A big THANK YOU, to all of you that supported RXCSF this past season. The weather finally cooperated, and we ended up having some great skiing here locally from the end of January through March. I have to say being able to enjoy some great Nordic skiing this past winter was a very welcome respite after the crazy 2020 we have all endured. We would not be able to do it without all of your support.
This past season we welcomed two new volunteers to the RXCSF Board, Darren Leach who joined us in December as our Grooming Coordinator and Jaclyn Masci who joined us at the end March as our Vice President and will be key in coordinating RXCSF’s public outreach activities including reviving this newsletter. Please read a brief bio about both Darren and Jaclyn HERE. The RXCSF Board welcomes them and greatly appreciates their efforts.
On April 20th, the RXCSF Board sent out a survey asking our supporters for feedback on some of RXCSF’s performance this past 2020/2021 season. We were happy to see that we received 340 responses to questions ranging from grooming conditions to favorite local ski venues and improvements to consider. Jason Hettenbaugh will share with you some of the survey results in a news post here but, there were three main topics that seemed to generate the most comments; Durand Eastman Park was a gem this year, Mendon Ponds Park (our most popular venue) suffered from inconsistent grooming and walkers on the groomed trails, and finally trail signage and improvements are needed especially at Harriett Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area. We discussed all the survey results at our recent RXCSF Board meeting on April 29th and immediately initiated plans to implement and address many of your suggestions and concerns. In fact, sending out this newsletter at the end of the season was spurred by several supporters saying they missed it – so did we. We plan to continue to send out the newsletter going forward at a more consistent cadence.
This summer, we plan to develop signage to be used at all the venues where we groom so we can present a consistent message. Along the same lines we will be working with staff from both the Monroe County Parks Department and New York State Parks to develop a plan to improve trail conditions for Nordic skiing. Some of you have reached out to me offering help with this effort and I will be following up soon. If anyone else is interested in helping, please contact me.
Finally, I want to thank our groomers this past season. They put in a lot of time and effort to get our trails in great condition for all of us to enjoy. Your support helps compensate them for their time and the equipment needed to keep Nordic skiing so much fun here in the Rochester region. We are always looking for new groomers to help spread out the workload throughout winter. Again, if anyone is interested, please contact me at president@rxcsf.org.
Thank you for your support and I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer.
Jim Pippin
President
If you didn’t receive our newsletter, click here to become a supporter of RXCSF!