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December 11, 2025 49 mins

We talk with newly elected National Board member Shelly Urban about the long campaign, how conventions differ across divisions, and why defining our lane as an educational organization safeguards standards nationwide. She shares priorities around OEC consistency, tech modernization, mountain hosts, and wellness.

The PNWD History Project:  Shirley Cummings, the official history project coordinator, (& all around fabulous lady), has been on a mission: Collect and assemble an archive of stories and pictures from the different ski patrols within the Pacific Northwest Division. Hence, Patroller Chats was born! 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Murphy (01:59):
Welcome back to another episode of Patroller Chats.
Today we're here with ShellyUrban, the newly elected
National Board member.
Shelly, how are you?

Shelley (02:10):
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
How are you guys?

Murphy (02:13):
Fantastic.

Shelley (02:15):
Good.

Murphy (02:16):
So, you know, we're all super excited that you were
elected to the National Board.
You know, before we get startedon some of our other questions,
tell us how was that long andgrueling campaign?
And what did you learn goinginto becoming a newly elected
board member?
And, you know, we'll talk aboutsome of the things that people

(02:37):
chatted with you about and youknow what they want to see
brought to the uh nationalboard, how your life is going to
change over the next couple ofyears.
I know as division director,you were really busy, but now
we're gonna put that intooverdrive.
So let's start out with on thecampaign trail.
How was it, you know, gettingto getting to people all around

(02:58):
the country?
What did you do?
Where did you go?
How were those uh meetings?

Shelley (03:04):
Sure.
Um, well, I started outsoutheast and flew to gosh, that
was I think in May to Albany,New York, and was able to go to
their they don't call it aconvention.
I can't remember what they callit now.
Spring meeting, I think.
And got to kind of it was goodbecause it made me, you know,
you're when you're standing upin front of some people and

(03:25):
trying to give a five-minutespiel of why they should elect
you to something, you have toreally hone in on why and why.
It's a really good question.
So, you know, trying to come upwith the the why and really I
had it in my brain, but tryingto articulate that and put that
into words was a good challenge.
And I think it was it was greatto go back and meet people,

(03:47):
meet their their group ofpatrollers, their leadership,
talk with them, see some, seesome friends that I hadn't seen
in a while, based on my divisiondirector experience.
From there, you know, got myapplication in, did our
convention for PacificNorthwest, then flew to
Milwaukee to Central, kind ofdid a similar type thing at

(04:08):
their, this was theirconvention.
So got to again spend time withtheir patrollers, talk to
people, do a little presentationabout why elect me, and you
know, kind of honing down outdown on that.
Yeah, it's a long process.
Boy, I mean, May to where youstart thinking about it, and you
know, should I run, should Inot run?
March, April, and then youdon't find out anything until

(04:30):
December 1st.
You know, what is that?
Like nine months or something?
It's a long, long process to todo that.

Murphy (04:37):
Full term, as they say, in the OBG LAN world.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
There you go.
Yep.

Murphy (04:44):
Wow.
So what was what was unusualthat you ran into, you know,
campaigning and going throughthis whole process?
Was you know, was it what youthought?
Was it kind of different?
I mean, how how is it?
I've never ran for nationaloffice.

Shelley (05:00):
So I don't know.
You know, I think uh justbecause I was division director
for six years and you know, Iknew what other, you know, like
Liz Dodge and Lance Vaughn andJohn Kane and you know some of
the other folks who weredivision directors, the
campaigns and the process thatthey went through.
You know, in the fall, there'sthe the uh forums that that get

(05:21):
held that the division directorsrun.
And I, you know, as a divisiondirector was involved in those.
So I was pretty familiar withthe process.
I didn't really expect to goback east and to central for
flights that you know were likego spend one day, come home, you
know, all those that way on anairplane.

(05:41):
But it was worthwhile, youknow.
I mean, I I enjoyed, like Isaid, I really enjoy getting to
meet the people.
You know, patrollers arepatrollers are patrollers, you
know, and and it's pretty coolto see how similar we all are
and how we're also driven andpassionate about the
organization.

Murphy (05:58):
Also, though, that you got to see with being division
director for PW with 11divisions and the NSP, you got
to see some variations probablywith like their meetings or or
were there not any variationsthat you noticed?

Shelley (06:16):
Yeah, you know, with Central, and actually I did get
on the phone with Far West too,but that was just a phone call.
With Central, there it wasreally fun because their
convention is run very similarto ours.
But I kind of wondered if maybeit was because we had, you
know, when we were divisiondirectors, we exchanged, you
know, because it's like, how doyou guys run your convention?
Let's kind of compare because Imean you guys know how every

(06:38):
year with PW convention, it'slike, what can we change?
How can we improve?
You know, but like well,everybody kind of runs theirs
the same.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Um yeah, yeah.

Shelley (06:49):
So it's very similar format.
The uh Eastern board meeting,well, it was a spring board
meeting, so it was all meeting,you know, all together in one
room, people giving their liketake our two-hour Sunday board
meeting and expand it over youknow two and a half days.

Murphy (07:10):
Wow.

Shelley (07:11):
Yeah, they did do a banquet.

Murphy (07:12):
Did you say two and a half days?

