The purpose of this memo is to explain the role of technical writing in professional sports, specifically the Colorado Avalanche Management and Team Services department. The information was gathered from an interview with Francois Giguere the former General Manager and Executive Vice President.

Background
Mr. Giguere previously worked as the Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Colorado Avalanche and he also worked in the Quebec Nordiques organization before the team moved to Colorado. He was promoted May 2006. He has won two Stanley Cups in his career with Colorado.

Methods of Communication
Mr. Giguere explained to me that he sends a lot of emails to people within the organization. The emails he sends are to department heads such as Scouting, Communications, Marketing, Player Development and the Team Services department. He also uses memos to communicate with his colleagues. He also sends text messages if he is in a hurry and needs to be more direct with a certain people.

Management Hierarchy

Forms of Writing Within The Organization
Within the Colorado Avalanche organization there are several forms of writing:
Memos. Keep everyone up to speed on daily activities. There are different forms of memos used to do this.
• Manager Memos. A memo is sent out by the General Manager after every trade, free agent signing or contract extension. This is to keep people informed about contract negotiations. A memo includes player profiles, contract details such as number of years and the amount of money to be paid out every year to the player, coach, agent, or employee.
• Scouting Memos. These memos come from the Scouting and Player Development department and include: player bio, statistics, their opinion on the player and recommendation moving forward with that player.
Emails. Other forms of writing include emails between colleagues about itineraries for travel schedules, game statistics and monthly team reports.
• Itineraries. Include info such as: Where people need to be and at what time, flight information and hotel arrangements.
• Game statistics. Sent to all the department heads to then send them down the ranks of each department. These statistics emails are used to type up game recaps on the teams website for fans to read and also for coaching staff to evaluate.
• Monthly team reports. These include information about how the team is doing and what changes need to be made in personnel or on the ice, if any.

Amount of Writing Required at the Executive Level
There is a lot of writing at the executive level of a hockey club. Hockey is a sport that involves a lot of traveling so people are often flying to different cities and even different countries. Therefore emailing is the best form of communication. Mr. Giguere explained to me that “a good portion of his day is spent writing emails and memos to different people within the organization to assure that everyone is kept up to date on the daily happenings and future of the organization”. This shows just how important writing skills are in the professional world.