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Un-Stuffing Tourism Whistler

By G.D. Maxwell When my Perfect Partner and I arrived in Whistler a little over a decade ago, pretty much everything we owned of a corporeal nature fit neatly into Mello Yello, the recently acquired but already well-travelled Westfailya.

By G.D. Maxwell

When my Perfect Partner and I arrived in Whistler a little over a decade ago, pretty much everything we owned of a corporeal nature fit neatly into Mello Yello, the recently acquired but already well-travelled Westfailya.

Not having been able to completely throw off our North American cultural bias for accumulating Stuff, there was, of course, a de rigueur ministorage locker crammed with treasures too dear to offer up to the Philistines who attended the half dozen garage sales we’d held in the years prior to our departure from the Old Country... Toronto.

As misguided a decision as storing anything for what eventually became a very long, expensive time proved to be, we were both amazed and somewhat proud at our ability to cast off most of our worldly goods, free ourselves from our Stuff, downsize. It bucked the trend of a lifetime and made us suspect in the eyes of close friends.

I have come to a startling discovery though. Stuff regenerates. Stuff happens. Stuff is the stuff of life and it is, unless you belong to some fringe, monastic sect, inescapable.

This revelation presented itself after labouring several days to clear 10 years of mysteriously accumulated Stuff out of our Whistler living space in order to allow someone else to – if only temporarily – move his Stuff in.

"Where’d all this Stuff come from?" The question became a mantra in the flurry of decisions being made as to whether life’s flotsam and jetsam was ‘keeper’ Stuff or bound for the Re-use-it Centre, compactor, shredder, cottage or second bedroom, now doubling as ministorage.

Unless you’re ever-vigilant, it takes an unusual event to destuff your life. Something more profound than simple spring cleaning.

Institutions are like that too. Except the Stuff of institutions often take the form of tasks, rituals, roles, jobs, responsibilities. Institutions, being by definition institutional, lumber forward under the weight of their histories and it is only through opportunities presented by unusual events – mergers, bankruptcies, obsolescence and such – that they are generally able to unstuff themselves.

So it is with Tourism Whistler.

The event is the departure of Ms. Denbak, president and CEO of Tourism Whistler for the past five years. A changing of the guard is always a good opportunity to ask the question, "What is it we’re guarding?"

In the predawn days of Whistler’s history, Tourism Whistler’s predecessor, the more mellifluous Whistler Resort Association, played a vital role in putting the nascent resort on the mental maps of resort-minded people. It was a blank slate; the WRA was the only show in town. There was no Blackcomb, let alone a Whistler-Blackcomb, no property management companies, no 1-800 reservation system, no golf course, not much of anything really.

The WRA brought together newly-constructed accommodation, retailers, Whistler Mountain, restaurateurs and presented them to the world. Central reservations at 1-800-WHISTLE followed, as did the Arnold Palmer golf course, conference centre, jugglers and clowns, major events, ad infinitum .

The role played by WRA in developing Whistler resort can’t be overstated.

But that was then; this is now.

Tourism Whistler no longer manages the golf course. Management was contracted out last year to Intrawest’s golf arm.

It no longer runs a reservation centre. That too was contracted out last year to RezRez, yet another Intrawest tentacle. The five year contract is coming up on its first anniversary which is supposed to trigger a review of the mandate, a review that is eagerly anticipated by many retailers unhappy with the way various bits of the reservation business has been seemingly steered toward, surprise, Intrawest interests. No one actually expects the contract to be terminated and it is an extreme long shot to imagine Tourism Whistler will ever be in the res centre business again.

It is no longer the sole marketer of Whistler resort. That duty is helped along by the significant marketing clout of Whistler-Blackcomb, several hotel management chains and a couple score of stories carried in major world newspapers, magazines and television stations each year.

Let’s face it, Whistler of 2003 and beyond is a far cry from Whistler of the pre-Intrawest 1970s. It only makes sense to re-examine the mandate of Tourism Whistler in light of what the resort has become and, more importantly, how its public image should be managed and positioned as it moves into the mature phase of its lifecycle. The skills required, the tasks needed and the structure to carry them out are not the same as they once were.

This is not to say Tourism Whistler is either irrelevant or misguided. It’s neither. It is, in fact, only due to the strength of the people managing its main functions that such an examination of its role is possible. It won’t collapse if a new president isn’t named for another couple of months.

In light of the municipality’s checkered record in managing to reign in consultants, it would take a real fool to suggest it embark on yet another envisioning project. So I’ve been called worse... by better.

But that’s what should be considered. Now. Before a new president is headhunted. Why before? Because any new leader will bring an agenda shaped by experience and preconceptions. The new president will also be burdened with the historical stuff of the institution inherited. It is probably not a coincidence, for example, that Ms. Denbak was a tireless proponent of a renovated and expanded conference centre. That was her role when she managed the Toronto conference centre and it doubtless informed her decisions in Whistler.

So without spending the better part of a million bucks for consultants, without waiting for the ever-coming sustainability plan to finally come, without finding out whether the IOC will deign to award Whistler the 2010 Olympics and, most assuredly, without bringing someone new on board, the muni, the business owners/TW members, Whistler-Blackcomb and the community should take advantage of this opportunity to at least engage in a spirited discussion about what Tourism Whistler ought to be in the future.

Hell, we might even decide to spend the other $14 million on the conference centre. Or maybe not. But at least there would be an informed decision, not the ever-growing weight of Stuff accumulating.