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Good Morning MAST Athletes and Families: Fundraising Webinar Tonight we are holding our 3rd Webinar. Here is a link to join. https://meet.google.com/uen-bpfj-pbb Please log in using your athlete's MPS Email address if possible. Topic: Fundraising. Our Fundraising Chairs will walk you through the products you are being encouraged to sell as well as the forms we are using to track your orders. The two fundraisers currently underway give you an opportunity to raise money for yourself (Individual Fundraiser) and raise money for the team(Team Fundraiser). All of the fundraising we do on MAST helps the team keep team fees low while offering a high quality race program. If you don't believe that our fees are low, check out the team fees for Team Afton, Team Gilboa. or the Buck Hill Ski Team. Everything is relative. Equipment Swap Online-- More Equipment Added Today's weather confirms that canceling the swap was a good decision. It was pitch black down here in Welch where I am living with lightening, thunder, snow, and sleet. Attached is an updated spreadsheet of equipment and contacts for sale through our online swap. The website has also been updated. Last Call: Season Passes For those who were planning on turning in season pass payments in person on Saturday at our Equipment Swap, please put your payments in the mail no later than Saturday, October 24. I will need to pay Hyland for all the passes that have been paid for through MAST late next week so this is your last chance. Again, please don't drop the checks in my mailbox. Mpls Alpine Ski Team/4800 Harriet Ave/Mpls 55419. Webinar #4 Moved to Sunday, November 22 at 7PM. The purpose of this webinar is to give an orientation to all MAST families regarding the 2020-21 season. Unfortunately, we need more clarity from the MN State High School League and MPS before we can offer a very useful orientation. So, we are hoping that these governing bodies will have issued clear guidance by the 22nd so that you have a clear understanding of how we will be operating this season-- practices, races, transportation, etc. Athletes: we will be skiing soon. Even though the weather has turned wintery, please exercise! Your body is going to be pushing its limits in about five weeks and you need to be in shape. See you tonight online. Mark Conway 612-275-8392 
Good Evening MAST Families: The good news: six plus inches of snow and cold temps. Wild Mt is open (but I don't recommend going.) The bad news: the snow will not melt by Saturday and even if it should miraculously melt my lawn will be a soggy mess and the temps are slated for very cold. Tough conditions for boot fitting. Consequently... Therefore... With Deep Disappointment.... We are cancelling the in-person outdoor swap due to the weather. However, I have posted all the photos and relevant information you have sent me in advance of the swap to the Equipment page the website. Here is a link: Equipment Swap (Now Online) Inventory You can scroll through the page and see if any of the items listed fit your needs. For each item posted, the last name of a family is listed. To obtain the contact information for each family, you just need to open the attached MAST Online Swap Inventory and Contacts spreadsheet. Many families have chosen to donate equipment so I want to especially thank those families for your generosity. I will have to leave it to you to reach out to the selling family to arrange for a fitting/inspection/sale/pick up. One other place you can find equipment this weekend: the Team Gilboa Online Swap. Team Gilboa canceled its in-person swap but has found a way to hold an online swap. Equipment is posted already and I believe the sale opens on Thursday. Here is a link for more information: Team Gilboa Online Swap. Since we are unable to meet in person, please feel free to call me if you have questions about sizing and matching equipment. Attached is the MAST Used Equipment Buying Guide which you might find helpful. Finally, a reminder that we will be holding our third webinar on Thursday at 7PM. The topic is Fundraising-- specifically, we will be offering some coaching on how to sell the products effectively and how to understand and properly use the forms that are designed to track your sales and place your orders. Good luck, Mark Conway 612-275-8392 
MAST Update #7 Monday, October 19, 2020 Dear MAST Athletes, Families, Coaches: A little snow today. Always a nice reminder of what is coming our way. I have six important topics to address today, but first, I want to thank everyone who participated in our First Annual MAST(ers) Golf Tournament last week. I had a lot of fun and hopefully you did as well. I especially thought it appropriate that we were golfing in high winds and dropping temps, proving once again that ski racers (and their parents) are resilient. Here is a note from Aaron Cherveny who organized this terrific event. Thank you Aaron for your terrific work. Hi All, Well, the first MASTers is in the books. The rain held off, but it seemed to get colder, windier and darker as the afternoon went on. Thanks to everyone who participated and helped raise funds for MAST. We learned a few things for next year (mainly, to have it a little earlier in the season for warmer weather and fewer leaves to lose balls in). Overall, an impressive batch of scores, but we had TWO foursomes come in a an impressive FOUR UNDER PAR! The planning committee (me) hadn’t planned for a tie, so we improvised and awarded the winning team with their Great Harvest gift card by coin flip. Here were the big winners: Best Score (tie):
Longest Drive: Michael Lavine Finally, a special thanks to our sponsors who generously donated prizes for the contest!
