The GCSAA Board of Directors, 2020 board candidates, and 84 delegates representing 89 of GCSAA’s 99 affiliated chapters, convened at the Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel and GCSAA Headquarters on October 28 and 29, for the 27th annual Chapter Delegates Meeting.

In late October I was once again privileged to represent the OGCSA members by attending the Chapter Delegate Meeting in Lawrence, Kansas.  When I tell people I am traveling to Kansas for the meeting, I get a lot of comments about having a nice time or having fun on my trip.  When it comes to this meeting it is all business.  The GCSAA schedules in as much as they can in a day and a few hours.  It is a day and a quarter of information, meetings, and Q&A packed between your travel to and from.  It is far from a vacation, but is very rewarding and enlightening.

The first evening started off with a talk from our President Rafael Barajas, followed by CEO J. Rhett Evans giving an update on the association.  These two talks outlined how members can help the association, the financial position of GCSAA, and a call to action on brand cohesiveness.  Mark Johnson followed with an update on state BMP implementation and facility adoption.  This update included information on GCSAA offering grants to host meetings and state workshops to help superintendents with facility adoption.  Bob Randquist also spoke on the GIS in Orlando 2020.  There are some key changes in the location, the show will be in a different building better suited to holding the GIS.  Finally on the first night Kevin Sunderman spoke on the GCSAAPAC with some ideas on how to help raise funds.

The second day is a trip to GCSAA headquarters for a full day of information gathering and a chance for feedback.  This year’s meeting was setup quite a bit differently than in previous years.  There used to be a lot of sitting and listening, but now the meeting has more interactive conversations with open forums, focus groups and town hall type setups.  This allowed GCSAA to gather more information from the delegates rather than give the delegates a lot of information.  We were able to provide feedback on current initiatives, make inquiries of GCSAA programs, and provide ideas on how GCSAA can better service its members.  In my mind this year’s meeting shows a change in the focus of GCSAA towards listening to its members.  The meeting made GCSAA feel more transparent and show that it is a member based organization working for our benefit.

GCSAA provides a document of all of the meeting’s outcomes that does a better job of summarizing all of the information in the meeting far better than I ever could. GCSAA Chapter Delegate Meeting Outcome.  I encourage you all to take time to review the outcomes to better understand how GCSAA is working for you and what you can do for GCSAA.  At any time if anyone would like to discuss the details of the delegate meeting or my impression of what GCSAA is doing please do not hesitate to call or email me at rallison@riverridgeor.com or (808)896-7973.  Thank you again for allowing me to represent the OGCSA as your chapter delegate.

Rory Allison