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Reaching out
GCSAA expands the scope of its chapter relations to fit the big picture.
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GCSAA chapter liaisons Jim Cummins (left) and Steve Randall. Photo by Roger Billings |
GCSAA’s increasing emphasis on its three Ms — Members Matter Most — is steadily becoming most evident in chapter relations and services.
Outreach efforts to GCSAA’s 101 affiliated chapters have been extended to unprecedented lengths in recent years and spiked further by the association’s 2008 president, David Downing II, CGCS, who has made chapter relations one of the top bullet points on his agenda.
“Chapters are an important focal point for the organization for a couple of major reasons,” says Hannes Combest, CAE, managing director of GCSAA member programs. “First, every superintendent who is a member of GCSAA is also a member of their local chapter, which means we share members. Even more important, I think, to our invested interest in chapters is that, we know, according to research conducted by the American Society of Association Executives, that the higher a person’s affinity or level of involvement in their association the higher their perception of value.”
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Steve Randall (left), half of GCSAA’s current field staff team, reviews a document with Steve Hammon, Class A superintendent at Traverse City (Mich.) G&CC and a member of the Michigan GCSA. Photo by Roger Billings |
Stretching the long arm
Both Combest and Dave Fearis, CGCS Retired and GCSAA’s director of membership and chapter services, add that in the past couple of years GCSAA has aligned its budget to accommodate increased visits to chapters throughout the country by its staff and by members of its board of directors through the Speakers Bureau program, as well as its two-year-old Chapter Liaison Program, or field staff, as it’s commonly known.
Fearis also notes that the board of directors holds its seasonal meetings (spring, summer, fall and winter) at different chapters each year to interact with chapter representatives and garner feedback.
“Our main priority is to help members with their jobs, so when we go to chapters that’s the message,” he says.
In acknowledging the significant increase in outreach efforts, Combest points out that the Speakers Bureau has changed the focus of its presentations from the nuts and bolts of what GCSAA does day to day to presentations that focus more on the “why” of those GCSAA efforts and what value they create. Since leadership and policy-making opportunities on the national level are limited, she notes, the key is to help members understand that involvement with local chapters means they’re also involved with GCSAA.
“I don’t think we’ve done a good job of that in the past,” Combest says. “Dave Downing said in GCM (“Odyssey to opportunity,” March 2008) that he wants to change the thinking from ‘us and they’ to ‘we.’ That’s one of the things that staff is working on — how do we make that happen.”
Apples fall close to the tree
To be sure, GCSAA and its chapters share some of the same struggles and issues. Membership numbers, for instance, have hit the wall nationally and also at the all-important grassroots level. In fact, 65 percent of GCSAA chapters have experienced membership declines in the last five years.
Leann Cooper, GCSAA chapter services manager, acts as a clearinghouse/sounding board regarding many of the issues that chapters large and small regularly face.
“The main concerns they have include meeting attendance, getting members to volunteer, superintendents losing their jobs because of the slump in the golf economy and declining vendor advertising dollars,” she says. “We have a chapter where its last three presidents have all lost their jobs. Chapters with no paid staff struggle with burnout among their superintendent volunteers.”
Cooper, who also puts out Chapter Connection, an e-newsletter aimed at chapter leaders and executives, says chapter communication to her department often includes the need for strategic planning, followed by staff visits to assist chapters in putting that plan together and thinking through reasons why their members may or may not be seeing the value in their membership.
“Nothing takes the place of personal interaction with chapters. It’s really important to the current (GCSAA) board of directors,” she says.
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At the 2008 Chapter Leaders/Executives Symposium earlier this spring, chapter liaison Jim Cummins (center) chats with Heart of America GCSA representatives Doug Melchior (left), Class A superintendent at Overland Park (Kan.) GC, and Darin E. Pearson, Class A superintendent at Alvamar CC in Lawrence, Kan. Photo by Roger Billings |
To each his own
The array of GCSAA chapters covers 49 states; the U.S. Territory of Guam; and Ontario’s Golf Superintendents Association in Canada. There are also a few unaffiliated groups around the country mixed in with the scores of local chapters, districts and associations. Affiliated or not, all are protective of their independence and heritage, and GCSAA’s grassroots have been described more than once as 101 sovereignties.
