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NSAA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, governed by a seven-member Board of Directors. Half of the Board members are elected each year to a two-year term by the current members at the Annual Meeting in November. Meet three more of our board members.
Steve Beardsley
Steve Beardsley has the distinction of being the most retired board member. He retired once from ASD where he taught K-3 grades for 31 years. Not fully grasping the idea of retirement, he went to work for the Municipality's Health and Human Services Emergency Preparedness office and 7 years later retired again. Never one to be idle, he's been subbing in elementary schools again - often for his son Tyler - forever confusing the little tykes as to which Mr. Beardsley is which.
Steve grew up in Denver and learned to ski in his back yard (on long wooden skis with leather bindings). He moved to Anchorage in 1973 and has been involved in the Nordic community ever since. He used his experience from Colorado, where he helped the Leadville Buddy Werner Ski League for alpine youth skiers, to start a Bill Koch League program in Anchorage. He volunteered in the early years for the predecessor of today's Junior Nordic - the Anchorage Nordic League with Lynn Spencer and Jim Galanes.
Steve has been married to Nancy for 42 years and has two kids who went through "the whole nine yards" of Nordic skiing: Jr. Nordic, Jr. High racing, High School racing, Junior Olympics, Winter Games, and Biathlon. He started as a Green Grunt in 1986 and was Head Grunt from 1989-2001. He's currently our Adopt-a-Flower-Bed coordinator, as well as an active High School and Middle School race volunteer. In addition, he volunteers extensively with the Special Olympics. His favorite place to ski is Kincaid since it's so removed from the hustle and bustle-except for the occasional moose or bear. His favorite races have been JO 1987 and 2008 and Special O's 2001 World Winter Games where he served as Sports Commissioner for Nordic skiing.
A quote by Will Rogers sums up Steve's philosophy:
"Even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just sit there."
Steve likes NSAA because he believes it's a great community based organization. He works as
 | | Steve Beardsley & Mike Miller |
hard as he does because it's fun to watch the kids of kids coming back into this life long sport.
Mike Miller
Mike's been on the NSAA board of directors since the early 1990s, and says that it's now "become a habit." Despite his modesty, Mike is a jack of all trades in this organization, has been involved in all aspects of what we do. He got started volunteering with the NSAA in the 80's when Dan Dougherty asked him help with some ski races. He soon was a regular on the timing crew and his involvement grew from there. He became a Race Chair and also began working with grooming. His day job is as a Business Development Manager for Granite Construction, and has worked previously as a Project Manager and was "head schmuck" at MB Contracting. Mike is very involved with NSAA trail work, but also helps out at almost every high school race. He was involved with the USSA and the creation of Cross Country Alaska, and is still a FIS TD, though has become less involved as he's narrowed his focus to trails. Mike has been Chief of Comp and Chief of Course for nearly every national event here in Anchorage.
Mike grew up in Iowa and came to Alaska in 1973 for work, and sadly only downhill skied at the time. Rumor has it that he was quite accomplished at track in college, and he's even been caught doing sprints in the Kincaid stadium when he thought no one was looking. He learned to Nordic ski by following his daughters around on wooden skis during their lessons. One of these daughters grew up to become "Killer Miller," an exceptional Nordic skier feared throughout the region. Mike quickly realized Nordic skiing was a great way to stay active in the winters and, like his NSAA mentor Dan Dougherty, can see himself still skiing 2 - 3 days a week in to his 80's. He'll soon be chasing around a couple of grandkids on skis.
Mike appreciates the great people who work with this organization, who, like him, keep coming back for more. He values community and the collective efforts it's taken to build and maintain this exceptional Nordic environment. He also values the great service NSAA provides for the community, both trail work and grooming, and recognizes that these services would not happen if it was administered without the community effort. Described as a "silent soldier" by those close to him, Mike leads by example. Without a doubt, the Nordic community is stronger because of his years of dedicated service.
Lars Spurkland
Our newest board member,  Lars Spurkland, was born and raised in Anchorage, with forays to Norway. He attended Dimond High, NMU, and University of Nevada at Reno, where he skiied and earned an engineering degree. He began skiing with the first class of Junior Nordic, which at the time was the Anchorage Nordic League, for both adults and kids. Back "when it was serious," according to Lars, the League was created as a competitive racing program and Lars and the other students skied 5 days a week. Lars' family has long been involved with the NSAA and his dad is a former president of the board.
Lars is now a civil & environmental engineer who does permiting and designs water/sewer systems. He works conveniently across the hall from NSAA's admin office. He's been married for 3 years to (no surprise) another skier. He met his wife in Girdwood at the alpine Town League race series. He also works as a Coach at East High school and is always looking for assistant coaches!
Lars is an active guy - biking and skiing frequently. He gets out in the backcountry to ski as often as possible, particularly Turnagain. When asked about his best Tour finish, he says "I've never had a good finish in the Tour of Anchorage, except maybe back in Jr. High when I won the 25K".
Lars believes in the NSAA because he grew up skiing and it's been such an important part of his life. He wants to give back to all the programs he's enjoyed and continues to enjoy.
Becky Hauser
In real life, Becky Hauser is a sales rep for a robotic surgical company called Intuitive Surgical. She spends her days in operating rooms, so it's no wonder that she eagerly awaits the time when she's able to hit the trails. Becky was born and raised in Anchorage in a family of athletes. Her sister Rachel is an Olympic biathlete and brother Zach is an Iditarod and Yukon Quest musher. Becky began skiing with the Junior Nordic program, although she remembers her first year as one with no snow, playing red rover and red light-green light in a dark Kincaid stadium in running shoes. Not surprisingly, her interest waned for a while, but she returned to skiing in Junior High School and continued as a racer, working with some of the best known coaches in town: Clancy Crawford, Betsy Haines, and Greg Kress, among others. Becky went on to ski Division 1 at Bates College in Maine. While there she submitted a few newsletter articles to NSAA, and this is when she thinks she "got back in touch" with NSAA. After college Becky began competing in the citizens' races with a whole new appreciation of what NSAA does and the tremendous number of volunteers that make it all happen. "Before this," she says, "I didn't know who all those guys in green coats were."
Becky's been on the NSAA board for 4 - 5 years, previously as the board Secretary. She says she hopes that she's able to fill the niche of a younger person from the racing community. Her true passion, however, is advocating for the non-racing community, "the guys in blue jeans" who are out there enjoying the trails, too, and finding just as much joy and fitness as the racers are. Becky and her husband Scott recently welcomed a new skier to the family, Quetzal Hauser.
Becky and Scott ski almost every day, and she says she can't think of anything that could benefit her family and the community more. She and her husband keep several extra pairs of skis on hand for when they have out of town visitors as a way to show Anchorage to these visitors. She realized that if she was going to spend this much time doing something, she better be giving back. Becky thinks that if you live in Anchorage and don't ski, you're missing out. She thinks most people recognize how fortunate we are when they travel elsewhere to ski and must pay $20 for an hour on the trails, or find that the trails they were interested in simply aren't maintained like they are here. Nowhere else operates on such an honor system where, as she puts it, you can pay once and ski every day, and NSAA is happy to groom the trails for you. Becky thinks the history of NSAA is one of the best parts-it builds momentum for what we are able to do today. "The guys who started it all made it happen, what would have been seen as loony if it was presented today, and we owe so much to them. We have to keep it going." | 
Kick Zones