Shelley (07:14):
Yeah, because I think they started on Friday.
I mean, I got there, they mighthave started Friday night.
So maybe one two days, Fridaynight, Saturday, all board
meeting.
Saturday night they had a abanquet, dinner, and then
Sunday.
I think they met, yeah.
I know they met again onSunday, but I left.

Murphy (07:33):
Well, they're like five times as large as Pacific
Northwest.

Shelley (07:37):
So exactly, yeah, like with 13 regions or something.
Oh wow, yeah, they're yeah,they're big.

Murphy (07:44):
Interesting.
Okay, so you wound up doingthat, and that was that was
beneficially like that.
You know, you came here to yourhome crowd, hometown, you know,
pitch in the Pacific NorthwestDivision.
How did that go?
What was your uh reception?
Did you feel all warm and lovedby the time you finished that?

Shelley (08:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Joseph Roar, I think, kind ofkicked that one off on Saturday
morning.

Murphy (08:10):
The mantra for Shelley, oh yeah, the mantra kind of
carried throughout the weekend.

Shelley (08:15):
Yes.
I mean, we have such a great,warm, warm, welcoming group of
people here.
I just would not want to be inthat love all the other
divisions, there are people I'vemet, but gosh, you know, pretty
connected here.

Murphy (08:28):
Well, that's good to hear.
I'm glad.
So, how do you think yourlife's gonna change, you know,
over the course of the next uhcouple of years with doing this
national work?
I mean, because you were reallybusy doing division stuff.
I remember, you know, you werealways really good about getting
back to me, and yeah, there waslots of stuff that happened,
but now you're on a nationallevel.

(08:49):
So you represent that retiredfrom the school?
You're not doing that.

Shelley (08:53):
Yes, yeah.
No, I retired from that aboutfour years ago, five years ago.

Murphy (08:57):
Right.

Shelley (08:58):
Yeah, no, so you know, as because my husband was asking
me the same type of questionjust a few days ago.
Like, well, you know, I mean,as division director, you know,
I had you know all the national,you know, I attended all the
national board meetings, I wason committees, um, I attended
other meetings at the nationallevel, and I had all of our

(09:18):
division meetings, you know, thethe wellness meeting, the
meeting with a division group,just conversations, phone calls
with so you know I don't thinkit's I think it might be even a
little bit less, other than youknow, other phone calls and and
definitely, you know, as adivision director and especially
as division director chair ofthe team, I you know, we didn't

(09:43):
get a vote a vote for a voice,but I still had the opportunity
to share what our team thoughtabout certain issues as they
came up at board meetings, butnow I get the vote.
And so now I get to to you knowdo my research, find out where
people stand on on varioustopics as they come up for vote,
um, or or not for vote, andwonder maybe should they be up

(10:04):
for vote?

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Right.

Shelley (10:06):
You know, I get I get more of a say on that.
So that's that's kind of cool.

Murphy (10:11):
So what do you want to work on in regards to you know
the national charter and thingsthat happen at that office?
I mean, what do you see as uh Iguess a mantle, something that
you are gonna bring to thenational level and want to see
some change, or at least you'regonna you know move in that

(10:31):
direction?
I know that's tough becausethere's you know different
things that go on, but yeah,there's yeah, it just kind of
depends on what pops up.

Shelley (10:39):
But I I mean I guess my biggest my biggest focus is,
and I you know, I I mean I hopeI stay true to this, but you
know, I've tried, I've reallyworked on it in my professional
career too, is just to to reallybe able to listen to what
people are saying and you know,have those conversations
beforehand and be thoughtfulabout decisions, like I said, as

(11:03):
as because you never knowwhat's gonna pop up.
You know, I mean, like, youknow.
I'm trying to come up with atopic that's not too
controversial to bring up in apodcast.

Murphy (11:15):
Um, come on, we want we want controversy here and there.
Good for ratings.

Shelley (11:21):
Yeah, let me think.
Um I don't I don't know.
I got you can come back to it.
Let's come back to that becauseright now the ones that are
popping up are prettycontroversial and I don't want
to get in trouble.
I guess I'm already elected, soyou know what could they do?
Fire me?

Murphy (11:40):
Can you get fired as a uh board director?
You can.

Shelley (11:44):
Sure.

Murphy (11:44):
Oh, they can?

Shelley (11:46):
Yeah, if you got a code of conduct against you.

Murphy (11:48):
Oh, code of conduct, right?

Shelley (11:50):
Yeah.

Murphy (11:50):
But yeah, that's gotta be fairly egregious.
I would think you're toocharming for that, so I don't
think that's it.
So you know, uh when do youactually when does your tenure
start?
Isn't it January?

Shelley (12:04):
January 1st, yeah.

Murphy (12:06):
Okay.
So when's your first meeting?

Shelley (12:10):
January 22nd in Denver.

Murphy (12:13):
Oh, you guys are meeting face to face.

Shelley (12:16):
Yeah.
Yep, that's what I understandnow.

Murphy (12:22):
So do you get to bring your skis when you go so you can
like do a little side trip andthen well, some people are
skiing on that Sunday, but Ithink that's a long ways for one
day of skiing to drag my skisand my boots and all my gear.

Shelley (12:40):
So I think I think I'll just go and come home and then
we're flying, we're taking skiflight to Japan in February.

Murphy (12:47):
So oh, where are you going there?
A couple weeks after that.

