Spring or Winter?

As we get into March, the Alzar School is busy getting ready for the summer, even as there are random late snow storms. Yesterday, Kristin and I went to Bogus Basin and snowboarded for the first time in 2 years. Our rambling travels made it difficult to get up there, and I had sold my boarding gear before we headed to Costa Rica. But, after Bogus got 21 inches in 2 days, it was definitely time to beg/steal/borrow some gear and head up. We had a great time, spending the morning with my dad. We had talked about going paddling… but we’re definitely warm-weather boaters when you can still ski!

Let’s see… what’s new at Alzar? Well, we were waiting, waiting, waiting, for the IRS to get back to us on our Form 1023 (the application for 501c3 status). Finally, they did, asking for some follow-up information. We responded to that as quickly as we could, and hope to be back on track for getting our official federal status soon.

Last weekend, we had a Board of Directors meeting, and it was good. We discussed insurance options, our Advisory Committee, and the upcoming FLOW 2009 course. Our Board is going to work to get more funds for the Idaho scholarship we are working towards, which is really exciting. Tony, our Treasurer, will be heading to Boston to run the Boston Marathon in April, and Katie, our Vice President, recently learned that she will be attending the University of Utah to work on her PhD in Molecular Biology.

We are seeing strong interest in our FLOW program for this summer. We have already accepted 6 students, with a maximum capacity of 11 students. We’re hoping to get around 8 signed up completely, which will be a good sized group to explore Idaho and California. It sounds like we are on track for permits, which is good.

Not much else is new. Pebbles is getting huge, and misses swimming in Mexico. I’m in limbo about my teaching job for next year, but have a promising interview this Wednesday. Kristin is hoping to race at Team Trials in Durango in May. More later!

– Sean