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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/43432
STMA in action www.STMA.org—same address, new look & utility STMA has launched its new website. Visit it at www.STMA.org and check out its new features. The home page photos ro- tate, STMA News is encapsulated into short headlines, which are links to more infor- mation, and an RSS feed brings you topical industry news. Everything is accessible from the drop down tabs at the top of the page—the left navigation feature has been removed for a cleaner, less cluttered look and greater utility. The STMA members' only-section con- tinues to expand. To access this and your very important membership benefit, TGIF, you simply put in your username and password in the member log in box on the home page. Click log-in and you will be taken to your individual home page, STMA Important dates October 15 is the deadline for submitting applications for many of STMA's programs. To find each specific application and its crite- ria, go on line at www.STMA.org Oct. 5 STMA online Conference Registration Opens Oct. 15 Gary Vanden Berg Internship Application Due* Field of the Year Application Due Student Scholarship Application Due Minor League Baseball Sports Turf Manager of the Year Application Due Terry Mellor Educational Grant Application Due Founders' Awards Application Due Innovative Award Application Due Dec. 15 Dec. 20 Last Day for Early Bird Discount Conference Rates STMA Election Ballots & Bylaws Vote Due Jan. 10-14, 2012 STMA Annual Conference & Exhibition, Long Beach, CA *This is a new educational grant for students. This $1,000 grant was created to honor Gary Vanden Berg, CSFM for his commit- ment to providing excellent internship experiences for many stu- dents throughout the years and for developing the 'gold standard' of internship practices. ■ Members to Vote on New Retired Category STMA voting members will have the op- portunity to approve an amendment to the Bylaws that creates a Retired Category of membership. The amendment will be included as part of the election process that will be conducted in late November. In 2010, the STMA Membership Com- mittee was charged by the Board of Direc- tors to develop a category of membership for those who retire, yet still wish to re- main involved in the association. The Board wants to insure that STMA has a vi- able category of membership to keep our retired members engaged. The Membership Committee completed its work in early 2011, and it made its rec- ommendation to the Board at its spring board meeting. The recommendation in- cludes two qualifications for eligibility in this category: 1) the person must be re- tired and no longer seeking full-time em- ployment within the scope of activities of any STMA membership category; and 2) must have been a member for 5 years. The board agrees with this concept and www.stma.org in the spring of this year asked the Bylaws Committee to draft language for this cate- gory that includes these criteria. The Bylaws Committee completed its work and at the summer board meeting the Board approved the following lan- guage, which will be presented to the membership for approval: Category X – Retired: Person who is retired and no longer seeking full-time employment within the scope of activities of any STMA membership category, and who has been a member of STMA for five years, may become a non-voting member of STMA and is not eligible to hold elective office. If this amendment passes, the new By- laws will be active January 1, 2012. As the Bylaws Committee finalized the language, it determined that some ques- tions may arise regarding this category. To keep from constricting the Bylaws, they subsequently developed a Standard Oper- ating Procedure (SOP) to better clarify this category. SOPs are internal documents that can be amended by the Board and do not require a vote of the membership. The Board has approved the SOP. The Retired Category SOP further ex- plains eligibility and sets this categories' membership fee: • The Retired category is meant to be inclusive. • To be eligible, the person must not be employed in a full-time position, which is defined as 30 hours per week or more. • The five years does not need to be consecutive. A person is eligible if they had a break in membership, but their years of membership add up to five years or more. • A person does not have to be a cur- rent member to take advantage of this cat- egory. If they let their membership lapse, and then retire, but meet the require- ments of a retired member, they are eligi- ble to renew membership in this category. • Age does not play a role in this cate- gory. Dues shall be $50 annually. ■ SportsTurf 43 where you'll find messages specific to you. The new site will allow us to offer greater interactivity and multi-media. After conference, you will find videos of a dozen educational sessions from conference and short clips from our speakers on topical is- sues. The site will continue to expand and provide more relevant information. Check back often! ■