President's Report for 2003 AGM (5/4/03)

Dear Fellows, Members, Associates and Graduates,

First of all, I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the family of ALENKA IVANCIC who sadly passed away this year. She was an eager, spirited and enthusiastic participant of the EIGCA and will be greatly missed.

At the beginning of my presidency I thought that it would be useful to provide everyone with a regular up-date of what was going on at the Institute which would also include decisions taken on your behalf at council meetings, so I hope that my newsletters are informative.

I will not repeat what was already said in my previous messages or the reports prepared by Ken Moodie, Rainer Preissmann, Alain Prat, Martin Hawtree and myself dealing respectively with Education/CPD, Membership, PR/Promotion, Library and EU recognition, or the Honorary Treasurer?s Report prepared by David Krause and the Honorary Secretary?s Report prepared by Mark Adam, unless I want to make a special point. I will therefore only include new items or topics that have happened since my last newsletter and will take this opportunity to thank the above mentioned members for the preparation of their reports.

I must admit that it has been an interesting year with long committee meetings conducted simultaneously in 3 languages, which makes it difficult for Julia to take the minutes!

I think that I will have to revert to the old method adopted 30 years ago which required all discussions and questions to go through the chairman but I fear that the meetings will take even longer! I cannot really imagine trying to enforce that type of procedure on such an independent bunch!

We are extremely honoured to have Hamilton Stutt (pictured with Peter Harradine) amongst us today who is one of the founder members of the British Association of Golf Course Architects. Hamilton surely remembers the old formal and disciplined meetings!

Hamilton always was an advocate of the European idea and I must thank him on behalf of the entire EIGCA for his continuous support during the intricate, complicated, long and sometimes passionate period devoted to the discussions and debates concerning the amalgamation of the BIGCA, ESGA and AFAG. I think his unwavering support definitely contributed to the ultimate success of the amalgamation.

Hamilton has decided to hang up his pencil and throw his drawing board away. (I assume that like me he still draws by hand with a good old pencil, rubber and pencil sharpener?) Yes, Hamilton is finally retiring but I sincerely hope that he will keep in touch with the EIGCA and give us all the benefit of his vast experience. It is therefore my great privilege to declare him an Honorary Member of the EIGCA and thank him once again for his support!

I would furthermore like to congratulate Nigel Henbury, Marco Croze, Ross McMurray and Bruce Weller on becoming full Members, and Achim Reinmuth, Ljubica Jovetic, Steven Ritson and Richard Myers on becoming Associates. I also welcome Johnny Stenegaerd, Niall Glen and Johan Benestam as graduates and congratulate them on passing the MSc at Heriot-Watt. I also congratulate Johnny Stenegaerd for winning the Toro award.

It has been a very busy year and I must once again thank our Executive Officer, Julia Green, who is an absolute pillar of reliability and efficiency. We are all extremely lucky to have such a competent Executive Officer and I must say that I certainly appreciate her proficient and happy disposition. She actually runs all the day to day matters of the institute with great professional capability and her counsel coupled with her recommendations are always very much appreciated.

We must not forget Virginia Turner, Julia?s assistant, and Sue Stranger, our very able and efficient librarian, who are both doing an excellent job!

Vienna Office

It was very sad to close the office in Vienna. A farewell drink was arranged at the EIGCA stand in Munich on the 27/2/03 which was followed by dinner at a typical Bavarian beer cellar to say goodbye to Gerlinde who ran the Vienna office and who has devoted a lot of time to the continental architects. She will be especially missed by the previous members of the ESGA.

CPD / Education

Ken Moodie has once again organised an excellent CPD event so I would like to thank him for his devotion to the education committee and the organisation of the CPD event. The part time course in golf course architecture is still on track and Ken Moodie is ensuring that the original timetable is being followed.

Please do not forget the planned CPD study tour of Ireland organised by David Williams which should be held on or around the beginning of November. You will receive further details later on in the year. Please participate!

Non attendance by members at the AGM

Quite a stir has been caused by the attendance rules and I am sure that many members were not aware of them. The present rules are definitely quite harsh and we are trying to find a solution that would be fair and impartial to all members.

We certainly want to see more participation but the attendance rule needs to be reviewed so we might suggest ways of amending it to include a presence at the AGM or CPD or any other event organised by the Institute whilst still urging greater participation and commitment to the Institute.

Finance / Sponsors

I am pleased to announce that the accounts are in line with forecasts and we are definitely solvent, which is more that can be said for most institutions these days. I must state that great care and control is taken on expenditure and the Institute is run on a very tight budget.

