Winter 2014

Hope!!!     

I hope everyone is planning on taking much needed time off during the holiday season to refresh and to recharge the batteries.

I hope you got to take the time to attend the Texas Turfgrass Association’s winter educational conference and trade show in Fort Worth. There were some great talks, opportunities to meet new friends and to connect with old acquaintances you may not have seen since last year’s conference. If you were not fortunate enough to attend, encourage your employer to allow you to attend next years Conference in San Antonio.

I hope you were able to attend the TXSTMA annual meeting and election of next years’ officers during the TTA conference. I want to personally give a big THANK YOU to all the board members that take the time out of their busy schedules to serve you and the sports turf industry. Thanks to the membership and the board for allowing me the opportunity to serve another year as the president for 2015. The board is focused on our main goal of providing as many educational opportunities at our regional field days that are of value to you and your crew. I hope you take a day off when we offer the field day opportunities to allow yourself and your crew (as many as you can spare for a few hours) to take advantage of the educational opportunities. 

We are always looking for members to step up and offer their facilities to host these events. If you think you would be interested in hosting an event, please call one of your board members and let’s discuss it. Don’t forget to check our website often to get the most up-to-date schedule for our future Field Days @txstma.org. Your membership renewal reminders should be in your e-mail inbox in the next couple of weeks. You can go online to renew or call the office and we can take your credit card information over the phone as well. 

HOT OFF THE PRESS! Our very own TXSTMA board member Dan Bergstrom

has recently been elected to the STMA Board of Directors. His position is Director, Professional Facilities Representative and he will officially take office at the Denver conference. This is a really terrific accomplishment and will provide TXSTMA members with great representation on a national level. Nice work Dan and good luck with your new position.


I Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year.

Sincerely your friend in Turf,

Rusty Walker, CSFM
Athletic Field Foreman—City of Grapevine

Fall 2014

Exciting times for TXSTMA! We have finally hired a new part-time Chapter Executive. Her name is Carol Cloud and along with Carol we will be getting some extra help from her husband Brian. Both Carol and Brian have a background in the turf industry being the former Chapter Executives for the North Texas Golf Course Superintendents Association. They have hit the ground running since mid-September and haven’t slowed down much. They have already added another form of communications with you our members, that will come out bi-weekly called Scoreboard. If you know of some industry news or you have a story of interest please feel free to share that with Carol. We would love to have our membership news highlighted in this publication. There will be another form of e-communication coming at you also called Quick Hits that could feature job openings and timely industry news, etc. These two new forms of e-communications will be a great opportunity for
our Affiliate Members to get some new optional advertising formats. Please introduce yourself to Carol and Brian at our annual meeting in December. In the meantime if you have anything you need don’t hesitate to contact Carol. email: carolcloud@txstma.org Our new phone # is (817) 736-0727.

I hope you all have plans to join your fellow Sports Turf Managers at the Texas Turfgrass Association Annual Conference in Ft. Worth on December 16-18, as well as join us at the TXSTMA Annual Business Meeting and Luncheon on December 17 from 11:30-12:30. We will be electing our new officers for 2015 as well as giving away 2 Free registrations to the National STMA Conference on January 13-17 in Denver Colorado.

The board is working on getting our Field Day schedules and sites set for next year as well so if you have an interest in hosting one of those Field Days please get in touch with a board member. We also hope to expand our Scholarship Fundraiser Clay Shoot to try and include 1 in the DFW area, 1 in the Houston area and 1 in the Austin/San Antonio area.

Our main goal as a board is to try and provide as many quality educational opportunities for our membership as we can. We are always looking for members to step up and offer their facilities to host those events. If you think you would be interested in hosting an event, please call one of the board members and let’s discuss it. 

Sincerely your friend in Turf,
Rusty Walker, CSFM
Athletic Field Foreman—City of Grapevine