To the Massanutten Community:
On behalf of the entire Massanutten Resort and Great Eastern teams, please allow me to wish you all a joyous and healthy holiday season and a rewarding new year. In a community like Massanutten, people celebrate the holidays in different ways – but it’s sharing this beautiful landscape and wonderful community that brings us all together.
Couple of things to note. First, for skiers, snowboarders and tube park fans, the investments in lift infrastructure and energy-efficient snowmaking have helped with some fairly challenging early-season weather conditions. The warmup we just went through will transition to what looks like reasonably decent snowmaking temperatures for the next 48 hours or so, and we’ll be cranking out snow at every opportunity. After that, it looks dry with mostly seasonable temperatures until after Christmas day. So, it should be quite pleasant on the mountain!
Some New Faces in the team: As we look to the future, we’ve made some staffing changes. All of the folks below are experienced Massanutten professionals. As a manager, I know first-hand that one of the hallmarks of successful business is the ability to promote from within – and while not all new faces in the future will come up from inside, these three appointees most certainly did:
First, as many of you know, Kenny Hess, our long-time Massanutten Director of Mountain Sports and Risk Management, is planning to retire. Kenny will remain highly active on a full-time basis through the ski season, then step back to part-time project work after that. Stepping into Kenny’s shoes is Kameron Tucker, who has been with us full-time for more than ten years, including overseeing aquatics. She also has extensive experience with Snowsports and Ski Patrol. Appointed on November 6, she carries responsibility for skiing, mountain biking, FAP and golf.
The Resorts Companies, Massanutten’s parent organization, now has a Vice President of Marketing: Michael Owens. Although this is a new role on the org chart, Mike has been with us for more than 20 years, working in various managerial positions at the resort – most recently in hospitality administration. The initial focus for his new role will be to launch the active adult community with a robust go-to-market plan to ensure the program’s success. With Sarah Elson continuing in the role of Business Relations Director and delivering resort marketing to the public, Mike will work on integrating the new business with the well-established Massanutten Resort brand and implementing best practices across the company’s marketing efforts.
Kelly Long, with us for nearly 18 years and involved in special projects at the executive level, has been appointed Director of Hospitality Administration – the position vacated by Mike’s promotion. Kelly is one of those unflappable people who gets things done with a remarkable combination of professionalism, grace and efficiency! She’ll be responsible for reservations, OA Admin/Collections, our RCI relationship and Developer Rentals.
There is currently a search underway for a new VP/General Manager of the resort, an opening that became available with my promotion to Executive Vice President. I expect we’ll announce an appointment sometime in the next three months or so – possibly sooner. You may rest assured that although the GM role will be largely assumed by a new team member, I’ll still be here and actively involved.
Other items of note:
The new mountain coaster is currently being fabricated in France. We currently plan to start preliminary construction sometime around late February.
We’ve set a goal to convert part of our vehicle fleet to electric vehicles. The first of these is one you might not expect: electric snowmobile. It’s currently in use and the team seems pleased with it so far.
Again, wishing you all a joyous holiday season and a wonderful new year!
Cordially,
Matthias Smith, Executive Vice President
Leave a Reply