After a few weeks of frost free weather combined with 300 pounds of grass seed and a thorough aerfication, the areas punished by winter are now finally getting back into expected condition. This has been, for the most part, a terrible spring and early summer for renovation/establishment. Nothing new in this part of the world. When the rest of the country is dealing with record highs, we seem to remain stuck with unseasonably cool weather. Summer never really happens here but rather we have a 5 month long spring, a month of fall, and six months of winter. Pretty sad-makes me wish for a little global warming to come our way.
As I make efforts to keep current in golf industry trends and challenges faced by my peers, the number one issue that always surfaces is staffing. Everybody is constantly complaining about an inability to hire good people to get work done. Not sure what it is, but we really have not had problems in this regard. Our only limiting factor for staffing is staying within a finite budget amount.
We have hired seven new crew members this year and I am, for the most part, very happy with how they are meshing in with our veteran nucleus and giving many of the experienced hands the opportunity to scale back on their own hours and enjoy life a little in season. Inevitably mistakes are made due to inexperience and I might have to whine a little more at times, but upon reflection I feel good about the sustainability of what we have here for years to come. I take a more long-term view of staffing and think of it more in terms of future years than I do fretting about having enough people to work this weekend. If you take care of the long-term, the short-term seems to take care of itself.
A big thank you goes out to George Bibeau, Mark Fabish, Daniel Hilmas, Alyssa Littlewolf, Christine Maki, Ron Marinaro, and Maury Morison for choosing to be a part of our group. Your efforts are appreciated by us all.
See you on the golf course,
Vincent Dodge CGCS