Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/62071
re and post conference work has been the overriding priority for this period and after having gone through this twice, I applaud Bob Wick, my predecessor, for such a tremendous job for all those years. THE E-NEWSLETTER: Judging from Bob s documentation, conference follow-up was usually a 4-6 week process and it s much the same now. As we upgrade administrative systems, this may shorten but it s more likely we will enable ourselves to do more work in the same time frame including comprehensive analytics helpful for both exhibitors looking to determine return on investment from the trade show and for our own assessment and future planning. The inaugural monthly e-newsletter was sent to our membership February 15 at the same time we launched our new website (www.wcta-online.com). Along with our Turf Line News magazine, the newsletter and website combine to bring our membership an integrated system of communication where news articles, events, notices and resources are presented in true multi-media form taking advantage of the strengths of each. A great example is the Dave Creamer Memorial Hockey Game slide show which works great on a website but wouldn t have the same effect in print. We re also able to communicate important news items much quicker while realizing about 80% of people still like to get their information from a hardcopy magazine. And to make sure we ve covered all the bases, Dena Gent, WCTA 2010 President is still working hard on our Facebook page — thanks Dena! THE NEW BOARD MEETS: The first meeting of our new Board took place on February 24th and it was a lengthy one with much on the agenda. The underlying motive is always how best to serve our members and the Board has a difficult task ahead negotiating many challenges and issues. MEMBERSHIP: Membership numbers continue to climb, up from 748 at January 16 to 771 at Feb 17. This trend is fairly normal at this time of year and typically reverses at the May 31 dues cut-off point. TURF LINE NEWS: The December/January issue was the very first to be fully produced by Inside Golf and was also the 2012 Conference edition. Going into production, we knew the timeline for delivery was going to be very difficult to achieve but there was strong desire to ensure this was the flagship edition and we were very pleased with the result. THE CEC PROGRAM: About 175 seminars were accredited in 2011, up from 140 in 2010. 2012 accreditation requests have already begun and we re getting many record requests from individual members at this time. Data entry is complete for the 2012 conference and certificate renewal is an ongoing administrative process of identifying expiring certificates, submitting to MOE and invoicing each member for the service. I believe there is a lot of potential to improve our CEC program. The first challenge is building a database system that meets our needs, is efficient, simple and can communicate with participants. In addition to the obvious recording of member points totals, the system must be able to deal with the accreditation and record-keeping of seminars themselves, which I ve found to have its own set of hurdles. My goal is to incorporate technology from our new website to make a dramatic difference in this area. As we make these improvements, more time can be allocated to promoting the CEC program. I ve experienced many non WCTA members unaware of the possibility to recertify their pesticide certificate (and frankly, this may be a considerable area for growth of the WCTA). Even our close allies are very unfamiliar with the program. Another item on my if the E.D. had more time list is to contact all pesticide course instructors so they can explain the options available. We also need to better promote the program to seminar organizers (including industry) and instructors. THE NEW WEBSITE: The new site was launched February 15 as mentioned and other items like member-only section, back-end database foundations, chat rooms, survey abilities, on-line registration(s) and so on will be developed over time. The old website will remain live until such time where all resource information is transferred over. TRAVELLING ANNUAL ROAD SHOW (TARS): See story on page 10 RESEARCH: See Peter s report on page 13 2012 CONFERENCE IN REVIEW Weather certainly played havoc with us this year with ferry and flight cancellations but in the end, most everyone who committed to being at the show made it to the show. The education program was very well received and we ve heard very good feedback for most of the speakers and subject matter. A strong education program should always be a top priority in order to compel delegates to attend and much time and effort was spent on this for 2012. At the same time, we needed to ensure enough CEC points while dealing with hot-button topics. We also launched an entirely new track for non-turf managers which seemed quite popular — see 2012 Show Report on page 26 for more information. NEWS AND NOTES: We have been working through certain accounting system problems resulting from not-for-profit idiosyncrasies. For Continued On Page Ten