by snowtravel » Fri Oct 04, 2013 3:36 pm
Constituency
In the 1998 film "The Mask of Zorro," a subplot has a group of wealthy 19th-century landowners, led by California Governor Rafael Montero, scheming to buy the state. Using slave labor, Don Montero and his cohorts secretly mine gold from Santa Ana's own land, intending to fund the land purchase with it. In the main story line, a swashbuckling new Zorro—with help from the retiring Zorro—discovers the scheme, completes his own character arc, dispatches the bad guys, frees the slaves, gets the girl, and lives happily ever after.
What does this have to do with PSIA?
Well, say you're a ski school employer. Wouldn't it be deliciously evil if you could get your teacher-employees to pay you for your system of behavioral control? Like fictitious wealthy Dons, you could then use your wage-slaves' own money to pay them. And they'd keep paying too, each and every time they pay dues and take additional training or certification in the system you'd dictated, which they must (because you said so).
Better still, what if you did all this using self-dealing legerdemain, so the employees never knew they'd been taken?
Now, that would impress even Don Montero.
PSIA's Snowsports Education Revolution
According to its 1998 10k Annual Report, Vail created "new teaching and learning systems (many of which have historically been developed by the Company, sold to the Professional Ski Instructors of America and subsequently adopted as the standard for the industry)."
Let's review the important terms again, slowly: Vail created "teaching and learning systems," selling "many...to the Professional Ski Instructors of America." These were "subsequently adopted as the standard for the industry."
Vail said the same thing in its 1996 and 1997 annual reports, with only a subtle change in verbiage. Speaking about the "teaching and learning systems" it developed, Vail said "many" had "historically been purchased from the Company by the Professional Ski Instructors of America."
Crucially, Vail speaks not of one sale or purchase, but "many." It's not about a peripheral matter, but the "standard for the industry." They've been doing it not just recently but "historically."
These are SEC filings, regarded as the world's benchmark in corporate disclosure: painstakingly fact-checked, vetted by top attorneys, and enforced (in the breach) through stiff prison sentences. Against PSIA's flowery myth about the origins of its "revolutionary" system, Vail's perfunctory disclosure stands as a far more credible thesis. (Later I'll have more about PSIA's myth-making.)
Annual reports disclose only what they must, so fiscally this must have mattered to Vail, or the company wouldn't have even mentioned it. You can bet it's the truth: Vail did. And if it mattered at all to a publicly-traded company, then it mattered lots more to tiny, nonprofit PSIA.
A Revolving Door, Sans Door
When I started teaching in 1984, Horst Abraham was Vail's "technical director" (whatever that means) and had just written the PSIA's incomprehensible book, "Skiing Right." Around the same time, Vail ski school director Chris Ryman was likewise a long-time PSIA operative (demo team, etc.) before taking his place as a Vail executive. A decade later, about the time of Vail's 1996 10k, the story was the same for demo-God and Vail exec Mike Porter and a host of others.
The PSIA-industry nexus is actually a long-standing tradition, right from the gitgo. According to PSIA, in 1961 seven "instructors" founded the organization: Bill Lash, Jimmy Johnston, Paul Valar, Doug Pfeiffer, Don Rhinehart, Max Dercum, and Curt Chase. In another even more improbable Hollywood allusion, PSIA calls them, "The Magnificent Seven." (No, really.)
In truth, they weren't merely instructors, but rather ski school directors. It couldn't have been otherwise, since according to founder Curt Chase the occasion that created PSIA was "just another meeting of the National Ski Associations's Ski School Directors committee."
The point is, PSIA leaders are resort managers and execs, and vice versa. They always have been. Hence when industry does a deal with PSIA—say, for a nice book-publication contract or maybe the purchase of "systems" mandatory for every member—their agents are just bargaining with themselves. You can guess who benefits here. (Hint: it's neither the snowsports public, nor their starving teachers.)
As Don Montero asked, "Is it becoming clearer to you?"
The Real Deal, Solipsism Style
PSIA is forward-minded and many years ago reported for posterity one Vail-PSIA transaction. My undercover informer Snow_Don was personally there—NoCleverName, how'd you guess?—and provided me with an official transcript stolen from deep inside PSIA archives.
