ski patrolling and safety. Member countries of FIPS are Australia, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russia, Scotland (UK), Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, USA. In addition, there a number of Associate Members who are non-national organisations. The concept of FIPS can be traced back prior to 1979 when the first meeting was held in Calgary, Canada. Although there were many ski patrols in existence at that time, there was very little communication between them. Patrollers who had the opportunity to ski in other countries noticed differences and some commonality in procedures and standards relative to their own. In addition, accident prevention programmes were being implemented in some countries but not in others. A number of countries did not have a national ski patrol organisation. FIPS was created as the world forum for ski patrollers to meet, exchange ideas and compare the latest in patrol techniques on a regular basis. FIPS is supported by national patrol organisations to provide the necessary input and to offer potential solutions to patrolling issues. To enable this collaboration FIPS holds a congress every two years in a location of a member nation. FIPS exists due to the combined efforts of interested patrollers, individual ski patrols and national patrol organisations. FIPS seeks to improve the effectiveness of ski patrolling and, in turn, benefit the snow sports public. Over the years FIPS has initiated a number of specific projects of interest to patrollers: Issues of legal aspects of ski patrolling Investigation of injuries to ski patrollers while on patrol Documentation of member country's training, qualification and recognition together with comparison of the training modules Recommendations of medical approaches to some specific ski injuries Consideration of a standard Skiers Responsibility Code (safety rules) Establishment and maintenance of the FIPS web site Evaluation of relevant technology and its impact on ski patrol rescue, and safety of the skiing public First Aid Committee – 1933 In 1933 the Schenectady (New York) Wintersports Club was organizing Snow Trains for local skiers to go to the Gore Mountain-Pete Gay Massif above North Creek, New York to enjoy skiing on trails cut by local sports enthusiasts as well as from Schenectady. Because of tales learned of injured skiers on the early (1931) Boston to New Hampshire (Franconia) Snow Trains, the organizers decided to have a large and well prepared First Aid Committee. Headed by Lois Perret (Schaefer), RN,