Syngenta Business Institute 2015

I had the pleasure last week of being 1 of 26 superintendents selected from across the country to attend the Syngenta Business Institute on the campus of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC.  The Syngenta Business Institute is a 4 day intensive business development program designed to meet the ever changing requirements of golf course superintendents.  The program supplements and complements a superintendents existing knowledge base, allowing more productive and efficient golf course management.

Graylyn Conference Center at Wake

Through a partnership with the Wake Forest University School of Business, the program provides graduate school-level instruction in areas such as financial management, human resource management, negotiating, impact hiring and other leadership- and professional-development skills, and managing across generations and cultural divides.  To be considered for the program, superintendents had to submit a 250-word essay on why they believe they should be selected to attend. Approximately 25 superintendents were selected to attend and I was fortunate to be selected.

Financial Management

While I found ALL the education useful and impactful, one topic stood out for me, Managing Across Generations and Cultural Divides.  One of the great joys of my job is managing people and I have been relatively successful throughout the years.  However, I have found it difficult to manage "generation y" or more specifically what motivates them.  Through Managing Across Generations and Cultural Divides, I did learn some ideas that should no doubt make me more successful with this age group. 

Negotiating

On top of the graduate level coursework, getting to learn and gain perspective from some of the industry's best golf course superintendents was invaluable.  Throughout the week we all shared ideas and thoughts about the many things that challenge our facilities. 

Graduating Class of SBI 2015

I want to thank everyone at Syngenta for organizing what has become the premier and most sought after education event in our industry.  It was certainly a pleasure and honor to be a part of SBI 2015 and I will be a better superintendent because of it.

Reunion of fellow TurfNet Superintendents' of the Year
Chad Mark, Paul Carter, Anthony Williams, Fred Gehrisch

Pulling Santa for the 2015 Highlands Christmas Parade

Community service comes in many ways and for the second year in a row we have been asked to pull Santa in Highlands annual Christmas Parade.  Santa's "reindeer" comes as a 2014 Club Car 1550 4x4 decked out in red with Christmas lights and snowflakes.  If you have time, please come see us pulling Santa through the streets of Highlands on Saturday Dec 5th from 11am -12pm on Main Street.

Getting my cart ready for Santa.

On the trailer and ready to take to the staging area.

The reindeer is ready.

New Equipment

Exciting day this week as we received our two new Jacobsen trucksters.  These are the first new heavy duty vehicles we have bought in over ten years which is also a testament to the maintenance program of our old vehicles.

 

The new trucksters will help us with everything from hauling rock and sand to pulling trailers to shuttling crew and equipment throughout the course.  The new trucksters will replace our two oldest vehicles which are 16 years old.