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Member Spotlight: From the Top of Crystal Mountain
Etcetera
HFMA member Mark Flaten spends each weekend teaching children how to ski.
Mark Flaten has long had a passion for skiing, but nine years ago, when he began to have trouble fitting skiing trips into his schedule, he knew it would take a commitment that would require him to be at a ski resort on a regular basis to get him back onto the slopes.
Flaten decided to become a ski instructor, focusing on teaching children ages 8 to 11—both beginning skiers and intermediates. Today, Flaten and his wife, also a ski instructor, spend each winter weekend at Crystal Mountain, a ski resort in Crystal Mountain, Wash., just over two hours from their home in Federal Way, Wash.
“Skiing is a passion my wife and I share,” says Flaten, senior executive director of sales, United Collection Service, Inc., Tukwila, Wash., and a member of HFMA’s Washington/Alaska Chapter. “On Friday nights after work, we’ll drive our motor home up to the mountain and spend the weekend there,” he says. “I teach on Saturday mornings and afternoons, taking time to ski on my own before and after classes and during my lunch break. On Sundays, we free ski; Sunday afternoons, we head home and prepare for the workweek ahead.”
Although Flaten’s work as a ski instructor began purely as a way for him to reconnect with his passion for being on the slopes, it became much more. “What I discovered is the joy you get in sharing your passion with your students, and seeing the smiles on their faces as they learn to ski or navigate a new course for the first time,” he says. “I love taking these kids up the hill and seeing the joy and excitement and the innocence in their expressions as they learn to ski, and the sense of accomplishment they get when they go from skiing a green run at the beginning of a six-week course to skiing a black diamond run at the end of the course, which is a neat thing, and a big deal. That’s the best part about being an instructor.”
On a clear day, Flaten says, he and his students can see Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helen, Mount Adams, and Mount Baker (near the Canadian border) from the top of Crystal Mountain. “You almost feel as though you could reach across and touch Mount Rainier,” he says.
Experiences such as these give Flaten the release he needs after an intense week of work in healthcare finance. “I view skiing and, in the summer months, my passion for boating as ‘safety valves’ from the pressures associated with my work,” he says. “Probably 90 percent of the accounts receivable portfolio of the company I work for (United Collection Service) is health care; we provide collection services for about six hospitals—which amount to a tremendous volume. Every day is challenging. My work as a ski instructor and the time I spend free skiing are both great ways to unwind.”
Flaten likens teaching six to eight children how to ski to “herding cats” at times. The most humorous experience Flaten has had as an instructor was also the scariest: Once, one of his students became “misplaced” (“We call it ‘independent study’—you never want to say you’ve lost a child,” he says) after she took a side trail off the main run.”I panicked—I called the supervisors of the ski school by walkie talkie, and flagged down the ski patrol for help. It turned out the trail dumped her onto another run—and we found her all the way down the hill, by the chair lift, which is where students are supposed to wait for their instructor if they ever become separated from the group. She was standing there, waiting, looking at us as if to ask, ‘Where were you?’”
During the spring and summer, Flaten and his wife pursue another passion: boating along the Puget Sound, which Jacques Cousteau once named as one of the top 10 natural marine wonders of the world. “The Puget Sound is a unique, protected body of water that stretches from Olympia, Wash., to Alaska; then you can take the Inside Passage all the way to Alaska,” Flaten says. “My wife and I enjoy boating three out of four weekends each month during the spring and summer months, beginning around mid-April, as well as two weeks every summer, when we take our boat into Canadian waters.” Flaten’s boat is a 50-foot SeaRay Sundancer, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a satellite dish, and a washer and dryer. “It’s roughing it,” Flaten laughs.
http://www.hfma.org/hfm/2010archives/month02/HFM0210_Etc_MemSpot.htm?print=on
Etcetera
HFMA member Mark Flaten spends each weekend teaching children how to ski.
Mark Flaten has long had a passion for skiing, but nine years ago, when he began to have trouble fitting skiing trips into his schedule, he knew it would take a commitment that would require him to be at a ski resort on a regular basis to get him back onto the slopes.
Flaten decided to become a ski instructor, focusing on teaching children ages 8 to 11—both beginning skiers and intermediates. Today, Flaten and his wife, also a ski instructor, spend each winter weekend at Crystal Mountain, a ski resort in Crystal Mountain, Wash., just over two hours from their home in Federal Way, Wash.
“Skiing is a passion my wife and I share,” says Flaten, senior executive director of sales, United Collection Service, Inc., Tukwila, Wash., and a member of HFMA’s Washington/Alaska Chapter. “On Friday nights after work, we’ll drive our motor home up to the mountain and spend the weekend there,” he says. “I teach on Saturday mornings and afternoons, taking time to ski on my own before and after classes and during my lunch break. On Sundays, we free ski; Sunday afternoons, we head home and prepare for the workweek ahead.”
Although Flaten’s work as a ski instructor began purely as a way for him to reconnect with his passion for being on the slopes, it became much more. “What I discovered is the joy you get in sharing your passion with your students, and seeing the smiles on their faces as they learn to ski or navigate a new course for the first time,” he says. “I love taking these kids up the hill and seeing the joy and excitement and the innocence in their expressions as they learn to ski, and the sense of accomplishment they get when they go from skiing a green run at the beginning of a six-week course to skiing a black diamond run at the end of the course, which is a neat thing, and a big deal. That’s the best part about being an instructor.”
On a clear day, Flaten says, he and his students can see Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helen, Mount Adams, and Mount Baker (near the Canadian border) from the top of Crystal Mountain. “You almost feel as though you could reach across and touch Mount Rainier,” he says.
Experiences such as these give Flaten the release he needs after an intense week of work in healthcare finance. “I view skiing and, in the summer months, my passion for boating as ‘safety valves’ from the pressures associated with my work,” he says. “Probably 90 percent of the accounts receivable portfolio of the company I work for (United Collection Service) is health care; we provide collection services for about six hospitals—which amount to a tremendous volume. Every day is challenging. My work as a ski instructor and the time I spend free skiing are both great ways to unwind.”
Flaten likens teaching six to eight children how to ski to “herding cats” at times. The most humorous experience Flaten has had as an instructor was also the scariest: Once, one of his students became “misplaced” (“We call it ‘independent study’—you never want to say you’ve lost a child,” he says) after she took a side trail off the main run.”I panicked—I called the supervisors of the ski school by walkie talkie, and flagged down the ski patrol for help. It turned out the trail dumped her onto another run—and we found her all the way down the hill, by the chair lift, which is where students are supposed to wait for their instructor if they ever become separated from the group. She was standing there, waiting, looking at us as if to ask, ‘Where were you?’”
During the spring and summer, Flaten and his wife pursue another passion: boating along the Puget Sound, which Jacques Cousteau once named as one of the top 10 natural marine wonders of the world. “The Puget Sound is a unique, protected body of water that stretches from Olympia, Wash., to Alaska; then you can take the Inside Passage all the way to Alaska,” Flaten says. “My wife and I enjoy boating three out of four weekends each month during the spring and summer months, beginning around mid-April, as well as two weeks every summer, when we take our boat into Canadian waters.” Flaten’s boat is a 50-foot SeaRay Sundancer, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a satellite dish, and a washer and dryer. “It’s roughing it,” Flaten laughs.
http://www.hfma.org/hfm/2010archives/month02/HFM0210_Etc_MemSpot.htm?print=on
