Exciting news for the ASSA

August 17th, 2018.

We are proud to announce that our own Operations Manager Colin Matthew, has recently been appointed as the chair-person of the Association of Scottish Ski Areas!

Colin Matthew

We caught up with Colin to find out a little more on this organisation and what it represents…

• ASSA consists of the five Scottish ski areas, who get together every Spring and Autumn for the day to meet and discuss ski-related topics.
• The Spring meeting allows all of the Scottish resorts to share all their useful facts and figures from their Winter seasons including; skier numbers, storm days, highs and lows, road clearing issues, snow making, staff and any ski hire issues. We also discuss what worked well and what didn’t (sometimes equally as important!). During the afternoon session (which Snowspnorts Scotland are also invited to), the discussion turns to a health and safety session, discussing incidents, accidents, casualty numbers, insurance claims, current or anticipated, equipment or infra structure failure, police, ambulance and helicopter incidents. There are normally health and safety consultants in attendance at this session and occasionally representatives from the HSE Executive. 
• The Autumn meeting allows for a general catch up regarding the area’s summer activities, developments, maintenance achieved, lift improvements or projects planned, upcoming events etc. There is also a discussion in relation to any Scottish Government or HIE input, and requested meetings with these agencies and potential funding opportunities.
• The ASSA group are also part of the NASAA group (North Atlantic Ski Areas Association) who consist of the Icelandic Ski Areas and some areas from Scandinavia. This group gets together every two years, hosted in Iceland and Scotland respectively. This year’s event is in Iceland!
• ASSA members pay a subscription every year, normally £250, to partake in the insightful sharing of knowledge.
• ASSA also agree the price of the ‘All Areas Ski Pass’
• The ASSA meetings are a great arena to discuss industry practices worldwide, developments and innovations and generally share ideas and experiences in running a ski area/visitor attraction.
• In the role as chairperson, Colin will send out meeting requests, agenda topics for discussion, minutes etc and be the point of contact for the association.

Congratulations Colin!

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