Phipps named GCSAA Northwest field staff representative

The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) has selected David Phipps as the association’s field staff representative for the Northwest region (Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado).

Phipps is a 12-year GCSAA Class A member and has more than 20 years of experience in golf course management. He was an assistant superintendent at The Oregon Golf Club in West Linn, Ore., from 1990-2000, and most recently was the construction manager and superintendent at Stone Creek Golf Club in Oregon City, Ore.. Additionally, he taught a turf and lawn maintenance class as a part-time instructor for Clackamas Community College’s Horticulture department and did public education for the Clackamas County Soil and Water Conservation District. Phipps is a 1985 graduate of Oregon State University with a bachelor’s degree in turf and landscape management.

Phipps has been active in serving on the national and chapter level. He participated in multiple GCSAA committees and was the Oregon GCSA chapter president in 2007. He has also written numerous articles for GCSAA’s GCM and served as the first editor of GCSAA’s online environmental case study database, “Greenlinks.” His efforts have earned him numerous honors and awards, including the Oregon GCSA’s Richard Malpass Distinguished Service Award in 2000 and 2007, the Oregon Golf Association’s Superintendent of the Year Award in 2009, the OGCSA’s Michael S. Hindahl Environmental Stewardship Award of Excellence in 2011, and GCSAA’s President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship presented earlier this year at the GCSAA Education Conference in Las Vegas. Phipps is a five-time winner of the GCSAA/Golf Digest’s Environmental Leaders in Golf Award.

“David is a great addition to the GCSAA team and is well-respected among the membership, especially in the Northwest,” said GCSAA president Sandy Queen, CGCS. “He has been a leader in the profession, most notably in his environmental stewardship efforts, and has been an extremely engaged GCSAA member. He will certainly be a valuable resource for the Northwest region of the country.”

To assist in the effort of serving members through chapters, GCSAA has continually added resources to facilitate an enhanced relationship between the association and its chapters, including the expansion of the GCSAA field staff program. Initially a pilot program designed to help chapters utilize GCSAA programs and services to a fuller extent, it has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from chapters that are staffed with representatives. These chapters report a greater connection with GCSAA, an enhanced ability to utilize GCSAA programs and services, and access to additional resources to advance chapters in a strategic manner.

In expanding the field staff program, GCSAA divided its chapters into nine regions with plans to place a field staff representative in each. Having resident field staff resources on the ground will help chapters implement programs developed by GCSAA, and will serve as a direct communication link back to GCSAA to share the successful practices chapters have implemented. The program is designed to be mutually beneficial for the association and its chapters.

GCSAA’s resident field staff representatives include:

John Miller, CGCS, in the Great Lakes region (Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio)
Brian Cloud in the South Central region (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana)
Jeff Jensen in the Southwest region (California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona)
Ralph Dain in Florida
Kevin Doyle in the Northeast region (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ontario)
GCSAA plans to fill the Southeast (Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi) and Mid-Atlantic (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia) regions later in 2012; and the Central Plains region (Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri) in 2013.