2024 MMC-Shames Mountain – Town Hall Summary

Firstly, thank you to everyone who joined the 2024 Virtual Town Hall. Your continued support is invaluable.

We recorded the Town Hall – you can view the recording here.

A copy of the presentation can also be found here.

Agenda

1. Season Recap

2. Financial Summary

3. Developing Plan for 2024-2025 Season

4. Active Projects

5. Open Floor

6. Volunteer Opportunities

1. Season Recap

Thank you to all our Best Friends 2.0!

Shortfall Makeup Plan 2023-2024

This time last year we were facing a deficit and a plan was needed to ensure MMC-Shames Mountain was sustainable going forward. While we are not out of the woods just yet we did make significant progress. Below is a summary of the Shortfall Makeup Plan for 2023-2024 and how it fared.

Creating a Best Friend Package 2.0: Revamping the original Best Friend concept from the early Co-op years into a tiered annual event and program sponsorship package. As our membership requested more events and entertainment to add value for our guests, the Best Friend 2.0 was our way to successfully fund events and programs.

Estimated Revenue Opportunity :$110,000
Actual Revenue – $181,830

Operating Days: Dropping to a four-day week lift-operating schedule was the preferred option for our members vs increasing prices on season passes and tickets. Additionally, savings were made due to the lack of snow and incremental weather.

Reduced to a 4-day lift-operating week and grooming by 20%.
Estimated savings: $80,000
Actual savings: $200,000+
Weather forced further reductions in operating days and thus additional savings.

New Products: New products were introduced, while these did not reach their estimated revenue in their first year, we are optimistic that these will continue to grow as they become a fixture of what folks expect to see at the hill.

Estimated revenue: $35,000- Actual revenue: $10,234
Tubing Pass: $2,995
Next Step: $4,539
Top Step: $375
Doggy Passes: $2,325

Special Events: A crucial part of the Shortfall Makeup Plan for 2023-2024 was the return of special events to MMC-Shames Mountain. These events were crucial in returning the ski hill to a better financial standing. As you will all be aware the weather was not our friend this winter, having a host of events enabled us to still encourage visitors to come to the hill. Sponsorship of these events meant the cost was covered.

Estimated revenue: $10,000 (outside of sponsorship funds and event expenses).
Actual revenue: difficult to assess
All events were a success

Snow School: Lesson Prices Increased. Introducing a new pricing structure and new lessons enabled Snow School to turn a profit. Our revamped Discovery Lessons saw an increase. This was at the detriment of our private lessons.

Estimated revenue: $5,000
Discover lessons: $2,546+
Private lessons: -$1,600

Facility Rental and Night Tubing: A new feature this year was the introduction of facility rental and night tubing. We expect this to continue to grow as we open up more dates for this offering.

Estimated revenue: $15,000
Actual revenue: $3,800

Uphill Access on Non-Lift Operating Days: Uphill access is a fixture at MMC-Shames Mountain. We strove to preserve the privilege of uphill access within our ski area boundary while excluding any liability exposure to the co-op. We recognise that the timing of the Paid Uphill Policy announcement was not ideal, and left many members and non-members “surprised”. Many also did not understand the reason for the change, and saw it as gauging.

Estimated $10,000 Revenue opportunity.
- Actual 2023-2024 – $15,400 Revenue.
- Season pass add on’s were mostly purchased by Co-op Members.

Better Marketing and Communication: The goal of this was to empower the ownership (members) to promote and use the ski hill. Visits per day were up but visits across the whole season were down as a result of the reduced operating schedule.

We aimed to improve our communication via a number of mediums. Including:

Subscribe links.
New improved snow reports.
Return of the Webcam.
Frequent website news items.

Pivots: Over the course of the season we had to make a number of pivots as the weather and conditions dictated. Ad-hoc events such as the Taste of Spring event enabled us to keep our seasonal employees working and saw an increase in new skiers visiting the hill.

Our Juniors Ski Free program was a huge success acting as a loss leader and giving great visibility to a new corporate community member E360 Solution. Our olive branch to closed ski areas resulted in some brilliant publicity for MMC-Shames Mountain at zero cost. We expect to see the benefits of this gesture over the next few seasons.

