Voices of New FIS Committee Chairmen

Before, most racers competed in all disciplines. Today, we offer great variety with distinct opportunities to sprinters and distance racers, classic and skating specialists. This is exciting but also challenges us to keep up the interest in our main trophy, the overall World Cup. The FIS Tour de Ski, which brings all our best racers together in one competition, is so far our best answer to that. I am very much looking forward to the kick off in Nove Mesto in late December!

Effective TV pictures are key to the success of our sport. Much has already been done but I think we must further improve our cooperation with broadcasters and producers to optimize the way we present our sport to the TV audiences. New technologies bring new possibilities to communicate with our fans. We have to be part of that development.

In terms of committee work, I plan to encourage the members to be representatives for their country and region, and to engage in our topics also between our meetings. Through our discussions, I hope, they will understand that the Cross-Country family is very diverse which is why our decisions sometimes have to be compromises. I will also continue to seek direct contact with FIS and our athletes to ensure effective dialogue. And I would like to see more surveys and analyses as background for our decisions.”

“I'm honored to be named Chairman, together with Vice-Chairman Ignacio Valenzuela (SPA). I'm especially proud to follow the late Kuki Bergant, a great sport journalist, and Elizabeth Hussey, one of our sport's great historians.

The PR and Mass Media Committee has recently seen a real strengthening of its membership with marketing and communications professionals from the national associations. To engage these professionals for the overall benefit of our sport, I have two primary goals over the next two years:
1. Develop more active, year-round participation from the committee members; and
2. Focus the national associations, together with FIS, on more modern, pro-active means of blending marketing, media and communications to increase global public awareness of our competitions and athletes.

Specific ideas for doing this include our tentative plan to convene a TV and media workshop not just to talk about TV rights, but to talk about how TV and media can be used as a platform to promote the sport. And, I would like to foster closer collaboration among the national associations on the World Cup by, for example, utilizing the travels of top athletes from Austria or Germany to the USA (and vice versa) for promoting our sport.

I feel this comes at a very good time with FIS, which is expanding the professionalism of its own communications department. At the same time, I plan to work very closely with our Vice-Chairman on all committee matters. I will also be very active in communicating with the committee and seeking input on issues and topics.”

In other decisions from the FIS Council meeting last month in Portugal, Howard Peterson (Soldier Hollow, UT) was renamed chairman of the Committee for Advertising Matters, Bill Slattery (Buffalo Grove, IL) held onto his leadership role as chairman of the FIS Snowboard Committee. USSA Freestyle Program Director Polly-Jo Clark (Heber City, UT) was re-named chair of freestyle's NorAm Cup SubCommittee while USSA Nordic Director Luke Bodensteiner was chosen chairman of the Subcommittee for Popular Cross Country. Around two-dozen USSA officials serve on various FIS committees.

FIS, based in Oberhofen, Switzerland, conducts its Congress (convention) every two years. The organization, which met in Miami two years ago, held its 2006 Congress in Vilamoura, Portugal.

Source: FIS & USSA