Accordingly, it’s safe to say that no two chapters are alike — if they were, there would probably be half as many as there are now, at the most.
Among those states with the most golf courses and thus the most GCSAA members, Florida, California and Texas have state chapters with mostly administrative duties for two-dozen local chapters between them and all but a couple affiliated. Another, Pennsylvania, has six affiliated local chapters, one unaffiliated local chapter and an unaffiliated statewide board made up of representatives from the locals. A few, like Arizona and Iowa, have state GCSAs supporting a handful of districts each. Some states have a couple of chapters, and some chapters encompass a couple of states. And, of course, many states have just one chapter, period.
Many would argue that the perfect model to follow exists in the Carolinas GCSA, a chapter that comprises North and South Carolina and has more than 1,800 members. Founded in 1954, the chapter has evolved into a true umbrella structure with its headquarters in Liberty, S.C., embracing 11 unaffiliated local associations.
Highly self-sufficient, the Carolinas has a paid, professional management staff headed by its executive director, Charles Borman, CAE, a former director of membership and chief operating officer at GCSAA. The chapter abounds in membership activities, funds and resources, a quality bi-monthly magazine, Carolinas Green, and its own annual conference and show in Myrtle Beach that is widely considered as second only to the Golf Industry Show. And, just this month, the chapter celebrated the grand opening of a new association-owned headquarters facility (see Page 24).
The blind side of perception
But it’s not a perfect world and GCSAA’s chapter structure is high-maintenance, what with a large majority of the 101 operating independent of one another and of the national as well. The trick for GCSAA is to assist without imposition, to offer resources and programs without hard sell.
Eyebrows were raised among superintendents around the country when it was announced early last December that Michigan’s four chapters had merged to form a single, GCSAA-affiliated state chapter, the Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Association (MiGCSA), ending several years of trials and tribulations before reaching a consensus (90 percent approval from members of all the chapters) to consolidate.
While the Michigan merger is considered a good thing in overall terms of increased value for the state’s superintendents as far as GCSAA is concerned, many other associations in the national chapter network saw it as a portent of things to come and a threat to their independence, their identity ... their sovereignty, if you will.
The perception that GCSAA’s chapter relations is bent on multiple state chapters merging into one management-friendly entity doesn’t set well with GCSAA staff and leaders, however. They point out that except when asked to provide input and staff resources, they generally stayed out of the way during the half-dozen years that the Michigan chapters pondered and discussed the issue. They add that today the four merged chapters — Greater Detroit GCSA, Western Michigan GCSA, Northern Michigan Turf Managers Association and Mid-Michigan TMA — all retained their names and their operational freedom, while their current district committees are mostly made up of members of their former boards of directors.
“Consolidation is not what we’re out there for. What we’re striving for is chapter effectiveness, however it comes down,” says Fearis, who, like others guiding GCSAA chapter relations, pointedly contends that what came down in Michigan is viewed as an exception that, for a variety of reasons, simply wouldn’t work in most other situations.
Fearis, who was GCSAA President in 1999, understands that coincidence has fueled what he calls the misperception among members regarding chapter consolidation. After a long career as superintendent at Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City, Mo., and a short stint with an industry partner, he joined the GCSAA staff a little more than two years ago, about the same time the association unveiled the field staff concept — a notion that Fearis has favored since the early 1990s when he was on the GCSAA Board of Directors and one that has added fuel to the fears of a push for chapter consolidation.
“Perception is everything, unfortunately,” he says. “I’ve always felt that anything we decided as a board related back to our jobs as superintendents. Field staff portrays just that — personal communication.”
Ambassadors in the field
GCSAA’s field staff is currently a two-man force — Jim Cummins and Steve Randall — that indeed relies on a great deal of communication and a good bit of old-fashioned presence as well. While the idea is for both to serve chapters in need, they have distinctly different missions to accomplish that — Cummins in organizational development and Randall in association management. Basically, one assists chapters in developing improved effectiveness and the other sparks strategic planning to achieve the next level. Moreover, the field staff uses the support and resources of their 100-plus co-employees at GCSAA headquarters.
A major plus is that neither Cummins nor Randall is a stranger to the golf industry, and their experience allowed them to hit the ground running a couple of years ago and quickly adapt to the world of the golf course superintendent.