Committees: Our ski hill is powered by our membership and in turn the volunteers who step up. We are always on the lookout for new volunteers, committee members and board members. Currently we have five committees, these are:

Overnight Parking Committee
Uphill Committee
Grant Writing Committee
Pricing Committee
Enhanced Backcountry Committee

Overnight Parking Committee

This committee formed in the Winter of 2024 with the aim of:

Ensuring Overnight Parking Community have a voice
Understanding the operational costs associated with overnight parking
Improve Information on Website
Identifying costs and revenue potential of operations

What has emerged is the following:

Introduction of a $50 overnight parking season pass for the 2024-2025 season.
Commitment from the outdoor operations team to ensure the outside washrooms are functional, and issues are addressed in a timely manner.
Understanding that permits we are not in the position to apply for are required for permanent lower parking lot out-house.

The Overnight Parking Committee is made up of the following members:

Gary Maltin
Francois Longpre
Steve Robin
Jon Phelan
Christian Theberge

Uphill Committee

The Uphill Committee was instrumental in helping management introduce our Uphill Policy in time for the start of the 2023-2024 winter season. With an estimated 3000 visits, 10% of our visitation happening outside lift operating hours, there was a clear liability exposure to the coop. This season, based on the survey results we estimate over 3800 paid uphill visits, representing 18.1% of last season’s. The number of unpaid visitors is unknown, but expected to be considerable.

The members of the Uphill Committee were:

Christian Theberge
Hanse Mundhenk
Damien Nee
Matt Lucas
Mattias Fredriksson
Yan Kaczinsky
Nick Gottlieb

Once the policy was launched, Christian, Hanse, Damien and Matt dropped off from the committee and two more were added.

Mitch Blaine
Sebastien Charest

The goals in policy’s creation were:

Recover Costs
Exclude Liability and Establish Safe Travel Practices
Develop a Better Sense of Community
Developing an Alternative Low-Cost Operation

Grant Writing Committee

The Grant Writing Committee has been instrumental in finding new revenue sources for the ski hill. Following Dave Gordan’s departure from the Board, the committee has taken on new members and searched for different funding sources on top of the regular ones.

Over the last 12 months they have been active in the following new areas:

Wage and training subsidy programs in conjunction with WorkBC – this is a brand new revenue stream for us and a great example of what new blood has brought to the committee. Thank you to Tara Wilson and Jack Cherniawsky for spearheading this.
Gaming Grant – new application submitted – thanks to Christian Theberge and Gary Maltin for putting in the hard work on this grant application.

The Grant Writing Committee is comprised of the following members:

Jack Cherniawsky – Committee Chair
Tara Wilson – experienced from her time at Axis Mountain Technical – instrumental in the wage and training subsidy programs
Christian Theberge
Gary Maltin

Pricing Committee

The Pricing Committee meets every Spring to review the financials and make recommendations to the Board of Directors regarding prices of season passes and tickets. They take into consideration many different factors including:

Member appetite for price increases
Minimum wage increase
Inflation
Cost of fuel
No increase in prices since 2022-2023 winter

The following recommendations were made by the committee and accepted by the Board of Directors. You can view the full document here.

The Pricing Committee was made up of the following members:

Christian Theberge
Mike Cotton
Mary Denton
Meredith Skimson
Rod Cox
Evan Van Dyk

Enhanced Backcountry Committee

This committee was instrumental in building the Pollywood and Sherwood ski touring terrain adjacent to MMC-Shames Mountain.

The current members of this committee are:

Adrien Grabinski
Vivian Scarlet
Eddy Plant

2. Financial Summary

In 2023-2024, the coop succeeded in greatly improving its profitability compared to last year. We are expecting our net income at June 30th 2024 to be a loss. However, we expect our loss will be limited to depreciation expenses. Our profitability ratio (although still negative, increased by 4.7%).

Comparisons:

2022-2023, we operated 82 days compared to only 54 in 2023-24.

2022-2023, we generated $1,749,003 compared to $1,631,254 in 2023-24. (Compared at May 31st)

2022-2023: $21,329 Revenue/Operating Day
2023-2024: $30,203 Revenue/Operating Day

2023-23, we spent $1,862,000 compared to $1,686,000 in 2023-24. (Compared at May 31st)

2022-2023: $22,710 Expenses/Operating Day
2023-2024: $31,227 Expenses/Operating Day

Following the 2022-2023 season’s net loss of $305,000, we are currently forecasting a loss of approximately $200,000 for 2023-24.

3. Developing Plan for 2024-2025

For the forthcoming winter of 2024-2025 we are looking at the following:

70 day season (four days a week)
- See our operational calendar here.
New Pricing Structure – adopting the Pricing Committee Recommendations

Changes for 2024-2025: Age categories have shifted slightly. This change will see the following adjustments:

Changes to Age Categories

Child increased to 12 years old
Junior category eliminated
Youth to drop to 18-years-old
Adult now 19+

Following recommendations from the Pricing Committee, the Board accepted the new price increases for the 2024-2025 winter season. In the current economic climate, the board and committee recognised there is very little appetite for any price increases. For this reason, the increase was kept at a minimum and only affects the “income earning age bracket”, kids and seniors were exempted from any increases. The increase is necessary to curb increased expenses stemming from inflation, minimum wage increase and associated costs.

