The Far West Ski Association membership survey was conducted between the months of January to June 2001. The survey was available in hard copy and via an on-line web based entry form. All survey entries were compiled into one complete database. The full data is available in an Excel file for the FWSA BOD or other authorized persons who wish to determine a particular trend to suit their FWSA program needs. This summary is based on 287 collected surveys.

The survey results indicate the following FWSA membership baseline:

The membership is 54% male and 46% female. The member clubs are aging with nearly twice as many members in their 50's than in their 40's. The following histogram breaks down the age distribution.

FWSA marital status is: 28% Single, 41% married, 28% divorced, and 3% widowed. Only 14% of the membership has children living at home. The education level can be summarized as 31% have a bachelor's degree, 44% have advanced college education, and only 5% never attended college. The following chart summarizes FWSA member's incomes.

FWSA clubs members have a widely varied amount of ski experience. For some survey respondents this was their first year skiing. The longest time skiing that was entered was 55 years. The average number of years skiing was 22.5. Nearly the same range applied for years of club membership. The average length of club membership was over 10 years. Skier ability also varied but the average was between intermediate and advanced.

One of the most important questions in the minds of FWSA, the member clubs, the ski councils, and of course the ski areas and resorts was; how many days do our members ski? People want to know total skier days. The average number of days skied in the 2000/2001 ski season was 18 days. The 287 survey respondents reported a total of 5178 days skied in the 2000/2001 season. In 1999/2000 our members averaged 16.4 days. This data shows a trend of total skier days increasing. Perhaps this is because our members are getting older and have more time available to ski. Whatever the reason, the FWSA membership is doing a lot of skiing.

The next question should be; are the members skiing with their clubs, councils and FWSA? For the average of 18 days skied in 2000/2001, here is who they skied with: club 9.4 days, council 4.1 days, and FWSA 3.2 days. That totals 16.7 days. Clearly the membership is doing the vast majority of their skiing with the clubs, councils and FWSA.

The results of the survey also provides data of why people join the ski clubs and what they are most interested in participating in with the clubs. The distribution presented below shows the relative ratings of why our members participate in club, council and FWSA ski trips and activities.

This survey also asked questions about what our membership is looking for in a ski trip. How many days should the trip be? Where should the lodging be located? Should the trips be short travel trips, fly trips, or even international trips? Here are some charts summarizing these results.

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Members also answered that they prefer to stay in properties which allow ski-in / ski-out versus an option of being in town. We also prefer air travel to all other travel options.

Another key question that we asked is, which programs/services would you like to see developed or expanded by FWSA? Here is the distribution of member responses.