ATA Turf Times – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com
The Turf Zone: Welcome to the Turf Zone. In this episode of Alabama Turfgrass, I’m joined by our ATA President Joe Collins, and Vice President Ben Anderson. Joe is Landscape and Sports Turf Manager at Samford University and Ben is the Golf Course Superintendent at Arrowhead Country Club. Ben and Joe, thank you so much for joining me.
Joe Collins: Thank you, Julie. 
Ben Anderson: Thanks for having us.
 
TTZ: In this episode we’re talking State of the Association, so this is just an update from Ben and Joe about ATA coming out of 2020 and going into 2021, what we can look forward to and what we can expect. So we’re going to start at the beginning. Joe, will you tell me about – how was Alabama Turfgrass Association formed and a little bit about its membership?
JC: Sure. The ATA was formed 56 years ago to get together people like Ben and I and all our peers around the state to educate and connect and learn more about turf. We have currently 650 members representing all segments of the turfgrass industry – we’ve got lawn care specialists, sports turf managers, golf course superintendents, landscape contractors, landscape maintenance professionals, sod producers, industry suppliers and vendors, professors, researchers, extension agents and students. We cover just about everybody who has anything to do with turfgrass in the state.
 
TTZ: So that’s a wide range of different turf professionals and I know that, you mentioned, that education is a really big focus. How does ATA accomplish that education mission for its members?
JC: Last year we had the issue with COVID, we had to restrict all of our meetings based on the regulations that the state put in. We could not get together face-to-face as we normally would have. Normally we’d have six road show seminars in conjunction with Auburn University and their turfgrass unit, then every other year we have a lawn and landscape workshop, then the alternate year we have a sports turf field day where people who have specific connections to those types of fields can get together with their peers and learn in a close-in setting with the hands-on projects. We also support the Auburn University Turfgrass Field Day Research unit, and we also have the poa annua golf tournament that we sponsor as a form of raising money and to have a little fun with the members. We also are sponsors of the Deep South Turf Expo every fall, which we have a regional meeting with people from the states that surround us – Mississippi, Louisiana and ourselves – and we get together and have a good time and learn a lot about turf and just get together with our friends and have a little fellowship together around turf. And also provide some education with our membership and their membership and everybody get their CEU credit points and stay certified.
 
TTZ: We know that with over 650 members like you mentioned earlier, and these events that are typically annual events, that you didn’t get to do those in 2020 because of COVID – how has ATA been functioning financially without those events?
JC: Good question. We have luckily had good board members over the past several years that have really helped us to bank a number of dollars in case of happenings like this COVID issue. We raise money on these events to sponsor the association and to sponsor the research but our vendors and sponsors have just been outstanding, they’ve stayed with us. We can’t thank them enough for their participation with the ATA and how important they are to us and our survival. Like I said, we’ve had memberships and boards past that have helped us save a little money for these rainy days and right now we’re in pretty good shape, so we’re in good shape going into this year, we’re hoping for some meetings coming back on that would allow us to once again, fill up the coffers and help us maintain our edu...