Enhance Your Career with the GCSAA Self Assessment Tool

This week while attending the Western Washington Professional Development Seminar I was listening to GCSAA board member Bill Maynard, CGCS, and GCSAA speak on networking your way to a big job. Bill’s presentation was excellent. He had a number of great ideas on how to build your own personal network so you can achieve your career goals. One thing that Bill mentioned that caught my ear was to be sure to log onto the GCSAA website and utilize your Self-Assessment Tool. If you are serious about enhancing your career or and looking for that opportunity to move up, this is a great way to chart your success. The Self-Assessment Tool will provide you with a way to rate your current skills and knowledge against each competency listed. Once completed, you will be able to identify seminars and resources for each competency and tailor fit your education to meet your needs. This will also enable you to chart your own course toward continuing development and eventually to certification if you so desire.

What made me write about this is the fact that the Golf  Industry Show is just around the corner. If you are a regular GIS attendee you can use the Self-Assessment Tool as a form of communication with your general manager or your boss. Upon completing the tool, you can use the gap analysis and be able to track your educational progress. Unfortunately at this time you can't print a report from the web page, but you can summarize your results and share it during your annual review. This will certainly help justify the continuing educational expense line in your budget because you can show how the education is benefiting the facility.

On the other hand, if you have lost your education expense line in your budget or simply have a manager that doesn't realize the importance of continuing education or attendance to the GIS, you can use the Self-Assessment Tool to demonstrate areas where your increased knowledge will have a direct and positive benefit to the facility. Your summary can simply be part of your goals during your review process, giving you an opportunity to explain the value of education and how it will pay dividends in the long run. In today's business world, budgets are getting tighter and more scrutinized. If you can demonstrate that the money will have a direct and positive impact on your course, you should have a much easier time adding dollars back to that education expense line. Some may not be comfortable presenting this to their manager, but if you are, taking a matter like this in your own hands could definitely put you on a track toward success.

Don't forget, as a bonus you will receive .5 education points upon the completion of your self assessment.

Refurbish your ball washers to factory-new condition

One of the great things about my job is meeting superintendents from around the country. As often as I can, I like to stop in and visit superintendents at their facilities. I often see the simple things that superintendents have done to either make their jobs easier or to save money for their clubs.

While I was in Billings last October for the Peaks & Prairies Fall Meeting and Trade Show, I had the opportunity to visit with Sean Sullivan, CGCS from Briarwood Country Club. Sean enjoys traveling, especially to England, Scotland and Ireland to volunteer at the Open Championships. He has gotten to know many superintendents over there and frequently networks with them. Sean was instrumental in setting up a sister chapter relationship between Peaks & Prairies and the BIGGA Chapter, East of England.

In a way to commemorate his relationships with his overseas peers. Sean uses the powder coat process to create custom flags on the ball washers to match the different regions of the UK and Ireland. Now Sean is doing custom orders and will be sending his work overseas!

Sean isn't in the business of selling custom-painted Deluxe Par Aide ball washers, but my point is to demonstrate his creativity and ability to save his course money by setting up his own powder coating operation.  At one of the courses I used to work at we sanded and used automotive paint on the ball washers. As you can imagine this wasn't the safest operation. With powder coating you don’t smell a thing. Sean said this takes a minimal investment. Once you’re set up, it costs an average of $2.25 per ball washer in materials.

The actual powder coat spray gun can be purchased for $129 from Harbor Freight, and he purchases the powder coat online from a company called Eastwood. He gets 5 pounds for $54. They also provide an abundance of colors. Sean says he can normally coat 24 ball washers with that amount. For the oven, he simply put out a request to the membership and within days he had a like-new range for free. After constructing a couple racks to hold the ball washers while coating and baking, he was set to go. Once done, the finish is as beautiful and strong as if it just came from the factory. If your course requires a custom color, then primed ball washers can be purchased through your distributor and you are all set. If you are interested, Sean would be glad to answer any questions. Feel free to contact him at: briarmain@180com.net .

Chapters can be the key to EIFG success

Fall is my favorite time of year. Aside from all the wonderful colors and the hunting and fishing opportunities, it signifies the end of the golfing season. It's a time to look back to determine what worked well and what didn't, and also a time to start preparing next year's budget. This is also the time of year when six of the seven Northwest chapters are having their annual meetings and are selecting new leadership. Chapters are preparing their budgets for the coming year and must decide which programs they are going to support in the coming season.

I am extremely pleased to announce that four NW chapters have decided to create a line item in their budgets to support the Environmental Institute for Golf. I would also like to thank the Intermountain GCSA, Idaho GCSA, and Inland Empire GCSA for pledging $500 in 2013. These funds will provide ongoing support towards educational programs, research, scholarship and advocacy.



At the delegates meeting in October, Rhett Evans, CEO of GCSAA and the EIFG, shared a video about the Institute. This video can also be found on the Institute's website. As much as I would like everyone to go to the site to watch it, I am posting it here for your convenience. Please take a few moments to watch it to familiarize yourself with the roll of the EIFG and consider making an individual donation or even a facility donation. The EIFG is the backbone of our association, and your support can contribute to its ongoing success.

Welcome to your new NW regional page

I am very excited to introduce to you the new Northwest region webpage. I hope you will bookmark this page and check in regularly to see what's happening across the region. My goal is to increase a sense of community across the eight states and seven chapters within our region.

I will be sharing stories from my visits throughout the year and highlighting your fellow members who are making a difference. I hope to hear from you too! If you have a story or any information you believe would be beneficial to your peers, please let me know. In my previous position as the superintendent at Stone Creek Golf Club, I was a frequent blogger on Stonecreeksuper.blogspot.com and am now looking forward to getting back in the swing of it.

This post is to designed to serve as an introduction, but I would also like to get right to business and urge you all to keep Colorado's Tracy Richard in your thoughts. Tracy is superintendent at Common Ground Golf Course in Aurora and is a past president of the RMGCSA. Tracy went into cardiac arrest on September 12th in the midst of the flooding catastrophe. Tracy has been in intensive care since then and has recently been moved to a new hospital to continue his rehabilitation. Tracy's course was completely under water and has now just nine holes open for play. The members of the RMGCSA have come together to support Tracy as well as other members who were affected by the flooding. Tracy's rehabilitation can be followed on the Caring Bridge website at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tracyrichard/mystory. Please visit the page and write a note of encouragement. I know your well wishes would mean the world to him.

Please bookmark this Northwest page and check back regularly for regional updates, resources, forum discussions, and of course, my blog!