On the morning of August 28, fourteen of the newest members of Burton, RED, and Backhill’s North American sales force began a top-secret program known only by it ominous code name, Boot Camp ’99. A program so torturous it has not been instituted since its inception in 1995. But, with the recent additions to Burton’s North American team, General Clark Gundlach felt it was time to call some of the troops back to

headquarters.

Day one began with a brief overview of what the weekend had in store and moved into a tour of the 80 Industrial Parkway building, including the newly redesigned Factory Show Room. From there the "Boot Campers" were able to spend the rest of the morning in the warranty department, rider services, and dealer services. After lunch they moved out to the lawn where Dave Cory, John Damiano, and Chris Mask showed the "dos" and "don’ts" of on-snow demos. The rest of the afternoon was spent at BMC, touring the new facility and quizzing Product Managers on the new ’99 product.

After a late dinner (a really late dinner–maybe the latest dinner

some attendees ever had in their lives), General Gundlach showed his softer side by granting the campers a one-hour reprieve on Saturday morning.

However, Boot Camp resumed promptly at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. Randy and Nancy Hoose started the day off with full hardgoods and softgoods clinics. Boot Campers were super-stoked to learn both technical product info and presentation styles. After lunch the veterans sprung one on the rookies to see who had been paying attention. Each camper was assigned to a group (hardgood, softgoods, RED, and Backhill) and told to come up with a presentation strategy for the products in their groups. The group presentations made it clear that the campers were paying attention, and veterans like Lace Webb, Russ Rowan, and Johnny D. kept presenters on their toes.

All in all, Boot Camp ’99 achieved its goal–to familiarize the new Burton employees with every piece of equipment the company offers.