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Heart of
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Home & Calendar
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Chapter Delegate Meeting
Summary
(posted 10-17-07) The slide presentations and notes from the Chapter Delegates Meeting
are now available on the GCSAA website: Attached you will find a summary of the 2007 GCSAA Chapter Delegates Meeting. These talking points have been provided to assist in your communications efforts to your various constituents. One suggested use is to base presentations to chapter meetings on the outline. Please feel free to add any information you deem appropriate as you share the message. Later this week we will be producing a brief article summarizing the meeting that you can use for your chapter publications. Talking Points: http://www.gcsaa.org/chapters/leadership/delegates/delegatesTalking.asp
Thanks!
During the recent annual meeting in Anaheim California the Heart of
America Chapter casts their 100 votes for Once
again the chapter kept its tradition alive by voting for the winners in the
Directors race. Specifically, the vote The
results are:
Besides the industry news of the John Deere purchase of Lesco, the meeting
had very little buzz in the room. The
Association is being lead by very fine individuals. The time has come that
quality men are “log jamming” the For
questions concerning the election or any Heart of America issue relating to
GCSAA, please feel free to
“I commend and appreciate the Delegates for the energy they displayed during the meeting,” said Ricky Heine, CGCS meeting chairman and GCSAA vice-president. “They were focused and well-prepared in giving the board of directors and staff their perspectives on how we achieve our long-term vision. They took ownership of their association and in their responsibility as delegates. It is obvious they engaged their members in talks before the meeting.” The exchange of ideas and comments focused primarily on three items: a.) the development of long-term revenue streams to fund programs and services; b.) growing the GCSAA membership; c.) and positioning GCSAA and its membership classes in the marketplace (primarily to employers and influential golfers). The financial conversations centered on the establishment of a long-term dues pricing strategy. At the request of the Delegates, the board and staff presented a proposal that would tie the establishment of membership dues to an index (such as the Consumer Price Index). Historically, the association has enacted a dues increase in larger increments on average every five to seven years. The result has been a loss of members. There was widespread agreement at the meeting that smaller dues increases would be more easily absorbed at the facility level and less likely to result in membership declines. Directors further discussed the issue at their fall meeting, October 20-21 in New Orleans. Tied to the discussion of revenues was an examination of GCSAA membership numbers. From a high of more than 22,000 in 2001, the association’s membership has declined approximately 10 percent to just over 20,000 today. There was agreement that the situation has been created in large part by a struggling golf economy and the implementation of member standards. Staff presented a seven-phased membership growth and recruitment campaign enacted late last year. Delegates supported the efforts, realizing such an initiative will take time to yield results and must be long-term in nature. They were especially supportive of the GCSAA field staff pilot program and encouraged strong consideration for expanding it in the near future. The liveliest debate was on GCSAA’s philosophy regarding the positioning of the association and its membership classes. Delegates shared a variety of opinions, but ultimately agreed that for membership standards to have value in the marketplace, then they must be promoted externally. There was unanimous support that greater resources be dedicated to marketing the association, with a focus on Class A as being the preferred membership class. It was noted, however, that promoting Class A does not mean that marketing other membership classes should not be part of the program. Noting that chapters will be integral to the success of revenue generation, membership growth and retention, and marketing efforts, discussion also included an examination of chapter effectiveness. Specifically, the delegates were charged with providing the board and staff direction as to how the association could best invest resources to enhance chapter operations. The top three items were: a.) membership recruitment and retention; b.) chapter executive development and support; c.) chapter meeting effectiveness (attendance, timing, satisfaction, value, etc.). It was the consensus that many of the issues were interrelated and thus could be addressed if programs and services are developed and coordinated appropriately. Once again, support for expanding the field staff pilot program was communicated, and suggested as a means to implement effectiveness programs. Delegates also expressed interest in
providing support to GCSAA’s advocacy efforts. They were briefed on the
process the association follows for commenting to the EPA on product
re-registration. The process includes an element for member input to GCSAA
actions, plus the opportunity for chapters and members to become directly
engaged as well. To see the slides of the meeting please see the following link: http://www.gcsaa.org/chapters/leadership/delegates/cdmeetingslides.asp For questions please feel free to call Bill Maynard, CGCS at (913) 432-0333.
As
the election results were read by Mr. Mike Wallace, CGCS, our candidate Mr.
Sandy Queen, CGCS, a host of interested Heart members, and I sat with great
anticipation as to the election results. Right after the results were read
the room was ironically Sandy was able to gain the 100% support of key chapters such as the Carolinas and Georgia where Sandy was able to receive over 800 of 4,469 votes. Other large southern contributors came from the Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Virginia Chapters. Sandy continued his success in the neighboring states such as: Iowa, Colorado, Missouri, and Oklahoma. For the complete details on vote totals by Chapter, please refer to the March issue of Newsline or check the GCSAA web site at www.gcsaa.org. Also defeated this year were second year candidate Mr. Greg Blew, CGCS and Mr. John Miller, CGCS. Greg will more than likely discontinue his race for director as a two year campaign yielded only 849 votes. Mr. John Miller, CGCS was a strong vote getter in the Ohio valley area and shared most of the votes in the northeast. John will be a strong contender as he was the fourth place vote getter and as already stated he will run for the position of director in 2007. The delegates questioned the reasoning and logic of nominating two candidates from the same state. As California voted for both of their nominees, the majority of the country only supported one candidate, that being Pat Finlen, CGCS. Pat was the largest vote getter with 6,853 votes to his favor. Pat seemed melancholy immediately after the election because his majority vote total helped oust his fellow Californian and friend. Both of the winners have strong ties to the Heart Chapter; which will help insure our voice will not fall on deaf ears at the national level. It is unclear which committee they will Chair as that should be determined in the coming weeks. David S. Downing II, CGCS defeated Mark D. Kuhns, CGCS by 2,282 votes in the race for the Secretary/Treasurer. Sean Hoolehan, CGCS and Ricky Heine, CGCS both ran unopposed and were elected by voice acclamation. New Board:
GCSAA Chapter Delegates met
over two days (Oct. 1-2) in Kansas City, Mo., to discuss a variety of topics
and heard from candidates vying for various offices to be voted upon at the
Annual Meeting, Feb. 10 in Atlanta. The
following links
will take you to the meeting presentations, complete with slides and speaker
notes.
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