Celebrating 80 Years of Skiing and Lifelong Friendships
December 12, 2020 Vol. XIV, #5
Those poor people living at the bottom of the mountain in Whoville (a.k.a. Caberfae Village) are reporting they’re not getting very much sleep. But they don’t seem to mind, as the chorus of snow guns roaring in perfect harmony ... it's like the Grinch purring, it’s music to their ears.
If you embrace change, then this season is for you. The only thing that remains unchanged is the great skiing that’s in the making. People throughout the resort and our own Caberfae Ski Club, continue to work tirelessly to give you the very best experience possible. This COVID business is a constantly moving target, so please, look for the most recent eNewsletter and for updates on our website (www.CaberfaeSkiClub.org). (The inside skinny is there may be some updates in the 12/22/2020 edition of the eNewsletter and the website).
Keeping members, guests, and employees COVID safe.
Before we get the party started for the season we need to go over plans to keep members, guests, and employees safe during the snowy, COVID season. Your board of directors have been working tirelessly to make the best out of a less than perfect situation. It’s kinda like making fresh Colorado powder, out of a Michigan January thaw, that’s been going on since last March.
Editor’s note: I have had the opportunity to sit in on several meetings of the board as they have anguished over the necessity to put any kind of limits on members and services we all take for granted. None of them signed up to be a COVID-cop, but they each have taken their role quit seriously and are walking the line between protecting the health of members, guests and employees, along with doing what’s necessary to keep the clubhouse open, and have a good time. Please play along, and remember to thank them for their service beyond the call of duty. Pat Goggin, editor
General Information About COVID Interruptions at the CSC
This document will be updated as the COVID situation evolves.
The Caberfae Ski Club COVID Preparedness and Response Plan has been drafted as required by MIOSHA (Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration). This plan is posted on the club website https://www.caberfaeskiclub.org, as well as on the clubhouse bulletin boards.
All members, guests and staff are to wear a mask and practice social distancing while inside the clubhouse.
If you learn you have a positive case of COVID-19, and you have been inside the clubhouse, please notify either Sue, Norma, or any board member, as soon as possible, so contact tracing may begin.
Members and guests are to sign-in once each day. This is for contact tracing in the event of a COVID situation. Members and guest will find a sign-in notebook inside the parking lot door and another in the round room near the front door.
Members are asked to self-monitor room capacities and be respectful of posted numbers. Let’s all work together to keep the clubhouse open this season.
Be advised: If board members or staff learn of a COVID exposure, the building must be closed immediately for cleaning. Members will not be allowed re-entry, even to gather personal items ... like car keys. The clubhouse will remain closed until the cleaning process has been completed. This may take a couple of hours … not days.
Due to capacity issues, members and guests are asked to boot-up quickly and hit the slopes, so others may use the facility. Unfortunately, members may not linger in the clubhouse to swap lies until the Michigan COVID restrictions have been lifted. Similar to the resort’s lodge, you may access the clubhouse to use the restrooms, but not to warm up, congregate or eat. Hopefully this will change, but we are limited by the current (Mi Dept. of Health and Human Services) MDHHS rules.
On the other hand, with proper social distancing you may bring your own lunch to the new outdoor space surrounding the firepit, or the sundeck outside the Stag’s Head Lounge.
The Caberfae Ticket Elf will be taking up shelter just outside the front door, near one of those fancy new heaters. One would be wise to leave room for the elf next to a heater. If not, they just may just grab your ski pass and toss it up into the heater. This is how the Tim and Pete Meyer pick up a little extra beer money ... replacing lost ski passes.
Regrettably, special club events and activities are not able to be scheduled this season.
Food and Bar Service Under COVID Rule
Until the current pause on Dine-in food service is lifted, inside dining and bar service of any kind will not be available. The board will meet again on December 20th to review any new government updates and make appropriate changes.
The board is currently working on ways for members to pre-order and pick up food from the club kitchen.
When allowed, the plan is to have a bartender on Friday’s and Saturday’s from 3-7pm
… and just to remind those who like to read between the lines: Only alcohol purchased from the club may be consumed on club property, indoors and out.
Carry-in food is currently prohibited indoors during the pause. This may change when indoor dining has resumed.
If we ever get back to indoor dining, guests and mother-in-law’s will again be welcome.
Hand sanitizer is available throughout the clubhouse. If you see anyone refilling their personal bottles, please “narc them out” to a mom with school age children. She’ll know how to deal with them.
To enhance the experience when using new outdoor fire pit area, an official request has been filed by the club with the Michigan Liquor Commission to extended the footprint of the club liquor license to include the fire pit. Watch for updates on this request.
The new outdoor area and the Sun Deck, off the Stag’s Head Lounge, may be used to visit with friends while maintaining social distance.
Please, only those over 18 yrs. are permitted to operate the new outdoor fire pit or heaters.
Sam's No Bad News (2020-21, Volume I)
The snow guns have been roaring. Over the last two months, us village people have been witnessing the wedding decor being swapped out for ski racks, parking signs, and new visual COVID protocols. I suspect this blurb will accompany a newsletter with Caberfae’s, and our Club’s, opening plans. And yet, something was missing about the build-up to my favorite time of year. There was no mad scramble to get old gear to the ski swap. No auditorium to watch this year’s Warren Miller film in. Not much of a ski club work bee. My tune-up ritual of dropping skis off to Sun ‘n Snow accompanied by a beverage or six was more of an abbreviated, masked business transaction.