The Pricing Committee also recommended the Post Secondary Student Pass reverts to its former criteria of requiring three students to purchase together to be eligible for the discounted product.

Changes to Season Pass Prices

Increase to Adult Pass Product
3 for 1 student pass

Changes to Day Ticket Prices

Increase to Adult Ticket Product
Second ticket available for Parent and Tot

New Product

“New” Overnight Parking Season Pass $50 (details are still in development)

4. Active Projects

Climate Change Resiliency Project – more information can be found here.

The start of the 2023/24 ski season was challenging due to low snow levels and early rain, which impacted operational days. Significant funds were spent on grooming and managing surface water. In response, the Climate Change Resiliency Project (CCRP) was initiated to mitigate these issues through two main efforts:

1. Improving Base Area Topography: Material from nearby sources was used to reshape the base area, reducing the need for snow hauling and saving up to 150 hours in low snow years. This area can now also be used for storage.

2. Reconstructing the Access Road: A 500m section of the road was rebuilt to improve drainage and mitigate early season rainfall impacts. This is part of a larger plan to reconstruct the road to the top of the chairlift, enhancing access and maintenance during low snowfall periods.

Funding for the CCRP came from:

– Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA): Reallocated $182,000 from a previous grant.

– Regional District of Kitimat Stikine and District of Kitimat: Contributed $50,000 and $25,000 respectively.

– Local Contractors and Companies: Provided significant discounts and donations of equipment and manpower.

– Allnorth and Maltin Consulting Services: Offered substantial discounts for survey, design, and project management.

With a total project value exceeding $500,000, the CCRP aims to:

1. Increase operational days with less snow.

2. Reduce costs for base area preparation.

3. Maintain the snowpack during rain events.

4. Improve the access road, reducing maintenance costs and enabling a future drivable route to the top of the chairlift.

REDIP – Rural Economic Diversification Infrastructure Program is a $100,000 grant that the Regional District of the Kitimat Stikine applied for our our behalf. The grant involved the key planning documents to prioritize repairs and improvements to the base area. Through REDIP we have developed:
- Asset Management Plan
- Water Sewer Report
- Lodge Expansion
- Base Area Analysis

5. Open Floor

At the end of the presentation we opened the floor to questions from our members. The following three questions were asked.

“Great work everyone, can you tell me. Where is the money for the REDIP program coming from?”

A: “REDIP is a grant we applied for. $100,000 came from the provincial government. It is not a grant we can apply for directly. The Regional District applied for the grant on our behalf. They would also be the ones we who apply for the execution grant on our behalf, where we would be eligible for up to $1,000,000. In the next month or so we will be presenting our REDIP to the Regional District.”

Q: “Is there the possibility to move the park to the bottom of Southpaw?”

A: “Anything is possible but most years the issue we have with the park being in the upper mountain is it snows too much. Southpaw is not a run that we can groom every night. There is room however for events to be happening up there, be it a rail jam or big air, something of those sorts, if the conditions permit.”

Q: “TORCA is currently an updated master plan, any conversations between MMC-Shames Mountain and TORCA for bike trails to grow summer activities at the hill?”

A: “There certainly have been discussions about bike trails at the hill in the past, not directly with TORCA. A big recognition is how wet it is at MMC-Shames Mountain at our increased elevation. Out tenue is quite large and conversations could happen where we have trails go from our base area down.”

Q: “How much snow are we going to have next season?”

A: “The forecasts are for us to switch back to La Nina. We’ve already felt that starting with the cool Spring. The forecast is suggesting we are moving towards a strong La Nina next winter. La Nina means more snow.”

6. Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers are essential to the success of MMC-Shames Mountain. Thank you to everyone who has stepped up to ensure the ongoing operation of MMC-Shames Mountain.

Labour support for ad hoc maintenance projects

On that note if you are interested in volunteering, joining a committee, the board of directors or helping at one of our events, please email [email protected] for more information.

2024/2025 season events

Many opportunities to support, the events calendar for 2024-2025 is up.
Keep an eye out for shout outs for Volunteers!

Golf Scramble 2024

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We are on the lookout for a paid coordinator to take on organising the Terrace and Prince Rupert Golf Scrambles this summer. Please email [email protected] for more information.