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/791889
www.stma.org March 2017 | SportsTurf 23 you can such as expectations, hours, pay, duties, benefi ts, and requirements. Also, list any selling points of your program such as location, housing, overtime pay, special events, projects, and educational and networking opportunities. These selling points can be the "icing on the cake." Advertise. Create a professional looking advertisement fl yer, brochure, or video. If you don't have that skill, fi nd someone in your organization that does. Post it on your company website and others such as STMA and TurfNet. Other places to share the advertisement are conference job boards, university place- ment offi ces, and turf professors and advisors. Consider posting in early November. My students have to visit me in November for academic advising for the spring semester. I ask them about their work plans for the upcoming summer. Another suggestion to get the word out is to invite a profes- sor, turf class or club to visit your site if you are near a turf university or another similar institution. They get an educa- tional tour and you may get an intern. Tony Leonard from the Philadelphia Eagles regularly gives tours for my class and has hired interns from those classes. Remember that "word-of-mouth" by former interns can be a great way to advertise assuming you gave them a good experience. However, "word-of-mouth" can kill your program if you gave them a bad experience. Be professional in your communication. Applicants will have more respect for you and your organization. Respond promptly to phone calls and emails from interested students. Inform applicants if they did not get the job. Simply write an email saying, "Thanks for applying. Another applicant was chosen." It gives closure to the student. Be honest with pay rate and hours expectation. If you expect them to work 70 hours per week for $1,000 per month make sure they know it. One of my students quit his internship after 3 weeks because the expectations were not made clear. Don't make them work 70 hours per week on a $1000 per month salary; that's $3.60 per hour. A counter argument could be made that this formula results in only the most dedicated and passionate people in the in- dustry. Thus, weeding out students that may be less dedicated and passionate to the sports turf industry. I've had quite a few students that had the passion yet crossed over into the golf or lawn care industry for higher pay. Travis, who interned in pro- fessional football and baseball, was one of my better students that had a passion for sports turf took a job with a landscape