Adam Thoms, Ph. D. SFMA President athoms @ iastate. edu

OFFICERS

President: Adam Thoms, Ph. D.

Immediate Past President: Sun Roesslein, CSFM

President Elect: Alpha Jones, CSFM

Secretary-Treasurer: Casey Carrick, CSFM

Vice President Commercial: Erin Wilder

Directors

Academic: Chase Straw, Ph. D.

At-Large( elected): Weston Floyd, CSFM

At-Large( appointed): Lee Van Meeteren

Commercial: Matthew Duncan, CSFM

Higher Education: Jason DeMink, CSFM

Parks and Recreation: Zack Holm, CSFM

Professional Facilities: Dan Farnes

Schools K-12: Jake Mays

SFMA OFFICE P. O. Box 1673 Lawrence, KS 66044 Phone: 800-323-3875 Email: SFMAInfo @ SportsFieldManagement. org www. sportsfieldmanagement. org

SFMA EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Chair: Brad Thedens, CSFM Vice Chair: TJ Brewer, CSFM Board Liaison: Chase Straw, Ph. D. Members: Matthew Arms, CSFM; Joe Churchill; Cliff Driver, CSFM; Kate Garassino; Rebecca Knapp, CSFM; and Tony Koski.

Spring is finally here, and that means everyone is busy with coaches as every sport wants to be outside and use the fields. This time of year is always exciting with the goal of a fresh start on the fields and new crew members to train.

Successful training is so important to any crew. There are new and exciting courses being offered as part of the SFMA online education. If you have new employees who need some turfgrass education, have them check out the SFMA Turfgrass 101 course. We hope to add several more courses later this year, including turfgrass mathematics.

A quick look at the calendar also shows that there are a ton of local chapter workshops this summer that are great to have new crew members attend. I have personally met several individuals whose only turfgrass education is at these events. They are always very thankful that their bosses take them to these workshops for education.

Additionally, if you feel you have seen everything before at these workshops, speak up and volunteer to be on the education committee to help the planning. It is always a struggle to figure out what people want to learn about.

Summer is also full of field day events at your local universities; I would encourage you to consider attending those events to see the latest in innovation and testing. These events are a great opportunity to see how new products are doing with an unbiased testing protocol in your local climate, giving you a better idea of how they will work for you. Take the time at these field days to visit with the researchers and ask followup questions; they often will have additional information that can help you with future decisions.

If formal education is not what you’ re looking for, then maybe you want to check out the SFMA mentorship program. We have seen growth in the mentorship program with a 25 % increase in participation this year. This is a great opportunity to build your network with someone else in SFMA who has more experience. The mentor / mentee relationship can be very beneficial with not only agronomic advice but also career advice.

There are so many opportunities to learn more about our industry and products, and I encourage you all to attend a workshop, seminar or online program to keep up with the latest information in your industry. These events help keep you recent on the new technologies and keep growing your network.

– Adam Thoms, Ph. D. sportsfieldmanagementonline. com April 2025 | SportsField Management

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