Conference

We have agreed to organise a conference on technology (improved playing equipment) and possibly golf course real estate projects. Manufacturers would be invited as well as members who have something interesting to say.

The venue has not been decided yet and it was suggested to have it during next year?s AGM. It looks however as if we might tie up with the PGAE who have a yearly conference in December and in Marbella! We have formed a special conference committee which consists of David Krause, Simon Gidman, Ken Moodie, Ross McMurray and myself, so if you have any ideas let us know! And once again do not forget that suggestions and participation are extremely important!

Website

We have up-dated, altered and improved the website over the past year and we hope you like the results. Here again if any member has any ideas let us know about them!

Library

The library is constantly being updated and the committee is looking at increasing the amount of research in order to fund new internet subscriptions. Can we have some ideas from the membership on the subjects that should be researched?

EU Recognition

My report already mentions the latest status about EU recognition for golf course architects and the obvious course would be to team up with the R/A and proceed as mentioned in the report.

Yearbook 2003? 2004

We have instructed Portman to produce the next yearbook and, as Alain said, we are eager to receive interesting articles by golf course specialists or journalists. So if anyone knows anybody interesting who has something worthwhile to say please let Alain know!

Exhibitions

We have agreed to attend the annual BTME, (Harrogate) Fairway (Munich) and Green Expo which this year will be held in Bordeaux! Please come to Bordeaux even if it is just to taste the excellent wine!

Competition Policy

Mark Adam has prepared a draft which shall be circulated to all our members once the final draft has been approved by the committee.

Selecting an architect

David Krause has prepared a draft on this important issue which will also be circulated to all the members once it receives final approval by the council. Both the ?competition policy? and ?selecting an architect? will be included on the website.

Pace of Play Symposium

As the President of the EIGCA, I was invited to attend the Pace of Play Symposium which was held at St. Andrews from the 19th -21st February. As the sole representative of our great profession and the European Institute of Golf Course Architects I was asked to speak at the end of the conference so I will give you a short summary of the proceedings:

One of the speakers actually blamed the golf course architect for slow play. It was suggested that architects had to ensure a smooth hole sequence for an easy flow of play, but they seemed to forget that our designs are, or should be, dictated by topography and the environment which meant that one could not just move a hill to obtain the right sequence of pars. I told them that in my own humble and personal opinion the natural lie, topography and environment should never be sacrificed!

Unfortunately the conference concentrated a lot on PGA and professional tournaments without dealing with the ?normal? players and resort courses. I also suggested that more importance should be given to the etiquette as this would definitely speed up play. Why not include ?etiquette? in the rules?

Some pros have become self-styled psychiatrists and are more interested in teaching a lot of psycho analytical mumbo jumbo instead of teaching players the rules and etiquette!

Interesting statements and figures were also produced on how much time it should take to play various holes such as:
– 8 mins for a par 3
– 12 mins for a par 4
I asked where those figures came from, and if they were for mortal golfers as well?! Or only touring pros?!

After all if we are the ones to blame and are supposed to calculate how long it takes for a round on one of our courses, we would like to know how these magic figures were reached.

The conference ended with the onus on the R&A to organise and implement ways and means of speeding up play.

Register of members golf courses

The council has suggested that we should keep a register of all our members? works. Once again I am asking you for your participation! Please answer the questionnaire when you receive it!

We want to tell the world how much work has actually been executed or will be implemented by the EIGCA! This will make the authorities, official bodies and prospective clients aware of the magnitude of our activities! We want to know what the total yearly turnover of the EIGCA is! What a figure that would be to put on the website, especially for our sponsors! So please reply when asked to do so!

Finally, I would like to thank the council for their unwavering co-operation and input seeing as they travel to various meetings in the UK and on the continent sacrificing their valuable time at no cost to the Institute. A special thanks goes to the two outgoing members and past Presidents M/s. David Williams and Simon Gidman.

As I said in my last newsletter and I will repeat it again we want more participation from you the Fellows, Members, Associates and Graduates, especially the continentals. Do not just complain, join us and do something! Be more active! Make yourself heard.

We are trying our very best to promote and ensure that your Institute will be the one and only reliable association of ethical and professional golf course architects in Europe.

We want to make every member proud to be part of the Institute but in order to achieve our objectives we need the participation, support and help of each and every Fellow, Member, Associate and Graduate.

PETER HARRADINE