Awesome Picture Spreads 2021 Wee One Pages 22

certificate in golf course management as well as accreditation of a two-tothree-year apprentice program.

The intention is to build a career path that is recognized by our state educational system. Without it, the golf course industry is being overlooked in the career options section of high school curriculum. Golf course management isn’t on the radar of the big career software programming companies because of the industry contraction and severe lack of programming available to students.

Question #6 Should the MGCSA invest in, create, and implement an industry recognized Certified Apprentice Program for our membership? Comments.

Yes but a hybrid perhaps. To become a Supt, they’ll still need a 2 or 4-year degree. That requirement will not go away unfortunately. But this idea of getting skilled labor through an apprenticeship on golf courses is a fantas-tic endeavor. The evolution of the lack of labor is a result of poor wages and too many hours. Evolving to not having several “university educated” staff will more than likely be the norm. Learning how to adapt and create a new wave of technical staff is critical for everyone’s success.

This is a tough one. Would working superintendents have the time to do this? Great idea, but would it work for the city golf courses? Versus outer suburbs where there are more country workers who are interested in horticulture. Golf course management is rewarding and yet very demand-ing on one’s time and schedule. Definitely a topic to keep discussing, time consuming and logistics concern me a bit.

I would definitely explore this more. I like this concept, but I see it as a rather large undertaking. Maybe it’s not and all we need is a pilot program to demonstrate the possibility(?) The current shortage is definitely

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a big problem...while it could be just be a natural cycle of supply and demand, the greater question is can we risk to just wait it out? I do think this initiative needs buy in from other groups, especially the owners, to be successful. The hard sell (to potential enrollees) is the contraction of golf facilities that has been happening since 2008. While it’s leveled off, I don’t see an expansion in the number of total facilities happening again in our lifetime...so while we need trained professionals, we have to be careful not to oversaturate like what happened in the nineties and early 2000s.

The Hole Notes Magazine digital to hard copy conversation, or both?

In 2012 the MGCSA magazine, following serious BOD consideration, went completely digital in nature. Bottom line, the magazine, as a hard copy, had become too expensive to produce and publish. The new digital format did provide the association significant savings, however there was a corresponding loss in advertising revenue, despite a dramatic reduction in the fees associated with inserting ads in the magazine. Overall, the association did experience savings and continued to publish ten issues of Hole Notes each year.

Currently the Hole Notes magazine averages 52.875 % member opens/ reads upon first notification of each new issue. Since going digital the MGCSA has published 97 separate issues averaging 552 reads per issue for all time. During the last ten years, the magazine has been delivered to about 600 members each month.

Recently there has been an increase in interest to change our publication to fewer issues published in both digital, and hard copy formats. Currently the Communications Committee is looking into how this opportunity can be implemented while still making money through advertising. It must be appreciated that the digital Hole Notes provides an inexpensive advertising platform and significant revenue stream for the MGCSA. To break even between the costs of publication and revenues of advertising in a hard

copy format (necessary to balance taxes from advertising revenue with expenses) fees would have to go up and numbers of issues go down.

It is also appreciated that the cost of printing a magazine has been almost cut in half due to the many technological improvements witnessed in the press industry over the last decade.

One idea being considered is the reduction of issues to five annually, produced as both hard and digital copies. Our advertisers would still receive ten opportunities (five of each) for their current advertising expenditures and the association could possibly garner more advertisers. This idea is only possible because of the reduced costs of publishing a hard copy magazine. Advertising fees would go up, but hard copy possibilities could draw more advertisers.

What is your reaction to the idea of reducing the number of issues and publishing hard copy Hole Notes as well as digital if the budget can accommodate the change? Or should we continue to provide ten digital copies of Hole Notes annually? Comments.

I like the idea of limiting the issues that are sent out to help offset some of the cost as well allowing individuals members choose whether they want to receive copies digitally or in print, similarly to the way GCSAA is doing it.

Stop thinking about revenue as a guiding light to the association. That’s a major problem as it’s not one’s personal savings account. Again, if the content is good, they will read it. But with dwindling numbers, reducing the issues is a good idea, as I consistently hear more people say they don’t read it during the season, but try to play catch up in the off season. Me personally, I wouldn’t read the physical copy, I don’t want more paper, and have digitized all turf publications. But I know the older generation of membership might. Again, if you think about it from a finan-

I don’t understand why we keep beating the proverbial dead horse over the hard copy debate. It has been ten years and the kid in the shop is on his cell phone at break and is highly unlikely to pick up a paper magazine. It is imperative that we offer a platform for our affiliate membership base to reach the general membership. I think less copies means less engagement with the membership, 10 issues seems about right to me. Consider allowing the member to supply additional emails onto the account for distribution (assuming there is no additional cost) or at least encourage and remind them to forward to those who may be interested.

What has been overlooked in this document?

What has been missed in this discussion? The current Board and I are open to suggestions that would continue the MGCSA’s presence as a leader in the turf management industry.

Your ideas, thoughts and concerns:

Purely Social Events. I know they are hard to plan and sometimes seem sparsely attended but having events that are just about getting together and sharing stories no education involved.

I am proud to be apart of such a great organization that we have here with the MGCSA. Jack, former/current presidents and board members have done a great job advocating for the association on our industry behalf. I dont think the MGCSA should take a step back from anything and continue to push forward and stay ahead of trends and issues that may arise as we look to build a strong future for the association.

Hands down, the best thing previous board(s) did was re-strategize the MGCSA management from a management company to an individual passionate about the industry and representing our best interests. I’ve