Vice President’s Letter

Hard Work Pays Off

What an awesome conference we had in January 2024! Huge shout out to our sponsors, our vendors, our speakers, and so many that contributed to the success of the conference. It was great to see so many of you there, smiling, engaged, and full of energy. We are so proud of the industry’s support of the ATA and the conference! Thank you!

From what I heard, the Baggo tournament on Thursday night was a blast! Anytime you let turfgrass managers name their own teams, things can get a bit interesting. Then add in a bar tab being paid by the sponsor for a couple hours, and the recipe is set up for lots of fun, great conversation, and emotional acceptance speeches from the winners!! It sounded like that moment sure brought the industry together: from vendors to lawn care folks to golf course people to sports turf to our board members. That is what we envisioned when Jay Randolph and others from the board came up with this idea. It was great to see it so well attended and enjoyed. The biggest thing Courtney and I learned from this year’s conference, don’t call Baggo, Cornhole, and vice versa! You all take this stuff serious!

The association and our board of directors want to give Daniel O’Brien a huge shout out. That guy poured his heart and soul into this organization for three years without any pay, and not much recognition. When Doug Karcher took a job at Ohio State University, the ATA needed a replacement for our educational chair. Daniel stepped up and did an absolutely fantastic job helping plan the educational sessions for our conferences the past 3 years. Daniel has finished his Doctorate degree now, and had to step down from the ATA board to pursue his own speaking opportunities, job interviews, etc. Thank you Daniel! We are thankful for your service, and I am personally thankful for your friendship. The opportunity to get to know you over the past few years has been a blessing to Courtney and me.

From the success of the 2023 & 2024 conferences, the ATA now has two scholarships that we are ready to fund. If you know a student, please be looking out for announcements about these scholarships in the coming months. We are going to be presenting one scholarship to a new student in the field of turfgrass management. The second will be to a student completing an internship. Dr. Wendell Hutchens at the University of Arkansas is going to help us put those together, but students from all colleges and universities in the state studying turfgrass will be eligible. Please help us spread the word!

Courtney and your board of directors have truly worked hard and so well together! That hard work is paying off in so many ways. It’s really been amazing to watch the entire board jump in to support the efforts of the ATA. Special thanks to our president—Richard Covert, Wendell Hutchens, Kyle Sanders, Guy Oyler, Rodney Fisher, Ricky Self, Brandon Bradley, Jay Randolph, and Daniel Baxley. I had to miss this year’s conference because we found out last minute that our kid-sitters (grandparents) were all sick. It was so nice to know that I wasn’t needed, because the team is so dang strong. I knew that Courtney had so much support from these guys, and I’m so proud of the 2024 conferences success.

Thank you to the industry for your support, and we are looking forward to all that 2024 has in store.

Josh Landreth

ATA Vice President