On behalf of the incoming NSC 2010 Board, please accept my very warmest welcome to all of you new and returning as well as potential members. The Board looks forward to this 52nd year of NSC existence with great anticipation as we have gained some new Board members this year and we look forward to guide this dynamic and venerable organization forward with some new and exciting ideas for NSC activities as well as new twists on some always-successful NSC activities. I was pleasantly surprised with the excellent response to my call-to-action as we got several NSC members who previously had never been on the Board to step up and join the Board this year. We have embarked on a great and exciting new NSC year!
In the world context in which the NSC exists, I claim that it is no mere accident that our country is starting to see the strengthening light of better economic times that will soon follow from the doldrums that we have all lived though recently with the onset of the greatest global economic crisis since the Great Depression. Of course it is always true that “what goes up must come down and what goes down must come up.” But we are all empowered to catalyze positive change by applying our positive collective karma by each of us committing to keep a realistic and measured positive attitude. Once we follow up this optimistic spirit with proactive good old fashioned hard work on an individual and collective basis, we catalyze the coming of better times for all of us by remembering that we are all in this world together now and hence we must all pull together for the common good. Thus, those of us that have joined the NSC Board this year as well as all of the NSC members that will step up to the challenge of giving to this organization their time and efforts this year will find that we all will advance and that in our own small but important way make the healing of our communities and country, as well as in a small way the world, a new reality. In this way, our current woes will not only become a fork in the road that we have passed on the highway of life, but this experience in tough and challenging times will become a historical experience that we all should recall when the next downturn comes.
So please do consider helping us all out in the NSC this year. You can help out by recruiting new members from your cadre of friends. You can help out by volunteering to help one of the Board members out in organizing or running an event. You can help out the Newsletter Editor, Hoyt Nelson, by writing an article that summarizes an event that you attended or describes a new piece of snow sports equipment or destination. You can help out Trip Director, David Jensen, by volunteering to lead a winter bus trip this coming season. You can help out Board Member and NSC Webmaster, Morgan Hua, in redesigning the NSC website. You can help out Vice President, Alice Horio, by volunteering to help out at the Mountain View Obon Festival, July 18-19. You can help the NSC by volunteering to help out at the Palo Alto Obon Festival on August 1-2. You can help out Membership Director, Brain Hess, running the Sports Basement and Bay Area Ski & Snowboard events. You can help out the whole Board in volunteering your time by working at the NSC Chicken Salad booth at the annual Nikkei Matsuri festival in April 2010.
There is an endless litany of exciting things you can help the NSC with this year. My point is that in the next couple of months, the Board will be planning the whole FY2010 year and NOW is the time to put your input and suggestions and proactive spirit into the NSC pot. The more we all pull together and drive OUR NSC forward, the better all of our individual experience will be in this organization.
In brief, an outstanding example of a well-planned and executed NSC event was our Postseason event that had about 60 people attend on May 16, 2009. Event Co-Chairs Angie Fong and Karen Soo did an excellent job marshalling the troops for this Hawaiian themed potluck and game night. You can see some great articles on this event here if you missed it. This shin-dig was a blast and a great way of capping off yet another successful NSC year. As an added bonus, during the General Meeting portion of the event, besides saying farewell to the outgoing FY2009 Board and introducing the incoming FY2010 Board, I announced that the destination for the 2010 NSC Weeklong Trip will be Whistler-Blackcomb, January 23-30, 2010. Keep tuned here for details on this exciting Pre-Olympics NSC trip in the coming months.
Finally, one of the directions I would like us to go forward in this year is to participate or organize event(s) where NSC members can help the community. I would like to expand on our already great efforts to help in the local Obon Festivals and perhaps do things like clean up a hiking trail or plant some trees. All organizations should get involved and help the community as this sort of effort is aligned with the spirit that our new U.S. President is asking us to show. I will be kicking some ideas around in the upcoming Board meetings but if you have an idea, please email me on this or any other matter at
president(at)NiseiSkiClub.org
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So we are embarking on an exciting new NSC year. Please join us and help out and we all will together have a great new year! Remember, the NSC is YOUR club!! Thank you…
