The "Happy" Committee
The New Year is off and running and I think we can all agree
that the Groundhog was not on his game for this year’s forecast. February is coming to a close and temperatures
have been more like mid-spring than late winter. As a result, the turf is
starting to green up earlier than expected this year and the Agronomy
department is excited and ready. I am especially pumped this year at East Lake
because I am fairly new to the club and look forward to the months ahead
leading to September and making a positive difference with our team.
East Lake has always strived to be a leader in the industry
and we realize we are nothing without a great team. Appropriately, leaders in
our Agronomy department have developed a program we affectionately call “Happy
Committee”. I have been given the honor of leading this program with the help
of Mandy Rowell and Lola Harper from our staff. The main goal is to keep our
employees happy by doing small things to let them know that they are
appreciated for all the hard work they do on a daily basis.
One of the things we came up with was to reward employees
for positive performance. When an employee goes above and beyond on a given
task, he/she receives their choice of either a Tour Championship or East Lake
Cup flag. We have given out several already this year and the crew really seems
to appreciate it and take pride in the flags. I hope in the future to get some
signed by some of the Tour professionals/ East Lake Cup participants to be
highly sought-after prizes.
I have purchased a dartboard for everyone to use on breaks
that is mounted in my shop so guys can listen to music and hopefully build
bonds. We have done surprise breakfast
biscuits for the crew. We have also implemented monthly birthday cakes to celebrate
the employee birthdays for that month, as well as farewell cookies and cakes for years of appreciated service. We will be doing quarterly cookouts on
property with our first being March 31st. Our gracious General
Manager/COO and Director of Golf, Chad Parker,
has been kind enough to volunteer to cook for the crew as well for the
first annual cookout. We plan on adding a horseshoe pit on site for everyone, as
well as corn hole and ladder golf. There are many other ideas we are working on
to include and I’m excited to be a part of this great department and club I now
call home.
I hope in return the Happy Committee will create stronger
bonds within our team and allow us to grow with each other to strive “as a
team” to be the best Agronomy team in our industry.
Equipment Manager
East Lake Golf Club
