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awaytouring


Posts: 53
Joined: Nov 2004
Last Visited: 16:06
25th Jan 2020
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 16.16hrs on Mon 17 Jun 13
David - missleading quote fixing????

David Goldsmith Wrote:
I don't see any anti-English comments either, and I write as an Englishman (who has spent two winters working on Cairngorm and has skied all 5 Scottish ski areas).

This "Pippin" person, who doesn't want to give their first name (but says they represent (or used to represent) the Ski Club of Great Britain), perhaps has a first name of "Mary". I don't think "Pippin" is writing in good faith and should be ignored. Just another 'internet weevil' (is that a Scottish word for 'small vil'?).

As for igloo4you's revelation that SCGB CEO Frank McCusker has met with the Scottish ski areas ... perhaps we could know more about that meeting (since it was presumably funded by SCGB members). After a span of 51 years' membership of the Tea Cup I have reached the end of my tether with its administration. It has falsified Scottish snow data for too long now. Frank, as a Scottishperson, is to be commended for restoring some communication but the anti-Scottish-skiing prejudices of his 'Surrey set' are too powerful for him to achieve anything meaningful. They don't want representation in Scotland, or representation by Scottish skiers, and they don't ski in Scotland (more fool them - Glencoe (just as one example) is an utterly magnificent hill on a good day. Andy, as operator of Glencoe, is to be commended for his inspired management of that hill - and honest snow reports - but STV and others should be referencing Winterhighland. And the SCGB should be linking to Winterhighland, since the snow reports here are filed by paying punters.

Why the Ski Club of Great Britain should be dissolved

The SCGB 'media pack' - just published - is another disgraceful use of statistical data to misinform and mislead (in this case advertisers) ...


"1.9 million unique users". Yeah, right.

I believe the Ski Club of Great Britain should now be wound up.
It's reached the end of any natural life or justification for existence, and simply operates as a gravy boat for expenses-paid reps and other jolly-funded staff who swan about the Alps and Rockies, plundering the members' funds. When it's not acting as a jet-fuelled gravy train, it's just a promoter of commercial interests in skiing (while it should be an independent club of skiers). Some of these promotions (e.g. for ski helmets) have used dishonest data, against the interests of skiers (who want to make informed decisions on important matters). These are just two examples - I've cited many many others over the years.

The SCGB of 2013 is far removed from the outstanding organisation which was founded in 1903 (largely on the Scottish hills) and developed through to the early 1960s. It now performs no significant benefit to British skiers. Membership of the core 25-34 age demographic appears to have collapsed - to 5% (instead of what should be 15%-20%). That's a rare case of an unmanipulated figure apparent in the 'media pack'.

Pack it in!





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 06.49hrs Sun 16 Jun 13 by David Goldsmith.


I have put into bold the relevant quote that you made yesterday - no quote fixing. you clearly state that the club should be wound up, yet today you claim that you never said such a thing..

The only tedious thing is the now 14 pages of you publicly slating a club of which you are a fee paying member.

Yes their reporting of Scottish snow has been bad, however Andy from Glencoe has told you that the club CEO has been in touch - what more do you want?

hopefully not another 14 pages of this - I'm off to walk my cat.
David Goldsmith


Posts: 1283
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 08:28
6th Nov 2018
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 18.20hrs on Mon 17 Jun 13
One aspect of the Ski Club of Britain's activities which causes concern is this one:

"Respect the Mountain"
[www.skiclub.co.uk]
and [www.skiclub.co.uk]
"The Ski Club's Respect the Mountain campaign has gone from strength to strength over the years and is now one of the ski industry's biggest environmental and safety initiatives."

Note some of the key figures:

The environmental levy (50p per subscription per annum) was established in 2005. Since that time, 18,000 subscriptions per annum would be a fair average - i.e. £9000 over a minimum 8 years: a minimum £72,000 fund, plus the proceeds of 'Respect the Mountain' merchandise - presumably at least £10,000. There is a strange reference to wristbands (£2) having raised £6816. 35,000 of these were manufactured, along with ranges of t-shirts, hoodies etc.

