2020 PRP Released

A few housekeeping items before the holidays.

Bryan emailed the 2020 PRP to members this morning.  Links can also be found on www.cigcsa.com, with a direct link to all forms by clicking here: PRP forms .

Sometimes we get asked: what is PRP?  PRP stands for Partner Recognition Program.  What it does is provide an opportunity for our affiliate members, or vendors, to support CIGCSA and receive recognition for that support.  I think it is beneficial for all to look at our PRP, not just the vendors. If you didn't click on the above links to the website? Here is a direct link: 2020 PRP Program

By viewing the PRP, members can sense the support provided by these vendors.  For example, our highest level of support is Platinum.  These vendors, through memberships, event(s) sponsorship, tee sign advertising, etc., provide at least $2500 of support to CIGCSA!!!! Gold level supports at $1500-$2499, and Silver at $750-$1499!  It provides a significant amount of revenue for CIGCSA.  We use these funds to provide education at our Annual Meeting, Spring Workshop, and the other events that provide education content.  Most speakers we host, require travel expense reimbursement and some ask for a speaking fee. Sponsorship of events also offsets food and beverage costs, facility costs, golf and prize expenses, and products for our scholarship fundraiser. Bottom line is that we are able to provide better experiences for our members, because of the PRP.

PLEASE SUPPORT PRP VENDORS IN 2020!!!


Lastly, we have our 2020 calendar roughly set.  We are waiting to confirm a few exact dates, working with courses and clubs to fit into their calendars. But here is the calendar:

Dates subject to change

Friday, January 10, 2020	Winter Social Event
Wednesday, January 29, 2020	GIS Happy Hour- Orlando
Monday, March 02, 2020	Spring education/Shop meeting
Monday, April 06, 2020	April Golf & Education Event with SIGCSA
May 2020	Scholarship Fundraiser
June 1 or 8, 2020	Vendor Day/Business
Monday, July 13, 2020	Chapter Championship/ Business
August 10 or 17, 2020	9 Holer/ Business
October 2020	October Volunteering Event
Monday, December 07, 2020	Winter Education/Annual Meeting
Friday, January 8, 2021	Winter Social Event
Wednesday, February 3, 2021	GIS Happy Hour- Las Vegas

For full details, please click on this google sheets link: 2020 Schedule


Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!!!!

CIGCSA BOD

P.S. Winter social is Jan 10, 2020 at Uncle Buck's in Bass Pro Shop Peoria, IL. free registration here

Dec 2019 BOD business recap

Business and Committee Assignment recap:

The board met yesterday to recap our 2019 year and roll into 2020 with committee assignments and goals.  Committee assignments are as follows:

• Vendor Relations- Erik Parker/Travis Williams
• Communications- Travis Williams
• Events and Education- Nate Jordan/Corey Wisher
• Membership and By-laws- Dan Crumrine
• Allied Associations/Gov’t Advocacy-  Perry Green/Scott White
• Scholarship- Tyler Bain/Josh Dreyer

A few highlights of the day:

New ideas for 2020 events 

We are very excited about the new format for our Spring Shop meeting that will include three unique education tracks for our members. We consider it a career development day with topics including Professional Growth, Equipment Maintenance, and Agronomic.   The day will begin with Pat Finlen and then members will choose 3 separate education topics each lasting about 90 mins. More details to follow.

We also have plans for a joint meeting with Southern IL GCSA in April.  We will be at Oak Terrace in Pana, IL with plans to provide education prior to the event and social gathering following.

We hope to implement a community service project in October.  We will pick a charity and have our members volunteer our time, resources and agronomic skills to enhance a property for the chosen charity. 

Other events include our Vendor's Day in June, Scholarship Outing in May, Chapter Championship in July, and the Annual Meeting and Education in December.

Up next is the Winter Social at Uncle Buck’s at the Bass Pro Shop in Peoria on January 10, 2020 from 6-9 PM, and the GIS Happy Hour in Orlando on January 29, 2020 from 4-6 PM at Twin Peaks Restaurant.

A full calendar of events will be posted on the website and emailed to members once all dates and times are confirmed.

