office, that will inevitably mean poli- cy changes related to climate, immi- gration, labor, public lands, taxes, and other areas that are critical to our industry. What advocacy challenges and opportunities do you see going forward? Mike: It’s going to be about challeng- es and opportunities. Sometimes that means whatever you have been doing, that might flip from an opportunity to a challenge, and vice versa. I think climate is one of those. Trump generally talks openly about rolling back those types of policies. I think we’ve pret- ty well established in our industry that sustainability and climate change solu- tions are extremely important to us, and I don’t think that any administration is going to change that. It might make it more difficult to do certain things, but it should not change the way that we are doing things and the things we’re talking about, because we still need to work with different groups to help push those things forward. From a regulatory standpoint, I can certainly see that deregulation is also a bit of a priority of this administration, and that can be better for us in some ways. For example, employee housing is a really important thing, and you can even look at it from a net positive on cli- mate in that you aren’t having people drive from all over the place to get to the resorts for work. Well, we make it a real challenge here (in California) to build new housing. It almost doesn’t even pen- cil out to make any sense. So, sometimes getting rid of the red tape can help— we’ll call it the green tape, for lack of a better term. The NSAA team, Geraldine Link, Dave Byrd, and Grant Colvin, they’re fully prepared for whatever this admin- istration throws at us, and we will deal with it as it comes. We’ll continue to work on our partnership with the For- est Service. It’s a great one. And beyond that, advocacy is an area I’m comfortable with, and I know we’ve got a great team at NSAA. Mike Reitzell with his wife, Kristen, and his children, Eleanor and Ryden. Reitzell will take a remote-work approach to his role as the CEO of NSAA so that his family can remain in California.
always bring everything together under the same set of goals or principles because they’re just not going to work everywhere. And then there are some things that are going to work nationally, so we’ve just got to figure out what those are. Katie: When Kelly was in the role, she talked a lot about diversity, equity and inclusion and supporting mem- bers’ education as things that were important to her work. What are some of the things that you’re passionate about? When you think about pushing the industry forward, what does that mean for you? Mike: I really do appreciate that Kelly did those things. I think those are great piec- es to work with going forward. I think growth is one area where I hear so many people talk about it. But what does that really mean? Again, is it national? Is that regional? A marketing campaign getting people to ski and ride in Utah is going to be different than a marketing campaign in West Virginia. Olivia: The data is showing a lack of futureproofing in attracting and re- taining new people. Meanwhile, the season pass is the main way in now, and there are barriers with parking and capacity management because of the record visits, but these may be eroding growth. Have you given any thought to how the growth issue might apply to your new role? Mike: I think research and data is a really important piece of all of this. And I want to look into how much more we can do from a research and data standpoint as a
national association to inform everybody. If we’re seeing something in the numbers, we have to figure out why. We’ve got to ask ourselves, why is that happening? So, can NSAA be that organization that goes out there and helps answer the “why” question? Because the other stuff to me is more the nitty gritty, on-the-ground stuff—NSAA is not going to influence parking operations. I don’t know that it’s NSAA’s role to just grow the entire sport across the country. But helping answer those questions, about the why, like, why do people ski five days a year now when it used to be more like 15? Those are the questions that we have to answer. I think the season pass thing, the day ticket piece of that is going to prob- ably evolve. [Alterra CEO] Jared Smith said something along the lines of, “we’ve reached a tipping point with day tickets.” I think the tipping point isn’t that they’re just either going to go up or down in price. The tipping point is, OK, what are the other ideas people come up with? We do need to do a better job with the people that are entering the sport. Every resort is responsible for lifting those people to become longtime skiers, people that do ski more often. I love the concept of just making that a heck of a lot cheaper because I’ve seen that from my perspective. I have two kids I brought through ski school just very recently, and I know how much it costs me, and I know that I’ve got a much easier path than most people to get them there. Not to mention the fact that I’m coming in already 110 percent commit- ted to doing it.
Katie: Advocacy is a key function of NSAA. With Trump coming back into
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