The environmental expenditure - referred to as "donations" - is given as £34,354. However, as is clear on the page, the numbers don't add up to that amount. On the surface of it, tens of thousands of pounds of this money (which was originally intended to go to registered environmental charities etc) is unaccounted for. I queried this with the Club's treasurer last year, was promised an annualised breakdown of expenditure (a standard expectation for quasi-charitable funding), but it has not materialised.

An early commitment was given to a "long-term tree-planting project" with the Woodland Trust. However, the Trust queried the fact (after 18 months) that their payments had ceased without explanation.

Of interest to Scottish skiing is the 'Big Spring Clean', where volunteers are encouraged to pick up litter from the ski slopes in the spring. This is not organised by local SCGB personnel in Scotland but (as I understand it) office staff from London are despatched at considerable cost to run this. A 2013 clear-up has not been announced. Presumably it could be done by the ski areas themselves (though I guess they do a lot of this anyway), with local volunteer help, at quite low cost.

There is a reference to £100 payments being made to SCGB members and reps travelling by train. Very attractive for them, since this is around £40 more than the membership subscription. But why the payments? I travelled to Switzerland return from London for £120 in April. Cheaper than air travel, with the baggage extras etc.

This Respect the Mountain project was intended to fund - only - bona fide environmental charities and so on, so that all expenditure could be properly accounted for and monitored. So the first question concerns the 'missing money'.
Let's have a proper breakdown, year by year, of income and expenditure.



Edited 5 times. Last edit at 18.43hrs Mon 17 Jun 13 by David Goldsmith.
Pippin


Posts: 21
Joined: Jun 2013
Last Visited: 14:23
3rd Mar 2019
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 09.39hrs on Sun 23 Jun 13
I've noted David Goldsmith's libellous comment at the top of this page and I will be reporting it to the SCGB tomorrow.
Gorminator


Posts: 667
Joined: Jan 2011
Last Visited: 15:45
11th Aug 2019
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 19.26hrs on Sun 23 Jun 13
The Boring Light has just started flashing on my Laptop again ! !
David Goldsmith


Posts: 1283
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 08:28
6th Nov 2018
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 05.10hrs on Mon 24 Jun 13
Pippin Wrote:
I've noted David Goldsmith's libellous comment at the top of this page and I will be reporting it to the SCGB tomorrow.


If it was libellous (i.e. untrue) then obviously I wouldn't have made it. It's a great shame that the Ski Club of Great Britain (for which I've written more articles than any other publisher since 1977, for the six successive most recent editors of its magazines) seemingly can't deal in truth ... but so be it.

One of the most disgraceful aspects of the SCGB's activities in recent years (actually, going back to the year 2000) has been its misrepresentation of head injury data in skiing, and commercial promotion of helmets off the back of falsehoods. Skiers want genuine scientific information upon which to base their purchasing decisions. Aviemore/Cairngorm has a world-respected authority on ski injuries ...

... [ski-injury.com] ...

... but you'll find no mention of ski-injury.com or Dr Mike Langran on skiclub.co.uk.

If you feel the law courts are an appropriate venue for the SCGB situation to be resolved then so be it. I'll just continue to expose the scandal of this organisation in factual terms ... as long as the law permits it.

I think you should provide your full name, Mr/Ms "Pippin", but that's your choice. You don't seem to be a bona fide contributor to this forum.
David Goldsmith


Posts: 1283
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 08:28
6th Nov 2018
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 06.00hrs on Mon 24 Jun 13
Just another example, this time pitched to potential advertisers:
Latest 'information' (mis-information) on the SCGB's media performance, for anyone gullible enough to believe it ...

[www.skiclub.co.uk]

"... nearly 2 million unique users per annum" [slide 3] "... over 1.9 million unique users each year ..." [slide 8]

The only source of audited data concerning the SCGB website's performance is ...

