What's in a Name?For sheer incongruity, nothing beats the "Magnificent Seven," PSIA's paean to its founders of 1961. Penned by PSIA publicist and blogger Peter Kray—not coincidentally, author of PSIA's self-published, self-congratulatory and widely-ignored "American Snow"—the weird starts with Kray's allusion to the eponymous 1960 classic Western film. There, gunfighters band together to defend Mexican villagers against marauding bandits.
If the simile here isn't crystal clear, come take a ride with me: we're headed in the same direction.
To set the proper mood, listen to Elmer Bernstein's wonderfully evocative theme music from perhaps the quintessential Western movie score:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iteRKvRKFA. (Really, you'll enjoy.) Now, imagine, back in real-life 1961, seven altruistic ski school directors gallop to the rescue of ski teachers, who seek to promote their economic and professional progress versus...wait for it...their employers, i.e., those very same ski school directors.
Gosh, what could possibly go wrong?
Spoiler AlertCuriously, PSIA has already tried to consign Kray's Magnificent Seven piece to the Internet Memory Hole; it appears nowhere on the site anymore. Fortunately, there's the Wayback Machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110305104333/http://www.thesnowpros.org/index.php/PSIA-AASI/site-info/the-magnificent-seven-part-1. Of course, there are lots of other places where the PSIA lauds its own "grassroots" founding:
http://www.google.com/search?&q=psia+founded+1961. Whatever the reasons, the disappearance of Kray's Magnificent Seven from PSIA's website got me searching for some background. (At one point I spoke with Kray on the phone, and like almost everyone I've met in the PSIA, he's sincere and intelligent.) What I learned surprised me, causing me to see PSIA's founders in an entirely new light.
At the outset, there are major discrepancies in PSIA's autobiographical myth. Starting with the obvious—and it only took me about 24 years to discover this—the present "PSIA" was founded not in 1961 but rather 1989, just a few years after I joined. (Go here
http://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityCriteriaExt.do and search on "professional ski instructors of america.") The company isn't even PSIA anymore, having changed its name nine years ago to American Snowsports Education Association, Inc. or "ASEA." (Professional Ski Instructors of America is a "d.b.a." or trade name, as is the American Association of Snowboard Instructors.)
If the company that calls itself PSIA today was founded in 1989 in Colorado instead of 1961 in Minnesota, well, so what? For one thing, it's hard to conjure a legitimate reason. ASEA itself omits any mention of it. The organization could have easily changed its name and even its state of residence (called the corporate "domicile") without the time, trouble and expense of reincorporating. (If you want to relocate your nonprofit to Colorado, you just register there.) For similar reasons, tax issues can't explain; and besides nonprofits are generally tax-exempt. If that isn't enough of a puzzle, the original Minnesota PSIA separately existed until August 6, 2012, implying that someone kept renewing the original PSIA as an independent, viable entity. In effect, until very recently there were two PSIAs.
Will the real PSIA please stand up?
Behind the NameWe'll roll up our sleeves and dig into the documents shortly—after all, you came here for the truth—but first a bit of background.
A "corporation," legally speaking, consists of a business filing with the proper Secretary of State: articles of incorporation and a fee will do it. However, all you've got there is an empty shell. When people speak of a corporation, they really mean the goals, people, assets, and functions that give life to what's otherwise just a legal fiction. Officers and directors need to be named, meetings held, by-laws adopted, operations funded, business transacted, and so on. As a practical matter these define the enterprise.
Though the public too often ignores the matter, nothing is more important to a corporation than its governance. In particular, an institution's by-laws—the rules that dictate its internal functioning—can radically affect its character and operation as an organization. The by-laws (and of course state law) determine who has power and who doesn't. It's no exaggeration to say that a corporation's by-laws comprise its "constitution."
With that in mind, let's take a look at the ASEA née PSIA.
The LegalThe original PSIA and ASEA differ constitutionally in at least three crucial respects. Today's ASEA (1) ultimately controls who may represent the association's members on the governing Board of Directors, (2) contrary to Colorado law, never calls meetings among the association's members, and (3) gives all certification levels an equal vote, regardless of professional training or experience: like giving pre-med students voting rights in the AMA.
First, in the past, regional divisions (Intermountain, West, East, etc.) would each elect a representative to serve on PSIA's Board of Directors. That's still true, but now, divisional representatives take office if, and only if, the current ASEA Board approves them. In other words, since the board can veto objectionable new directorial nominees, leadership is now essentially self-ratifying: the antithesis of grassroots. Oh, and one more thing: incoming directors need "broad, divisional responsibility at a procedural and policy-making level," or they're ineligible. I don't want to overstate the matter, but I strongly suspect that in practice this simply means, "resort management or supervisory experience strongly preferred."
Equally important, the original PSIA's by-laws dictated that annual member meetings—the nonprofit equivalent of shareholder meetings—"shall be held between the months of March and December of each year." On its terms, this rule required the nation's PSIA membership to gather together annually to meet, confer, and vote concerning PSIA business. Contrary to PSIA's prior bylaws and violating Colorado law, the ASEA never holds member meetings, because its by-laws only require them "as the Board of Directors may determine." Hence, ASEA is an "association" that doesn't associate, except on a high (and highly-controlled) level. I can't find anyone who even remembers the last association meeting.
Finally, and most important of all, the by-laws of the original PSIA gave "Full Certs" (now called Level III) double the voting power of "Associates" (Level II) while withholding voting rights entirely from "Apprentices" (Level I). Under the original system, mostly full-time, career teachers who expended the time and money needed to attain the highest certification held the most voting power. They formed the backbone of America's professional ski teacher corps and put the "P" in PSIA.
ASEA now gives equal voting rights to all three certification categories, including members with little professional training or experience. Since the vast majority of ASEA members are part-time and non-career—an inexpensive "contingent" workforce—they're far more willing to bend to a management agenda that merely provides a restricted resort pass, a uniform, and little else. A career that once aspired to professionalism increasingly reverts to a temporary, low-paying ski-bum gig. Meanwhile, PSIA's formerly-professional backbone lies crippled and powerless.
The current scheme radically departs from the founders' vision. Since more experienced teachers possess, in general, dedication to the sport as well as more refined BS sensors, the old by-laws could have opened the door to real professional progress. Instead, ASEA is driven not by experience on the hill but rather resort imperatives—read: profit—dictated by management to mostly neophyte teachers.
As I've asserted before, today the "P" in PSIA stands for part-time, partially-trained, pathetically-underpaid, and just passing-through. Since practically no one can learn a living in it anymore, I'll vote for another name change: the Poor Screwed Instructors of America.
Plot Twist or Twisted Plot?ASEA makes a mockery of PSIA's aspirations: a different name, a new corporation, a forgotten constitution, and vastly different imperatives. The unexplained 1989 abandonment of PSIA's original corporate existence, along with major changes to the organization's by-laws, transformed an arguably-professional association into today's self-dealing instrument of management. It's a time-tested totalitarian recipe: chill elected representation, omit the ingredients of meaningful association, dilute the original power base, season with myth, and only a whiff of legitimacy remains. ASEA accomplished nothing less than a corporate coup, and practically no one's the wiser.
PSIA's "Magnificent Seven" sounds self-aggrandizing alright. Given the disaster that's befallen PSIA, their like would be a welcome sight.
Best wishes,
Joseph
Ski fast, don't fall.