Turns out much of what I love about ski season are the interactions I have with the people who share this wonderful sport. I don’t know if I’ve ever picked up my unsold gear on ski swap Saturday, but I guarantee I spend that Friday evening drop-off talking to new Cadillac Ski Team members and coaches. Warren Miller films have been fair at best since his passing, but something about packing a theater in the late fall with a bunch of enthusiasts wearing ski resort ball caps and patched vests brings me back every year. I haven’t participated in a work bee since I started bartending, but you can bet that I show up for the lunch conversation and have lots of side plans knowing friends will be around that weekend. Joe may or may not even tune my skis, but I usually can’t remember anyways by the time I’m shuttled out of the Sun ‘n Snow basement that evening/morning – a basement where I’ve spent countless hours tuning all of your skis in past years under the influence of performance enhancing “wax."
There is a silver lining to all this rambling. Ski season to me is about the people, so I’ll happily forfeit my cheeseburgers and Miller High Life for a winter to see all those same people return next year at full strength. To those who believe the Club is all about the amenities and can’t stomach the idea of tailgating in the parking lot after a handful of runs, I’d challenge you to read up on the history of how this Club, and Caberfae, began. I think we’ll be returning to that history for a season.
Finally, I’ve had a front row seat via my wife to the efforts our board, Norma, and Sue are putting in to preserve some semblance of Club this year. It has been absolutely tireless work and for most on top of other jobs and personal stresses. What they will be laying out is a plan that accommodates a lot of opinions but mostly errs on the side of safety and laws. Turns out a lot of these ideas were past due. How it took a pandemic to figure out we’d enjoy an outdoor gathering place boggles my mind. Order in advance and take out? Sign me up every Sunday morning for breakfast so my nursing wife can get some much-deserved sleep.
My parting plea in this newsletter is to follow the rules for the benefit of all and before you voice your suggestion, write it down on a piece of paper, put it in your jacket pocket, and if it still sounds good 24 hours later hand it to Sue or Norma to bring to the attention of the board. My idea for a zip line from our upper porch to the new R Dub’s deck didn’t sound as good the next day, and probably not worth the share of mind this year. The same goes for interactions with Pete and Tim. This season is just about making do and being thankful the sport we love has always been outside, often masked, and distanced (if you are fast enough).
See you all on the snow or in the cold locker room, masked up. -Sam
All Grownups Finally Get to vote.
It was just last February, during the club’s Annual Meeting, the membership voted to change the club Bylaws (under Section 4., Article IV) to read: “A Family Membership is entitled to two votes.” Before this there was only one ballot per Family Membership. The first one in the family to open the email got to vote on club matters. It wasn’t long before that, the race ended at the family mailbox when the U.S. Mail delivered the all-important ballot from the ski club. Even longer ago, Guy Benson remembers the Wells Fargo stage coach bringing mail to the old Harriette Post Office (it was about half way up Caberfae Hwy. on your way to the club from M55). Today, both mom and dad get a vote (excuse me … parental figure #1, and parental figure #2). And herein lies the struggle. To keep the club’s voting machinery running more smoothly than the government’s, Norma needs a second email address. One for papa bear, and one for momma bear. Now, don’t make this difficult. Adult children, living off the parents’ membership do not count as an adult. Here’s your chance to update your CSC account information:
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Family Membership adult #1. Enter your primary email address. This will receive CSC Invoices, one voting ballot, and eNewsletters. __________
Family Membership adult #2. Enter the email address for the other adult member. This will receive the #2 voting ballot. ______________
Additional email addresses wishing to receive the eNewsletters: _____________
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Please copy and paste these four bullet points into a blank email:
Fill in the answers to the three questions.
Then cut and paste this address string into the TO field: roelfsen@gmail.com, pgoggin@charter.net.
In the SUBJECT field enter: “update email address,”
Then hit SEND. Norma Roelfsema, club secretary/treasurer, and Pat Goggin, eNewsletter editor, will update your information.
Please do it right now, while you’re think about it and won’t forget. This way Norma and Pat have time to update all the new ballot and eNewsletter addresses. Thank you.
Would You Like to Know if You Were in Close Contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19? Well, there’s an app for that! Here’s what the Mi. Depart. of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has to say, “Your personal use of MI COVID Alert helps inform (you and) others of possible exposure to COVID-19 if they are suspected of having been within close proximity to someone who has tested positive.” For more information, follow this link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mi-covid-alert/id1527644912
COMMENTS, CONTRIBUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS
This is your club and we’d like to hear your ideas to continually improve the Caberfae Ski Club for the enjoyment of you and your family. Let us hear your suggestions. Email us at: caberfaeskiclub@caberfaeskiclub.org If you have a story or an article you’ve written that you’d like to share with club members in the eNewsletter, please email or call the eNewsletter editor.
CLUB CONTACT INFORMATION
Caberfae Ski Club web page: www.caberfaeskiclub.org
Send your favorite photo-moments from the club or the slopes to neffzone@yahoo.com
Club Wi-Fi Password: Check the bulletin board in the hall near the dining room
Caberfae Ticket Agent available Fri, Sat., & Sun. until 11:15 a.m.
Calendar of Events: www.caberfaeskiclub.org/calendar
Dinner Reservation Hotline: dinnerreservations@caberfaeskiclub.org
I Forgot to Make Dinner Reservation Phone Line: (231) 920-6769 (Sue’s personal cell phone)
General Caberfae Ski Club email address: caberfaeskiclub@caberfaeskiclub.org
Caberfae Peaks Resort: www.caberfaepeaks.com
Board Members
Pat Bourassa, President
Ron Kimball, Immediate Past President
Mary Jane Canfield, First Vice President
Paul Waug, Second Vice President, Social Chairman
Tac Lee, board member
Cathy Maher, board member
Brian Nyland, board member
Lauren Rule, board member
Club Secretary/Treasurer - Norma Roelfsema
Assistant Club Treasurer - David Reiser
Club Manager - Sue Egelus
Club Webmaster - Jim Neff