I. Registration Update To those who have registered with MAST for the 2020-21 season, welcome! If you have not registered yet, please do as soon as you are certain you can make a commitment. Attached is a roster of athletes who have registered as of today. If you have not registered, here is a link to get started: MAST Registration. If you missed our second webinar, “Orientation to Ski Racing and MAST”, you can view it online. Here is a link. Orientation to Ski Racing and MAST Webinar: https://youtu.be/nImeo_asXLY I want to especially thank all of you who have made a donation to MAST as part of the registration process. Your gift is deeply appreciated. I give you my word that we be careful stewards of your donation for the benefit of all the athletes. Thank you. II. MAST Webinar #3: Fundraising Orientation and Rally Thursday, October 22, 7:00-8:00PM We are in the midst of two fundraisers: The Urban Ventures Coffee Sales and MinneSalsa Fundraisers. On Thursday, October 22 from 7-8PM, we will be hosting a Fundraising Webinar to give you more information about the products that you are being asked to sell this Fall and the processes we are using to capture your orders. Once again, we are asking you to log into the Webinar using your MPS Email Address. Here is a link to join: meet.google.com/uen-bpfj-pbb If you have provided us with your MPS email address, you will also be receiving an invitation to join the webinar via your MPS email account. Through the Urban Ventures Coffee Sales, athletes can raise money to help cover the cost of the team fees, the MPS activity fee, Supplemental Training, MAST Apparel, MAST Banquet and more. The MinneSalsa Fundraiser is a team fundraiser that raises money to cover the cost of coaching, equipment, racing and much more. By fundraising for the TEAM, you help MAST keep team fees low and the quality of our race program high. III. MAST Equipment Swap: Saturday, October 24, 2020 Location: 4800 Harriet Ave (across the street from Fuller Park) We are scheduled to hold the MAST Equipment Swap on Saturday. Due to the cold weather in the forecast for Saturday, we are going to shorten the swap hours. Our last appointment will be offered at 12:10PM. We would ask that you pick up any unsold equipment by 1PM. Attached is an appointment schedule. As you can see, the early appointment times have filled but plenty remain from 10:30am to 12:10pm. If you scheduled an appointment, PLEASE CHECK THIS ATTACHED SCHEDULE. I had to move a few of you up in the schedule so we can conclude the event by 1PM. Please call or email me if you need to change the time. If you would still like to make an appointment to look at skis or boots, please fill out the Swap Appointment Form HERE. Finally, we are very short of equipment, especially skis. Click HERE to see our Swap Equipment Inventory Page. If you are still planning on selling equipment at the Swap, please fill out the Equipment Sales Form AND Send A Photo Of The Item(s) You Wish To Sell To: [email protected]. IV. Community Swaps It appears that two equipment swaps are taken place this weekend. One is in Forest Lake and the other is in Duluth. Oct 23-25: Team Duluth Ski Swap, Duluth, MN Oct 23-24: Forest Lake Ski Swap, Forest Lake, MN V. MSHSL Update We are slowly getting guidance from the MN State High School League about the upcoming Alpine Season. The season opens on Nov 30 and concludes on February 27. This is a 13-week season. Should there be a Section Championship Series, it will be held the week of February 15th. Should there be a State Championship, it will be held on February 24. I personally do not see how they will hold a State Championship, but I guess we can always hope for the best. At least they haven’t declared that it won’t happen yet. VI. Hyland Season Pass Photo Night and Pass Pick Up MAST is scheduled to pick up season passes on Monday, November 9 from 6:30-8PM. Please set this date aside. In order to maintain social distancing, we will be assigning pick up times to each MAST family. For instance, last names ending in A-D will pick up their passes at 6:30PM. Last names ending in E-H will pick up their passes at 6:45PM. Stay tuned. If you still need to purchase a pass, please send payment of $455 via USPS to 4800 Harriet Ave, 55419 or drop off payment at the ski swap on Saturday. Make checks payable to Mpls Alpine. Do not drop off payment in my mailbox. Too many thefts these days. Thanks everyone. Hope to see you on the call Thursday night or at the Swap on Saturday. Mark Conway 612-275-8392 [email protected]
