MASTMA Update

Greetings, my name is Nicole Sherry, and I am the newly elected President of the Mid-Atlantic Sports Turf Managers Association (MASTMA). I am excited to be representing our Chapter of over 200 members from colleges/universities, parks and recreation, professional venues, and public/private K-12 schools. Please join me in congratulating our 2021 Board of Directors:

President Nicole Sherry Baltimore Orioles

Vice President Jason Bowers Montgomery Parks

Secretary Clint Steele University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Treasurer Brian Hogan Calvert County Department of Parks & Recreation

Board Member Jarod Knopp Baltimore Ravens

Board Member Christopher James Lauer The Bryn Mawr School

Board Member Robert B. Navolis MNCPPC

Board Member Geoffrey Rinehart University of Maryland, College Park

Board Member Jamie Schwartz Turf Equipment and Supply Company

Immediate Past President Jeremy Driscoll St. Mark’s High School

I am looking forward to the innovative ideas the new Board will foster and thank the outgoing Board members for their leadership and service.

An exciting new initiative kicked off last month, the MVP of the DMV. If you and your crew have been working diligently to provide an amazing playing surface for your community, please gather the required information throughout the year and apply by December 1st (you can’t say I didn’t provide you enough time)! We want to recognize how valuable you are to our organization and more importantly our community.

Starting on January 21st, MASTMA will kick off our next webinar series via Zoom on Irrigation provided by Brad Jakubowski at Penn State. The series will be free to members, so please take advantage. Your Board is also working on ideas for our Annual Spring Education Event in March and what it may look like this year as we are currently surveying our members to gauge topics of interest.

MASTMA members have continued to work hard on publishing our Best Management Practices manual. We are in the final edit stages and hope to release it soon in conjunction with our national organization, STMA. Just to highlight again how important this manual is for our members and will help support our industry.

• A BMP will reinforce that we are educated and highly trained professionals that make decisions based on scientific fact and experience.

• A BMP will help counter proposed legislation that will limit what we can use to perform our jobs effectively and successfully.

• A BMP will recognize the Sports Turf Management Industry professionals as stewards of the environment by spelling out to organizations, communities, and state officials exactly how we operate in a clear transparent manner.

In closing, I want to take this time to wish you and yours a Happy New Year. If there is anything MASTMA can do for you, I want to know! Please share your ideas and get involved.

Director, Field Operations

Baltimore Orioles

333 West Camden Street

Baltimore, MD 21201