In the absence of a message from the president this month, I thought I’d give you all a bit of my history from me.

I started skiing back in high school in Connecticut around 1953. We mostly drove N to Vermont, but it was pretty icy, cold and rocky so I can’t explain why I continued the sport under those circumstances. After moving to California, I joined NSC in 1966 – the year Hi Fujii was president. I was also a member of Chi Ski during part of that time so I could ski most weekends with one club or the other. I was on the NSC board from about 1970 until I dropped out after getting married in 1972. I continued skiing (on and off) after that, including trips to Canada and a half dozen areas in Europe.

About 2005, Hi Fujii asked me to write another gimmick car rallye event for the club (since I had written 2 for the club about 30 years ago). Although we didn’t get enough response to actually run the rallye, I realized the club was still a great place to be and I re-joined.

Several years later, I got on the board again, served as VP for 2 years and am now in my second year as editor (using Microsoft Publisher). During the last few years, I’m known more for leading hikes (especially a series of stairway walks in San Francisco and the East Bay) and other non-ski events like bocce ball.

I don’t ski nearly as much now, but I still enjoy socializing with my good friends in the club. My wife Nancy prefers cross-country and snowshoeing to downhill, but does more race walking. She has completed 10 marathons and many more half marathons in the last dozen years. These days, we spend more time garage “sailing”, customizing our new home in Campbell and traveling (about 50 countries since 1962). My son David runs a catering business in San Jose and uses his inherited athletic skills for skate boarding instead of skiing. He is considered a semi-pro.

As Morgan said, the state of the newsletter is changing from hardcopy to an on-line document. We realize there are a few members for which this is inconvenient, so I will continue to put out paper issues as much as practical, although not every month. The extra money we charged for hard copy this year will probably turn out to be more than necessary to cover costs and we will refund part of that at the end of the fiscal year. This only affects about a half dozen members. As always, I encourage your suggestions about the newsletter and will attempt to improve it using your feedback. If I don’t hear from you, I won’t know what to change.