Shelley (12:50):
Oh my gosh, where are we going?
All kinds of, I don't know.
Ask Sally.
Sally's in charge.
I just I just jump on theairplane and I follow Sally.

Murphy (12:58):
Yeah.
Well, I saw a I'll say TikTokon some resort in Japan where
the snow level is actuallyalmost to the top of the
derailer or the top of thetower.
You know, yeah.
It was amazing.
It's I wonder if you guys aregoing to the same area because
at Snowana they had some crewscrews, they had some resort

(13:23):
showcasing at the Portland ExpoCenter, and got to meet one of
the you know, a couple of thehigher ups up there, and uh it
was great to talk to them andand you know, comparing a little
bit of different things, butyou know, about their powder and
and not all of a sudden I justlost their name.
I'll have to look it up whileyou guys are talking.

Shelley (13:42):
I I can tell you, we're going to Tokyo and then we're
going to.
I know I'm not gonna pronouncethese right, Akuba to ski.
I think well, Tokyo, I don'tthink we're skiing in Tokyo.
No, um, yeah, and then a placecalled Naseko.
That's who was there.

Murphy (13:58):
I think that's the big one that yes, yes that's who is
at uh Snowana at the PortlandExpo Center, and and it looks it
looks like a lot of fun,amazing.

Shelley (14:08):
It does look fun, yeah.
I was pleasantly surprised.
I mean, I hope they're gettingsnow.
I hope they're not like us,right?

Murphy (14:13):
Oh no, like I said, I saw the video and it was just
chalked full of uh chalked fullof snow.

Shelley (14:18):
Yeah, good, yeah.

Murphy (14:20):
But uh so are you guys getting any uh snow at your
mountain right now?
Because I know Crystal, it's uhbarren and down low with all
that rain.
It's interesting because I sawSchweitzer and Lookout seem to

(15:04):
have some snow.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Really?

Murphy (15:08):
And they they've had they're open, but I mean
Bachelor's Closed, Hoodoo'sMount Spokane's open, yeah,
because my brother-in-law wasopen so yeah, so that little
section is getting small, buteverybody gotta be way up north.
Yeah, everybody else is justbring your umbrella.

Shelley (15:26):
Yeah, I didn't even think, at least less I looked,
Timberline wasn't open.
No, that was what one or twoweeks ago, so I don't think
they're open either.

Murphy (15:34):
Yeah, my brother tells me at Hood there's nothing.
So unfortunately, yeah.
Oh my god, lots and lots ofrain.

Shelley (15:42):
Oh my gosh.

Murphy (15:43):
Yeah, well, I had my my power is flickering this morning
because of uh all the rain.
And I was warning my wife thatshe's going down because she's
in between the Cedar River andthe Green River as they go
through where her school is.
Both of these things are sayingthat you know the river is
gonna be eight, ten feet aboveflood stage.

(16:04):
I'm like, holy.
Yeah, really?

Shelley (16:08):
Yeah, it's crazy.

Murphy (16:10):
Well, this morning I heard the Scantit River, the
prior record for overflow of thebanks was 37 feet.
It's gonna be 41 feet tomorrowmorning.
Oh it's like I'm trying tofathom how much water that is,
you know, how many millions ofcubic gallons that are going
through there.
Well, so here's something wetalk about how you know the

(16:34):
internet and how we get news sofast now compared to just 20 odd
years ago.
Someone was talking about atrillion, was it a trillion
gallons of water that is beingdumped in the PNW on social
media?
They were saying they just cameon to announce they just
learned about, but it wassomething like, yeah, 10

(16:56):
trillion or something.
I'll I'll look it up while youguys are talking.
Okay, so back to the back toyour new board member job here.
So you know you've been patrol.
How long have you beenpatrolling?
Should I ask?
Well, you started when you were16.

Shelley (17:17):
I'm looking at much each year.
26 years.

Murphy (17:20):
26 years.
All at the same place?

Shelley (17:24):
Yes, all at Sandy and Pass.

Murphy (17:26):
All at Sandy and Pass.

Shelley (17:27):
With Sandy and Pass, yes.

Murphy (17:30):
Yeah.
How much patrolling are you areyou gonna get in this year?

Shelley (17:34):
I don't know.
Depends on the snow.
If we get some, you average is,I think for most of us, other
than this the real snow hogs isprobably 12 to 14 days a year,
don't you think, Jody?
I mean, and then then there'sthose who come up every weekend
and they're like 25, 30 days.

Murphy (17:54):
Yeah, and midweek, yes.

Shelley (17:56):
And midweek, yeah.

Murphy (17:58):
Are you still doing Alpine Patrol?

Shelley (18:00):
Alpine, yep.
Yeah, I got new skis.

Murphy (18:04):
Oh, you got the new skis?

Shelley (18:06):
I did.
Nordica.
I'm so excited to try them.

Murphy (18:10):
And where did you find this great deal?

Shelley (18:13):
I actually found it on the NSP website.
No, I've looked, I have lookedfor like five years for a new
pair, and they finally uh cameacross just an ad, you know, how
they had the sweep or whateversince those ads, and like, all
right, let me take a look atthese.
And it's like I did a bunch ofresearch, they looked good.

Murphy (18:30):
So yeah, I am getting more emails from the Pro Deal
Store, which is kind of nice.
Yeah, keep working on thosethings, those are always really
super nice.

