Here we are in the heat of the summer. Golf course crews throughout the Southeast are dragging hoses around the course and hoping for a thunderstorm to cool the world off a bit. This is also the time of year that chapters cut back on meetings because everyone is especially busy. That means that my travel schedule slows down, as well, giving me a chance to work on some of the big picture projects going on in our business, namely water BMPs, congressional visits and new member recruitment.
I will be hitting the back roads of the Southeast over the next couple of months looking for members who have become detached from the organization or golf course industry individuals who have never been members. I will work with the chapters to find those superintendents that haven't been seen or heard from in a long time and try to get them back on board with the chapter. I hope to come away with some interesting stories and a bunch of new members.
I will also be making trips to several state capitals in the next few weeks to talk about water. The Louisiana-Mississippi chapter has had two very productive meetings with their state water regulators recently and here in Alabama, the governor is asking the golf industry for help in creating a water policy for the state. Georgia is being sued by Florida over water and it looks like Alabama may do the same. You would not expect there to be water wars in an area that typically receives more than 50 inches of rain, but everywhere you look, water is very much a hot topic.
August is just around the corner and it's the month that the U.S. Congress takes a break. That means that your local member of Congress will probably be in your area and there's no better time to arrange a meeting in the local office. If you are a Grassroots Ambassador, now is the time to set up your meetings.
Plan on attending the Government Relations Quarterly Briefing on July 8. I will we the featured field staff representative and my guest will be Kim Caviness-Reardon with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. We will be discussing ways that the golf industry can position itself as a leader in water quality throughout the country. You can sign up here.
(Here's a cool site on water quality in the U.S. from the USGS. The website has live water monitors located around the country that give continuous data on nitrate levels, dissolved oxygen levels in lakes and streams and more.)
I will be hitting the back roads of the Southeast over the next couple of months looking for members who have become detached from the organization or golf course industry individuals who have never been members. I will work with the chapters to find those superintendents that haven't been seen or heard from in a long time and try to get them back on board with the chapter. I hope to come away with some interesting stories and a bunch of new members.
I will also be making trips to several state capitals in the next few weeks to talk about water. The Louisiana-Mississippi chapter has had two very productive meetings with their state water regulators recently and here in Alabama, the governor is asking the golf industry for help in creating a water policy for the state. Georgia is being sued by Florida over water and it looks like Alabama may do the same. You would not expect there to be water wars in an area that typically receives more than 50 inches of rain, but everywhere you look, water is very much a hot topic.
August is just around the corner and it's the month that the U.S. Congress takes a break. That means that your local member of Congress will probably be in your area and there's no better time to arrange a meeting in the local office. If you are a Grassroots Ambassador, now is the time to set up your meetings.
Plan on attending the Government Relations Quarterly Briefing on July 8. I will we the featured field staff representative and my guest will be Kim Caviness-Reardon with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. We will be discussing ways that the golf industry can position itself as a leader in water quality throughout the country. You can sign up here.
(Here's a cool site on water quality in the U.S. from the USGS. The website has live water monitors located around the country that give continuous data on nitrate levels, dissolved oxygen levels in lakes and streams and more.)
