About two months ago, I got the chance to play in a fund raiser for The First Tee of Greater Philadelphia at Walnut Lane Golf Club. It is the home of The First Tee program. The former owner of Philadelphia Turf, Frank Shuman, has been a big supporter of the program and I have gotten the chance to attend some of their events as his guest in the past. At this outing, I was lucky enough to get one of the kids in the program as my playing partner. It was a really enjoyable day and got me motivated to try and get involved.
The next day I went to see Jay Parisien. Jay is the President of the Philadelphia Area Golf Course Superintendents Association and very involved with the First Tee. We started talking about what things could be done to help the program. We both had the same thought of an aeration day.
So the process started of trying to line everything up.....
Jay spoke with the Superintendent at Walnut Lane GC, Gary Hite. Gary does an incredible job on this Alexander Findlay design! The owners of Turf Equipment & Supply were all behind bringing in a fleet of demo equipment. Then came trying to round up some seed/fertilizer and topdressing.
With each call to other vendors in the business it was the same answer " How much do you need?...DONE!"
Now the request for equipment operators will be going out the start of this week through the PAGCS and our company is going to do an e-blast to our golf customers in the area too. So now it looks like we have everything in place ( Especially the lunch we are providing both days from the local cheese steak shop!). Now if the weather will cooperate.....August 14th & 15th should be something to see!
WJC
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Safety First
This past week we had an accident at one of the clubs in my territory. Not to go too deep into the details but the operator was hospitalized and the piece of equipment was destroyed. When investigators arrived their first question was were all the safety switches on the mower operational. Luckily they have a very good technician and everything was to factory spec.
Now we all know that sometimes these switches are overridden to save down time. I started to think about how often is this done and does it ever get fixed? Years ago we changed our policy in the shop that units had to be returned after a repair with all safety features up to date. The big thing was the chute on side discharge decks that seemed to disappear. At first there was some push back but customers realized that this was a necessity.
I would suggest you look at your fleet a little closer. Is your equipment up to spec? Have you ever done an audit of your fleet's safety features? Do you have any records to back up your safety reviews? Everyone has had to keep equipment for more seasons than they originally planned and we all get caught up in the day to day grind and take some things for granted. Hopefully a major accident NEVER happens but if it did are you and your club protected? In today's litigious world, you can't just hope that everything will be OK.
But in the end, isn't it about the safety of the guys who work so hard for you?
Now we all know that sometimes these switches are overridden to save down time. I started to think about how often is this done and does it ever get fixed? Years ago we changed our policy in the shop that units had to be returned after a repair with all safety features up to date. The big thing was the chute on side discharge decks that seemed to disappear. At first there was some push back but customers realized that this was a necessity.
I would suggest you look at your fleet a little closer. Is your equipment up to spec? Have you ever done an audit of your fleet's safety features? Do you have any records to back up your safety reviews? Everyone has had to keep equipment for more seasons than they originally planned and we all get caught up in the day to day grind and take some things for granted. Hopefully a major accident NEVER happens but if it did are you and your club protected? In today's litigious world, you can't just hope that everything will be OK.
But in the end, isn't it about the safety of the guys who work so hard for you?
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Check Yourself
This past week was a busy one with visitors from Toro and multiple educational events. In the past, I have spoken about Jim Nedin. Jim is a consultant, who works with our company and has over 40 years in the turf business. I say it all the time, I think he is the smartest person in our industry! This past week he gave a sprayer calibration at the local STMA meeting (KAFMO). Then on Wednesday, he gave a class for the local professional teams (Eagles/Union/Phillies) interns and some staff members. That was a full day of reels, rotaries, aeration and sprayer/spreader calibration.
It was only 246 slides for the inside part of the class.....!
Every opportunity that I have to work with Jim, I always think how some turf managers roll the dice and hope for the best on their sprayer applications. His great comment is " You check your reel mowers to make sure they are cutting right before they go out every time, why not your sprayers?" Jim further went on to say " a bad cut will grow out after a few days BUT a bad chemical application can be there for 12 weeks or more." This is not even taking in to account the financial aspect of using more chemical then you need to or the other repercussions of turf damage.
This is normally the time you see self inflicted wounds, the mid point of a hot & dry year. Take a step back and think about some of the things you are assuming and you know what happens when you assume.....
WJC
It was only 246 slides for the inside part of the class.....!
Every opportunity that I have to work with Jim, I always think how some turf managers roll the dice and hope for the best on their sprayer applications. His great comment is " You check your reel mowers to make sure they are cutting right before they go out every time, why not your sprayers?" Jim further went on to say " a bad cut will grow out after a few days BUT a bad chemical application can be there for 12 weeks or more." This is not even taking in to account the financial aspect of using more chemical then you need to or the other repercussions of turf damage.
This is normally the time you see self inflicted wounds, the mid point of a hot & dry year. Take a step back and think about some of the things you are assuming and you know what happens when you assume.....
WJC
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