Good Evening Everyone:
The first fairway drive of the First Ever (possibly Annual) MAST(ers) Golf Tournament is less than 72 hours away. Thank you to everyone who signed up. We may have one more tee time available for anyone who would still like to participate. Please contact Aaron Cherveny if you are interested. [email protected] To see a participants list, tee times, and foursomes: CLICK HERE. Logistics The first foursome tees up at 3:12. For those who can arrive by 3PM, Aaron will say a few words to kick off the event and establish the rules. For those who cannot make it by 3, he will be with the last group and will be around to update you with the same information. Everyone should be wrapped up around 6PM, when we can head over to Carbone’s where Aaron will distribute awards and honors. Payment Participants should bring cash, check (made out to MAST) or venmo me (@Aaron-Cherveny) $50/player and give it to me. I will consolidate all non-check payments and write a master check to MAST. If people want a cart, they will need to pay $12/cart at the window. Here is a link to more information about the MAST(ers) Golf Tournament on our website. MAST(ers) Golf Tournament All the best... Mark Good Evening MAST Families:
Step One of the MAST Registration opens tomorrow. Below is a link to the Registration Instructions on how to create a Sports Sign Up Account for your family (if you don't have one already) and how to register your athlete(s). If you are a returning athlete, please use your existing SSU account to register. Please follow the instructions carefully. https://www.mplsalpineski.org/fees-and-registration.html Caution: There are two places in the registration process where Sports Sign Up will offer you a service. The first offer is to receive information about apparel through Squad Locker. This is not a MAST venture. You can uncheck the box here. The second is an offer to buy registration insurance of sorts. You can decline this offer. The captains are organizing apparel and will be notifying us when they are ready to start taking orders. This year, we are giving all MAST families the opportunity to make an additional donation to MAST as part of registration. We are grateful to Great Harvest Bread Company (owned by MAST parents Steve and Gail Arnold) who are incentivizing donations to MAST with gift cards from their wonderful bakery. For those who donate $50, you will receive a $5 gift card. For those who donate $100 or more, you will receive a $20 gift card. Please consider making a donation over and above the requested team fee of $225 and the MPS Activity Fee of $75. Donations help us keep our suggested team fee low. One final note: we do have high levels of interest in the team this year. Given our experience last year with 131 athletes (it was wonderful but we discovered that we cannot grow beyond this size without compromising quality), we will be closing registration at 130 athletes. Anyone who wants to register after this point will be placed on a waiting list. Please though, don't register unless you are certain that skiing with MAST is what you want to do this year. If you have questions about registration please give me a call. Mark Conway 612-275-8392 Good Morning MAST:
Just a friendly reminder that All MAST families are invited to tune in to our second MAST Webinar tonight from 7-8:30PM. Please sign in to Google Meets using your athlete's MPS email address. This will help immensely. Here is the link if you need it: Meeting ID meet.google.com/prs-uttk-dqw Phone Numbers (US)+1 409-444-2467 PIN: 284 115 479# And here is a description of the topic: Tonight’s goal is to provide new (and even returning) MAST athletes and families an introduction to alpine ski racing and an orientation to all things MAST—coaching staff and philosophy, training and racing schedule and protocols, communication methods, transportation, parent roles, athlete outcomes, and much, much more. New