At the January Four Winds General Meeting, I went over some of the major events, accomplishments, and changes that happened with Four Winds in 2019.
This is a recap of what we talked about.
2019's Events in Review
2019 started with our ski/ride trip season, wrapping 2018 up with a trip to Minneapolis to ski Afton Alps and watch our Chicago Bears play in Minneapolis' awesome new stadium. The Bears won the game and a number of us experienced Mall of America for the first time.
Next, in Feb of 2019, we had our annual Lodge ski/ride trip. Four Winds is the only Chicago-land ski club with its own lodge just minutes away from some of the best skiing in the Midwest. The lodge is available for club members for individual rentals year-round (other than the handful of times a year the lodge is rented out in full).
In March, the club closed the ski season by going to Davos, Switzerland. It was a great trip, and Sheri, the trip leader, made sure that there were lots of activities and sight-seeing for those who wished to explore that part of Europe. Many of those that attended made some life-long memories on that trip.
Spring refused to arrive on time, and it snowed the day of our banquet in April. But eventually spring came and went (quickly), and summer rolled in, and with it, a number of Four Winds outdoor events, like our first ever Tube-a-Palooza, and our summer vollyball/picnic parties.
Towards the end of summer, there was the annual CMSC picnic held at at Norge Ski Club/Jump. This free event, run by CMSC, is always a good time, and Four winds had great representation at the picnic.
In 2019, Four Winds created its first "Member Appreciation Lodge Weekends". These two weekends gave Four Winds members and their guests a chance to experience our club's lodge free of charge. Four Winds is the only Chicagoland club with its own lodge (available year-round to members in good standing), and we are pleased to announce we are going to do the weekends again in Aug and Sept (labor day weekend) this year.
As summer came to a close, some Four Winds members headed to Door County. We also prepared our booth for the annual Chicago Ski and Snowboard Show. The club scored big at the Ski Show, engaging over 100 prospective club members to spin our wheel for a chance at a prize (and join our mailing list of course), and signed up 9 new members/families.
As winter approached, Four Winds posted our trips for the 2019-2020 season, and had a couple of guest speakers at our monthly meetings. Rick from Alpine Accessories spoke about equipment fit and improvements in Oct, and then Paul Fuchs from LP Ski and Snowboard Tuning spoke at our Dec meeting. Both presentations were well received by our meeting attendees.
We closed out 2019 with an awesome holiday party run by Gregg and the social committee, and another Minneapolis/Bears ski trip to kick off the 2019-2020 ski season.
Other Notable Club Happenings in 2019
- In June of 2019, a group of Four Winders walked in the American Cancer Society's Walk and Roll Event, and raised $2,318.38 for charity. Way to go.
- In May, our club website won it's 3rd CMSC Gary Heller Award for Website Excellence
- Our website underwent a number of improvements to make it more usable, including a new design, easier login including a Facebook login option, the ability to use the website as an app, and real-time online lookup of lodge availability.
- The club made a conscious decision to try to reduce the number of flyers/paper it produces. This change reduces cost to the club, is better for the environment, and makes it easier for the social/communication group to update information in a timely fashion.
- Our monthly newsletter design was streamlined to make it easier to see the information our members and prospective members are most interested in.
- Our club membership INCREASED this year (to 140 people).
- Our Facebook group saw a lot more activity. If you are not a current member of it, Please check us out and join it.