish to thank Nancy Elliott-Miya, Intermountain
Division Alumni Coordinator, for permission to reprint her list of "some
of the ways in which a patroller can continue to participate" with the NSPS.
**Some of these activities require continued recertification, and may require
additional training and certification.
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