Rather Safe Than Sorry

       How much training do you do with your staff? I have been aware of more incidents than ever recently and with today's litigious society, if I could give you some advice it would be to make sure you are doing everything you can and more! Insurance Agents and Lawyers will be looking into your training and you better have an answer. Are you keeping records? Do you have a video library that all new employees need to watch? Do you spend time on rainy days after the shop is clean to focus on training? Are you going to local distributors & Turf Grass Association training events? If the answer is no, I would ask you to take a look at your program. The safety of the people who work hard for you is the number one concern but the sad reality is that you also have to protect yourself & your employer.....



WJC

Giving Thanks

       Thanksgiving has a special meaning to me this year. Lately it seems there has been a rash of hard times and tragedies with people in the Philly area Turf industry. Sadly last week, Glen Thomas who was the long time Superintendent at Edgmont CC passed away. He was found by the shop and sounds like it was a heart attack. Glen was one of the the true good guys. He was someone who got IT. I always enjoyed talking with him and miss visiting with him.
       The other tough one is Tom Gosselin of Overbrook GC has been diagnosed with Leukemia. Tom is not someone I consider a customer, he is a good friend. He and I have been golf partners and have had a lot of laughs together over the years. We have known each other since high school. The good news is Tom is way too competitive a person to let something like this beat him!
       So this Thanksgiving I am truly thankful for Family & Friends more than ever and really believe it is not worth sweating the little things.
Thank you for taking the time to read my Blog this past year!

And to quote Ferris Bueller " Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."



Happy Thanksgiving!

WJC

You Say Potato....

       We hosted the Reel Technology Seminar at White Manor CC yesterday. It went off very well with over 20 Superintendents/Assistants &Technicians, we had a great turnout. It was one of those events where if you had anymore people it would have been too many.
       First thing was the facility worked out perfect! They have an excellent size break room.
Don Brown and his staff could not have been more helpful. They were awesome!
The shop area was set up just right where we could split the group in two and have the class size manageable.
       The fun part for me was hearing to views that were slightly different from two of the top reel guys I have ever met. Jim Nedin is a light contact guy who believes in lapping. While Tom Hurst is a no contact believer and does not feel the need to lap because he thinks the speed of the Bernhard Grinder makes lapping unnecessary. So now you have two experts who have worked more tournaments than probably about anybody around and they see things from a different view. But this is the part that I love about this business....BOTH WAYS WORK! In all my years of visiting golf courses the one thing that I have always found amazing is that one course has a practice that they swear by and there is no other way to do it. Then I head to a course down the street and they are coming at it from a totally different angle and it works for them. They are both right. What ever works for you is what matters! 
       Thank you to Don Brown & his staff at White Manor CC for having us! Thanks to Jim Nedin & Tom Hurst for presenting!


Jim Nedin presenting his Reel Technology Program

Tom Hurst talking to the group about the new Express Dual 3000ir

WJC  

Class is in Session!

       One of the things that I really enjoy about my job is organizing educational events. There is a lot of work that goes into making each event a good one and luckily we have some great presenters that we are affiliated with. Over the next month and half we have two really excellent programs that we are hosting. The first is a Reel Technology Class. We have Jim Nedin giving a class room talk in the morning on reel technology. I have said it over and over again, I truly believe Jim is one of the smartest people in our industry. I would urge you to attend one of his talks if you ever have the opportunity. Whether it be reels, sprayers or aerators he will amaze you with his depth of knowledge.
The afternoon will be another living legend, Mr. Tom Hurst. Tom has been selling grinders since before I was born. He is a rock star in the world of grinding. These two are both great at what they do and the real reason is they are great people! They don't leave people hanging.
       The other event we are hosting is called the Future Superintendent Academy. This program was hosted by our company in the Baltimore are a few years back and was well received. We had been working with Nick Lubold, Assistant Superintendent at Overbrook GC, to put together a similar one here in the Philadelphia area. The idea was to help local Assistant Superintendents prepare for the opportunity to become a Superintendent. The line up is filled with experience. The morning starts with Darin Bevard from the USGA discussing communication with board members & golfers. Then we will have a round table of local veteran Superintendents to give some of their thoughts. Then Tim Moraghan, Owner of Aspire Consulting, will give a little straight talk about what it takes to get considered for a position. After Tim, Paul Danielson of the Toro Company will discuss the fundamentals of financing. The afternoon will consist of Dann Harris, of Dann Harris Consulting, who will teaching interviewing skills & motivation. Dann brings a ton of energy to his presentation and guaranteed to make you think. Chris Harriman, Superintendent at Cattail Creek CC will talk about how to win the job. I saw Chris speak a few years ago and was really impressed with his plan of attack on winning the job.

