Page 9 - GreenMaster Winter 2022

Diversity & the Fore
Women are continuing to find a home within the turfgrass industry and according to Dean Baker, some of his best employees are women.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I)
can be somewhat complicated. At least it seems that way when you first encounter it. It is portrayed as a solution, but ED&I can prove uncom- fortable, mainly because of the genuine lack of knowledge and overall awareness for what ED&I is or what it can be.
That is how it looked to me as president of the Golf Journalists Association of Canada (GJAC). Inter- nally, our board of directors started talking about ED&I as a central mandate of our governance and operational model 18 months ago. Despite our best intentions, it did not take long to realize we were in over our heads. None of us had the first clue where or how to begin.
Regardless of gender, race or background, it requires a team of like-minded individuals to be successful.
The fact is that GJAC’s membership checked off the typical golfer stereotype box: mostly middle-aged white males with a small percentage of women members and no one of Indigenous, BIPOC, LGBTQ12S+, or people of differ- ing abilities or ethnic backgrounds.
Bottom line: We were a Canadian golf stakeholder with the aptitude of a 36 handicap for understanding and appreciating the empowerment potential and creative new ideas and opportunities that existed with ED&I.
TAKE MEANINGFUL FIRST STEPS
“Getting to the finish line can’t happen if you never get out of the starting gate,” said Matt Allen, the PGA of Canada’s Chief Innovation Officer and Chair of the organization’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. “That’s the first step.”
Utilizing a similar mindset and vision for the future, the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association (CGSA) has taken its first steps out of the start- ing gate with ED&I. Like GJAC, it received a capable assist. Long time turf grass partner, Syngenta Canada, has delivered a program that will roll out to CGSA members across the country in the coming weeks. Once trialed across Canada, Syngenta plans to take its ED&I initiative to golf courses around the globe.
GreenMaster • CGSA • 9