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11/06/2009

Professional growth can also lead to new career paths

Chapter involvement more important than ever

By Scott Wogomon

 

Heart of America GCSA President Scott Johnson will tell you just how important getting involved in your local chapter can be. And it’s not just because he’s served on the boards of three of them and is currently the president for the one that covers much of Kansas City and the surrounding area.

“You never know where the next job or the next opportunity will come from,” says Johnson, a superintendent at Shadow Glen Golf Club in Olathe, Kan., since 2002. His previous employers include longtime PGA Tour stop Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, and former Champions Tour stop The Country Club of the South near Atlanta. “My first job as a superintendent came from a recommendation from another superintendent that I really didn’t even know. But I played golf with him at a superintendents’ monthly meeting. Whatever I did to impress him, I’m not sure…had I not gone and participated in a chapter meeting I feel almost 100 percent I would not have had that opportunity given to me. You never know where those paths are going to lead…”

 

Part of the education

Johnson, 50 and a certified golf course superintendent through GCSAA, says the educational opportunities are another reason turf managers should spend time getting involved in local chapter activities. Those can include guest speakers at events, seminars and even Webcasts.

“I’m a believer in being involved and for me it’s a learning experience,” Johnson says. “Probably in any profession, but definitely in ours, you’re always striving to learn or keep current on what’s going on -- be proactive.”

Johnson has served on the boards of North Texas and Georgia chapters, before moving to Kansas and working his way up through the board positions at the Heart.

“When I got here, my main reason (to get involved) was just to know the guys,” says Johnson, who’d left Kansas in 1981 and really didn’t have many superintendent contacts in the area on his return. “I wanted to get involved and it was a networking and educational opportunity for me…and giving something back.”

 

Community involvement

One of the ways superintendents give back on the local chapter level is by the numerous community involvement/enrichment projects they undertake each year. From helping local organizations with their athletic fields to delivering food to the less fortunate to working with junior golf programs as part of helping to grow the game, members of local GCSA chapters give their members ample venues to be involved.

“It’s huge for us to take advantage of any opportunity to get in front of the community whether it’s our booth at the golf show or doing some of the charity things or cleaning up the cemetery…things like that,” Johnson says. “Those are just goodwill things that are important, not just as an association in giving back to the community, but they’re enriching and building (for) each other as far as being a better person.”

 

 

 

Scott Wogomon is a free-lance writer in Tonganoxie, Kansas, and has worked on the maintenance staffs of three Midwest golf courses. The former sports editor was associate editor for GCSAA’s Golf Course Management magazine and is senior writer for the Kansas Golf Association.

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