[www.abc.org.uk]

ABC does not use the term "unique users", to avoid the inference that humans - whose internet activites may generate multiple 'identities' - are being measured. The accepted term is "unique browsers". The audit is not annual, but a one-month sample. The ABC figure was 386,208 unique browsers (i.e. not "unique visitors" - the SCGB's phrase) during January 2013, January being perhaps the busiest month of the year for ski websites.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 06.31hrs Mon 24 Jun 13 by David Goldsmith.
daveski


Posts: 1506
Joined: Jan 2008
Last Visited: 10:01
28th Apr 2019
What's this?What's this?What's this?
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 11.41hrs on Mon 24 Jun 13
I can think of one very "unique" user
BarryBC


Posts: 11
Joined: Jan 2010
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 17.55hrs on Sat 20 Jul 13
At the risk of feeding the troll.

There is such thing as libel or slander in Scots law. I think the term you are looking for is Defamation.

Perhaps on second thoughts I shouldn't call you a troll, you may sue.

Anyway get out enjoy the sunshine. Not long till winter
Pippin


Posts: 21
Joined: Jun 2013
Last Visited: 14:23
3rd Mar 2019
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 18.08hrs on Sat 20 Jul 13
I'm not looking for any term, the comment was written in England so the term 'libel' is valid. This site could be sued for libel in an English court as one of the parties is domiciled in the relevant territory.

The sensible course of action for the site is to remove any potentially libellous/defamatory comments as soon as they are made aware, subject to legal advice.





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 18.14hrs Sat 20 Jul 13 by Pippin.
Gorminator


Posts: 667
Joined: Jan 2011
Last Visited: 15:45
11th Aug 2019
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 18.39hrs on Sat 20 Jul 13
Pippin. Get a life ! Perhaps you need the "NAPPER"

Or is this lovely weather in Endland poaching your cerebral contents ?

Maybe you need a dog too !
Pippin


Posts: 21
Joined: Jun 2013
Last Visited: 14:23
3rd Mar 2019
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 20.25hrs on Sat 20 Jul 13
Gorminator, I've had more than enough dogs for one lifetime, thanks. winking smiley
winterhighland


Posts: 101
Joined: Dec 2002
Last Visited: 18:04
27th Mar 2024
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 23.02hrs on Sat 20 Jul 13
Quote:
Clearly, by their inaction, winterhighland.com are endorsing Mr. Goldsmith's comment.


We do not have pre-moderation, the individual who authors a post publishes it by pressing 'post'.

What Winterhighland does endorse is the freedom of forum members to discuss any aspect of snowsports they feel relevant to UK snowsports and participants.

One user reported DG's post in question, with such frequency that server notices started going in the Spam folder!


Pippin


Posts: 21
Joined: Jun 2013
Last Visited: 14:23
3rd Mar 2019
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 06.25hrs on Sun 21 Jul 13
You are the publisher too, make no mistake. Once you have been made aware of a Defamation through the reporting systems you can clearly no longer use the defence of not knowing about it.

I suggest you remove the offending article and replace it with a statement dissociating yourselves from the accusation.

In the event of legal action it will be up to Goldsmith to prove the statement is true to the satisfaction of the court. Most likely Goldsmith will be forced into making a humiliating and unreserved apology as part of an out-of-court settlement in due course.





Edited 2 times. Last edit at 08.41hrs Sun 21 Jul 13 by Pippin.
David Goldsmith


Posts: 1283
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 08:28
6th Nov 2018
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 07.08hrs on Mon 22 Jul 13
Pippin Wrote:In the event of legal action ........


[youtu.be]
Gorminator


Posts: 667
Joined: Jan 2011
Last Visited: 15:45
11th Aug 2019
Re: An open letter to the new CEO of the Ski Club of GB
Date Posted: 08.59hrs on Mon 22 Jul 13
You shouldn't get the late brilliant comic Peter Cook associated with the utter pish you and Pippin are spouting. Get out and enjoy the last of your good weather.
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