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District Director Report/PGA of America News
PGA of America News
Fall Updates
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Iwould like to start off by congratulating the Colorado PGA Golf Professionals who qualified for the Senior PGA Professional Championship. Congratulations to Jeff Hanson, Doug Rohrbaugh, Michael Zaremba, Micah Rudosky, Bill Hancock, Dale Smigelsky and John Ogden. The Championship will be held at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, October 15-18. It is great to be returning to playing member championships, although it will be somewhat of a different environment as we deal with protocols that will be in place to ensure the safety of all players. Good luck to all of you; I’ll see you there!
ANNUAL MEETING
The Annual Meeting will officially be held virtually this year. While it will be different, it allows us the opportunity to conduct our association’s business, as well as conduct the election for National Secretary, Vice President and President. I encourage you to set the time aside on Thursday, October 29, to watch your association governance in action.
GOLF EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND
I want to give everyone an update on the Golf Emergency Relief Fund. During Phase 1, which ran from mid-April to mid-May, $4,133,000 were awarded. That averaged to $1,233 per grant for 3,351 grants awarded. During Phase 2, which started May 27th, $3,670,366 has been awarded to date, which is an average of $1,825 per grant for the 1,825 grants awarded. In total, over 5,000 grants were awarded totaling almost $8 million. The PGA of America contribution totaled $7.5 million.
MEMBER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
During these challenging and stressful times, an important resource available to our PGA Members and Associates is the Member Assistance Program. The SupportLinc Member Assistance Program (MAP) is a company-sponsored resource that helps you deal with life’s challenges and the demands that come with balancing home and work. SupportLinc provides members and associates with confidential, professional counseling for a wide array of personal and work-related concerns, including short-term counseling, legal and financial consultation, dependent care referrals and technology-based resources to assist in every aspect of life. You can call SupportLinc toll-free at 866-4PGAMAP (474-2627). You will be immediately connected to a licensed SupportLinc counselor who can provide you with assistance. SupportLinc is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you are logged into PGA.org, you can access the Member Assistance Program website directly through the Benefits & Tools area. Login information is not required. You can also access services through pgamap. com. You will need to enter “pga” as the login name. The password is linc123.
As we start heading into the “off season,” I want to reiterate that I am here to serve you, the members and associates of the PGA of America. I will be the District 9 Director for only a few more months, but if there is anything I can do or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me, ron@cranecreekcc.com.
District 9 Director PGA of America Head Professional Crane Creek CC At your service,
Ron Rawls, PGA
Ron Rawls, PGA District 9 Director PGA of America Head Professional Crane Creek CC
Career Services Update
Upheaval, Upgrade & Upward
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” - Arthur Jones
Afew of my colleagues and I recently formed a virtual book club. We each had our reasons for joining; maybe it was a break from the daily grind, a chance to increase our level of human interaction while working from home, or to expand and enhance our current skill sets. Whatever the reasons were, it was well worth it.
For our first read, we chose “Upstream,” by Dan Heath. It came highly recommended and I believed it had enough practical professional applications to justify doing a little reading and discussion on company time. Within the first 10 pages, in which Heath invoked the quote above, it was clear that the book could change the way we approached the work we do as Career Consultants.
According to Heath, “Downstream actions react to problems once they’ve occurred,” meaning that “Downstream” systems are a cycle of response, constantly putting out figurative fires and measuring each as a success, even if the “fire” was preventable. Conversely, “Upstream” thinking and systems aim to prevent problems from happening in the first place.
Keith Soriano, PGA, is a PGA Career Services Consultant serving the Colorado, Utah and Nebraska Sections. He can be reached at (720) 841-1006 or ksoriano@ pgahq.com. As a consultant, I address and resolve the downstream “fires” every day, but the highest and best use of my time is when I work upstream, preventing those fires from ever happening. The personal, professional and organizational implications of this kind of thinking are endless, but it really hits home when we apply this thought process to your career.
How and where do you start? Begin with an acknowledgment and understanding of the stages you will encounter:
Upheaval | Upheaval occurs when you miss out on opportunities or suddenly realize that you are not where you thought you would be at this point in your career. This “ah-ha moment” is an inflection point where upstream thinking could be useful, but you will first need to work through some barriers to upstream thinking. Those include:
Problem Blindness: “I don’t see the problem.” Complacency and comfort are powerful forces, and both reinforce downstream thinking. Don’t be afraid to question both the “how” and “why” of your current systems.
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2. Lack of Ownership: “The problem isn’t mine to fix.” People often feel as though they are at the mercy of the system and they can’t see a reason to expend the energy to move upstream.
Tunneling: “I can’t deal with the problem right now.” Sometimes we may recognize the problem but are so focused on the fires in front of us that we can’t possibly move upstream to fix the real problems.
Upgrade | Once you have recognized the problem, taken ownership of it and stepped outside of the tunnel to see the bigger picture, you can begin to upgrade your systems. The possibilities are endless, but a few systems to consider include:
1. Education: Waiting until your lack of professional education becomes a stumbling block is a downstream fire. Proactively seeking education that aligns with your future goals is upstream thinking. Fortunately, opportunities for education are endless: PGA Education, CMAA & GCSAA education and online and university education related to finance, leadership and marketing can dramatically expand your skill set.
2. Experience: PGA Members may lament that they want to pursue opportunities that require experience that they haven’t yet received. Upstream thinking would identify the necessary skill sets for the job you want and proactively seek out opportunities to gain that experience BEFORE it is required. This could mean asking for more responsibility in your current position or seeking a “lateral” move that will provide more opportunities to expand your experiences.
3. Engagement: Heath states that uniting the right people is a necessary component for Upstream thinking. Like PGA Tour players with a swing coach, mental coach, strength coach and nutritionist, you need to proactively build your team. Start with your PGA Career Consultant and then identify mentors who care about your growth. Surround yourself with people with the skills to move you Upstream.
Upward | If you made it this far, you have done the hardest part. Now take your Upstream mindset and make significant changes to your personal and professional lives. Find leverage points that create significant gains, create measurable metrics to define your success and constantly assess the quality of the new system you created. Maybe you’ll succeed, maybe you’ll hit a few bumps in the road, but I’ll be here to support you as you move Upstream.
Keith Soriano, PGA, ARWC PGA of America Career Consultant Serving the Colorado, Utah, and Nebraska PGA Sections ksoriano@pgahq.com 720.841.1006