MAST Parents and Athletes as well as returning parents and athletes who have never experienced a MAST Orientation in the past should attend. We will also be addressing the known and unknown changes to our season due to Covid. We are going deep into the what, how, why, when, where, wherefore, therefore, heretofore, metaphor of MAST and high school ski racing. See you tonight. Mark 612-275-8392 MAST Update #6 Saturday, October 3, 2020 Dear MAST Athletes, Families, Coaches: I. MSHSL Update We have mostly good news from the MN State High School League. The MSHSL Board voted Thursday to delay the start of Alpine Skiing until November 30th. The season will run fourteen weeks with no State Alpine Championship to conclude the season this year. By my count, we will be able to ski together until March 6, which I really appreciate. I feel badly for the seniors who have been gunning for a chance to ski in the State Champs for the past five, six years. Do not let this deter you from pursuing your goals with all your energy. We will train and race (when possible) as though there is a State Championship in 2021. In fact, with the season extending into March, you have the opportunity to get more training in this year than any MAST team in history. Take advantage of this. II. New Athlete/Family Orientation Webinar Tuesday, October 6, 7-8:30PM Who should attend? New athletes and families and returning athletes/families who missed our orientation in 2019 or who want to better understand our program and the sport of alpine skiing in general Tonight’s goal is to provide athletes and families an introduction to alpine ski racing and an orientation to all things MAST—coaching staff and philosophy, training and racing schedule and protocols, communication methods, transportation, parent roles, athlete outcomes, and much, much more. Please sign onto the webinar using your athlete’s MPS email address. I will send a link to the webinar on Tuesday. If you have not provided MAST with your athlete’s MPS email address, CLICK HERE to do so now. Thank you. III. MAST Fundraising 2020-21 We have a full slate of team and individual fundraisers ready to launch this week. A. First Annual MAST(ers) Golf Tournament: Wednesday, October 14 Tee times still available. Join us. Looks like the weather will be fantastic. B. TWO Individual & Team Fundraisers open Tuesday, October 6th - Urban Ventures MAST Individual Fundraiser MinneSalsa MAST Team Fundraiser. All MAST athletes are invited to participate in both the Individual Fundraiser with Urban Ventures Coffee and the new Team Fundraiser with MinneSalsa. Get creative going door to door virtually this year, reach out to family and friends and all of your social media friends, hit up all those coworkers who always hit you up. Be sure to collect payment when the order is placed. Checks should be made payable to Mpls Alpine Ski Team. Order and payment collection will not be at the hill this year. All customer orders will be submitted using the online form on each fundraising page. Payment must be mailed or dropped off to the Fundraising Chair. NOTE: the selling window closes before Thanksgiving this year to meet timelines. Order forms for the coffee sales and salsa fundraisers are attached, but please be sure to carefully read through all the instructions on the MAST website. Again, you can access this information by clicking on each fundraiser below. IV. Registration Update, MAST Fact Sheet, Registration Process Step One Now that the MSHSL has made a decision regarding winter sports, we will open STEP ONE of the registration process on Saturday, October 10, (i.e., registering with MAST). An updated 2020-21 MAST Fact Sheet can be found on our website and is attached. Look for an email late next week with detailed instructions on Step One of the registration process. Currently we have over 140 athletes interested in MAST. Last year we rostered 131 athletes, which proved to be the maximum number of athletes we can handle given limited training lane space at Hyland. Why is it necessary to complete a registration with MAST? MAST is a 501(C)3 whose mission is to administer alpine ski racing for Minneapolis Public School students. We need to get organized well before MPS athletic