Awakening in the heartland
At this point, Cummins’ efforts in organizational development have been aimed at the state chapters in three Midwestern states — Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota — the Heart of America GCSA, which covers northeast Kansas and the Kansas City metropolitan area; and the unaffiliated North Central Turfgrass Association in North Dakota.
It helps that Cummins’ initial forays into those chapters in need encompasses a region in close proximity to GCSAA headquarters in Lawrence, Kan., allowing for quick feedback and ready access to resources. More important than location, however, is the fact that most of the chapters have struggled with low facility penetration rates, and their cluster allows Cummins to easily monitor their progress in attracting members.
“My main task is to help chapters understand the importance of having plans in place for retaining and recruiting members ... what services and best practices do they have to make sure their facility penetration rate is as high as it can possibly be,” says Cummins, who adds that his overall focus on creating and building chapter effectiveness includes elevating a chapter to become part of its respective state golf industry’s decision-making process.
To that end, Cummins often attends allied association meetings in the region to both keep apprised of events and also to promote the activities of the GCSA chapters and their members. One example of getting superintendents in the spotlight has been recent radio spots in which Heart of America GCSA members explained how the golf course is important to the success of the facility.
Numbers don’t lie
There also have been some significant increases in facility penetration rates (FPR) — Kansas has boosted its number by 10 percent and Nebraska has hiked its rate by 8 percent.
The FPR, which has a national average of more than 50 percent, is one of a handful of major issues that Cummins says chapters must address. One, which he calls the net promoter score, deals with communicating the value of membership. Two, increasingly important challenges include the need for paid professional staff to enhance chapter administration and a takeoff on GCSAA’s recently developed Partner Recognition Program to reduce the multiplicity pressure on industry vendors, distributors, etc.
Cummins’ extensive golf background began as a player. He was a member of the collegiate team at the University of Arkansas along with current PGA Tour members John Daly and Jim McGovern. Later, he was a golf professional and then director of golf at Alvamar Country Club in Lawrence, Kan., and held similar positions at Emporia (Kan.) Country Club. He worked for Dunlop Maxfli Inc., before joining GCSAA.
“Coming from the golf professional side of the industry, I absolutely enjoy working with superintendents,” he says. “They have a down-to-earth attitude — a lack of ego and the way they take care of one another.”
The subtle sell
Randall likewise came to GCSAA well prepared with considerable experience in association management. The North Dakota native was with the Minnesota Golf Association for several years and also had a stint as executive director of the Sun Country Amateur Golf Association in Albuquerque, N.M.
When he came on board as chapter liaison for association management two years ago this summer, he was quickly dispatched to Michigan to continue the work of GCSAA staffers before him in helping chapter leaders there in the final stages of their consolidation.
“Ultimately, the work that made it happen really was the Michigan group’s work,” says Randall, who refers to the role he and Cummins play in their positions as basically becoming “one of the guys” — attending meetings, providing input when asked and generally striving to help chapters help themselves.
Randall calls the Michigan merger a unique project that would rarely fit the needs of others around the country and bristles a bit at talk that field staff are instruments of a GCSAA threat to the autonomy and independence of local chapters.
“We’re not out there saying chapters need to merge or consolidate or are mandated to implement programs for GCSAA’s benefit. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is help chapters look for programs or utilize GCSAA resources to better serve their members.”
Not that some of the national association’s ways of doing things don’t have their merits. In the weeks following the announcement of the Michigan merger, Randall joined the new chapter’s state and district leadership in exploring ways to take the next step to make MiGCSA the best it can be.
“We’re looking at a variety of things, such as having the new chapter utilize indicators like we have at GCSAA to try to evaluate their visions and goals,” he says, adding that MiGCSA is also likely to develop a form of GCSAA’s Partner Recognition Program. “Chapters have a lot of assets and values for industry partners to be recognized. The key is to utilize the support from industry representatives in an efficient way.”
Taking it low and slow
While MiGCSA may not be the model that would work best for others, there is much wisdom to be learned from that experience. A strong proponent of the idea of consolidation since its inception more than six years ago, John Fulling Jr., CGCS at Kalamazoo Country Club and president of the new 900-member chapter, calls Michigan’s “leap” not only a lesson in perseverance, patience and honesty, but also a realistic look at the role played by GCSAA.
