NovemberDecember 2014

FORE YOUR INFORMATION N ove m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4

Mechanic Seminar The Ridge Golf Course Hosted by Scott McCullough

Sierra Nevada GCSA An Affiliate Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America

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January 28, 2015 Mechanics Field Day The Ridge Golf Course Hosted by Scott McCullough

February 21-26, 2015

SC OTT MCCULL OUGH, HOS T S UPERINTENDEN T F OR THE 20 15 MEC HAN IC SEM IN AR A T THE RIDGE GOLF CO URSE J AN UARY 28, 20 15

M E E T I N G DA T E S

GCSAA Golf Industry Show San Antonio

February 25, 2015 California Room 6:00 to 9:00

March 2015 Annual Grass Roots Tournament William Land Park Date to be Confirmed

April 2015 Location & Date to be Confirmed

2014 BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT

DIRECTORS

Rob Williams

Dave Bermudez Del Rio Golf & Country Club 209-341-2413 William Hamilton Lake Wildwood Association

Stockton Golf & C.C. 209-462-6734

VICE PRESIDENT Kurtis Wolford Cherry Island Golf Course 916-991-7659

530-432-2187

SECRETARY/TREASURER

Hulises Avila, Greenhorn Creek Resort 209-736-8164

Mike Scully Valley Crest/Modesto 209-578-9678

PAST PRESIDENT Jesse Seguin

FRONT COVER

Scott Dickson Micke Grove Golf Links 209-369-7037

Affiliate Representatives Jim Barbuto Ewing Irrigation 916-502-3287 Joe Kurung West Coast Sand & Gravel 916-386-8177

FORE YOUR INFORMATION Published by the Sierra Nevada Golf Course Superintendents Association

EDITOR Bill Hamilton, CGCS OFFICE SNGCSA 5322 N. Leonard, Clovis, CA 93619 559-298-6262 Fax# 559-298-6957

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE R O B W I L L I A M S , S T O C K T O N G O L F & C .C .

I have the honor this year of serving as the President of the SNGCSA. I wanted to welcome the new members that joined the association this year, and would like to invite every member to attend the meetings to take advantage of the networking opportunities. The chance to relax and talk with industry colleagues is something we can all benefit from. One thing that we as an association will be looking to introduce this year is regional or local meetings/activities, and more information will be sent out soon about these meetings.

I want to give thanks to Pete Bowman, for serving as our Affiliate Board Member. Pete will be taking a break from serving on the board, but I know that we will see him attending meetings to catch up with friends and colleagues. Cheers Pete and thanks for your service to our industry and our members.

I want to welcome Hulises Avila, Greenhorn Creek Resort, to the board, Hulises will serve as a Director on the board and we look forward to collaborating with him in serving the membership. Also we welcome Joe Kurung from West Coast Sand and Gravel, as our Affiliate member.

Last year was challenging with the continued drought conditions and enforced water restriction on many of the golf courses in our chapter. We need a

wet and snowy winter to help replenish reservoirs and snow packs to help ease the burden on golf courses, farmers and homeowners alike. The Sacramento Golf Industry Water Task Force was formed last year to help protect the interests of golf courses, not only in the Sacramento area, but also the future interests of all our member golf courses. If you want more information about the task force you can send an email to sngcsaa@aol.com.

Two of our board members have been nationally recognized, Kurtis Wolford and Mike Scully. Kurtis was one of seventeen superintendents to be awarded the Melrose Leadership Academy, the award is an all expense paid trip to the Golf Industry Show in San Antonio in February. Mike was (Continued on page 5)

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE awarded one of two Bayer Crop Science Plant Health Scholarships. Mike will receive $2,500 towards his further education costs. Congratulation guys.

As a board this year we hope to offer members good education, networking opportunities and support, as well as the chance to let your hair down and spend time with old friends whilst increasing your network and making new friends. If you have not attended a meeting in a while, I challenge you to type into the Google search engine- "Golf Courses near me". Take a look at the list of courses and invite some of your neighboring superintendents to join you at a meeting, or even just get together for lunch.

