OUR BLOG

Dear Members

This email requires action on your part.

We are sharing an update from Snowsport England (SE). I recommend you read the whole of this message but, if you are under time pressure, please scroll down to see what action you must take as members of Norfolk Snowsports Club. I wish to underscore that these are actions that have been imposed on you and us by SE.

SE’s update has implications for us as a Club and for you as members. Please take time to read and digest this message and the attachments provided by SE (a fact sheet and two sets of instructions on how to become an SE member / renew existing SE membership) as well as information on their membership pages (https://www.snowsportengland.org.uk/membership/)

On Thursday 3 September, Snowsport England announced changes to its rules on club affiliation and individual SE membership (please note, this email does not relate to your membership of Norfolk Snowsports Club, which remains unchanged). The announcement indicated that the new regime had started on 1 September. The changes were announced without any prior sharing of information or consultation with Norfolk or, so far as we are aware, any other clubs.

The changes as originally proposed created a serious and credible risk of adversely impacting both recreational and competitive snowsports in England.

I summarise below the timeline, concerns, and the actions you need to take.

1. Timeline

On 3 September I set up a WhatsApp group including as many other club and race team Chairs as I could. Since then, others have been added. The group has proved a useful forum for sharing information, discussing the implications of the changes and coordinating responses.

On 4 September (the day after the announcement), I spoke at length to SE’s CEO, James Arnold, to express my misgivings about both the manner in which the changes were being brought into effect as well as the expected impact of those changes. James and I spoke again on Tuesday 8 September.

I have subsequently written to James and SE’s Chairman, Dominic McGonigall, to express the Club’s serious concerns and dissatisfaction. 

Prior to and in parallel with those conversations I have liaised with approximately 20 to 30 other club and race team Chairs through the WhatsApp group and in one-to-one conversations. Many of those clubs have quite different profiles from Norfolk – mostly due to a narrower focus on, generally, one type of participant (e.g. exclusively racers, recreational, adaptive, or children), or they focus only on natural skiing (i.e. not dry slope and not indoor) – Yad Moss in the Pennines, for example. This is by way of illustrating that the changes SE has put in place will be experienced very differently according to the type of club.

Many of the proposed changes showed no regard or sympathy for those distinctions – indeed, the changes were incapable of doing so, since SE had not consulted those clubs before announcing the changes.

Following numerous verbal and written representations by Norfolk and other clubs, SE conceded it was in error in the following key respects.

• Failure to consult
• Poor communication (factual errors, internal inconsistencies, missing information, lack of understanding etc.)
• Unexpected and unwanted outcomes

They agreed to re-assess their proposals and to communicate in due course a revised set of changes.

On 24 September, SE announced the revised position. Accordingly, I am now writing to communicate the implications to you, our members.

• Concerns

This is not an exhaustive list of the issues but an illustrative one. It is intended to give you a flavour of the concerns that were raised with SE, as well as helping set in context the progress that has been made since 3 September.

The threats that numerous clubs identified included the following.

• Risk of losing members
• Risk of losing volunteers
• Risk of reduced recreational or race participation (especially among beginners or fledgling racers)
• Risk of having to cancel races and other sessions or events due to lack of insurance
• Risk of having to cease operations entirely due to lack of insurance

These threats flowed from the following changes (as originally announced on 3 September – this is not a statement of the current position).

• Loss of access to SE: If a club’s members did not all hold individual SE memberships, the club’s affiliation with SE would be void. That would prevent the club from holding SE events (such as GBRs and Championship races).
• Loss of insurance: If a club’s affiliation with SE was void, it would lose the insurance cover provided by SE.
• Administrative burden on the club: The club would have had to police the requirement for all the club’s members to take out individual SE membership.
• Increased costs for racing: this would particularly have affected new entrants to racing, changing the costs of entry for their first race from a simple entry fee of £20, say, to £55 or £90 per racer.
• Increased costs of membership: Previously, membership of Norfolk was the only cost. The individual cost of SE membership (minimum £19.99) risked deterring new members from joining.
• Loss of volunteers: All volunteers (no matter the role – even if you only wanted to gate judge) were required to pay £9.99 for annual SE membership.

As I note, these were the changes as originally communicated. It soon became clear that the implications had not be properly considered and, in fact, that some of the positions described by SE were not even what it intended or believed to be the case.

Following the representations of various clubs, SE has announced a number of changes to its original position. They key changes confirmed by SE are as follows.

• Volunteer memberships now only apply to those in DBS roles.
• Blue membership has been modified to allow participation in the following race events: Club, regional, and Club Nationals (unseeded only).
• Insurance cover remains available provided the Club informs (and periodically reminds) its members they are required to take out individual SE membership.
• A new “recreational” Green membership has been created at £4.99.