“We started out as a small group. We heard all the negatives and positives of such a move from the beginning, so we had to believe that what we were doing was right,” the 18-year GCSAA member says. “For me, I had served on the (national) Chapter Relations Committee and it was an eye-opener. I saw, through GCSAA, what an effective chapter was by seeing what the effective chapters in the country were doing — all the great things that were possible that we couldn’t do as four separate chapters.”
Fulling says they worked hard at getting the message out to the chapter leaders from the start — meetings, one-on-one, however and whatever.
“We had a vision that we knew was right and was good long-term,” he says, noting, as well, that GCSAA staff actually joined the process as early as five years ago.
“The association played a huge part. I think the (Michigan) membership was able to see that it was important not only to us, but also important to GCSAA,” Fulling adds. “It was important enough that GCSAA put time and resources into helping us with the project. The staff kept us focused and helped with strategic planning ... kept us moving forward.”
Strength in the stretch
By the time Randall joined the effort a couple of years ago, Michigan had already formed a state board of directors and was in need of the final, finer points.
“What Steve did was help with a ton of questions about issues ... legal, functional, counsel ... he did all of that kind of legwork,” Fulling says. “It was a huge help. We’re amateurs, we didn’t know where to start or where to go. It helped propel us to the finish line.”
The methodology of achieving gradual, unforced acceptance was a resounding success when slightly more than 90 percent of the overall membership approved of the consolidation. In the end, Fulling believes there were two major keys to the success of the project.
First, the four former chapters, now districts, retained their autonomy, identification and history. “We made sure that not only the names stayed the same, but even the social calendars and everything they did as chapters they would now do as districts,” he says. “We wanted everyone to feel virtually no change other than it’s better.”
Second, and perhaps most important of all, was Michigan’s particular golf course management demographics. Superintendents there have an affiliation with Michigan State University’s turf school and the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation. Many, like Fulling, were members of all four chapters.
“We’re actually an extraordinarily tight state,” he says. “Everybody knows everybody and we’re all friends. That was a big deal ... we already felt unified because of that connection. I believe it was the secret to our success.”
Fulling adds that MiGCSA will never again struggle from an administrative standpoint. Once the merger was in place, a 14-person certified management staff was hired, headed by Michigan native Donn Eurich as executive director.
More to be done
Meanwhile, Randall is lending his counsel and expertise further afield, from a complex situation in Pennsylvania, to helping define responsibilities and direction in California and to a lesser degree thus far in Florida.
“My role with Pennsylvania and California has been mainly looking at what could be done at the state level that maybe is also being done at the local level and properly align the efficiencies of the local chapters in working on things that are more responsible at that level, such as membership within those chapters,” Randall says. “Then, the state chapters can focus on the big-picture things like legislative issues and bringing people together to look at economic research and things like that.”
Pennsylvania’s chapter structure and reluctant attitude are likely to test the GCSAA liaison. The state has seven local chapters, six of which are affiliated (Central Pennsylvania, Greater Pittsburgh, Mountain & Valley, Northwestern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Association of GCS and Pocono Turfgrass Association) and one that’s not (Keystone). Then there’s its statewide board, made up of representatives from the local GCSAs, that remains unaffiliated.
“The leadership in Pennsylvania really has an affinity to their local branding and what they represent at the local level,” Randall says. “Their leaders on the state board aren’t unanimous in achieving affiliation. It’s an altogether different model from Michigan.”
Streamlining success
California, on the other hand, features a strong umbrella-like setup, with a state chapter and a half-dozen, far-flung regional GCSAs — all affiliated and managed by professional staff at both the local and state levels. As longtime California GCSA association manager Bob Tillema, CGCS, says, they’d like some assistance in defining responsibilities and some overall administrative streamlining.
“What we’re trying to do is say to the (local) chapters, ‘Hey, we can do these things better than you can and we can take those things off your hands so you can do better things for your members,’” he says.
Tillema, who has been involved in the state chapter since 1984 and has been the association manager the past eight years, says California is in the third year of a five-year plan to fine-tune its overall operation. Consolidation is pretty much ruled out, what with six regional GCSAs — Central California, Hi-Lo Desert, Northern California, San Diego, Sierra Nevada and Southern California — spread around the country’s third-largest state, and also because of a lingering “little empire mentality.” The state board of directors comprises two representatives from each regional chapter, three affiliates and Tillema.
