It’s a week before Thanksgiving, college football is in full swing and Dustin Johnson just won his first Masters tournament. Also, it is 85 degrees and our 30-something hurricane of the year just made landfall. Sounds just like 2020, doesn’t it? What a crazy year this has been, but I think that the GCSAA chapters in my region have done a great job navigating through all of the obstacles that they have had to deal with, and there have been many. This year forced the leadership of all chapters to increase their communication within their boards as well as their membership. I believe this one variable of the equation was the key factor for the chapters to have a successful year amid this pandemic. The increased communication also led to leadership working more closely together and engaging the general membership in more of the chapter operations. I know that I have been working more frequently with my chapter relations team at GCSAA this year to keep up with all of the regulations throughout my region and the nation to help guide our chapter leaders to a successful year. All of the staff at GCSAA had to step up their communications with each other and our members to keep paddling in the right direction.

Annual meetings have just finished in my region; incoming directors have been elected to serve and outgoing presidents have been thanked for their service. Plans are being developed for 2021 and committee assignments are being made to help guide chapters to another successful year. I wanted to say a big "thank you" to all of the executive directors and board members in my region for keeping me informed during these last several months as we all worked together to make the most of a very difficult time. If you ever question the value of your GCSAA membership or your local chapter membership, remember to look back on this year and how these associations helped our industry stay open during the pandemic and worked tirelessly to help everyone navigate an extremely weird year.  Great job, everyone!