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/663418
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE www.stma.org May 2016 | SportsTurf 7 President: Jeffrey Salmond, CSFM Immediate Past President: Allen Johnson, CSFM President-Elect: Tim Van Loo, CSFM Secretary/Treasurer: Sarah Martin, CSFM Vice President Commercial: Doug Schattinger Professional Facilities: Dan Bergstrom Academic: Beth Guertal, PhD Higher Education: Nick McKenna, CSFM Parks & Recreation: Jimmy Simpson, CSFM K-12: Bobby Behr, CSFM Commercial: Randy Price Elected-at-Large: Weston Appelfeller, CSFM Elected-at-Large: Jeffrey Fowler Chief Executive Officer: Kim Heck STMA OFFICE 805 New Hampshire, Suite E Lawrence, KS 66044 Phone: 800-323-3875 Fax: 800-366-0391 Email: STMAinfo@STMA.org www.STMA.org STMA Editorial Committee Chairman: Mark Frever, CSFM TJ Brewer, CSFM; Joe Churchill; Jim Cornelius, CSFM; Jeremy Driscoll; Cliff Driver, CSFM; Matt Hollan; Paul Hollis; Chrissy McLarn; Jamie Mehringer; Scott Stevens, CSFM; and Dr. Joey Young, Technical Editor Publisher's Notice: We Assume No Responsibility For The Validity Of Claims In Connection With Items Appearing In Sportsturf. 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COPYRIGHT 2016, SportsTurf. Material may not be reproduced or pho- tocopied in any form without the written permission of the publisher. athletic trainers. Due diligence ensures that our day-to-day actions and observations do not go unnoticed, while using the "see something, say something" attitude that will help us stay on top of underlying issues. We need to afford each child, youth, or young adult the best opportunity to excel without jeopardizing his or her experiences. We have the very important and crucial task of providing high standards and protecting the well-being of athletes that play on our fields. The Playing Conditions Index (PCI) was established by the STMA in 2009 for sports turf managers to track field conditions. Developed to assess the playability of your fields, the PCI is used to provide a snapshot of your fields' playability at a specific point in time. The continued use of the assessment tool provides invaluable information to the sports turf manager and can help guide field management practices, assist with communication to user groups, can help to substantiate the need for more resources, and as needed provides a way to provide information to the media relations department (www.stma.org/playing- conditions-index-pci). The PCI along with regular Gmax testing can also be valuable to share with team doctors and trainers. The PCI is a valuable document to implement in your turfgrass management program. As sports turf managers, we need to be better at data collection and documentation to support our maintenance and management practices to achieve our objective of safe fields. Safety/duty of care of our playing surfaces should be our universal language. S ports turf managers are the directors of first impressions at their fields and facilities. Whether it is a recruit coming to a college campus for the first time, a fan seeing their first game at a professional stadium, or a parent bringing their child to the field for their first Little League practice, our fields leave the first, and lasting, impression upon our visitors and how we conduct our business as sports turf managers. Our performance in providing high quality surfaces for the general public to see is a direct reflection upon our employers and the perception of our sports turf industry. A number of years ago I heard Dr. Frank Rossi of Cornell University explain a philosophy that has always stayed with me. His presentation summarized our foundation in how we should be providing safe athletic surfaces. It is called the Duty of Care. In legal terms, "the Duty of Care is a legal obligation on an individual or organization requiring that they adhere to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others. It is the first element that must be established to proceed with an action of negligence." We must bring the sense of safety and the urgency of duty of care to serve as an extension of the medical and risk management units of our institutions. Sports turf managers cannot be viewed as just grass mowers; rather we assist in a higher purpose of providing safe surfaces for athletes and work in conjunction with medical professionals such as doctors and Jeff Salmond, CSFM jsalmond@ou.edu DUTY OF CARE