Membership is not a problem — the state boasts more than 1,900 shared members (GCSA and GCSAA) and has one of the nation’s best FPR rates, nearly 70 percent.
Randall notes that one of California’s major issues is developing its annual conference into a true statewide function.
“We can plug them into information from a variety of state annual meetings and major conferences,” he says.
Randall and GCSAA staff also have helped develop guidelines for scheduling, travel and expenses for speakers at various state and regional events.
Tillema’s goals include the state taking the reins in organizing local education meetings; consolidating regional newsletters into one, mainly to help industry representatives’ advertising budgets; and miscellaneous means of assisting the local GCSAs.
The state chapter has already developed a Web site that includes a section for each of the six regional chapters, while Tillema maintains and updates the site — newsletters, registrations, dues renewals, applications, etc. The state’s role must be austere, however. The California GCSA’s portion from each of the local chapters’ dues-paying superintendents is $10, the lowest state share in the U.S.
Which makes GCSAA staff, chapter liaisons and the association’s myriad resources all the more valuable.
For sure, it’s been quite a ride so far for Randall in his move from the golfing side to the game’s fields of play and those who maintain them.
“It’s been a good transition ... a nice change of pace,” he says. “Superintendents are hard-working, good people, and I think they want to do what’s best for their industry.”
Destination: Florida
In late March, the GCSAA Board of Directors approved an expansion of the field staff, giving the green light to a regional representative plan in which a GCSAA staff member will serve chapters while residing and working within their state or region.
The first regional representative is destined for Florida, home to more than 1,400 golf courses, to act as a conduit between the Florida GCSA and its dozen local chapters and the national association.
“This is a start to getting people out into the field on a more permanent basis … a consistent presence,” says Combest, who adds that the first regional representative should be on the job by mid-September.
Joel Jackson, CGCS Retired, who has been involved in chapter work in Florida for almost three decades and has been executive director of the state GCSA since last fall, welcomes the opportunity to work with a permanent GCSAA staffer. He and his small staff have their hands full with 1,067 members spread among 12 chapters — all but a couple GCSAA-affiliated and all strongly protective of their autonomy.
“It’s difficult to bring more unity to chapters when the members are liable to feel that they’re losing something or aren’t in control of their destiny,” Jackson says, noting that he sees his role as director of the state chapter as a facilitator and a coordinator of the network’s communications hub.
“I try to make sure everybody knows what’s going on … ‘How can we help?’” he says, noting that when the state chapter was formed in 1978 it basically was to provide a unified voice on positions and issues, to nurture grassroots involvement and to serve as a clearinghouse for business with the national.
Time to define responsibilities
Since he took over as executive director, Jackson has had a goal of handling business in a smoother, more sensible manner.
“Looking ahead, I think we’d like to convince chapters to relinquish some sovereignty in terms of the broader administrative matters and concentrate more on such things as membership drives,” he says.
The Florida demographics include one of the nation’s oldest chapters, the 70-year-old South Florida GCSA, and a penchant among its many members to begat even more associations if necessary.
“Geography and travel time are factors here no matter what,” Jackson says. “Calusa GCSA was created in 1999 when some members of the Sun Coast and Everglades chapters wanted easier travel to meetings and such.”
Now that GCSAA has taken the step to provide some assistance in managing Florida’s prolific scenario, Jackson sees it as a boost to his goals and also believes the low-key working strategies of field staff are sound.
“I think the way it would unfold in the best interests of all is for that person to just be one of the guys in the crowd, yet be visible and accessible and gradually build a GCSAA presence,” he says.
Unity for professionalism
The association’s chapter services also are getting attention from an initiative of GCSAA’s Chapter Relations Committee, which has been contemplating what constitutes a successful chapter model and has zeroed in on the positives of paid staff administration.
“The biggest conclusion that we’ve come up with is that chapters that take advantage of professional management are higher achievers,” says Timothy T. O’Neill, CGCS, chairman of the committee and superintendent at the Country Club of Darien, Conn. “So, what we need to do is show chapters how they can acquire professional help. The bottom line is that this is what is going to allow them to be successful in the future.”