We have some available meeting dates on our calendar we are looking to fill. If you have not hosted a SNGCSA meeting, I can attest it is a

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rewarding experience. Please contact a board member for a chat if you are thinking about hosting an event.

Meetings do not always need to involve a round of golf, offering your golf course for educational seminars is a good way to network as well.

I wish you all health, happiness and a Happy New Year.

Check out the website: Sierranevadagcsa.com The SNGCSA is now on Facebook and Twitter.

Check it out!

The second phase of the 2014 Rounds 4 Research fundraising program for turfgrass studies, run by the EIFG, sold more than 200 rounds of golf and yielded $30,891 in the seven-day online auction that closed Aug. 10. The total for the June and August auctions was $145,339.

The Sierra Nevada GCSA would like your assistance in helping us become a bigger part of this worthwhile program. Lets start thinking about 2015.

Contact the association office if you want to become a part of this program.

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2015 MECHANIC SEMINAR THE RIDGE GOLF COURSE January 28, 2015 will be the date for the 2015 Mechanic Seminar at The Ridge Golf Course in Auburn, CA. This will be the 2nd year that the SNGCSA is sponsoring such an event to benefit our members and their staff. We have gained national attention in our efforts to put a seminar of this nature together and we will have several attendees that will be coming to see how and what we are doing.

This is all because of the efforts of Scott McCullough, Superintendent at the Ridge Golf Course.

This year we will have five speakers that will be contributing to the program. Each speaker will be give approximately an hour to make their presentations and answer questions from the attendees.

We will begin our day at 7:00 am with a hosted breakfast by Turf Star. The education will start at 7:30 with Turf Star’s Tim Conner.

Mr. Conner will speak on Diagnostic skills “Finding the Root Cause”.

Jim Ferrin, CGCS will be our second speaker with information on Empowering Your Staff. After a short break Mark Pilger & Ben Showard from Reel Sharp and SIP Grinders will discuss “Why we Grind”.

Lunch will be served and immediately after we will have a representative from Jacobsen West that will speak. Our final speaker will be from Belkorp. This presentation will be on “Hydraulic Diagnostic Skills” This is a full day of education that we hope will be attended by our members as well as their mechanics.

Look for more information and invitations coming out soon. Be sure to get your reservations in quickly.

We want to Thank those companies that have stepped up to help in putting this together. We know that without your contributions we would not be able to provide these opportunities to our members and their staff.

This event ties into one of the goals that our association along with the GCSAA has. The new equipment manager’s classification would assist equipment managers in the advancement of their careers. GCSAA’s decision to add this classification was reached after conversations with numerous members from around the country. This issue will be placed before the membership for a vote during the 2015 annual meeting in San Antonio.

SIP Grinders

Scott McCullough

THANK YOU SPONSORS

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2014 ELECTIONS RESULTS EMPIRE RANCH G.C . changes they have seen.

Thank you again to Rodney and the staff of Empire Ranch G.C. 2015 President Rob Williams, Stockton Golf & C.C. Pictured from the left are Pete Bowman, out going affiliate representative, Kurtis Wolford, Vice President, Scott Dickson, Board Members, Jim Barbuto, Affiliate Representative, Michael Scully, Secretary/Treasurer, Jessie Sequin, Past President, and Dave Bermudez, Board Member. Not pictured are Joe Kurung newly elected Affiliate Representative and Bill Hamilton, CGCS

A big “Thank You� to Rodney Muller for hosting the Annual Election Meeting at Empire Ranch G.C. last month. It was a great event and the course was outstanding. It was

an opportunity to not only elect our new Board of Directors but also share information with our membership and guests.

It was a special treat to have three superintendents that had all been at Empire Ranch and had the opportunity to share in the

Pictured below along with Rodney Muller, Superintendent at Empire Ranch are Jeremy Payne, Matt Dillon, and Tim McCoy, all previous superintendents at Empire Ranch G.C.

