President's Report June/July 2012

WCTA President Tab BucknerIf you live anywhere in BC or most parts of western Canada for that matter, you could be asking yourself what is this concept of global warming all about?

Man it sure has been another cold and very wet………..wet spring.  Great for growing grass but it sure has been difficult to complete spring cultivation maintenance programs unless your turf has a sand base and at times that doesn’t offer much help.

In my original president’s message, I proposed some questions that the WCTA board needed to address.  I am able to report some of the questions now have answers and others are still a work in progress.

1. The WCTA Board has decided that there will be a traditional 50th annual trade show and convention in Penticton March 3-5, 2013. The first meeting of the organizing committee was held in the later part of May and the committee consists of the following members:

  Tab Buckner Scott Mitchell Dave Duncan Hugh Norris Dale Kitsul Stan Kaz Scott Chalmers Kevin Neufeld Larry Olson     The role of the organizing committee will focus mainly on the speaker and social event program while acting as the body responsible to ensure staff is hitting the required administrative timelines.  This committee should also be involved with certain logistics like the trade show, education and social function scheduling and play a large part in attracting as many delegates and exhibitors as possible.  On that note, whether you are a turf manager or exhibitor, mark down the conference dates now and please plan to attend.

2. The WCTA Board has indicated to the CGSA that we are interested in partnering with them on a joint Conference in Vancouver 2014.  We have drafted an agreement in principal between our two groups and will be moving forward with solidifying details over the coming months.

3. The WCTA board is still in negotiations with the Sport Turf Association that would allow WCTA members to join the STA for a cost much less than joining independently while allowing full access to all the STA member services including the TGIF database at Michigan State University.  Because we have to work around meeting timings for both Boards, the process takes some time but we could have an agreement finalized by the time this issue of the Turf Line is printed.

4. The WCTA Board is still working towards having two sportfield TARS events this summer.  Our hope is to host one at Blanchard Field in Victoria and another in Vancouver at Nat Bailey Stadium.  Both events are tentatively scheduled for mid to late August and we have asked Dr. Brian Holl to speak along with both facility hosts, Ken Hilchey and Tom Archibald respectively.

5. After a lot of discussion and input from the BC Superintendents Association, the WCTA board has decided the BCGSA has been doing such a great job at organizing TARS events throughout the province of BC that the WCTA can start moving away from being directly responsible for this program.  Our Executive Director can now take on a support role and provide assistance and WCTA updates when required. This will free up a considerable amount of time for the Executive Director so he can focus on member recruitment and attracting more industry and delegates to our annual trade/convention shows.

I strongly encourage you to take time and enjoy some summer moments with your families. Without our families support it is very difficult for any of us to do our jobs effectively.

To reach me, my office email is tbuckner@tol.ca and my office phone is 604.532.3504.

Regards, Tab Buckner, WCTA President

The 2012-13 WCTA Board Of Directors (From Left To Right): Mike Schellenberg, Trevor Smith, Keith Lyall, Jason Pick, Peter Sorokovsky, Tab Buckner, Dr. Brian Holl, Scott Mitchell, Larry Olson, Brett Finlayson, Jeff Bennett