• Actions

SE requires every member of the Club (indeed, of every SE-affiliated Club in England) to take out individual membership with Snowsport England according to their level of participation.

You must do this before 1 November 2025.

To join (or renew if you are an existing member) please use the attached ‘how to’ guides prepared by SE and register individually as members of SE. You will need to select the appropriate category of SE membership according to the way you use Norfolk Snowsports Club – i.e. the type of activities you participate in.

You can review the levels of SE membership here: https://www.snowsportengland.org.uk/membership-benefits/. However, to help you work out which type of membership you need, please consider the following points.

Blue membership (£19.99*)

If you participate (or think you may wish to participate, in the coming year) in sessions at Norfolk where stubbies, big gates or features are used (whether regularly or occasionally), you will need to take out Blue membership or higher. Sessions at which we believe this would most obviously be relevant include the following.

• Race training on Wednesdays or Fridays
• Wannabes
• Junior Club (all levels)
• Masters
• Ladies Club
• Freestyle (all levels) on Mondays, Thursdays or Saturdays

If you race but only wish to participate in Club events (Club Champs and the Night Slalom), ERSAs/other regional events and schools races, you can also select this SE membership category.

U12s can also enter Club Nationals on an unseeded basis using Blue membership. U14s and above must take out Red Compete membership to enter Club Nationals.

Blue membership will not allow you to participate in GBRs or Championship races (see Red Compete below).

Blue membership will allow freestyle participants to compete in freestyle events or competitions in the UK. For overseas competitions, select Red Compete.

* NB free for their first ever year of SE membership for children aged 11 or under on 1 November

Red Compete membership (£34.99 or £69.99 – depending on age)

If you race and are seeded (whether a mini or a maxi skier) or wish to enter competitions and to have the opportunity to become seeded, you will need to take out Red Compete membership (at the appropriate age category: U12s and under, or U14s and over).

Red Compete membership will allow freestyle participants to compete in freestyle events or competitions outside the UK.

Green membership (£4.99)

If you are not covered by either of the preceding SE membership categories, Green membership should be the right one for you. This would most obviously cover beginners and recreational skiers attending any of the following (again, examples only).

• open practice
• beginner lessons (adults and children)
• ski supervised
• fast track to parallel
• other supervised sessions not mentioned above under Blue or Red

Green Volunteer membership (£9.99)

This SE membership is required for those occupying roles that require them to be DBS checked. Most obviously this applies to instructors and coaches. If you have an existing Coach or Instruct membership, you do not need to take out this membership in addition.

The only roles, aside from instructor and coach, to which this SE membership would obviously apply at Norfolk are Club Welfare Officer (CWO) and volunteers at our adaptive sessions. The Club will reimburse its CWOs and adaptive volunteers who are not instructors or coaches (provided they help out regularly) the cost of their SE membership.

Green Volunteer membership is also required for qualified officials (such as a Chief of Race, Referee, Start Referee, Finish Referee, Chief of Gates and Technical Director). Individuals who wish to fulfil these (significantly more advanced) volunteer roles need to be Green Volunteer members to access SE’s officiating courses.

To reassure anyone who is in doubt, this SE membership is not required for the following voluntary roles (a non-exhaustive list).

• Bar and catering
• Boot room
• Car parking
• Gate judging
• Other race officials
• Other helpers at events and on race days

Red Coach and Instruct

This remains the default SE membership category that all coaches and instructors require. However, it will not permit participation at races on a seeded basis (see my remarks above). If you coach or instruct and want to race, you should pick Red Compete membership instead.

All Club members are responsible for selecting the appropriate SE membership category for their level of participation. You are also responsible for navigating the Snowsport England / Sport:80 pages to create your registration (NB when it asks you to select an organisation, please link your name to Norfolk Snowsports Club).

We are sorry for the way in which this is being communicated – it has been sprung on us as well as you, our members. Moreover, in order to comply with SE’s minimum standards for club affiliation (https://www.snowsportengland.org.uk/club-affiliation/), we are required to take steps to ensure all our members take out individual SE memberships.

If, after reading this email and the SE guidance etc., you are in doubt as to what you need to do, please do get in touch with Snowsport England. In the first instance, please visit Snowsport England’s Frequently Asked Questions page. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, please contact ku.gro.dnalgnetropswonsnull@ofni or telephone 01509 232323 (lines are open from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday).

We remain committed to providing our members with the best experience we can – both on and off the slope – and we hope you will continue to find the Club a supportive and fun place to come and that your snowsports journey will not be impeded by these changes.

With my best wishes

Nick