26 Sep 2011 by pacman75cricket
Hi all,
I have a meeting thursday about our county groundsman association, to try & get things going as basically non-existent.
Sounds like they can work really well, but what makes members join their local associations.
also what to members see as the most beneficial part of their association.
Good for clubs but offer little to groundsmen. All about ticking boxes to access funding. Have to have PA's and so many people going through courses to get funds. Trailers are a waste of time other than for the bloke who stores it.
I for one value the Sussex GA.( have read the posts about volunteers and paid staff and sympathise but our club would simply not survive without the volunteers.) We are a small club and do our best to support the GA which gives us access to to skilled groundsmen and their knowledge which they are generous enough to share, not to mention Mackay and being able to see firtst hand how a county ground operates. We would never see a 602 let alone be able to use one if it was not for the trailer and the dedicated individual who makes it work. Pacman I wish you well I for one appreciate what you are trying to do.
I'd imagine it's a lot of work to get one going, but it can be done.
Devon have recently set theirs up so it might be worth contacting the Devon CDM.
Ours works - sort of. There's a lot more that it could do (like bulk buys etc) but there seems resistance from some of the members.
Cost to a club of joining our GA is £5 I think. This allows access to the trailer (and operator if required) hire for a pittance (imo). We rarely have meetings, but when we do we make sure there's a speaker who's worth listening to. All it takes is a phone call to the GA chairman (or secretary) and I'm sure there'd be an experienced groundsman available to discuss any problems.
Yes, it's a tick in the box, but it's also useful for those groundsmen (who don't frequent places like this) to get access to help and advice.
Oh, we also get a freebie day out at the county ground.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
In Lincs our GA meets in autumn winter, about 5 or 6 times. We typically get 10 to 20 in the audience. We've had several very good speakers, from Test level groundsmen to local machinery dealers (no offence Gavin!). We've had evenings with manufacturers such as Dennis. Ant A has spoken to us about his theories of turfcare and we recently had a demo of various hire equipment including a tractor mounted Allet scarifier, a Graden GS04 and a JD aerocore. These are the type of kit we volunteers read about but almost never get to compare in action side by side. Last year Martin organised a day visit to a 1st class county ground where we spent the afternoon with the head groundsman.
In a county like ours (big miles from end to end) the trailer is of little value other than to a small number of clubs and the maintenance issues mean that reliability is a concern.
But for my mind, Martin D, Howard S and Mike S have done cricket in Lincs a great service by organising the association. I don't see the association as a tick in a box. I see it as an asset to local groundsmen.
The ciderman rolls
What a ridiculious post Mr Demain you obviously do not have a successful cga operating in your county. Here in Lincolnshire we meet on avearge 5 times throughout the close season, we have just had a very successful autumn workshop evening held at my own ground were over 25 groundsmen attended gaining valuable information on scarification, we have trips arranged to test match venues, dual sporting venues, county groundsmen coming to speak and offer their expert advice, again offering much to the groundsmen that will attend, our trailer particually the spiker is well used being the 2nd largest geographical county does not create any boundrays when it is required and happily housed wherever it may find itself proving quite a valuable asset, so you see if you work hard at your cga it will become an essential part of the groundsmen education and information. Incidently as the county pa can't remember the last time I had to tick any boxes to get funds for the cga we do it all by our excellent membership.
Ridiculous Mr Deans. have you any experience of either of the County GA's that I have worked with? Yours may well work and that is probably down to your dedication and you giving up a lot of time, free of charge. But do not accuse me of a ridiculous post when I simply comment on 2 Counties who's GA has done nothing for the past 4 years at least.
Look again at packmans first line, then confirm my post was indeed ridiculous.
My claim about ticking boxes was also fact as I can prove following discussions with CDM's in both Counties.
My experience of the GA in Surrey is quite good. My pitch advisor is very helpful and proactive.
We only have one major meeting a year and we are asked to make suggestions re the content. My opinion personally was that I'd prefer less presentations from companies and more from experienced professional.
I attended the Uxbridge seminar last year and Dennis who sponsored it, actually forfeited their presentation because the others ran over time especially the ones by county groundsmen. The fact that they did that impressed me.
What I want out of a GA is information, knowledge and opinion on practical matters, not over empathis on sales. I can get that anytime.
So I think they are a good idea, depending on how they are run.
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
So vic you should have highlighted the fact that in your experiance the 2 cga you have worked with are a waste of time, not giving the overall impression that all cgas and their possesions are useless, indeed there are many active cgas across the country and its that reason why I called it a ridiculous post as it appeared you were giving a national picture which is not the case sounds like they need someone in your area with a bit of passion to get it going again, very surprised that your cricket board has allowed it to drift for so long.
Surely we can only ever talk about our experiences, I simply offered an answer to packmans last line.
Our GA was allowed to drift until the threat of losing funding.
Sussex Association is generally a big success - the trailer is very very busy (I think 40 plus clubs during September last year) and breakdowns are pretty limited. This is 99% down to the excellent job done by Brian Fletcher our trailer co-ordinator who is very generous with his time and expertise and you must take my word for it when I say that this is a labour of love for him rather than a financial excercise. The trailer is also busy running the spiker around in the winter months.
The SACG meet three times a year:
- spring: A poke around the turf at the County Ground, Guest speaker (in the past we've had people like Alex Vickers, Kate Entwhistle, Bernhard grinders) and general chin wag.
- Summer: a social event, usually on day three of a County game where members get dinner for £10 and a trip out to the middle at the lunch interval - this is an informal affair with lots of booze.#
- Autumn: As spring but with AGM.
We usually get between 35 to 40 people attending.
We have a management comittee who meet twice a year to discuss all the boring stuff we're trying to get away from at the groundsmans meetings and their proposals are ratified at the AGM.
We are about to start 'clinics' at the meetings whereby members can discuss problems with one of the three pitch advisors in the county (which they do anyway, but this is a way of encouraging it).
I forget exactly what the figures are, but membership is something like £75 per year and for that the club get unlimited use of the trailer and the spring and autumn meetings. The association is just about self funding on this basis.
We're trying to bring local councils on board too and offer a membership to them for a nominal fee which excludes use of the trailer. Our association is about doing anything and everything possible to better the standard of pitches in the County.
Central purchasing has been discussed and is still under consideration, however, I can't see how this would practically work, though we do have a sponsor (Blade Amenity) who offer 10% discount on seed, fertiliser and soil for members.
It is likely that next year we will look to emulate the big event day that the Surrey association have and to try to turn it into a demo day, but this is under discussion at the moment.
We're trying to better the association and increase involvement so if anyone has any good suggestions about what works in their areas then I'd be glad to hear them.
So you had your meeting last night packman. How did it go?
30 Sep 2011 by pacman75cricket
No other groundsman attended, so rather disappointing.
Think the impression would be to run a few groundsman days.
Also trailer mentioned and point was raised cost for county may not be cost effective as clubs would be better to get. In contractor.
Shame packers old chap.Costs off the trailer have risen here in Surrey this year but for the first time in three years.
Think sga's work as well as the enthusiasm of the people involved both running it and members involved.
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
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