O’Neill, GCSAA president in 2005, acknowledges that affordability is a problem, pointing out that only 10 percent of GCSAA-affiliated chapters currently have paid professional executive management. Options to resolve that issue include the obvious — the merging of local chapters or a consolidation of another kind, combining the resources between chapters, even between states.
“There are a variety of ways that are working for a number of chapters now,” O’Neill says. “We need to show the others the value in it and how they can get there.”
Grassroots chronicles ...
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Lori Russell is executive director for three chapters in the northwestern U.S. Photo by Sadie Russell |
One of GCSAA’s key goals in its revved up approach to chapter services is stressing the importance of paid, professional chapter management.
The days of volunteer leadership are waning amid increased job responsibilities and pressures. Effective chapter administration has become a year-round proposition to be tended to by professionals. While GCSAA ponders its options to deal with the major glitch in paid chapter staff — affordability — there are several professional men and women currently serving GCSAs to make them more efficient and viable in the national chapter network.
To that end, there are few more dedicated and passionate in their work for superintendents than Lori Russell, executive director for not one, not two, but three chapters covering a vast area of the northwestern U.S. — Peaks & Prairies GCSA, Idaho GCSA and Inland Empire GCSA.
Russell oversees what many would consider the true grassroots of GCSAA’s chapter network. She serves more than 600 members — 450 of whom work on golf courses — in an area that primarily covers Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and eastern Washington. Her three chapters also have members in Oregon, Utah, Nevada and North Dakota.
“As you might expect, we have it all,” she says of the demographics of her huge domain. “... From the highly engaged members to those with little or no involvement; from the big budget, exclusive operations to the volunteer operations with a locked box tacked to a post requesting golfers to donate for their rounds; from members who are just beginning their careers to those who have been superintendents for 50 years; and from those who treat it as a job to those who treat it as a profession and those who treat it as their life.”
Russell, married to a superintendent for 25 years and a mother of three, got in the chapter management business 15 years ago when she took a part-time position with Peaks & Prairies — no computer, the newsletter often cut, pasted and made up on the kitchen table and little contact with GCSAA. All that quickly changed, especially on the technology front. About eight years ago she added the Idaho GCSA to her agenda and in 2006 the Inland Empire GCSA.
A native of America’s Big Sky Country, Russell today sits in her office and looks out over the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula, Mont., where her husband, Tom, a 21-year member of GCSAA, is the CGCS at Missoula Country Club.
Over these last 15 years, Russell has seen a lot and learned a lot about the national association and its chapters, including many of the issues discussed in the adjoining lead article here.
“The great news is that over time — probably with the help of technology to reach out to people — what used to be thought of as the relationship between chapters and GCSAA was a defining line between ‘us and them’ and is now blended and fuzzy for some and simply non-existent for many,” she says. “What’s important for people to know is that when superintendents are involved through their chapters with GCSAA, or serve on the GCSAA level, they understand that it is a partnership. It isn’t a system or politics, it’s a process that when most people get involved they see the value to that and feel they can make a difference, especially on the committee levels. I do wish more of my members would get involved on the national committees.”
On the subject of chapters benefiting from paid professional staff, Russell says she sees members from financially challenged facilities managing to renew their dues every year and attend nearly every meeting or event. If it’s important, they find a way.
“I believe all chapters can afford paid staff on some level. The chapters I represent prove that,” she says, adding that more than once she has listened to discussions among colleagues and superintendents that GCSAA should help financially support paid staff for chapters or at least provide some assistance. “That would be a program of great value, but it would cost a lot and where would the money come from? That’s the problem.”
Russell says she has had a strong relationship with GCSAA for many years and continues to be frustrated that people don’t realize the personal dedication and involvement of the GCSAA staff in their efforts to enhance the profession.
“Unfortunately, when the path or the results are not what one expects, they may incorrectly believe that some faction is running the show, not realizing that there are usually a lot of compromises along the way,” she says. “Things have changed over the years. GCSAA offers programs to help chapters and is constantly developing new ways to assist, yet it is amazing how many chapters are not interested in participating. We worry that some of the programs in place that are very valuable to the three associations I work for will be eliminated because not enough other chapters are taking advantage of them.”
— T.O.
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