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Presented in partnership with
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Q&A: How surveys help you
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Illustration by Kelly Neis |
Over the course of 2007, GCSAA members had the opportunity to respond to more than five different surveys. This is evidence of GCSAA’s push to become more data-driven in our direction and our decisions.
So why should you spend the time and effort necessary to respond to all of these questionnaires?
Simple: It’s good for your career.
You benefit from participating in every GCSAA survey, whether about your own compensation and position at your golf facility, details of the annual maintenance budget, specific turf inputs or about the demographics of the facility itself. Let me count the ways you can reap a return on your time invested.
1. Better knowledge of the data that relates to your position and your golf facility
By making the effort to gather the facts to answer the detailed survey questions, you are more familiar with those figures and their sources. Use that research as a baseline to benchmark goals and specific plans to reach them. Be sure to keep a copy of your survey answers to document your individual responses. As you work through each survey, be sure to use the contact information included if a question or answer is unclear.
2. Better understanding of the aggregate results
Having included your own data in the combined statistics, you have a basis for a better understanding of the comprehensive report. When you know your (and your facility’s) place in the universe of golf, you are better able to see where you fit into the big picture of the industry. Use that information to discern your golf facility’s place in the market, recognize your actual competition and focus on the unique offering of your golf course. Ultimately, working toward the success of your golf facility will lead to your own
success.
3. Better ability to communicate data-driven results
Whether addressing your golfers, your supervisor or even non-golfing media/public, if you thoroughly understand your own data as well as the big picture presented in the final reports, your ease in talking or writing about your role in golf course management increases significantly.
The fourth piece of the Environmental Profile Project focusing on pesticide use is on the desks of superintendents at all U.S. golf facilities now. Whether submitted by e-mail, snail mail or online, the responses to these surveys will be used to evaluate education needs, tools for supers, future programs and research, all with the goal of benefiting golf course managers and facilities.
We realize that member response to GCSAA surveys is voluntary, but urge you to consider that your profession depends on its professionals to provide individual data for the benefit of the whole. It’s not “all about you,” but there is definite gain if you make use of the learning involved, not to mention the service points available for survey participation.
Assistant superintendents’ salaries continue to rise, according to figures from the recently released 2007 GCSAA Compensation and Benefits Report. The average base salary reported for an assistant superintendent is $37,032 in 2007, a 7 percent increase from salaries reported in 2005, or a 3.5 percent increase each year. GCSAA members are continually viewed as the largest component of a golf facility’s economic health. Ninety-nine percent of employers and 94 percent of avid golfers consider the superintendent as key to the facility’s economic vitality, according to a survey conducted by GCSAA with the services of the National Golf Foundation. Additionally, the poll shows that in 2006, 97 percent of employers considered GCSAA to be a good or excellent organization, and 84.8 percent of employers listed GCSAA as a leading golf organization, a virtual tie with the USGA at 85 percent. |
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