Says Snow_Don about the knockdown, drag-out fights that self-dealing negotiations foment: "You could feel the tension that morning. I knew that "Bob" [not his real name] was serious about securing the best contract terms he could for PSIA's members because he arrived in his Demo Team hat. I mean, he was armed for bear."
Here's the verbatim transcript, never before published:
Bob: We're on the record with Bob, VP of Vail Operations. I'm Bob, Education VP representing PSIA. We have authority to negotiate the purchase and sale of Vail's new teaching and learning system, correct Bob?
(Whereupon, Bob removed his hat and donned a Vail Resorts, Inc. logo hat.)
Bob: (Now wearing Vail hat) Yes, all the papers have been drafted and I'm ready to execute. When we last visited this deal, your concerns were cost, deliverables, and disclosure.
Bob: (Switching to his PSIA hat) That's right.
[From here on, the shorthand reporter inexplicably fails to record which hat Bob is wearing. -Ed.]
Bob: I've spoken to the Vail people, and they've authorized a final counter.
(Whereupon, Bob wrote on a piece of paper and handed it to himself.)
Bob: That's no change from your last number Bob. Our membership won't tolerate...
Bob: ...I don't think…
Bob: ...we'll have to increase membership dues, and there's already push-back from the rank and file. The deliverables now include a whole new Customer Service Model that will cost our members more time and money, while diminishing their principal teaching mission. They'll have to pay out-of-pocket for training that was once compensated as company orientation. Plus, there's a whole new set of other expensive manuals with unfamiliar jargon. Almost all PSIA members already have second and third jobs, so this means a substantial loss of income as well as higher costs.
Bob: We've been through all of this before, Bob. Vail's approved the deal, and PSIA members will take what we give them. It's always this way.
Bob: I'm sorry Bob, the new deliverables just don't justify the price.
Bob: Says who?
Bob: There's some guy in Utah complaining. A Level III. He's been writing letters.
Bob: What kind of letters? All the new stuff is still secret.
Bob: You know, the usual nattering. Thinks our content should be be written in complete sentences and professionally edited. Based on facts, experience and maybe even science. Logically organized. Before adoption, he wants it published to the membership for review and comment. He's basically saying that we shouldn't just pull it out of our asses. Worries me.
Bob: Bob, I'll tell you what's going to happen here. With real wages falling, staffing levels rising and hours getting cut, this L3 guy is just another short-timer. Let the PSIA telegraph work and he'll never make DCL [Division Clinic Leader]. I've seen it dozens of times; he'll be gone in a year or two.
Bob: Are we disclosing? What if he finds out about the deal?
Bob: He won't. Since it's material, Vail has to disclose in its annual report, at least for a couple of years. But we'll just bury it in the text. No one needs to know the numbers. Heck, no one in ski school ever reads the 10k anyway. PSIA doesn't need to say anything at all. We'll just print up the new books without attribution and have them drop-shipped to regional divisions like we always do. What are they gonna say: No?
Bob: You drive a hard bargain Bob. I mean, you know so much about our organization, its structure and people and economics. I feel like you can see right through me. This job is so stressful, I, I...
Bob: ...yes, Bob...
Bob: ...I need a promotion.
Bob: I understand Bob. I really do.
Just a Bad Movie
The provenance of PSIA's systems isn't the fairy tale we've been told. The public record lays it bare: they're the product of self-dealing among PSIA, its fiduciaries, and one of the largest corporate players in the business. Using our dues and fees, and without our knowledge, PSIA bought Vail's systems for undisclosed sums. Historically they've done so many times.
These systems are neither organic nor "student centered." Rather, they're corporate-created and hence corporate-centered. When we train in these systems, and train our students in them, we're all serving a corporate agenda.
That's the true "snowsports instruction revolution."
Take heart, PSIA members: if you suck it up and work for Vail Resorts, Inc.—as increasingly you must if you want to work at all—you can earn your money back. All of which leaves just one more question:
Where the hell is Zorro?
Best wishes,
Joseph
Ski fast, don't fall.