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The Field of the Year application is on-line, in both a PDF and in a Word document for easy word processing. Applications are due by Oct. 16 to STMA Headquarters. If you manage a football, baseball, soccer, or softball field or a complex, you are eligible to submit your work. The Awards Committee pays close attention to effective utilization of resources while judging the entries. As a winner, you will receive up to $500 in travel/lodging, signature clothing for you and your staff, a commemorative plaque, an article in SportsTurf magazine and media attention.
This Month’s Bylaws Highlight: Removal of Board of Directors
In previous months, you have read about the new and revised membership categories that have been proposed by the Membership Committee and incorporated into the Bylaws by the Bylaws Committee.
In the next few issues, STMA will highlight a different proposed change so that when you receive your voting materials in November, you will be well-versed and ready to cast your vote.
STMA voting members have always had the right to remove a Director or the entire Board of Directors from Office by a two-thirds majority. The Bylaws Committee has furthered defined the removal process in the proposed Bylaws revisions.
5.7 Removal of Board of Directors
The voting Members may remove an individual board member or the entire Board of Directors from Office. A voting member must obtain signatures on a Petition for Removal from 25 percent of the voting Membership as defined by the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Board of Directors Removal. Voting members who cannot attend the special meeting in person can vote in absentia by mail, fax or electronic means. A two-thirds majority of the voting membership is required to remove an individual board member or the entire Board of Directors. At that same meeting, new board members may be elected to fill the open positions.
STMA to develop Dr. Kent Kurtz collection
STMA has been working with the children of Dr. Kent Kurtz, Heather and Todd, to obtain his professional papers and materials. Kurtz passed away in February. The result will be the development of a Dr. Kent Kurtz Collection, which will showcase the profession and the history of the association. Kurtz was the association’s first executive director and its historian and was a turf educator for more than 30 years.
STMA members and past presidents Mike Schiller, CSFM, Steve Wightman, Steve Guise, and Steve Cockerham worked to sort through mountains of information and slides and box them for the trip to STMA Headquarters. A Historical Committee will be appointed and tasked with further review and recommendation for the process of creating the Collection. Cal Poly-Pomona has been very generous, allocating a room to temporarily house Kurtz’ remaining materials. If you are interested in acquiring any of these remaining historical records, click here for more information.
Students — Apply for a SAFE Scholarship
The SAFE Foundation, STMA’s charitable arm, has allocated $12,500 for scholarships, which will be awarded this fall to students who are pursuing a career in the sports turf industry or in turfgrass research. All scholarship recipients receive complimentary registration to the annual STMA conference and a hotel stipend. The streamlined application is easy to fill out and must be received at STMA headquarters by Oct. 1.
Auction Aficionados
Once again, it is time to start sending in your donations for our SAFE Raffle, and Live and Silent Auctions. These will be held during the STMA 18th Annual Conference & Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 17 - 21, 2007. Funds generated from these events support the association’s scholarship program, which is funded through the SAFE Foundation. For the 9th Year in a row, we are thrilled to have Tom Curran serve as Chairman of these fundraising events. The raffle and auction raised more than $14,000 last year.
We need your help to make the 2007 raffle prize pool and silent auction an even greater success. We will accept almost anything you or your organization has to offer. Donations in the past have included team gear and logo items such as shirts, hats, jackets, autographed baseballs and footballs, and vendor products (mowers, field rakes, chemicals, fertilizer, etc.).
Because we would like to promote these items, please contact by telephone Tom Curran, at 954/786-4013; Steve Torske, University of Nebraska/Lincoln, at 402/472-4638; or SAFE Headquarters at 800-323-3875.
Special Benefit for Commercial Members
PowerLinks is a benefit included in all commercial members’ dues. Each commercial member receives one listing for the company in PowerLinks. Listings in additional categories may be purchased. PowerLinks is one of the most frequented resources for members and non members on the STMA web site. Don’t miss this opportunity to promote your products and services. Commercial Members click here for the form to create your listing.
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Have you ever read an article in SportsTurf magazine and thought, "I could have covered that subject better!" Well, maybe you were right.
It doesn't take a PhD or even a degree in agronomy to contribute your expertise to the magazine. Sharing your experience, insight, and knowledge with your peers is one of the cornerstones of what STMA membership is all about. And the association's magazine is the perfect place to do it. Whether you are working toward a Certified Sports Field Manager designation, want to share how you fixed a big problem, or just want to get something off your chest, we encourage you to contact Editor Eric Schroder with your ideas. It's his job to make your thoughts and ideas read well on paper, so don't be shy. Email eschroder@m2media360.com or call 717-805-4197. We want to hear from you!
*Payment is available for most articles
TAMING THE SAVAGE E-MAIL BEAST
If making e-mail work for you instead of against you is a goal of yours, you won't want to miss Stever Robbins' article, "Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload," in a recent issue of Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge e-zine.
Robbins, a leadership consultant and author of "It Takes a Lot More than Attitude to Lead a Stellar Organization," says that "taming e-mail means training the senders to put the burden of quality back on themselves." He recommends a two-pronged approach:
• lead by example by sending better e-mail yourself (by making your e-mails one page or less, editing forwarded messages, making action requests clear, providing full context at the beginning of each message, etc.),
• explicitly training others to make their online communications more productive.
When it comes to teaching others, Robbins offers the following suggestions:
• Only check your e-mail at certain times each day. Let your people know that if they need to reach you immediately, "e-mail isn't the way," he writes.
• "Charge people for sending you messages." One CEO Robbins has worked with charges employees five dollars from their budget for each e-mail she gets. "Amazingly, her overload has gone way down, the relevance of e-mails has gone up, and the senders are happy, too, because the added thought often results in them solving more problems on their own," he writes.
• Keep your responses short. Responding to three-page e-mails with three-word answers lets people know not to expect long responses from you, "and then you can proceed to answer at your leisure in whatever format works best for you," Robbins says.
For other e-mail taming tips, see:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/tools/print_item.jhtml?id=4438&t=leadership
"This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell's free monthly e-newsletter
'Leadership Wired' available at www.INJOY.com."
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The Drought Monitor provides a weekly overview of where in the United States drought is emerging, lingering, subsiding or forecast. With 14 areas of the U.S. showing extreme to exceptional drought on this week’s Monitor, and most of the mid-section of the country experiencing some level of drought, many sports turf managers are facing challenges in managing their sports fields. As you strive to manage under increasing water restrictions, you may face scrutiny from the community and need to develop a communications strategy. Even if you aren’t under drought restrictions, you may need to develop a drought preparedness plan for your facility as a precautionary measure for the future.
For information on preconditioning turf before you are faced with drought, click here.
For help with developing a communications strategy, click here.
For help in developing a drought management plan, click here.
To see a sample drought management plan, click here.
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