Spring has crept up but that doesn’t mean you have to put away your skis or boards yet. Spring is the time to enjoy the warm and sunny temperatures on the slopes as memories of frigid days when you had to drag yourself outside to go skiing or boarding become long forgotten. With more sunshine and less crowds on the mountain, you can enjoy some great skiing on first-rate corn snow. Many resorts are now offering some great spring deals through the rest of the season which will run to late April or early May.

With the Presidential Elections dominating national headlines, you may not have noticed that NSC elections are just around the corner. For those of you have chosen to receive your newsletter as a PDF, we will be emailing you a link allowing you to vote for the 2008 — 2009 NSC Board and answer our annual survey. For those of you who have chosen to receive your newsletter by mail, a separate ballot and survey will be mailed to you. Your participation is very important for the business for running the club, so we would greatly appreciate it if you could take some time to fill out the ballot and survey.

Have you started thinking about what you’re going to do after ski season ends? We have a fun line up of events culminating with our 50th Anniversary weekend celebration! On April 27th, is the NSC Visit to Copia, a center in Napa dedicated to the understanding and celebration of wine and food. This is a must see destination, especially for “foodies”. The group tour is filling up quickly, so sign up today to assure a spot. Nikkei Matsuri is on May 4th this year and we are looking for more volunteers to fill up our shifts. Nikkei Matsuri is our primary fundraiser that helps subsidize ski trips and other club expenses. Please sign up and help out the club!

The 50th Anniversary committee is working diligently on the details of the events schedule for the weekend of June 7th. Do you have an artistic eye? Like to dabble in crafts? The decorations committee is looking for volunteers to help with the decorations at the 50th Anniversary Celebration Post-Season Dinner / Dance, Golden Memories. We are also looking for volunteers for other committees as well. If you are interested, please send an email to

Finally, I’ve decided on my week trip destination for next year. It was a tough choice between Dizin and Telluride, but I selected Telluride. Telluride is set in one of the most beautiful valleys in the Rocky Mountains. The old mining town blends historical buildings, quaint bakeries and local watering holes with luxury hotels, five-star restaurants, sophisticated shops and some of the finest spas in the world. Telluride’s features some of the finest terrain receiving over 300 inches of dry, deep powder annually. The combination of awe-inspiring views, world-class terrain, Rockies snow, an easy going town and hassle-free destination makes Telluride virtually unmatched. More details will follow in the upcoming months.

Our NSC season is coming to an end. Trip 4 — Our infamous Potluck weekend was proven to be another successful weekend. Thirty six NSC members participated in an evening of creative pot luck dishes that even Rachel Ray would comment as YUMMO. The donated microwaves really came in handy in heating up the food containers. This is the 3rd year that we had the progressive pot luck dinner in the evening. It gave people a chance to sit and chat and know one another better.

What was on the potluck menu? Curtis Otaguro’s platter of spam musubi, Amy Tsuhako’s Hawaiian Ribs — A dish that was once made for King Kamehameha, Wes Kawase’s delicious grilled short ribs and Kristen Kim with her mega size Vegetarian Chap Chae. There were numerous dishes that were also Yummo - Shoyu chicken wings, Tabbouleh and numerous salads. The biggest challenge? How you heat up food that came in large containers that did not fit into the microwave. Use large zip lock bags. .. NEXT YEAR? Please bring your pot luck dish in containers no bigger than 12 inches. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

The conditions that weekend were icy. The chutes at Mt Rose never melted which resulted in a few members free-falling down the chutes. Tom Lee provided the extra task of picking up skis and poles as he skied down the chutes. Sunshine and blue skies at Squaw Valley, the snow conditions held up until it started to melt later that afternoon.

As you may or may not know, Trip 5 was cancelled. Apparently, Morgan Hua ran off with Jessica Simpson to a Caribbean island which left us with no tour leaders for trip 5.

I hoped you had a good time Morgan (does this story have anything to do with April 1st??).

With Trip 5 being cancelled, I did manage to plan a little road trip with 14 members who had already signed up for Trip 5. We were able to get discounted lodging at Circus Circus, Squaw Valley and Northstar. A big thank you to our drivers, Brian Lee, Charles Akers, Stephanie Wong and Eden Wong.

Look for my next spam requesting your volunteer participation at Nikkei Matsuri on May 2, 3 and 4.

Give back to your community and help your trip director out. THAT’S ME!!

Like I mentioned before, a trip director’s job is never done.

Ciao Baby, see you next month...

Karen

Your friendly NSC trip director

Calling All Artists! Decorations Committee Members Needed!

Our 50th Anniverary celebration planning is in full swing, but we need a few volunteers who can add some artistic abilitiy to the Decorations Committee. Can anybody out there help out? Here are some areas these people can contribute:

We need lots of large ski figures without heads; we will place head shots of member past and present on them!

We need pictures of ski-related objects to put up on the walls of the hotel ballroom. (It’s OK to borrow clip art or other material so long as you check for any copyright restrictions.)

Help is also needed to paint these items or print them out if we have soft copies.

If you are interested in being part of the 50th Anniversary Decorations Committee, contact

IS IT TIME ALREADY? (YES, IT’S TIME TO THINK ABOUT NEXT YEAR’S BOARD)

Elections aren’t until May, but considering what we have to do, we need to start the process now. We need to do the following:

• form a nominations committee
• develop and qualify a list of candidates
• draw up a ballot and publish it
• allow time for the general membership to consider their choices and cast their votes

Now is the time to think about the leadership of our club and to consider your own role in giving something back to the club. We need your input on as many members as you can recommend, and we hope you can also find time to help the club in any capacity. We need candidates for the following positions:

President
Vice President
Secretary
Membership Chair
Treasurer
Weekend Ski Trip Director
Newsletter Editor
Board Members at Large — we need seven of these

So, who would be good candidates for board positions? Consider those members who frequently lend their support to help our club and who are enthusiastic, positive, and hard-working.Yes, being on the Board is a little (and sometimes a lot) of extra work, but it can be very rewarding to pull off a successful event with people you enjoy being with — and, we guarantee you will have a good time. How about writing some names down now while you’re thinking about it? We also need a member for the Nominations Committee who is not on the board, so let us know how you are interested in serving. Add your own name and position(s) of interest and send them all to