Shelley (18:41):
That's true, that's a good point.
Yes.

Murphy (18:43):
You know, because we we can't reward people with money,
but we can with awards and greatdeals.

Shelley (18:49):
Yeah, exactly.

Murphy (18:50):
So that's gonna be fun.
Yeah, so uh back at Santi andPast.
Give me your career there.
Where what have you done atSanti and Past, you know, in
your your role that you startedout as an Alpine patroller, and
then were you the PD, APD?
How do you give me yourprogression of where you started

(19:11):
in case somebody wants to be,you know, on the national board
one day?
This is Shelly's track.

Shelley (19:16):
Yeah.
Well, let's see.
I guess I started by actuallyrunning the Norwester or the not
wasn't the Norwegian back then,or what was it called?
For our patrol, whatever it wascalled, the Black Forest, I
think.
So we used to have a newsletterjust for our patrol.
Oh yeah.
And I put that together andthen that kind of morphed and
kind of went to somebody elsetook that on.

(19:37):
And then I did awards.
And then what did I do afterawards?
Oh, banquet, thank banquet andawards, I guess, kind of
together.
And then I yeah, became Passistant PD and then PD for
nine years before I camedivision director.
So it's kind of a lot ofdifferent Yeah, Hill Chief,

(19:58):
yeah.
Yeah, excuse me.
Still do that.

Murphy (20:00):
So you you weren't the region director, you skipped you
went from PD to divisiondirector?

Shelley (20:05):
Yep, yep.
I was never the regiondirector.
Yeah, I did some, I did awardsat the region level, I think one
or two years, and then I wasyou were nor'wester.
Nor'wester for the division.

Murphy (20:17):
Yes.

Shelley (20:18):
Yeah.
And then as as the assistantPD, I think I went to a few
region meetings that uh and thenof course as PD, I went to our
region meetings.

Murphy (20:29):
So when'd you get your national number?
No cheating.
I see you looking.

Shelley (20:36):
I didn't I didn't print that one out.
I just printed down my number.

Murphy (20:42):
Oh, 11452 is the number.
Okay, now you can go look andsee what it was.
I was going in the oppositedirection to try and confuse her
a little bit.
So she had a little liquor.

Shelley (20:56):
I think I got that 2013, 2014, probably something.

Murphy (21:02):
You can look at your list there, but so those that
don't know, I'd be curious toknow if other divisions do this.
Do what?
Do what about can you name yournumber and the consequences of
if you don't name your nationalappointment number?

Shelley (21:20):
Yeah, you got you all around.
Yeah, I don't know.
That's a good question.

Murphy (21:24):
Yeah, see if others.
So your NSP number is 198.

Shelley (21:31):
See, I know I memorized the one, 11452, 198319.

Murphy (21:35):
And your national appointment number is 11452.
A lot of ones.

Shelley (21:43):
Yes.

Murphy (21:45):
So you got that one, was it 2013?

Shelley (21:48):
Something like that, yeah.

Murphy (21:50):
What is so what did they cite in your national number?
All the uh stuff that you haddone to get that for your oh
gosh, I think for that one Imean, I'd had a handful of
awards.

Shelley (22:04):
I think where's my awards list?
That probably doesn't give memy years.
Oh, it does.
Oh, national appointment, 2013.
There you go.

Murphy (22:14):
Your memory is still strong.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah.

Murphy (22:17):
You'll you'll be able to continue as board of directors
with that memory.

Shelley (22:20):
There you go.
Yeah.
I think I just actually hadn'thad that many awards, but I did
a meritorious service award andthen I'd been OECA, you know, an
OEC instructor control directorfor nine years, all those
things.

Murphy (22:33):
When did you start doing the Nor'Wester?

Shelley (22:38):
That was under Dave Ulrich.
So that would have been 2010.
Around that, probably 2010,2011, yeah.

Murphy (22:49):
And you got your senior win.

Shelley (22:52):
And I got my senior in probably was 2010 or 2011.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
Okay.

Shelley (23:02):
I had a couple years when I wasn't working and my
kids were in high school, and soI kind of like I gotta get
senior done, and I I had time todo the nor'wester, so I kind of
jumped on those.
That's awesome.

Murphy (23:14):
Yeah, getting your senior takes a long time.
I mean, yeah, that's an arduouseffort.
Uh being that you were ahead ofthe nor'wester, I don't know if
you can see this if it gets cutout.

Shelley (23:24):
Yep.
Oh no, I guess it.

Murphy (23:27):
See that I was going through my office.
That was from 2015.
I have a stack of all the oldski patrol magazines.
I'm trying to clean my office,but so I had the stack, and in
there were a couple of very old,yeah, in fact, almost yeah,
10-year-old, because we are2025.
Yes, yeah, nor'westers.

(23:49):
Oh, that's awesome.
We're definitely have to givethose on to Shirley.
Oh, yeah.

Shelley (23:56):
Yeah, well, and I know I've got all of the ones I put
together.

Murphy (23:59):
Yep.
Because we want to get thoseupdated onto the website.
At least we can preserve ourown website.
I find it very interestingtrying to go back in time and
the internet people go, oh, it'sall out on the internet.
No, no, it just ups anddisappears.
Nice to have the actual copies.

