THE LOCAL non-profit group that wants to buy the Shames Mountain ski facility has now become a corporation under provincial legislation governing co-operatives.
“This is a small but critical first step in securing the future of the ski area” said Curtis Billey, a founding My Mountain Co-op director.
“The formalization of the coop provides us the necessary governance structure to permit broad-based involvement in the initiative by stakeholders to the ski area in guiding the business affairs as we move forward to ensure the sustainability of the operations for the future.”
The co-op has been raising money to buy the Shames ski facility and has so far gathered $380,000 toward a sales price of $550,000.
A non-profit coop was judged to be the best alternative to a for-profit entity after the Shames Mountain Ski Corporation said it was getting out of the ski business after losing money in each of the more than 20 years it operated the Shames facility.
Non-profits, for instance, can have access to government grants not available to for-profit businesses.
“We are hopeful we can conclude the terms of the transfer of assets of the [ski corporation] to the My Mountain Coop in the near term and have shifted our full attention toward planning and preparations to operate the ski area for the 2011/12 season and continuing fundraising to ensure the financial resources available to the [co-op] enable the initiative to succeed in securing the future of the ski area for the region.”
The election of directors and the first annual general meeting of the society are being planned for later this fall.
