My copy of Ski Patrol magazine Winter 2016 edition (Volume 33-2) came in the mail today with an article by David Bramel titled “Instructor Tracking.” The last article that I wrote for NH Region members on this subject was back in 2014, seeing Mr. Bramel commenting on the same subject inspired me to include some of his great insights.
“Instructor Tracking” by David Bramel, Ski Patrol Magazine Winter 2016 issue
Back in the early 2000’s, NSP created the Instructor Activity Log, which gets added to the member’s profile once they receive an Instructor’s Appointment. About that time NSP also eliminated the Instructor’s Supplemental form from the back pages of the Course Completion Record. The original idea was that Instructors would be better at maintaining their own teaching activities.
Unfortunately, this concept was not well embraced by Division and Region program supervisors. Perhaps it included too many cumbersome steps to verify activity logs. When I was the Region’s S&T Supervisor, accessing teaching activity logs of the NH ATI’s was never extended to me. I knew the courses that Region Staff members were teaching, because these were events managed at the region level, but any of the handfuls of Alpine Toboggan Instructors that taught only at their own ski area, never crossed my desk.
When Instructor Development pushed out the updated manuals, forms and procedures in January 2014, the Instructor Supplemental at the end of the Course Completion Record, re-appeared. Division supervisors missed the old supplemental form, so it was added back with a new title: “Instructor’s Teaching or Assisting with Course.” However, it continues to be important for individual Instructor’s to maintain their own teaching activity log; because as an instructor you should be emailing a copy of your log to your Region Program Supervisors/Advisors at the conclusion of every season. But isn’t NSP working on a new computer system for tracking education?
Yes, according to NSP Chairman Ed McNamara, the new IT roll-out for tracking educational courses will be debuting by the end of summer 2016. But the IT Committee has not detailed how comprehensive the new computer system will be. Those of you who have been tracking your teaching for the last decade definitely have built-in tools for exporting your activity log. In the meantime, lets remember to maintain our own individual Instructor’s Activity Log.
NH Instructors can visit the Region’s DOWNLOADS page for Instructor Resources and use “How to maintain you personal INSTRUCTOR ACTIVITY LOG” link to learn about this NSP resource. If you read Mr. Bramel’s article in the current Ski Patrol magazine, be sure to visit the four page tutorial that he highlights. The tutorial is a more visual step by step approach to learning about the Instructor’s Activity Log. It was created by an Ohio Region member named Jim Vickroy and can be found here:
- Opening Your Activity Log
- Adding Entries to Your Activity Log
- Viewing Your Activity Log
- Exporting or Emailing Your Activity Log
Keep teaching, the Region appreciates the efforts of its Instructors. We couldn’t offer the such a rich level of educational courses without the dedication of our volunteer Instructors. Thank you for all the extra time above your regular patrolling commitments that you all give back to the membership!
