Business Plan

The Alpine Safety Environment, like many other environments where personal risk is a factor of operation has become more aware of the need for increased injury prevention tools to be applied.   Not simply to ensure compliance and avoid litigation, but to improve the awareness visitors to the risks and assist them to minimise the potential of harm.

The new Australian Standard on Risk Management (AS/NZS4360) has highlighted the need to consider the consequences of both action and inaction; identifying the causal relationships that result in injury to people and damage to property and thus allowing interventions to be designed to prevent or minimise personal and property costs.

The Strategic Plan 2005-2009 matches in with the vision and mission detailed on the Welcome page. As well as its strategic view of alpine safety, the Australian Ski Patrol has a range of projects that appear on its project list for development, that include:

Study into Reported and Unreported Head Injuries
A long term project to evaluate the cause and mitigating effects of head injuries in Alpine Australia.

Development of an Extended Care Module for the ASPA Emergency Care Course
The five largest resorts have medical centres and 24-hour ambulance coverage; however, the 8 others do not. Nor do the cross-country patrols, who operate at considerable distances from any transport hubs or facilities, have access to any form of rapid advanced medical treatment. Industry consultation, module design, train package development (including: scenarios, tests, extended-care checklists, and instructor guides), out-of -pocket expenses of contributors, trial of the short course, and full implementation at the Thredbo ASPA course in October 2005.

SnowSafe Video
Redevelopment of the SnowSafe Video issued free to bus companies, alpine accommodation houses, schools planning visits to alpine environments, and public service training providers. Supported by footage from Channel Seven's Video Unit at Mount Buller, Alpine Resort Management Boards in Victoria, lift companies, and search and rescue agencies; this video is seen by hundreds of thousands of alpine visitors each year.

Update, Reprint and Distribute the SnowSafe Guide to Safety in the Alpine Area
The 32 page colour booklet is now in its 10th Edition (last reviewed in May 2002) and is one of the main pieces of the alpine safety education campaign being distributed to schools, libraries, retail outlets, police stations, National Parks and Wild Life offices, and resort outlets in NSW and Victoria. With revision, it would also be suitable for distribution in Tasmania. 30,000 copies will be required.

Study into Winter Accidents (Australia Wide)
A historical and trend analysis of skiing accidents in Australia using resort, ski patrol and medical centre information collected over the last 5 years. Specifically, evaluating snowboard v skier accidents, and their categorisation by type of injury. The study includes a literature search and comparison to overseas material.

Redevelopment of the Australian Ski Patrol Association Website
Australian Ski Patrol is regularly asked for information about safety in the Alpine environment in both winter and summer. We have therefore decided to upgrade our website to include information about back-country touring, bush walking safety, four wheel driving, trip planning and methods of notifying authorities for search and rescue. This project is part of the year-round education program and involves the design and web-mastering of our 'Alpine Safe' Website.

Development of an Accident Statistics Collection Database
This project creates a standardised, simple tool to allow data to be entered and sorted.  More particularly, it allows smaller patrols the ability to track types and location of injuries over time to allow for planning of preventative strategies.

Liaising with respective patrols to establish requirements through a needs analysis, selecting a database product or development environment based on limiting factors including skill-sets of potential users, designing the database to at least 3rd normal form (using Structured Design and Analysis Methods approved by the Australian Computer Society), deployment of the tool and training of ski-patrol, resort and medical centre staff.

Lids for Kids - a Safety program for children to encourage them to wear helmets, including the development of a K-6 Curriculum Unit for use in schools to assist teachers encourage children to prevent head injuries. This program is run in association with Ski Schools and the Australian Ski Areas Association.

Establishment of ASPA as an RTO including purchase of the new nationally approved TAA04 courseware for Instructor development and purchase of courses and modules for first aid. Setting up record management systems, providing Advanced Emergency Care courseware and improving the vocational training elements of competency based training. Whilst some of elements of this strategic set of projects is funded by recurrent funding, membership fees and course fees,; there is an opportunity for special project funding for some elements.

Documentation of the ASPA Advanced Emergency Care Course to National Industry Training Accreditation Board standards. Registration of this course as a vocational outcome with one or more of the State accreditation authorities. Courseware, instructor guides, syllabus, assessment guides, learning objectives, and support material.

Introduction of Sager Splint for rapid immobilisation of leg injuries. The release of this new piece of equipment into the emergency care arena will require ASPA to develop a training module for its use and acquire a number of the units for demonstration purposes.

Pocket Alpine Safety Guide Reprint -The small 16-page concertina fold pocket version of Snow Safe is a popular handout by Resorts, ski patrols, retail outlets, accommodation houses, bus trip organisers and National Parks and Wildlife services. 100,000 copies were produced and distributed last season. A similar number is planned for this season.

Alpine Responsibility Code DL Brochure - In strategic alliance with Australian Ski Patrol, Resort Management Boards, and private sponsors; Snow Safety Inc. will continue to produce this leaflet to promote the Alpine Responsibility Code.