(24:22):
But yeah.
Yeah, speaking of copies, theother thing that we were working
on the other day was our, youknow, the book that we have, our
directory, trying to figure outhow we maintain that thing.
Because still to this very day,if you want to know if
somebody's been doing somethingin the past years, yeah, we
can't really go online.

(24:42):
We have to go to the book.
You know, old thing, oh, here'suh, you know, they did it this
year and that year, as Blainepoints those things out.
Yeah, those are good.

Shelley (24:52):
Yeah.

Murphy (24:53):
So, you know, another question that I have is that you
know, you've been patrollingfor quite a long time.
What's what's the biggestchallenge that you've seen that
uh that ski patrol faces youknow, giving your history, where
we've gone, or excuse me, wherewe've come from and where we're

(25:14):
going, what do you see in thenext, let's say, five years is
our biggest struggle or thingsthat we can change we have to
work on?

Shelley (25:24):
Good question.
Um, I think a lot of it has todo with what is our job as an
organization?
I mean, we're a member-drivenorganization, we've got a
mission and a vision statementout there.
And I think we need to bereally thoughtful to stay this

(25:48):
term seems to bounce around alot.
Stay in our lane, you know,define our lane and know what
that is.
And then when when and and Ithink that that trickles down.
That's what members on the bothvolunteers and paid who are on
the ground trolling every day,day in, day out, or on the
weekends, or whenever they'repatrolling, they need to be

(26:11):
assured that the organizationthat certifies them in their
educational career, you know,because that's what we are,
we're an educationalorganization, that that
organization is solid and isgiving them information and
educational material curriculumthat is not just accurate and
up-to-date, current, whateveryou want to call it, but also

(26:33):
that's engaging and and youknow, is being delivered in a
way that that people areactually absorbing that material
and want to absorb it.
I think that's you know, Ithink we need to be really
careful because that's who weare.
And if we start reachingoutside that lane, that puts us

(26:55):
on a little bit of a rockyledge, I think.

Murphy (26:58):
So that kind of makes me raise the question of we're
talking about bringing, youknow, standardization into our
organization when it comes tooutside control, state
controlled, you know, emergencyresponders.
Do you think that's gonna haveany impact on us here in the

(27:21):
near future?
I mean, are we going to be heldto some of the you know, same
standards as I don't want to saylike, you know, we're an AMR or
somebody else, but you know,like an emergency responder, and
that state regulators come inand say, look, if you're gonna
do that on the mountain, yougotta be held to the same
standard as anybody else, youknow, like an ambulance

(27:45):
organization.

Shelley (27:46):
Yeah, well, I hope not.
Yeah, I know that's a bigthat's a big topic because at
least you know, in my opinion,your OEC, you are on the same
level as you know, what a basicEMT, essentially.
Right, you know, but we don'twant to be regulated by the
state because we've got anational charter, and you know,

(28:08):
we don't, and every state'sgonna be different.

Murphy (28:11):
I mean, you guys that's what people don't realize.
They don't realize that.
Yeah, every state, I mean,there may be similarities, but
the uniqueness of the OECOutdoor Emergency Care is that
it in the past, it has alwaysbeen standardized throughout the
nation and international sothat you basically can drop

(28:33):
anywhere and you can say this isdocumented.
We've all had the exact samecurriculum.
And sure, there may be someother things that one area sees
more prevalent than maybe adifferent division, but we've
all had the same standard oftraining where EMS it is totally
state driven.
And there are, you know, Iremember when I first started

(28:56):
learning that some states, as anEMT, you could not administer
oxygen in that state.
But in XYZ states and themajority, yes, that was part of
your training.
So everything was sort of now.
If you go to a different state,then you have to go, okay,
well, what's the same research,yada, yada?
And that's my biggest concernof how what happens, you know.

(29:21):
I give the case in point ofthat accident that we had up at
Mount Hood in government camp.
Was it I think 2011, where theSubaru went end over end.
And so right at governmentcamp, we had people from
Michigan, Washington, Utah, IIdaho, uh, Oregon, everybody
there, and everyone just washelping out and knew what we

(29:45):
were doing, and it didn't matterwhat state you came from,
right?
And now it's if they're I it'sgonna be interesting to see what
happens with the latestchanges.

Shelley (29:57):
Yeah, that that was one of the ones that came to my
mind when you were asking me.
Yeah, so it and it is.
I I think that we need to bereally again stay know who we
are and stay in our lane and becareful about you know, unless
unless there's some big group ofpeople, you know, it wouldn't

(30:20):
be me on the board who sayswe're gonna we're gonna change
direction and completely redoNational Ski Patrol.
You know, that's a wholedifferent ballgame, but that
would not be my stance at all.

Murphy (30:31):
So how are they bringing in people that get you know EMS
certified?
And I'm not talking aboutparamedics because they wind up
being on a different level forEMS, but just your you know,
your basic EMS respondingprofessional.
If they want to come into ourorganization, I know that we

(30:53):
have that challenge option thatthey can you know pass.
Is that gonna be something thatwe look at and say, okay, if
you're you know EMT, you cancome in and just challenge and
you're in, you don't have to dothe OECD care.
Or are we gonna you know stillrequire people to do OECD and

(31:16):
then on hill version, you know,of the OECD?
Because one of the things thatI'm gonna tell you from my
experience, we have to do withthe backpack what they get a
whole truck to do, right?
When it comes to EMT.
So there are some differencesthat you need to have, you know,
in your toolkit, you know, someskills that you're not gonna be

(31:38):
able to transfer right out ofan ambulance.
So how does National look atthat?
I mean, are they because I knowthat's kind of a push that they
want to do is just come up withthat OEC.
If you're an OEC or not, excuseme, if you're an EMT, you're
automatically in.

