2023 SCWDC Election

SCWDC's upcoming election of officers and presentation of awards to volunteers will take place at the Annual Meeting on Thursday, April 6, 2023, at 7:00 PM.  This meeting was held as planned, and the candidates named below, were elected.  About 80 members attended the meeting at the Auld Shebeen in Fairfax.  

How to Vote Overview: 

- Electronic voting will be enabled on March 30 and continue until 5 PM on April 5.  SCWDC will send electronic ballots to all active SCWDC members via email on March 30.  In order to submit an electronic ballot, members must use the voting button enclosed in the email.  If you did not receive such an email, your SCWDC membership may have expired.

 - Votes may also be cast by requesting an absentee ballot from the SCWDC office, send an email to the office at scwdc@scwdc.org, see additional instructions below under "Voting Rules." 

- Voting during the meeting will also be possible. 

- Voting results will be announced at the meeting. 

Voting Rules:

Only Active SCWDC members may vote.  Expired members are not allowed to vote, so please ensure that your membership is up to date if you plan to vote. Early votes may be cast electronically, or by paper absentee ballot.  Members may only submit one ballot.  For Family memberships, if two or more members share the same email address, only one member may submit an electronic ballot.  This is because the membership database uses the email address as the Member ID.  Other family members may update their profile to include a unique email address or submit an Absentee Ballot.

Members can request an Absentee ballot from the Club office, by sending an email to scwdc@scwdc.org. Your membership will be confirmed, and you will receive, via reply email, a PDF ballot to be used for one vote. For a family membership, each individual wishing to vote via Absentee Ballot will need to request and file a separate ballot. Your Absentee ballot must be received in the Club office by April 5 (before 3 PM). Members who wish to vote in person can do so at the Club office from March 31 to April 5 (before 3 PM) but must call ahead (703-532-7776) to ensure that the Office Manager will be present to register their vote. 

Candidates:  

Any Active Club member who has been a member for one year or more may run for the position of Director. Any Active Club member who has been a member for three years or more may run for the office of President. Candidates must agree to serve if elected.  The President and at least four of the Directors must be skiers. Members may run by petition, and nominations may also be made from attendees at the Election Meeting.  For more detailed information about the Club's Bylaws, Rules of Procedure and/or Policies regarding Club Elections please refer to the SCWDC Policy Manual. 

The Club's Nominating Committee has approved the following slate of candidates:

For the office of President, elected for one year: Ruth D'Alessandro 
For the position of Director, elected for two years:  Beverly Ashcraft, Sylvia Harris, Larry Langer, and Carol Thomas 
Write-in candidates may be entered in the "Write-in" category.

Candidates for President:

Ruth D'Alessandro

I am honored to be nominated for President of SCWDC now DBA (doing business as) Ski and Sports Club of Washington DC for a third term. I have been a member of our club for over 36 years. Initially, I participated in tennis parties, instructional tennis, weekend trips, weekly tennis, and played softball.  I began skiing 3 years after I joined our club and benefited from many one day and weekend learn to ski trips. For over 30 years, I have attended approximately 3 ski trips a year. I was race coordinator on several trips, assisted trip leaders and hosted several pre-trip parties at my house. I have participated in Club Med and Viking Cruise trips.  Four years ago, I led the Park City/SFF ski trip; last year, I led the ski club trip to Winter Park, CO. Three years ago, I initiated and led a Club Med trip to Sandpiper Bay; over 40 participants safely attended. Last year, I researched the location, negotiated prices and assisted the trip leader on our first weekly golf and tennis trip to Hilton Head Island, SC. I led a very successful golf trip to Hilton Head this year

Several years ago, I began participating in our Wednesday evening golf program.  Since then, I have led 4 weekend golf trips to Blue Ridge Shadows in VA and 2 successful weekend golf trip to Shenvalee, VA. I have met many interesting people and made numerous lifelong friends while enjoying being active in our club.

Four years ago, I was able to spend more time giving back to our club; I was nominated and elected to the (Board of Directors) BOD. I learned about our operations and budget. It was a difficult year due to COVID and we suffered financially. The BOD made prudent decisions to cancel some events. We discussed cancelling all events for the year including golf, tennis, and softball. However, the BOD determined that would be detrimental to our club and membership; many of our members wanted to participate in outdoor activities.

During the past three years we have safely continued our outdoor activities including picnics in the summer and two Back to the Slopes gathering in the fall. Our biking and hiking programs have been revitalized. All outdoor activities and trips have been well attended. During the past two years, most of our ski trips have sold out. In the past three years, our membership has increased by approximately 300 members. As a result of our volunteers’ work, we are doing well financially again this year. For the first time in several years, we will be holding our election indoors at Auld Shebeen in Fairfax, VA.

I have been described by friends and colleagues as enthusiastic, dedicated and hardworking. I have ideas/incentives to entice new volunteers for our programs, implement new programs, continue to recoup our losses and build our club. 

Lastly, I worked for Fairfax County Public Schools for 32 years as a Social Worker and an Administrator.  The organizational, human relations and leadership skills utilized in my career have benefited me as I have been a volunteer, trip leader, member of the BOD and I hope your President for a third term.  