directors start collecting registration forms for winter sports. This allows our athletes to procure the equipment they need at the best prices, secure a Hyland Season Pass before the Nov 1 price increase, and participate in team sponsored fundraisers. The team also takes great pains to educate new athletes about alpine racing in general, equipment, ski tuning, parent involvement, race volunteering, and training. This all needs to take place well before the season opens. So, register with MAST. Once we fill, we will close registration for the season. Our roster fills before the ADs start collecting MPS/MSHSL forms. V. Registration Process Step Two: Registering with MPS/MSHSL I will alert you when the athletic directors are ready to accept winter sports participation forms (Step Two of the Registration Process). I understand that it is possible to register for winter sports online this year. I would discourage you from using this online registration option. Feedback from both parent users and athletic directors is that the system in place is confusing and difficult to use. For now, you can start the process of completing the Physical Examination Form. Check with your health care provider about his or her process for completing the form. Warning: if you have not had a physical exam in the last year, your provider may require you to have a physical examination in order to complete the form. So... get started now in case you need to schedule a physical exam. For returning athletes: check with your AD to see if your Qualifying Physical Exam form is still valid for the 2020-21 winter sports season. Attached are all the forms you will need to print, complete, sign, and submit to your high school athletic director when the time comes for you to register with your high school. To get the full skinny on our two-step registration process, CLICK HERE. VI. Equipment Please do not wait to line up your equipment for the season. Do it NOW. A. Appointments Still Available For MAST-Pierce Equipment Day I will be joining the Pierce staff on Wednesday, October 7 to assist athletes with gear selection. Please call to make an appointment. 952-884-1990. If the 7th doesn’t fit into your schedule, you can make an appointment for another day. Be sure to tell Pierce staff that you are with MAST and inquire about the Flex Pricing discounts. B. Two sites to purchase used equipment online: PNSA (online ski swap) SidelineSwap (online ski swap) C. MAST Equipment Swap: Saturday, October 25 Equipment Drop Off: 8:30-9:15AM Fitting and Sales Appointments: 9:30AM-2:00PM Unsold Equipment/Sold Equipment $$ Pick Up: 2:00-3:00PM MAST will be holding its own Equipment Swap on Saturday, October 24. We are doing things differently this year. You must make an appointment to enter the swap AND you must register any equipment online that you want to sell or donate. TO LEARN ABOUT HOW THE MAST SWAP IS DIFFERENT THIS SEASON CLICK HERE. TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR THE MAST SWAP CLICK HERE TO SELL OR DONATE EQUIPMENT OR CLOTHING, CLICK HERE. VII. Hyland Season Pass Reminder The last day to purchase a Hyland Hills Season Pass through MAST is Saturday, October 24. Please mail a check in the amount of $455 to Mpls Alpine/4800 Harriet Ave S/Mpls/MN/55419. You can also drop off the check at the Swap on Oct 24. You can also purchase your pass directly from Hyland Hills/Three Rivers Park District. Here is a link: Hyland Season Pass Sale. Click on “Adult” under Season Passes. The price is the same if you purchase online but you will also be paying MN State Sales Tax on the purchase. VIII. MAST Training Times Survey Thank you to everyone who has completed the MAST Training Times Survey. If you still need to do this, here is a link: MAST Training Session Survey. By completing this survey, the coaches will be better equipped to decide how to organize practices this year. We need your input. Keep checking our website for all the information you need on the upcoming season. www.mplsalpineski.org. Remember, you can always access MAST Updates on our website by CLICKING HERE. Best wishes, Mark Conway Head Coach Mpls Alpine Ski Team 612-275-8392 [email protected]
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