Shelley (31:52):
Right.
Yeah, that and that hasn't, Ihaven't seen anything come
forward like with an a requestfor action for that particular
piece.
I mean, as it stands now, likeyou said, there's a challenge
and then there's a modifiedchallenge, depending on, and I'd
have to look up exactly who cantake what.
Um, I don't have to rememberoff the top of my head.
But that's merely for OEC.

(32:14):
Now, when they come on yourmountain, you know, every
mountain's got differentstandards of training for their
mountain, right?
So, you know, like mine, youbecome an OEC, you get on the
mountain, you still have to doyour 10 days of training.
You still have to, you know, goout, run a run up a problem on
the mountain, get that, youknow, take care of an injured

(32:36):
person simulated, get them downto the first aid room, get them
out the door, all those things,they still have to pass that in
order to become a patroller onthat hoodoo.
You know, so that piece, as faras how they apply those skills
and carry around that pack andcall for auctions, and that's
still you know, mountain driven.

(32:57):
And and it should be patroldriven and should be, I mean,
should be specific to eachmountain because we're all
different in that regard.

Murphy (33:05):
And so how's you know, training-wise, are we as a an
organization pretty similar withEast Coast, and you've got, you
know, the Central and let'sjust go, you know, Pacific
Northwest Division.
I mean, I know the OEC winds upbeing similar, but are they
granted license to have someflexibility within that training

(33:29):
for you know what they may havelocally?

Shelley (33:33):
No, I don't think so.
No, everybody's supposed to beadhering to the same standards
of training.
Now, you know, when you go toyour own mountain, you have a
medical, hopefully, you've got aphysician, you know, medical
advisor who might then give yousome certain protocols that you
can use at your mountain basedon their you know their
oversight.
And I know we at Santa Passhave some.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Right.

Shelley (33:55):
Um, you know, but as far as just the standard of
training, it's supposed to bethe same.
You know, we should be able to,you know, you and I and Jody
should be able to walk into anOEC class, you know, and that's
what I'm saying.

Murphy (34:11):
Right.

Shelley (34:12):
That's waiting for and it should be the same.

Murphy (34:16):
Yeah, because I know we get stuff, we will have
trainings, and King County windsup being different, and they
have different protocols.
And I know that they do havedisclaimers.
So they'll say this is what OECis, this is what King County is
requesting for some of theirEMT services so that we can, you
know, they're doing testings.

(34:37):
So there winds up being alittle change, but yeah.
That's good.
Okay.
So we're we are all on the samesheet of music, as it were.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yes.

Shelley (34:47):
And that's not change.
Yeah, the only nope, itshouldn't it hope not.
Yeah.

Murphy (34:51):
Okay.
What about transportation?
EMT tobogganing, or excuse me,uh EMT, OET.

Shelley (34:59):
Yeah, should be.
I mean, yeah, that should bethe same.
I mean, there are theredefinitely are differences in
techniques.
You know, you go to to Ness andBoltz up Mount Hood, and people
come from all over the nation.
And you know, which is is greatbecause you learn different
techniques for bringing atoboggan down, different,
different, which is I think isimportant.

(35:20):
Oh, you could do it that way,and that oh, that's it, that's
interesting.
That's a actually an easier wayfor me as a five foot, you
know, short, older woman to beable to get a toboggan down the
hill.

Murphy (35:31):
Well, and and each place has different, I mean, the
different terrains, whether it'sthe concrete ice, uh it's the
you know, limited width, andthere and there are some areas
that rarely use a sled andmainly only use a snowmow.

Shelley (35:48):
Yeah, that's true.

Murphy (35:50):
Yeah, it does vary.
So it's sort of related in thebike patrol world, how are we
growing that side of thebusiness?
Because you know, moremountains are getting you know
bike activities during thesummer.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah.

Murphy (36:04):
Are we really expanding that program and growing that
thing to increase ourmembership?

Shelley (36:11):
Yeah, it's a good question.
I I mean, I have been superimpressed by Jeremy, torture his
last name, Bravetsky, who's theNational Bike Program Advisor.
He is just really on top ofdeveloping an appropriate
curriculum for the bike patrol.
They've already got what is it?
I mean, intro to bikepatrolling and then a bike

(36:34):
patrolling, I think, one, andthen they're working I think now
this year, I think they'reworking on the bike senior.
So he's really moving thingsalong, and he's you know, he's
very thoughtful about makingsure that all of their I's are
dotted and their T's are crossedbefore coming forth with no,

(36:54):
here's our course, you know, canit can can it be approved so we
can put it on the platform?
You know, he's he's a prettyimpressive guy, so I think
they're moving along very, verywell.
At least, you know, I haven't Ihaven't been to any of their
meetings recently, but from whatI've seen.

Murphy (37:11):
That's good.
And since you brought up ourwonderful computer system that
we have.
Oh, I'm sorry.
You know, what's what'snational's goal with that?
If you have any insight intohow they're gonna fix that, how
they're gonna make it better andeasier to use and changes that
are coming.