       Lots of time and effort goes into these days but in the end it is one of the best parts of the business!

WJC

Frankenstorm

       It gets harder and harder to believe the hype that the news stations run with as a big storm approaches the area. Right now they are tracking Sandy coming up the Atlantic with a chance to bash our area with record rain totals and high winds. Last year we had a similar event where things built for days and every generator for hundreds of miles was sold out. That one was bad with some flooding and after spending the entire night up on guard for tornadoes, it was over hyped. Obviously, I am hoping that they are wrong again....somewhere around 12"+ of rain and 80 mile an hour winds is not something I am looking forward to and neither are any local Superintendents. The talk of the storm coming up the Delaware Bay and it being a full moon could make life interesting for all of us. So, as we always do here in Philly....Get you eggs/milk & bread to last you a month and hopfully all you have is a reason to have a big french toast party on Wednesday morning!

Hope everyone stays safe!


WJC

London Calling

       I just returned from a week in the UK. I was a guest of Bernhard & Company, who provide the Express Dual & Angle Master grinders. The big event was they were opening a state of the art new factory. I was able to visit their old one last year and it was only 150 years old, I believe....
One of the cool parts of the festivities was a Ryder Cup format golf event with the US Distributors & Bernhard Representative VS The Euporean Distributors, Bernhard Representatives & Superintendents. Sadly history repeated itself but it was a great day. The match was played at The London Golf Club which was INCREDIBLE! Peter Todd and his staff do an amazing job. I got the chance to play with some true professionals. It was really something special.

       These trips include people from all over the world and are something that I have considered a great privilidge to take part in. Kim Furnell & David Walker from Bernhard & Company are incredible hosts!

WJC

Back To The Future

       This morning I was a volunteer at Lookaway Golf Club. They were hosting an event that was in support of the Matthew Renk Foundation. Matt was the son of Dave & Jackie Renk and Matt passed away from a cancerous brain tumor at the age of 15. With the support of friends, family & the membership of Lookaway Golf Club they are working to generate awareness of brain cancer and support the families facing this challenge.
       Dave had asked me a few weeks ago if I was going to be around to help. To be honest, I was not looking forward to getting up at 3:00AM to make the trip up to Lookaway but with Robert Smith from Merion GC volunteering too, the ride up together was not as bad. The main thing that was my concern was Dave kept saying I was mowing greens...As you can guess, mowing greens is not on the list of things I do too often. And after thinking about it as I mowed this morning, it has been probably about
18 years since I mowed a greens route! a pass here and there over the years does not keep the skills sharp!
Luckily Dave put me with his son Tommy. Tommy, a future Superintendent, was great to work with and as the morning went on I really enjoyed spending time with someone who has passion about the turf business.
       Now for the bad part....I mowed the first green in the dark with my reel off -( or should I say rolled the first green for my part of the double cut. It was like mowing in a closet with the door closed. I was so focused on trying to see my lines (and could not see even with the light kit)
that I did not pick up on it. Impressive right?
With each green the old feel came back with the last two greens looking pretty straight!
A few pounds lighter and a little tired, we headed back into the shop.
Just like the old days...

       To learn more about the Matt Renk foundation go to:
http://matthewrenkfoundation.org/about-matt.html


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