Viewpoint Information Age By Paul Jurbala, OWSA Executive Director You've no doubt gotten out on the water already: the real die-hards were out dodging the ice in April. I'm still back in consumer show mode, thinking about conversations I had in January and March with hundreds of water skiers who all wanted to know, "What does an OWSA mem- bership get me, anyway?" Fortunately, I had my answer rehearsed and con- densed into high-speed patter: "There are four issues of Ontario Water Skier magazine, three issues of the Nati- onal newsletter and our new annual handbook. You can rent instructional videos from us, or purchase books. We're coming out with the Water Ski Pro Guide..." It's a heck of a deal, of course, for $12, but it's all the same thing: information. Information is what we do. Most readers can remember when they first realized there was a network of water skiers out there. One day you're buying a new ski and you learn there's a ski club somewhere close by, or you hear there's an association or a tournament...and everything changes. You discover WaterSki magazine, which you've never seen on a newsstand. Or videos on water skiing, which your video store never imagined. And the Ontario Water Ski Asso- ciation, which you'd never heard of, and which is damned hard to track down, is at the centre of everything. We are, in fact, the only central source of information, the only place to get a set of jump plans, or a slalom course layout, or an article on how to do a side-slide, in a province with nearly three-quarters of a million water skiers. We're more, of course: we help organize the training of coaches, instructors and officials, our volun- teers put on the tournaments, select the teams and so on. But for the average skier we're an information source. This is, as we're used to hearing, the Information Age. We can find out about almost anything on radio, TV, in print, over a modem. We're bombarded with information, and I've had people cut my membership spiel short with, "I've already got too much to read. I don't have time to read it all." And the answer, as for all suppliers of information, is to become more specific and specialized. You don't want to read about skiing, but you need someone to help get the kids up on skis: we've got the Pro Clinics, and we'll come right out to your lake. You don't want to join anything, but you want to set up your own slalom course: we'll sell you the plans. Our future as an association lies in the fact that we are the source of water skiing expertise in Ontario. I'm sorry to say we can't go on giving information away; rather we need to package it, or even respond to requests on a custom basis, so we can meet the most specific needs on a pay-per-use basis. And, of course, we need to let those 750,000 skiers know we exist, that we have what they want, and that they can get it from us. We'll do this in partnership with equipment and boat distributors and retailers, for their interests (sales) and ours (providing information to help people enjoy the sport) are inseparable - the more people enjoy water skiing, the more will buy equipment, and vice versa. Where will we be in five years? Will we be a 1-800 number with operators standing by 24 hours a day? Will you be able to get water ski information on CD-ROM? Will the information super highway go to your lake?