Shelley (37:30):
You know, I don't I don't know for sure.
I know that there has been agroup in, I believe it's in the
planning committee.
I was looking through the boardminutes for the tonight's board
meeting.
And if I understand it right,there is a subgroup in the
planning committee that'sworking, taking a look at the
system, kind of like we didseveral years ago.
You know, the question is youknow, do we put continue to put

(37:53):
band-aids on it or do we wipethe slate clean and buy
something that's actually youknow more 2025, 2026, right?
You know, and beyond and wouldactually do what we needed to
do.

Murphy (38:10):
Yeah, like if you want to become an instructor in the
ski patrol, it is you knowsomething that's archaic and
sort of antiquated.
And you know, as a potentialcandidate to be an instructor,
you have to carry around thatpiece of paper and guard it with
uh everything because if youlose it, you have to start all
over again.
There's you know, no nationalrecord, or you can just go in

(38:32):
and start checking boxes onthat.
I mean, that would be a niceaddition that they can work on
and add.
Because as a teachingorganization, there are some
things where we're fundamentallybehind.

Shelley (38:44):
Way way behind.
Agreed.
Yeah, yeah.
We've yeah, that's a wholethat's a big topic.
That that whole system is justa you know, like you said, you
mentioned about the records thatwe have to actually go back in
our books to look things up.
That should not happen.
I mean, we've lost so much datawhen they switch systems.

Murphy (39:04):
Uh I'm I'm being told by others that have been a long,
long time patrollers that sayit's there.
It's just you got to know howto go behind the scenes and dig
for it, which brings up thewhole point.
We need to be able to accessand ensure that it's there.
Yeah, definitely.
But but of course, you know, wewe at the Pacific Northwest,

(39:28):
our website is, you know,golden.

Shelley (39:31):
Yes, it is.
Very good.

Murphy (39:33):
Not biased, are you, Jody?
No, no, there's no bias in thatstatement whatsoever.
Not, none, not a peep.
Oh, that's good.
Hey, well, let's get chompichere for a second.
Mountain hosts.
Now the mountain hosts are youknow full-fledged members.
How's that impacting things atthe national level?
What are they, you know,thinking about and changing?
And did that impact the lastelection at all that you know?

(39:56):
Do they have stats on that kindof stuff?

Shelley (39:59):
I mean, they they are going.
My understanding is that theywill have stats on that.
I'm really curious to know thattoo.
How many of our hosts voted,you know, not just nationwide,
but you know, in the Northwestand you know, where we are and
all the other divisions, youknow, because I think we've got
a fairly decent comparecomparatively to other
divisions, um, number of hosts.

(40:21):
So I'm curious I am curious toknow that.
I know there's some they theboard just passed that hosts are
required now to take ICS 100.
You know, they do have to takeOFC, they have to have current
CPR.

Murphy (40:35):
And OF And so I think there's some cleanup.
Yeah, OFC for those that arenot in the know, that's outdoor
first care.

Shelley (40:42):
Yeah, there you go.
Yeah, and and there's there'sdefinitely some cleanup on that,
where there's some hosts thatyou know maybe don't have all
those things.
Of course, many don't have ICS100 because that was just
recently passed.
But trying to get the word out,get them caught up, get their
records right in the system, andyou know, it's bringing them
fully on board.

(41:03):
I think that's it's probablygonna take another year, I would
guess, for that to happen.
Or more.
I don't know.
Hopefully, hopefully not morethan a year.

Murphy (41:11):
Have you got any feedback from any mountain
hosts?
Are they uh happy, excited thatthey're now full-fledged uh
patrol members?

Shelley (41:19):
I haven't really heard much, to be honest with you, but
you know, our I mean, ourpatrol is, and our patrol is
just now getting a host unit.
Kind of started forming lastyear, but nobody was actually
doing host stuff yet.
So we've got I think we've gotfour or five hosts, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, and they're superexcited.

(41:41):
Yes, they are so excited, yeah.
And they're excited to bevoting, and yeah, they were at I
went to at our refresher at ouron the hill, they were all a
buzz and it was great.
It was kind of fun.

Murphy (41:52):
Well, we and Crystal, we've had hosts for years, and
they are really part of ourprogram.
I mean, they come in so handy.
We've got them, you know, downlower mountain, upper mountain.
You have questions, it kind ofallows us to be ski patrollers
because we've got mountain hoststhere that can do a lot of a
lot of those guest relatedthings.

(42:13):
So yeah, I'm very appreciativeof them in our system.

Shelley (42:17):
And I guess, yeah, your yeah, your mountain was the
first mountain I went to thatthat had hosts.
And yeah, I agree, Marf.
I was so impressed by.
Your folks up there, Crystal.
They they were the ones whosold me that hosts need to be
traditional members, and andthey do and and are both do so
much and are so beneficial.

Murphy (42:38):
Yeah, why east or Mount Hood at Timberline and then
expanded down to Ski Bowl.
I'm not sure if it's still atSki Bowl, but for the mountain
hosts.
And that's that's where some ofthat uniqueness goes into when
I say uniqueness, it varies byarea because some areas don't
have them, some areas do, someare with NSP, some are not, and

(43:00):
they're different.
I mean, I've heard fromdifferent regions, some are
called rangers, some are calleddifferent things.
So it's interesting.
I I think there's a lot ofvaried there's similarities, but
then there's um a lot of areaspecific variations to that.
Mount Spokane has them has ahost program.

