Fellow Professionals,
I want to take a moment to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve the Philadelphia Section PGA as Secretary for the next few years. The Secretary is responsible for keeping the minutes from all Section membership and Board meetings and to keep roll of its’ membership. The Secretary’s main roles fall under Education, Junior golf and changes to Section or National by laws or constitutions.
At the recent PGA Annual meeting the first order of business by the delegation was the discussion of the 27 resolutions that were being brought to the floor. Resolutions 1-23 were basically house keeping items that dealt with obsolete or out dated language in the by laws. Resolution 24 was almost a house keeping item, with the changes coming to the PGM program the apprentice employment requirement will become obsolete. Resolution 25 probably drew the most comments from the delegation in regard to allowing the board to control dues changes. There was so much opposition to it that it was eventually withdrawn in the formal session on Saturday. Resolution 26 dealt with “rewarding” those PGA members who have reached their 65th birthday and also attained 25 years of membership with changing their MSR requirement to meeting attendance only. Resolution 27 addressed the omission of “PGA recognized indoor facilities” from Article III, Section 4 of the by laws. This change would allow apprentices, after having passed level 1, to move to an indoor facility under a class A professional and still receive credits toward membership.
I believe everyone should know how the process works. On the floor are 2 delegates from each of the 41 Sections, also included are the current officers and all past presidents bringing the total number of possible votes to around 115. This number may change due to the number of Past Presidents attending. Once the resolution is read an open discussion is permitted for any delegate to offer questions to the resolution whether in favor or opposition. Once discussion has taken place a vote is put to the floor and the resolution either passes or fails. It’s amazing to see how close some of these come, in fact one resolution passed by only 3 votes, thus proving that each vote counts and is seriously thought out by each section. If you would like to see the resolutions you may go to PGALinks.com and view them.
In regard to education for the upcoming year, we are in the last full year of the 3 year cycle and all PGA members are required to earn 54 MSR credits. The Section and its’ education committee spend valuable time and money to create education opportunities, unfortunately, many times the seminars are under subscribed and have to be cancelled. This has a direct impact on our budget and creates long term challenges for our membership and our education committee. I’ve proposed for this year to create 5 education opportunities that have a direct impact on our business and hope that each and every member take the time to participate not only to acquire your MSR’s, but to elevate your status as a PGA member. Education is paramount in this new era and its challenging economy. “We”, as PGA Professionals, are the solution, not the problem with our ever changing golf landscape. It's our responsibility to maintain golfers, introduce new golfers and continue to prove our value to our employers. Make yourself indispensible at your facility by educating yourself with the new challenges ahead of us, we are the cure.
I would encourage all to sign up for these seminars in advance when you see the notices going out. Our Education Chair is John Rogers who has been at the forefront of education for our Section for the last 10 years and has put together seminars that will directly give you knowledge that will elevate your vocation.
Our Junior Golf program has been growing each year, our Junior Golf Chairman is Jeff Haas who will continue with our rich tradition of providing quality events, programs and growth of the game initiatives. Brian Shulte is our Junior golf staff member and PGA Professional who hand in hand with Jeff Haas have vaulted our program to the forefront in our region. Expose your Junior golfers to our Section program and they will get a front row seat to a professionally run event with an emphasis on FUN!
That’s all for now, if you have any questions or comments please contact me anytime at john.pillar@woodloch.com or 570.685.8122.
Enjoy the offseason and recharge yourself, wishing you a Healthy & Happy Holiday season.
Sincerely,
John E Pillar
Secretary, Philadelphia Section PGA |
