Season Opening is 1/20: Protocols and Updates
Dear Ignite Volunteers,
It is that time of the year, our students arrive in just 3 days! Today, I wanted to carefully outline our procedures to add clarity about this year’s process and protocols. This will be quite an information dump with some added structure for clarity and I hope that it will serve as a resource if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for taking the time to review these protocols to best prepare for your season with Ignite. I know this will be a tough season for everyone, so thank you again from the bottom of my heart for supporting us in whatever capacity you can.
Instructor Selection:
If you are scheduled for a lesson day, you will only come up to Ignite if you are assigned as a Lead, Assistant, or Backup Lead, Backup Assistant. Everyone else will receive an email two days prior to their scheduled volunteer day that they are NOT needed. We are very conscious of who teaches when, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to participate this year. If you don’t get chosen this first week, do not fret! We’ll plug you in another week. You are all so essential to this organization!
If you are NOT selected, please do not plan on driving up to Ignite. Due to our limited capacity and parking reservations, we unfortunately cannot accommodate everyone who signed up for each lesson day. If I could have everyone up, I would in a heartbeat because I miss all of your faces and the passion you bring to Ignite!
If you ARE selected as an instructor, you will be notified of how you are needed (Lead, Assist, Backup, etc). You will receive this notification at least two days in advance. It is very important that you check your email 2-3 days in advance of your scheduled availability to learn if you were assigned or not.
COVID-19 Questionnaires
Similar to clinic registration, COVID-19 questionnaires will open 24 hours prior to your scheduled date. If you have been selected as an instructor, you must complete this before 4pm the day before you are scheduled. You will receive a call from an Ignite staff member after 4pm if you have not completed this form. If the questionnaire remains blank or comes back with red flags after you arrive at Ignite the morning of your lesson, unfortunately we will have to send you home. I hope we can hold each other accountable to get this form completed ahead of time so that you don’t have to drive all the way to Eldora, only to be turned around.
If a COVID-19 form comes back with red flags, we will be contacting the backup instructors immediately. I highly suggest all backup instructors plan to come up to Eldora regardless, as we will issue a parking pass and provide a ski pass for you even if you don’t teach. We can also organize a clinic to make the most of your time on the mountain.
Parking Passes
Parking passes will be issued to Leads, Assistants, Backup Lead, and Backup Assistants for each day.
We have a very limited amount of passes we can use each day so we are unable to issue everyone a pass. This is a collaborative effort with Eldora, and we have to meet them where they are at. At this time, they can only provide parking for students and assigned instructors. This is another really hard reality we have to face, I truly wish everyone signed up could still free ski. If anything changes that grants us more parking spaces, we will do what we can to get more of you up on the mountain. I’m so sorry for this inconvenience.
Summary
Whew – that was a LOT of information and we will have more updates in the days and weeks to come. Thank you for carefully reading this note to prepare for your season with Ignite. To summarize, if you are not assigned to a student, please do not come up to Ignite. Our space is too small and our capacity is very limited to mitigate risk related to COVID-19. I see a light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines on the move nation-wide. I look forward to the day where we can gather again, share food, drinks, and beautiful days at our home mountain of Eldora. Until then, I hope you feel our gratitude for your talents, patience, and willingness to adapt on the fly. Thank you so much for everything you do to support our mission.
Best,
Amy Bannon
Program Manager