SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/517437
www.stma.org June 2015 | SportsTurf 7 Allen Johnson, CSFM. johnsona@packers.com Direct Mail List Sales MeritDirect, Jim Scova Phone: (914) 368-1012 jscova@MeritDirect.com Subscription Services Phone: (847) 763-9565 Fax: (847) 763-9569 Reprints Robin Cooper rcooper@specialtyim.com Group Publisher David Voll dvoll@epgmediallc.com Account Representatives: Chris Pelikan Senior Account Manager - East Phone: (954) 964-8676 cpelikan@epgmediallc.com Peggy Tupper Senior Account Manager - Mid-West Phone: (763) 383-4429 ptupper@epgmediallc.com Leslie Palmer Senior Account Manager - West Phone: (248) 731-7596 lpalmer@specialtyim.com SportsTurf (ISSN 1061-687X) (USPS 000-292) (Reg. U.S. Pat. & T.M. Off.) is published monthly by EPG Media & Specialty Information at 75 Pike Street, Port Jervis, NY 12271. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sportsturf, PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823. For subscription information and requests, call Subscription Services at (847) 763-9565. Subscription rates: 1 year, $40 US & Poss.; 2 years, $65 US & Poss.; 1 year, $65 Canada/Foreign Surface, 1 year, $130 Airmail. All sub- scriptions are payable in advance in US funds. Send payments to Sportsturf, PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076- 7823. Phone: (847) 763-9565. Fax: (847) 763-9569. Single copies or back issues, $8 each US/Canada; $12 Foreign. Periodicals postage paid at Port Jervis, NY and additional mailing offices. COPYRIGHT 2015, SportsTurf. Material may not be reproduced or photocopied in any form with- out the written permission of the publisher. O ne of the consequences of becoming actively engaged in our association has been gain- ing greater insight into its beginnings and the passionate dedication of the volunteers who helped it become what it is today. It's amazing to learn how many people devoted countless hours of personal time and expertise toward the goal of helping others become better at their jobs. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who have given so much to our industry. Thank you. STMA has grown from a grass roots organization to become the recognized, professional association for anyone involved in maintaining athletic fields. With our tag line of "Experts in the field, partners in the game" we are poised to address some additional goals of our founding members. Recently, STMA has hired the firm Buffalo Big to help us get our message out. Our association has now given us a tool to help us gain recognition for our profession, and to hopefully convince institutions that if they invest funds in hiring a professional field manager and arm them with a few tools of the trade they will notice great improve- ments in their playing surfaces. It seems a shame that school districts are willing to raise large sums of money for capi- tal improvements, when allocating a fraction of those costs annually to their maintenance operating budget would sometimes negate the need of replacing a field. This is where you can help and pos- sibly have as great of an impact as those who formed our association. We need your stories. We need to share the stories and examples of how having a dedicated, pas- sionate field manager with a few resources made a huge difference in the quality of athletic fields. We need to demonstrate how allocating appropriate financial resources to an operating budget can possibly eliminate the need for a huge capital expenditure. Many times the difference between a poor field and an adequate one is simply having someone with pride looking after it. STMA has also recently partnered with Project Evergreen. You may have heard about this group for its mission to assist deployed military members in maintaining their lawns and landscapes. They have also just added the goal of refurbishing dilapi- dated fields across our nation to give kids access to safer sports field surfaces for exer- cise and play and to connect them with their natural environment. What makes their program different is that they are engag- ing the end-users in the art of maintaining their fields after the makeover is complete. This is our specialty and where we can offer assistance. This also raises the awareness and importance of qualified field maintenance programs. I invite you to visit Project Evergreen's website, projectevergreen.org, to learn more about their worthy causes, and I implore you to share your stories with Buffalo Big's representative Glenn Gray at ggray@buffa- lobig.com. In doing so, you could possibly impact our industry to the same extent as our founding members. There is no better way to say "Thank You." ■ ST PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE SHARE YOUR SUCCESS STORIES