The New England Ski Museum is now accepting applications for its 2008 Cal Conniff Grant Program.  The grant program is intended to support individuals and organizations that align with the Museum’s mission of preserving the history of skiing and winter sports.  The Museum will announce awards of $2,500.00 during the annual Hannes Schneider Meister Cup event at the Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway, NH on March 7-8, 2008.

The Cal Conniff Grant Program is open to individuals, organizations and educational institutions with an interest in snowsports, such as Alpine and Nordic skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing. Applicants may include, but are not limited to, competitive athletes, school programs, clubs, students, teachers, researchers, filmmakers and historians. Anyone who can demonstrate the need for funding for the purposes of education, preservation of snowsports history, encouraging winter sports participation, or other involvement in snow sports is eligible.

The Grant Program is named in honor of former Ski Museum President Cal Conniff. As President of the ski museum in the mid 1990s, Conniff founded the Hannes Schneider Race both to showcase the mission of the Museum to preserve the history of skiing, and as a fund-raiser for the non-profit group. Conniff is a former Executive Director of the National Ski Areas Association and continues to be a mainstay of the Museum’s Board of Directors.

The idea for a grants program in connection with the race originated with Museum Board member Kimberly Beals of North Conway, NH, and was adopted at a September 2000 Board meeting. Since that time, more than $28,000 in grants have been awarded to organizations and individuals, including the Eastern Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined Foundation, Gunstock Adaptive Program, Winterkids, Nansen Ski Club, and ski history researcher Dylan Esson. 

The selection process will be conducted by the Museum’s Grant Committee on an objective and nondiscriminatory basis. The committee judges applications based on the following:
· How important is this grant to the success of the program?
· Will this applicant contribute to the preservation of ski or snowboard history?
· Does the success of this applicant have an educational value?
· Does this application encourage participation in skiing or snowboarding?
· Does the applicant seem organized in the pursuit of the project?

The application process is kept purposefully informal. Applicants should send a letter that explains what the grant would be used for – a description of the project, its goals, who it impacts, and the dollar amount requested.  Supporting information for the application should include:
· Resume (individuals) or organizational description (groups);
· Two letters supporting the merits of the individual or program;
· Representative photograph of person or program that may be published by the Museum if the applicant is successful.

Applications materials can be e-mailed to staff@skimuseum.org or mailed to:
Grants Committee
New England Ski Museum
PO Box 267
Franconia NH 03580-0267

The deadline for applications is February 10, 2008. For more information about a Cal Conniff Grant, please call the New England Ski Museum at (603) 823-7177.