ISIA News 2024_01

Dear ISIA Members, dear Colleagues and Friends,

we hope you are well and having a great season wherever you are. While the snow is falling heavily in the Alps, it is time to give the latest updates on the ISIA’s activities and the upcoming events.

Remembering Fritz Mares

We open this first 2024 Newsletter with the very sad news that our friend and colleague Fritz Mares, passed away last 16th of February, at the age of 84. As a long term member of the International Snowsports Community, in the many active charges he had in the different International bodies, from IVSI to Interski, Fritz had an intense relationship with ISIA as well. He was an outstanding personality in the community and he was the historical memory of both Interski and the pillar Associations. Beyond this, we want to remember him for the kind attitude he always had towards everybody. While the passion for Snowsports was a reason of life for him, he always had a deep spirit of friendship for anyone he was meeting: we will always remember him, at the end of strong and passionate discussions on Snowsports, reassuring his interlocutor that, despite having different opinion “we are still friends”. That is likely his most important bequest for the whole Snowsports Community.

2024 ISIA Assembly of the Delegates – 14th

-17th of June, Livigno, Italy

After rejoining the ISIA Community last year in Levi, the Italian Ski Instructors Association- AMSI – is willing to celebrate, hosting the Assembly of the Delegates 2024. The AD, this year, will take then place in Livigno, this June. The arrival day is planned for the 14th of June. A round table among the participants is planned for the 15th, while the AD will take place the 16th. Departure day is the 17th of June. We kindly invite you to save the dates. The final invitation and the Agenda will be sent to the Member Associations in due time.

ISIA forum Asia Pacific – 2nd

-5th of April, Shigakogen, Nagano, Japan

Following the success of the IWF (ISIA Word Forum) 2022, ISIA announced the will of having Regional Forums taking place in between Interski Congresses. The first regional ISIA forum is going to be hosted by SIA, our Japanese Member, from the 2nd till the 5th of April. The event is running in the Ichinose Ski Area in Nagano, at the same time of a big national SIA Meeting. For more information, please contact SIA. The ISIA Regional Forums are meant to keep the exchange between Member Nations alive even in between events such as Interski and the IWF. Being a smaller and localised event, the Regional forums will help in the direction of having sustainable meetings and this will allow Interski and the IWF to coordinate every 4 years providing the content created in between. We are grateful to SIA for organising the first ISIA Regional event ever. Please note, candidatures are open for the European and American events, in 2025 and/or 2026

FIANET – ISIA meeting – 2nd of February

The Presidency recently met the President of FIANET (Fédération Internationale des Associations Nationales d’Exploitants de Téléphériques ) Valeria Ghezzi. Goal of the meeting was strengthening the recognition and reputation of Professional Snowsports Instructors in ski resorts and by the tourism organisations, making sure that the ISIA quality standards stand worldwide for Professional Snowsports Instructors.

During the meeting, the ISIA Presidency highlighted the value of the ISIA Standard and of the tools that allow to identify and validate the Professional Snowsports Instructors. This is a first step to communicate to our potential partners what the ISIA Stamp, ISIA Card and ISIA Database are, and how they can benefit the different stakeholders in the Snowsport industry. The FIANET Board will discuss what presented during their meeting in March 2024. The aim is that the ISIA quality standards stand worldwide for Professional Snowsports Instructors, their skills and their importance in winter tourism.

Work of the technical commission

We are receiving several requests from candidate Snowsports instructors about the ISIA Test dates, but we cannot answer because we do not receive any information from the Members. We kindly ask all the Member Associations to regularly inform the ISIA office about the dates of the ISIA technical tests. These will be notified online with the registration forms in the ISIA calendar. Thank you for helping us providing an update information and a better service to the Snowsports instructors worldwide.

Data maintenance of the ISIA DB

The ISIA database is a strong asset managed by ISIA, that allows to track and validate the Professional Snowsports instructors worldwide. This is a unique service that only ISIA can offer to the Snowsports community, enhancing the credibility of the ISIA qualifications. While the ISIA Office and the Board are working on the ongoing development of the DB to provide new and better services, it is fundamental that all the Members commit to keep their data up to date. The Instructors quality validation, the membership and the voting rights of all Member Nations are based on this.

Out of more than 28’000 instructors registered in the ISIA DB, there are still too many that are currently not updated. We kindly ask all the Members to upload the most recent data, completing all the necessary information. The ISIA office is available to help wherever necessary. Please note, new fields and new features have been implemented. A new field for registering the date of the ISIA technical test has been recently added to the ISIA DB. Therefore, we kindly invite you to download always the last version of the template file, so to make sure you do not miss any new info when updating your data. Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you need any further information. Thank you and best regards.

Dr. Vittorio Caffi                                        Dr. Valentin Kiedaisch

President                                                  Vicepresident Europe