For our Affiliate members, the PRP will be available earlier this year.  We want to get this into your hands before the holidays, with the form and format very similar to past years.  To our Class A, B, C, EM and AS members, these vendors are very important to our operations and we hope you will support them when making purchasing decisions in 2020.

Another initiative discussed is a Photo Contest for 2020.  We want our members to help us provide social media content and show others what we do as superintendents.  We hope to have a grand prize winner for best photo of the year and a prize at each event for a picture post to twitter.

Use the hashtag #CIGCSA2020Pics on any post to twitter to enter the contest.

The board also completed the Chapter Assessment Survey for GCSAA and generated several ideas from the process.  One is to set up a Pop-Up Shop for merchandise at the end of 2020 to allow members access to CIGCSA logo apparel and swag

A final note from the meeting is that Erik Parker was appointed as the Vendor Liaison and Corey Wisher as the Assistant Liaison. Erik and Corey will be provide feedback from Vendors and Assistants to help the board better serve these important groups.

Thanks for reading,

CIGCSA BOD

CIGCSA Blog Intro and Annual Meeting Recap

Thank you for taking the time to search and/or click to learn about the Central Illinois Golf Course Superintendent's Association (CIGCSA) and this blog.  The goal of this blog is to provide the members of CIGCSA brief updates on the current associations initiatives, meetings, and social/golf events.

This space will be used to highlight our members and also promote our valued vendors that support our Association through our Partner Recognition Program (PRP). 

The first thank you goes to Dave Drach and Crestwicke Country Club for hosting our Annual Meeting and Education event on Dec 2, 2019.

Great turnout from our Membership and great info by the speakers

Also a HUGE thanks to:

MTI DISTRIBUTING; BURRIS EQUIPMENT; WINFIELD SOLUTIONS; SITE ONE LANDSCAPES; and D & K TURF. 

Our education lineup included bunker liner discussion by Bobby Kerr of the CDGA.  Bobby did a great job at giving an overview of the current options for bunker liners and the benefits and costs associated with each type.    Bobby's discussion created a great dialog between audience members detailing their bunker projects- before, during, and after.

Shane Conroy joined us from the GCSAA.  Shane is our regional representative and always does a great job of keeping us in-tune with what is happening at our national association.  Shane covered a variety of topics including: Government advocacy issues (Glyphoste is a big one right now!); new membership initiatives including FFA students, Friends of a Superintendent, and the new facility memberships; New logo and branding strategies; the newly adopted State of Illinois BMPs, and changes at the Golf Industry Show.  Shane had a TON of relevant information to share and showed how much GCSAA is listening and improving for its members.

Brain Bothast gave us some great safety tips from OSHA.  OSHA is often an intimidating thought, but Brian did a great job of sharing practice ideas and strategies to implement safety programs at our golf courses. He also gave us some things to think about as the competent trainers and tips to achieve a safe working environment to avoid injuries or worse!

We held our final business meeting of the year as a board and elected members to fill the positions for 2020. We also awarded two education scholarships and a Golf Industry Show stipend to a member and the dependents of members.  This is a huge benefit of membership in CIGCSA and thanks to some great leaders before, we are in a great position to grow these awards!

After lunch Chris Zugel gave us a behind the scenes look at setting up to host the Ryder Cup in September of 2020.  Chris has been the superintendent at Whistling Straights for PGA Championships as well and hearing the differences in the events was really interesting.  The amount of planning and forward thinking in hosting events or even potentially hosting events is amazing.  It was a great talk by Chris with so many interesting tidbits that we can't cover them all here... you had to be there!

We wrapped our day with discussion involving growing CIGCSA membership numbers, hosting a First Green field trip at a Central Illinois course, and gave an update on the new standard operating procedures of the scholarship fund.  We also introduced a new education idea for our Spring Shop Meeting in March.  We are really excited about these changes, so keep an eye out for the details.

Again, thanks to the members and our sponsors for supporting this event.  We have our Winter Social Jan 10th at Bass Pro Shop in Peoria and the GIS Happy hour Jan 29th in Orlando.

Thanks for reading,

CIGCSA