Job Securing Tip #1: Get To The Board Meeting
If you are not regularly attending the Board Of Director meetings at your club you’re missing a job securing opportunity each and every meeting you miss. The fundamental reason why this is true is because if you are not attending Board meetings you will remain an “impersonal” entity to Board members. How much easier is it to replace a superintendent for salary-savings purposes that you never meet with face-to-face than an alert informative superintendent you do see face-to-face at every monthly Board meeting?
Based on conversations I have had with superintendents through the years, I estimate that about half of the country’s golf course superintendents attend their clubs’ Board meetings. Of course, virtually all attend their clubs’ Green Committee meetings.
Benefits Of Attending Board Meetings:
1. As implied above, the Board will get to know you personally and through you your family as well. Absent just cause, no one wants to put a family they know up close and personal out on the street.
2. Whether you have been attending Board meetings but have not been given the opportunity to report for your department, or you’re attending Board meetings for the first time – seek the opportunity to report about your maintenance program yourself (be informative and concise) because this will present you with the unique monthly opportunity to demonstrate your professionalism; i.e., to present your management, budget efficiency, future planning, communications and leadership skills in a manner that Board members would otherwise have little or no opportunity to witness firsthand.
No committeeman can educate as effectively as an experienced golf course superintendent . . .
Furthermore, your presence at Board meetings will encourage/facilitate Board members asking direct questions of their golf course superintendent about their club’s golf course maintenance program, which is the cornerstone of every private golf club’s operations. No committeeman can educate as effectively as an experienced golf course superintendent. Accordingly, an educated Board is the best job insurance policy a superintendent can have because the last thing appreciative Board members will want to do is to dismiss a respected teacher.
An educated Board is the best job insurance policy a superintendent can have …
Of course, we know that some Green Committee chairmen and general managers prefer to report on the status of their course maintenance programs themselves for control and self-serving political purposes. Should this be the case at your club, don’t give up on the idea of some day attending and personally reporting at future Board meetings because the benefits to be gained are invaluable to securing your job and sustaining your career.
When you are faced with this challenge: (i) continue to sell the concept that having a professionally trained golf course superintendent report and available to answer Board questions will present the program and all parties affiliated with the program (committeemen and GM, etc.) in a best light and win-win scenario; and (ii) negotiate guaranteed Board attendance into future employment agreements.
Be professional, patient and you will gain access to Board meetings in due course – not only because of the merit of the situation, but also because Board and committee members continuously turn over.
Superintendents, want to help your assistant(s) on their career path? Print out these Career Corner posts and responses on an ongoing basis and assemble them in a hard copy binder for your assistants and crew.
