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April 2008
TURF RUNDOWN
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The 2-Minute Tip for Success
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News You Can Use
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Renew your membership by midnight tonight, March 31, to ensure uninterrupted service in your subscription to SportsTurf Magazine and in your access to members only information on the STMA website. To renew online, click here.
Call for Presentations
Take advantage of the opportunity to share your expertise with STMA conference attendees in San José. Follow this link to the STMA 2009 Call for Presentations and answer a few easy questions about the educational program you would like to present. It is that easy! The deadline to submit is April 14. The STMA Conference Education Committee will be reviewing the submittals and making the selections for the ones to be presented. The Committee strives to use as many submittals as possible in the conference educational program. If the committee is unable to fit your presentation into the program, your idea will be shared with our SportsTurf editor, Eric Schroder. Eric may contact you for the future development of your presentation idea into an article.
Conference Locations Selected
At the recent STMA Spring board meeting, the Board of Directors authorized going to contract for convention and hotel space for 2011 in Austin, TX and for 2012 in Long Beach, CA. STMA will be in San José, CA next year and at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center in the Orlando, FL area in 2010.
Golf Tournament to Revert to Wednesday
The Jacobsen/SAFE Golf Tournament has been scheduled for Wed., Jan 14, 2009, in San José. This year's tournament in Phoenix was held on the Tuesday of the conference week to allow for uninterrupted educational programming. In 2009, educational programming will run concurrently with the tournament on Wednesday. Jacobsen, the golf tournament sponsor, is in the process of selecting the golf course for the tournament. Funds raised from the tournament go to support the SAFE Foundation, STMA's charitable arm that funds education, scholarship and research for the advancement of the sports turf industry.
Committee Work Underway
STMA's committees are beginning their work for 2008. If you signed up for a committee but have not heard about your service, please email STMA headquarters at STMAinfo@STMA.org or call 800-323-3875.
Field of the Year Awards Adds New Category
The STMA Awards Committee has been working on enhancing the STMA Field of the Year Awards program during 2007 and early 2008. The STMA Board of Directors voted to accept the committee's recommendation to add "Other" to the existing categories of Football, Baseball, Softball and Soccer. The "Other" category, tentatively named the STMA Sporting Grounds of the Year Award, will allow members who manage natural grass surfaces on horse tracks, lacrosse fields, field hockey fields, cricket pitches, rugby fields or any other unique sport to now have an opportunity to win a Field of the Year Award. Look for the new application online this month at www.STMA.org.
In addition, the committee recommended and the Board approved the removal of the Complex of the Year award from the Field of the Year program. The original concept for the Complex award was to have elements included in the application for non-turf areas such as parking lots, lighting, stadium design, traffic flow, signage, etc. Often those elements are not under the influence of the sports turf manager and are better suited to be judged by other organizations who do oversee them, such as the Stadium Managers Association. Without these elements, the focus is on the fields, and the fields can be entered in the current Field of the Year program.
SportsTurf Archive to go Online
The search process for articles (current and previous) in SportsTurf Magazine will be much simpler and more comprehensive in the future. STMA's partner, Michigan State's TGIF, will be digitizing all past issues of the magazine and including them in the TGIF searchable database. STMA sports turf managers have complimentary access to TGIF through their membership in STMA. Collecting the copyright permissions is underway, and STMA hopes to have the digitization completed this fall.
Join Plant for the Planet
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a major worldwide tree planting campaign. Under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, people, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments are encouraged to enter tree planting pledges online with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide each year. Recognizing that there are many tree planting schemes around the world, UNEP proposes to federate these efforts in both rural and urban areas. Click here to visit the campaign site.
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