Shelley (43:22):
If I'm correct, yeah, I think you I think you're right.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
I think they do.

Murphy (43:26):
So yeah.
But yeah, like I say, I'm gladthat they're there.
They're a wonderful help to usand yeah, glad that they finally
get uh full membership and theycan wind up doing some votes.
And I hope a lot of them votedfor you.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yep, yep, agreed.

Murphy (43:45):
So you're gonna start here in January on your new your
new journey.
Is there anything that you wantto add, you know, into you know
what you're gonna do, whereyou're gonna go?
If people want to get a hold ofyou, how do they get a hold of
you?

Shelley (43:59):
Yeah, I think that was gonna be my only thing is you
know, I I want to hear frompeople.
And you know, some some of youfolks attend national meetings,
others, you know, are nationalor division advisors and go to
so you know, people hear what'sgoing on.
And as as they hear, I want tohear from from our folks.
I want to, you know, and like Ithink Jody mentioned, I'm not

(44:21):
representing just our divisionanymore, I'm representing the
whole nation, but you know, ourdivision is still our division,
and I know the folks here and Iwant to hear from them, and they
can reach me at my same old,same old email address that Jody
has up with the Nsp-PnWDaddress that's up on the website
and my phone and text,whatever.

(44:45):
You can write me a letter andput it in the mail.

Murphy (44:48):
But oh a snail mail.
Wow, wow.
That that's that wouldn't thatbe weird?
Good going back in historytime, yeah.
Oh, fantastic.
Well, thanks for coming on theshow today.
We uh really appreciate you uhtaking some time out of your
schedule because I know you'revery busy.

Shelley (45:10):
Thank you for having me.
You guys too.

Murphy (45:14):
Going back, speaking of history-ish a little bit, can
you share some insight over youryears of some significant or
impactful things that you'veseen change over the last 26
years?
Including safety.

(45:34):
You knew I'd throw that inthere someplace.

Shelley (45:38):
I was yes, I did think you would throw that in there.
Yeah, I mean, definitelyobviously wellness.
I mean, we got that kicked off,Jody in particular in our
division, and it's you know,Eastern and a lot of the
divisions, it's it's a slowprocess.
Oh, yes, like dragging teethpulling teeth sometimes.
But being just and I and andit's not quite sure how I want

(46:03):
to say it.
I think just awareness that aspatrollers we can be vulnerable
and that incidents and lifeaffects us just like everybody
else, and to be aware of thatand you know how we bring that
into our patrols, it's it's adifficult process.

(46:24):
I mean, I think about my ownpatrol.
There are those who are just soagainst anything to do with it,
and then there are the otherswho are embracing it, and so
it's just it, and that kind ofgoes again with you know, in a
lot of the different things thathappen within the national
organization.
I think it's probably within alot of organizations, is you've

(46:44):
got you always have twodifferent sides, you know, just
like or more, yeah, or more.
And how do you resolve those?
And and and that's where youcomes back to what are the goals
of the organization, what's themission of the organization,
where is our lane, and andstaying there, and you have to

(47:05):
do that also within your patrol.

Murphy (47:07):
So that's trying to think outside the box, but also
making sure we're not taking theU-turn or whatever.
But um, have you seen anythingelse as far as I mean, think of
mine when you first joinedcompared to now of people
joining or or along that lines?
As is there anything that comesto your mind?

(47:27):
Obviously, I'm hitting you withthis at the very last minute,
but that's okay.

Shelley (47:33):
You know what?
Probably not so much.
I mean, when I first joined, Iwas, you know, I was a mom with
two little kids.
I was trying to run a startupprivate school, you know, with
had nothing knowing, not knowinganything about what I was
doing.
And to be honest, patrollingwas for me was kind of my

(47:54):
escape, my getaway.
And I was, you know, I would goup, I would do my patrolling, I
would you know, take care ofpeople, but you know, I wasn't
really involved in any of thecommunity of our patrol until
you know a few years, probablyfive years.
So my initial was just kind ofthis is just I really want to do

(48:17):
this just kind of for me.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Right.

Shelley (48:19):
Try a little more selfish.
Well, I so I'd have a hardtime, yeah.
I'd have a hard time sayinginitially because I really
wasn't aware of, really involvedin region, division, national.
I had enough going on my plateto even I didn't think about
those things.

Murphy (48:41):
Of course not.

Shelley (48:42):
Same answer.
Sorry.

Murphy (48:43):
Uh it's all right.
NSP's freed since 1938.

Shelley (48:49):
Safety and service, service and safety.

Murphy (48:51):
Service and safety.
So I hope your next venture asa board member will help to
showcase safety, bringing itback to the forefront.
I know you talk about wellnessbeing a long journey.
Hopefully, we'll see thatcoming back as well.

Shelley (49:10):
But yeah, I hope so.
Yep.

Murphy (49:13):
So anything else, Mark?
No.
All right.
It's good.
I like it.
Thanks, Shelley.
It was really good.

Shelley (49:22):
Thank you.
Thank you.
And it was good to have youback.

Murphy (49:24):
Congratulations once again on your uh successful
victory.
You can take your victory lapnow.
All right, that's awesome.
Thank you very much.
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