Features Profiles
Editorial: program goes audio

Turf & Rec’s second annual Top 10 Under 40 promotion was another success. The program recognizes some of the most talented young individuals across Canada who have contributed to their respective sectors of the industry through leadership, innovation, community involvement and other qualities that set them apart from others who have yet to reach their 40th birthdays.

Our first foray into this program was a little bit of a shot in the dark. We weren’t sure how our readers would respond to the call for nominations of worthy candidates, nor could we predict with any accuracy the number of nominations we’d receive. Would the response be too golf-heavy? Would Ontario dominate the number of nominations, since that’s where most of our subscribers reside? Would there be any women nominated?

As it turned out for our inaugural program in 2018, about half the nominees worked in the golf sector, but, surprisingly, most of our nominations came from Western Canada. And, yes, we had women nominated.

The response this year was much more pleasing. We had nominations from coast to coast, all sectors of the industry were represented, and we doubled the number of female winners.

The positive response has prompted us to take this promotion to another level. With the sponsorship of The Toro Company, we have produced a series of podcasts that – we hope – will be added to our website by the time this issue reaches our readers. These podcasts are in the form of recorded telephone interviews with our selected winners, with the thoughts of at least three of these individuals comprising each podcast.

This was a fun project to tackle. Questions were tailored to each winner’s own curriculum vitae so that they weren’t simply cookie cutter responses. I found what these individuals had to say particularly interesting, and I’m confident our readers will agree once they click onto the podcast link on our website. I also found that each of these recipients came across as extremely mature, as if they were much more experienced than they really were.

Unfortunately, I was unable to track down one of those from our honour roll. As we were going to press with our April/May issue, in which we featured this year’s top selections, it was announced the Bearspaw Country Club in Calgary had shut down operations for the year, catching everyone off guard, including its staff. The club’s assistant superintendent was one of this year’s top 10 selections, and my amateur detective skills in attempting to track him down have proved fruitless.

If he’s reading this and wishes to reach out to us, I’m sure we can still include him in this series of podcasts.

When I took on the editorship of Turf & Rec many, many years ago, I never thought I’d see the day when my job description would go beyond the printed word to the spoken word. I did have a little bit of broadcasting training during my college years, but never did I think it would ever be put to use. Upon playback of these podcast interviews and introductions, I would grade my performance as passable. I’m no Walter Cronkite, but I believe I can at least be understood.

It’s likely these podcasts will be done again in 2020 as we celebrate the accomplishments of our third crop of top 10 under 40 recipients.

There’s no time like the present to think about who might be worthy of such an honour for 2020. To nominate a deserving individual, please visit our website at www.turfandrec.com and click on the “Top 10 Under 40” button.