Candidates for Director:

Beverly Ashcraft

Financial Manager (3 years)

Director (4 years)

Ski Flight Trips Committee (9 years)

ALEC Committee (11 years)

Meetings Chair (3 years)

Trip Leader (Ski and Non-Ski Trips)

Activity Leader (many)

I’m a long-time member who joined the club when I moved to DC in the late 90’s. SCWDC gave me new ski friends, a varied social network, and the opportunity to try non-ski activities such as golf which is now one of my favorite outdoor activities.  SCWDC has been a big part of my DC social life, and I want to help ensure that the club continues to provide a variety of activities. SCWDC offers something for everyone no matter the season – skiing, tennis, golf, hiking, adventure trips, and many social events.

 SCWDC is recovering from the financially challenging years of Covid-19 and needs board members with a wide range of expertise to address how the club will meet new challenges for travel organizations in the future. I have been the club’s financial manager for the past 3 years and have learned a tremendous amount about the club’s finances and how we operate as a non-profit organization. In that time, we’ve implemented more streamlined accounting practices and are developing a strategic plan to continue to modernize SCWDC’s back-office.  If I am elected as board member, I plan to bring my knowledge of the club’s financial state and my expertise from leading numerous activities and serving on both the flights and ALEC committees to continue to implement the modernization of SCWDC’s back-office so that SCWDC is set for future year

Sylvia Harris 

I have been an SCWDC member for over 26 years and served on the board twice, filling vacated positions. I enjoy travel, hiking, biking, skiing, cultural, and social activities.  I started out doing social and cultural activities with the club and later alpine skiing, going on two ski trips with the club almost every year.  I have also been on SCWDC Club Med trips, and participated in other club activities, such as hiking, happy hours, biking, and attending the annual picnic. 

I am a retired federal employee having worked for the Navy and the Dept of Transportation (DOT).  I have experience as a systems analyst and project manager.  I have served on boards for other organizations and volunteer as a tutor in an adult literacy program and a reading program with a local elementary school.

Over the years, the club has provided many activities for members to stay active.  I have enjoyed many of these activities and want to give back to the club. 

Lawrence Langer

I have been a member of SCWDC for over 32 years. I have been skiing with the club since I joined and early on would go on several bus trips in addition to flight trips. In recent years I typically go on couple ski trips per year.  I have enjoyed meeting a lot of interesting and friendly people over the years, a number of whom I have known for over 30 years.  Many of you know me or will recognize me from all the trips that I have been on. When not skiing with the club I have had a season pass at Whitetail for over ten years and can be found up there skiing during the rest of the season and occasionally at Liberty.

I retired in August 2020 from L3Harris as a Controller with a staff of seven.  I am a licensed CPA in Virginia and also a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).  While I was working I did not have time to volunteer for the club.  Now that I am retired I would like to give back to the club.  I realize how much hard work everyone who volunteers has done and are currently doing and would like to help out.  I think my work experience would be helpful to the club in a number of areas particularly financial and budgeting matters.  This would be my first volunteer activity with the club, but you have to start somewhere and I think my work experience, knowledge, years of participation and contacts in the club would be useful.

In conclusion, I would like to do more volunteering with the club going forward in particular with the ski programs, Western, Eastern and one day trips.  Hopefully this COVID thing will end and next year’s ski season will be more normal.  

Carol Thomas.

I have been a member of the Ski and Sports Club of Washington since 2010 and have been skiing since 1985. I have participated in at least eight ski/flight trips with SCWDC, and I led the Club’s trip to Canaan Valley just before the COVID lockdown in January 2020. I have also attended many one-day SCWDC social events such as annual picnics and parties.

I served on the Executive Boards of two different organizations prior to running for the Board of The Ski and Sports Club of Washington. I have also performed many volunteer and part-time professional jobs during my lifetime along with ongoing full-time employment. I was the President and a trip leader for a motorcycling organization called “Potomac Area Road Riders” for approximately 17 years. I assisted with the dissolution of this incorporated entity approximately three years ago, and subsequently helped to usher it into the status of an unincorporated social group in order to provide continuity to the members upon corporate dissolution. I am also a former Committee Chair and the current Vice President of the Virginia Dressage Association, Northern Virginia Chapter (VADA/Nova) – a board on which I have served for approximately seven years. VADA/Nova has approximately 200 active members and 385 total members on its roster and hosts many large events, so I am quite accustomed to working with large volunteer and non-profit organizations. Finally, I am a semi-professional musician and a dressage judge (equestrian sports) and perform many part‑time singing and judging jobs under the umbrella of my own incorporated entity entitled “EquiHarmony, LLC”. I work full time for SAIC as a Space Systems Engineer in Chantilly, VA.

I live in Alexandria, VA. When I am not working or performing volunteer tasks, I enjoy training and competing my three horses in the equestrian sport of dressage. I also enjoy international travel and skiing. I hold a B.A. in Political Science, a B.S. in Computer Information Systems, and an M.A. in Telecommunications. I look forward to the opportunity to apply my skill set to meet the needs of SCWDC’s membership.