PGMS News

First Event of the 2007 Site Visitations Series Was A Hit!

With all the plans to move the PGMS School of Grounds Management and the GIE/Expo to Louisville, KY for a couple of years, it's a great time to think of the Society's education and planning teams as "Louisville Sluggers". And, for a lead-off hitter (Regional Visitation and Education program in North Carolina), it was a first-pitch home run!

Led by the dynamic PGMS members of the North Carolina Branch, the visitation round-tripper included the touching of three bases and a bench-clearing welcome at home plate.
"We sensed we were ready to knock the ball out of the park with this program," said Michael Mongon, CGM, of the Fairfield Country Club in Connecticut and president of PGMS. "With more than three weeks to go, we were standing on deck with a sell-out crowd awaiting the first pitch."

Nearly 100 PGMS members and other grounds professionals were registered for the event. They came to Asheville, NC from as far away as California, Arizona, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and ten other states. Their focus was a spectacular behind-the-scenes tour of the palatial Biltmore Estate.

Rounding first base, the PGMS sluggers participated in a unique visit to the 434 acre North Carolina Arboretum where they had a chance to explore the multi-faceted operation of this special scientific research campus. Extremely different from the average arboretum, the North Carolina facility is working on numerous programs with much of its focus toward water conservation techniques and "green" building operations.

The Operations Center at the Arboretum, for instance, is one of 15 prototype buildings included in a pilot program for innovative building design of North Carolina state facilities. It follows established high performance guidelines adapted from the U.S. Green Building Council.

In general, the Arboretum promotes the stewardship and enjoyment of the wealth of plant life within the Southern Appalachians through world renowned gardens demonstrating cultivated and natural landscapes. It offers 65 acres of cultivated gardens, 10 miles of forested hiking and biking trails, a state-of-the-art greenhouse production facility, and the finest Bonsai collection in the Southeastern US Visit it at www.ncarboretum.org.

Touching second base, PGMS provided those who attended the visitation program two delightful networking receptions – one following each day's events. "After a long day of hiking and listening to the site presentations, the receptions afforded all of us a relaxed time to enjoy a beverage, some light foods and learn a little more about how other professionals manage their properties," commented Ken Stanton, CGM of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI.

A home-run might be a home-run in any other ballpark, but in Asheville, it was certainly third base and crossing the plate that brought the crowd to its feet.

Third base, if you will, was a highly informative series of four one hour education programs conducted on Friday morning. First, Julie Hanser, Marketing Manager of the Biltmore Estate, presented "Achieving the Good and the Great" in which she reviewed various marketing strategies used by the Estate and its parent company for continued growth. She stressed repeatedly that the business drivers for Biltmore were People and Purpose. "People and purpose always come first for us," she said. "Still, be realistic, flexible, and balanced as you market yourself. For we at Biltmore, it's wonderful to be able to have such a dynamic partnership between our marketing department and the landscaping professionals. The enhanced marketing value given Biltmore by professionally maintained landscapes is priceless!"

The second education program, "The Power of Presentation...adding value with Grounds Maintenance," was presented by Thomas Flood of Elon University in North Carolina. Tom reviewed how he has been able to expand the grounds department's budget through the positive marketing of his programs to school officials and to the public at large. "One of the most exciting tools that we have used in our efforts," he stressed, "has been our earning of a PGMS Green Star Award. We used this for a great deal of local publicity as well as a dynamic staff motivator as we purchased ‘Green Star Award Winner' uniform patches from PGMS for all of our crew. They take tremendous pride in being on the winning team."
George Briggs, Director of the North Carolina Arboretum, then addressed the education session on the "Master Planning" and the importance of long- and short-term plans to the ultimate success of any grounds program. He highlighted ways in which the Arboretum has been able to use its strategic plans to secure additional funding and help garner political support for its mission.

The fourth class of the morning featured Susanne Woodell, Landscape Manager for the Biltmore Estate. Susanne focused on "Color at Biltmore" and reviewed many of the strategies that go into plant selection and planting of the estate. She noted that the two primary visitation months for the Estate are April and May; although this is definitely beginning to spread out across the entire year due to effective marketing of other reasons to visit. April, by the way, features a gorgeous tulip display while May finds the 8,000 areas of the estate (that's right, 8,000 acres of pristine land belonging to one family) bursting in color as thousands of natural and cultivated azalea and rhododendrun present a spectacular display.

And what a better way to recap Susanne's presentation and let the PGMS "sluggers" cross home plate than with a visit to the grounds of the Biltmore Estate. Built in 1895 and opened to the public in 1930 to help the region recover from the depression, today Biltmore, America's largest home, is considered to be one of the 50 places of a lifetime to visit, according to National Geographic. For PGMS, the tour was extremely unique, as unlike nearly every other visitor to the one-time home of George Cornelius Vanderbuilt, PGMS took a pass on touring the over 250 rooms of the stately mansion and opted instead for a detailed look at the many challenges and opportunities presented to the grounds teams.
Framed by the Blue Ridge Mountains, Biltmore's 8,000 acre backyard ranges from formal gardens to naturalistic grounds. The ever-changing gardens–glorious spring blooms, vibrant summer colors and spectacular autumn foliage – showcase a century of care started by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead.

Among the unique maintenance programs presented to the PGMS team during its visit to the grounds, was the way in which the Biltmore arborists are identifying "treasured" trees, many of which are either state, national or world champions, to protect them from lightning strikes. PGMS will feature a detailed review of this program in a future issue of the Forum.
As noted at the outset, the North Carolina Visitation program was a true home-run for the Society. Plans are now underway for another visitation program in August to Xavier University and Cincinnati State College.

Then it's on to Louisville, October 23-27, and what PGMS believes will be another home run based on preliminary reports given by its Education Committee.
"Louisville 2007 will see the unveiling of a new curriculum-based school of grounds management with an emphasis toward expanding the number of grounds managers moving into the Certified Grounds Manager designation program," noted Gene Pouly, CGM of E.F. Pouly Co., in Orrville, OH, and chairman of the PGMS program for Louisville.
So, grab your bat and make your plans to be a part of the PGMS "Louisville Sluggers". We want to see you there.

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