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FROM THE FIELD

JEFF JENSEN, GCSAA FIELD STAFF, SOUTHWEST REGION

87 GCSAA chapter delegates met in Lawrence, KS in October to Jeff Jensen discuss a number of proposals including a $10 Class A/SM and $5 Class C dues increase, the addition of an equipment manager classification and a model to update both member standards and member classifications.

The dues increase is based on a 3.3 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index since 2013 and

would raise dues levels to $375 for Class A/SM members and $190 for Class C members. The dues increase will assist GCSAA in continuing to provide its core mission programs and services as well as more recent initiatives and program developments.

The new equipment manager’s classification would assist equipment managers in obtaining golf specific education while providing a vast array of GCSAA central resources to assist in the advancement of their careers. The decision to add this classification was reached after conversations with numerous members from around the country.

Both of the above issues will be

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placed before the membership for a vote during the 2015 annual meeting in San Antonio.

The proposed updates to both member standards and member classifications created the most discussion during the meeting. After careful consideration, the GCSAA board has made a recommendation that: Reduces the number of member classifications from 13 to 5.

The classifications would include Class A, Class B (currently SM), Class C (Assistants), Equipment Manager and Member.

Class A eligibility would be (Continued on page 9)

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strictly determined by the sliding education and experience scale. Education and service points would no longer be required to maintain Class A status.

In place of the current points system, various educational certificates would be created to help members to continue to market themselves and their individual achievements.

Key points to consider: Aligns this association with the vast majority of associations around the world

in focusing education around designations and not classifications.

Proposal is still centered on formal education.

Maintains CGCS as the pinnacle of continuing educational attainment.

Reduces the confusion around CGCS, Class A and SM members.

Creates a cohesive and inclusive association.

The proposed updates to both member standards and member classifications will not be voted on in 2015 and GCSAA will use the next year to solicit additional in-

put from the membership. The membership will vote on the new pathway at the 2016 annual meeting.

If you have any questions concerning the above proposals, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jjensen@gcsaa.org or speak with your assigned chapter delegate. We will be glad to walk you through the discussion. More information is also available at http://www.gcsaa.org/newsroom/n ews/chapters/2014/delegatesdiscuss-inclusive-membership-asthe-future-for-gcsaa.

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HIG HLIG HTS FROM EMPIRE RANCH GOLF COURSE A N N UA L E L E C T I O N M E E T I N G At left Jessie Sequin introduces Rodney Muller as host of the 2014 Annual Election Meeting. At right newly elected president Rob Williams presents out going president Jessie Sequin with a plaque.

Below Pete Bowman is presented with a plaque for his service as the affiliate representative.

As always meetings are a great opportunity for old friends to catch up. At left Dave Bermudez and Rodney Muller. Below Sam Samuelson catches up with Steve Byrne

Below newly elected board member Hulises Avila is congratulated by Paul Smith Mike Kavaney and John Holmquist

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H IG HLIG HTS FROM A N N UA L H O L I DAY E V E N T Frasinetti Winery was the location for our 2014 Holiday Event. There was a break in the rain that allowed attendees to celebrate the holiday season. At left Jessie Creencia, CGCS and his wife Elizabeth. Below Pete Bowman, and his wife Nina.

Enjoying the evenings festivities were Kurtis Wolford and his wife Kari.

Relaxing after a great meal Chuck Talley and Mike Scully prepare for the White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Enjoying a Father/Daughter evening were Tim McCoy and his daughter Mallory.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!

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2015 California Room Historic Sunset Station San Antonio February 25th, 2015 6:00 to 9:00

Registration/Sponsorships Access on Line Registration at Californiagcsa.org If you can not access on line registration please contact the association office to confirm your registration and make your payment. 559-298-4853

All California GCSA Chapter members, wives or significant others are welcome. There will be a California Room admission fee of $25 pre-registration or $75 at the door.

Pre-registration will begin October 1, 2014 and end on February 20, 2015.

2015 Lone Star Sponsor

Children attending will be admitted free.

THANK YOU TO OUR ANNUAL SPONSORS