As I write my final message of 2024, I want to thank our membership for their continued support of the OGSA and its 100-year-old mission to serve superintendents, advance the profession, and enrich the quality of golf and its environment. Without you, we couldn’t be where we are today with over 900 members, financial strength, and improved programs and services. Over the century, Ontario superintendents have risen to the challenge to serve and lead this association with determination and resilience – often faced with unpopular but pivotal decisions to strengthen our association and today, we share in the pride of what we’ve built together. It’s been an exciting year of celebration and we’re grateful for all of you who joined us at our conference, meetings, or golf events to be a part of this historical year.

With our celebrations behind us, the board is now looking to the future which includes continued progress and embracing every opportunity to engage with and promote our members. This year the OGSA proudly supported the Ontario Turf Research Foundation fundraising efforts with a $20,000 donation to help support research in the turfgrass industry. We’ve provided over $15,000 in scholarships and awards, in partnership with Allturf and Syngenta, to support our members and their families.

We’ve turned our attention to engaging youth in golf and turfgrass management through the First Green program and recently partnered with Golf Ontario to complete the 1000 ball challenge. This fundraising activity supports youth development in the golf sector and we raised funds for the OGSA to further support the First Green program. With these funds, the OGSA can now offer some subsidy to courses or schools to offset some of the cost to host a First Green event. If you would like to participate in First Green next year, I encourage you to reach out to Ryan Scott or Kevin Collier for more information about hosting.

We’ve also executed our first benefits and compensation survey since 2018. I want to thank those who participated in the survey. We had just over 120 golf courses participate (38% of courses who have membership with the OGSA) providing us with an excellent snapshot of compensation plans across Ontario. We consider this an excellent participation rate, and I hope that participants find the results valuable. Please keep in mind that results are confidential and are only available to those who participated. If you missed your chance this year, don’t worry, we will open this survey on a regular basis and encourage everyone to participate in the next round.

Winter is just around the corner and conference season will be here. The OGSA has partnered with the CGSA to co-host this year’s Canadian conference in lieu of our own. This is a great opportunity for you to network with superintendents from across Canada, benchmark your performance, and attend a wide range of professional development sessions. This conference has multiple stages, Women in Turf networking breakfast, an Assistant’s Networking Reception, and an Equipment Manager’s Education Series. Attendees will also have a chance to visit the industry tradeshow and connect with suppliers and we’re also heading back to the Niagara Parks Power Station for our welcome reception, which is awesome, and I encourage you to bring your whole team. Groups of four or more qualify for $50 off each registration; just email admin@ogsa.ca before you register, and the OGSA team will send you a unique promo code.

This is also a great time to check out the Ontario Best Management Practices document that we published in January. OGSA members can download the provincial document for your facility, or there is now an opportunity for Ontario GCSAA members to create their own unique facility BMP using a creation tool on the GCSAA website. If you are interested in this, again, please email admin@ogsa.ca and the OGSA can help get you started.

I would like to take the time to thank our Board of Directors who have volunteered their time to guide the OGSA into the future. I would especially like to thank past president Ryan Scott who has served the board for 8 years, participated on several committees, agreed to serve an additional year as we continued to welcome new directors, and most recently championed the launch of the First Green program. Ryan will complete his tenure with the board in February 2025, and it goes without saying that he will be missed. I would also like to thank our executive director Courtney White and the OGSA staff for their support over the last year; 2024 was an outstanding year, and I am excited for what lies ahead.

Sincerest regards,  

Ian McQueen, OGSA President, Superintendent at St. George’s Golf & Country Club