Conference Time

Part of a herd of Elk on #11 Fwy

Luckily the winter has been pretty slow, hence the lack of posts. More snow is always welcome if for no other reason than the possibility that an increasing snow pack in the mountains may prolong the flow in the St. Mary throughout the summer (as of February 1st, the East Kootenay is 93% of normal and the snow survey sites around Kimberley are 100% of normal).  We now have close to 22" versus the 12" we had before the last 10 days of snow.

I just got back from 5 days of education sessions, trade show, and seminars. Attending allowed me to accumulate continuing education credits that are tracked and aid in the renewal of my pesticide applicators license (truth be told I struggle with this aspect of the renewal process mostly due to the fact that CEC's replace a written test but that's a discussion for another time and place). A new format for this years conference had learning seminars bookend the “meat” of the conference. I chose to take a full day leadership seminar (that one opened my eyes to how much I've limited myself and what a chicken sh*t I am) and a half day seminar on maintenance standards and budgeting (got some great examples that I will be implementing...stay tuned!). Although the energy and offerings at the conference were great there was a definitely an aura of trepidation surrounding the industry. There are small pockets of growth in certain areas as well as established courses in larger markets that don't appear to be feeling the pinch like we are at KGC but most everyone else could relate to our situation in one form or another.

Education is usually one of the first things to take a hit during lean times but the information relayed at these types of conferences is put to good use back at KGC.  Examples of ideas I took away from previous conferences are regular greens rolling, using moisture meters to cut back on irrigation and improve playing conditions, tarping of the greens, brooming greens for grain and density, the development of a maintenance standard, even some of the personnel strategies I use with my staff are only a few of ideas that have been implemented at KGC (to some degree of success, IMO). That being said I feel that if associations include educating members as part of their mandate they need to keep finding economical ways to allow all members to experience meaningful and quality education.  For me, I belong to certain associations for many reasons (advocacy, promotion and recognition of the profession, an industry resources, and networking just to name a few) but continuing education is one of the most important.  The reality of the present golf economy means many educational opportunities are missed since the cost associated with travel and lodging are difficult reconcile with need to control expenses.  I am seeing more offers to access educational webcasts via some of the larger associations, certain on-line education companies, and through some industry representatives.  If provincial or territorial associations dabbled more in providing long distance opportunities (e.g. webcasts or internet access to recorded educational opportunities) their value would be that much greater and that much easier to justify when budget time rolls around.

Hmmm... there I go again.   Not sure what my point was but obviously something was on my mind.  You probably only really care about whats happening on the course.  Like I said at the outset, not much.  I nosed around before I went to the conference to see what was happening under the snow and did not see anything that concerned me.  No real ice, not even on the usual suspects (the upper putting green developed some but just recently).  The ground is still frozen which bodes well for limited incidences of disease on untreated areas (sorta depends on spring, to be fair).  Taking a look at things from all angles, frozen ground might mean something if we have a quick melt (standing water and possible washouts) and may mean a slow start for the turf (low soil temperatures means turf is slow to start growing) and quite possibly a boat load of irrigation hassles (especially with respect to the hydraulic system on the back nine) but we'll see.