President's Message – August 2017

I hope that you have all had an enjoyable summer break and have found time to relax and recharge, spend time with family and friends and perhaps play a little golf. I have just returned from holiday in Scotland where I was able to play three of Fife’s great golf courses: Crail (Balcomie), Elie and the Eden Course at St Andrews.

On all three days the sun shone and there was comparatively little wind for that part of the world. It was perfect holiday golf. But what made it particularly special for me at all three courses was that I played with my son, who is 15, and my mother, who has just turned 80. Here we were, three different generations, enjoying time together in wonderful scenery and lovely weather but also playing competitive sport. How lucky we are to be involved in a sport where it does not matter whether you’re a good player or bad, old or young, boy or girl. Anyone can compete against anyone else. What’s more my son tells me, courtesy of his GPS tracker, that we walked a total of 22 miles in those three days, which goes someway to explaining why I actually lost weight during my holiday!

Over the summer the EIGCA Council have not been idle and I am pleased to announce some important news items and dates for your diary.

2018 Annual Meeting

Firstly I can confirm that we will be going to Belgium for our Annual Meeting in 2018. We are to be based in the historic city of Bruges and golf has been planned at two great links courses – Royal Zoute GC and Royal Ostend GC. The week will begin on Monday 23rd April and will follow the same format as this year. Golf will be played on Wednesday and Thursday with the AGM preceding the golf on Thursday. My apologies to those who have expressed a preference for a later AGM start but I’m afraid the times available for golf at Royal Zoute were restricted to the afternoon. Our conference will take place on Friday 27th April.

Continual Professional Development

In the autumn we will be starting our new points based CPD programme and I am pleased to say that we have reached an agreement with the British and International Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) for them to set up and administer our on-line points system. In return we will help to provide BIGGA with speakers at their events and education days and articles for Greenkeeper International magazine. I am also delighted to say that BIGGA are to become an EIGCA Patron. BIGGA will also recommend to their own members that they should use the services of EIGCA members if they are considering any design or redevelopment work. It is vital that we continue to develop closer ties with other golf organisations and I hope you will all agree that this is a good step forward which may also open up new work opportunities.

CPD Seminar

On the subject of CPD, our Professional Development Committee are organising another CPD Seminar for November. It will be held at the Sofitel Hotel at London Gatwick Airport on 29th & 30th November and has a loose title right now of “Future Trends”. The plan is for the seminar to follow a similar format to last year’s successful event, with an afternoon start after lunch on the 29th, dinner and an overnight stay and finishing mid-afternoon on the 30th. The Professional Development Committee will provide more information as soon as the details are finalised. However, I urge as many of you as possible to attend as it promises to be an enlightening event and will present an early chance to gain CPD points. In addition it is an important event for our Partners who are increasingly looking for opportunities to educate the membership and see the CPD Seminar as one of the major attractions of being part of our Partnership programme.

Partner Education Days

As some of you in the UK will know, Rain Bird is running an Education Day in Newbury this month. We have agreed to support the event by providing CPD points to those members who attend. I believe Rain Bird’s intention is to carry out Education Days throughout Europe and CPD points will also be available at these events.

We are also in discussions with other EIGCA Partners to provide similar events for our members. We recognise that there are sometimes limitations on what EIGCA Partners can provide at our Conferences and CPD Seminars and we are therefore keen to encourage opportunities for our members to engage with Partners at locations which are more convenient such as at golf clubs and HQs. We very much hope that you will be prepared to support these initiatives and I hope to have more news on this by the time of my next newsletter.

Partners

Finding new Partners and retaining existing ones is vitally important if we are to achieve the goals we have set as a professional body. We want to deliver better value for money for your membership subscription but also ensure that the subscription levels are sustainable. If you know of companies or businesses which might be interested in becoming EIGCA Partners then please introduce them to us.

It is also important that our members give Partners the opportunity to quote for work or be involved in projects so, wherever possible, please try to include them on your tender lists. And if you are using contractors or suppliers who are not EIGCA Partners then try to persuade them to sign up, or give our Head Office their contact details and we will contact them.

To help us work more effectively with our Partners we have created a new role within the Council and I am delighted to say that Tim Lobb has agreed to take on the role of Partner liaison. Please join me in welcoming Tim to this important new position which I am sure will be beneficial as we further develop our Partner relationships.

2018 Study Tour

Hopefully you have all seen the information from the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects regarding next year’s study tour to Adelaide in November. The tour includes golf at Royal Adelaide, Kooyonga, The Grange and Glenelg golf clubs and there will be a wine tour of the Barossa Valley. I’’m sure our Australian colleagues will provide fantastic hospitality and it is sure to be a memorable week. Please remember that the closing date to reserve a place on the tour is the 31st December 2017.

Vocational Qualification in Golf Course Design

Both Alan Walker and Ken Moodie have decided to step down from the Education Committee once the present intake have completed their studies at the Annual Meeting next year. Alan and Ken have donated an enormous amount of time and effort over many years to ensure the smooth running of the EIGCA educational courses and I would like to thank them for everything they have done. I know that the students in particular are hugely grateful for their help and guidance.

To allow time for the Education Committee to re-organise it has been decided to postpone the next intake of students until 2019.

Code of Conduct

As requested by the members at this year’s AGM the Council have revised the Code of Conduct to remove the need for member’s to register gifts. In addition the Council have also adjusted the text referring to the supply of construction management and shaping services just to clarify that, while architects may provide these services, the fees for such work should be clearly separated from any design fees. I urge everyone to occasionally review our Code of Conduct to ensure you are up to date with the EIGCA’s rules on professional behaviour. (You can download a copy from the website)

Proposal to Change the Rules of Golf

As you will have seen from Julia’s email last week, David Williams and Ken Moodie have submitted a proposal to change the rules of golf with regard to relief for an unplayable ball. It is an interesting suggestion and before you complete the survey I urge you to take time to consider their recommendation and particularly to see how the proposal actually works when you’re out on the golf course.
If you have thoughts on how golf can be improved, whether that is through a rule change or in any other way, then please feel free to let us know. Our newsletter provides a forum for new ideas and we would be happy to publish appropriate articles.

Looking to the Future

A steering committee consisting of myself, Julia, Christoph Städler and Mark Adam has been set up to assess staffing and office requirements from 2020 onwards and to make recommendations to ensure the long term future of the EIGCA. We aim to report our proposals to the membership at the 2018 AGM.

And finally….

A reminder that Julia will be taking a few weeks holiday as her son, Chris, is getting married in Rhodes. She will be out of the office from the 8th until the 25th September. Virginia and Sue will be holding the fort in her absence.

I should also officially welcome back Virginia to the office after her hip replacement operation in May. She tells me that she is improving all the time but has had to suspend her hopes of a career in skydiving!

Lastly, my congratulations go to Augie and Jannet on the fantastic news that they are the proud parents of a baby girl, born in August. On behalf of everyone at the EIGCA I send them our best wishes.

Ross McMurray