President's Report
- Bryan Tunstill
CEO's Report - Jeff Ellison
Holk's Highlights
Employment Services
- Carol Pence
Player Development
- Monte Koch
Financial Services
- Blake Parrish
Members on the Move

Gold Level Sponsors

President's Report

As we approach the coming year and make plans for 2015, I wanted to share with you our club's experience with PGA Junior League. It was our first year participating, and it was the most successful endeavor we took upon all year. For those of you who host PGA Junior Leagues at your facilities, I would bet that you have similar stories and successes. But for those of you that haven’t yet, I urge you to consider hosting a team (or two) in 2015. You will be thankful that you did.

We registered our team with the PGA and a box showed up full of jerseys, golf balls, bag tags, scoring sheets, and some PGA Junior League branded promotional materials. At our first practice, we passed out the jerseys and watched the kids faces light up. I forgot how much fun and how big of a deal to kids it is to pick your jersey number. One junior yelled that he wanted to be "Ronaldo" and someone else yelled "Shotgun" to get the first pick. After a little PGA Pro coordination, every junior had a jersey and a smile. The team was born.

We explained the matches and the way the league works. Parents looked anxiously over our shoulders as we started practicing with the kids. We picked partners, made plans, and started making strategies. Weaknesses were improved, strengths built upon, fundamentals developed, and teamwork was promoted. By the end of a few practices, we were ready for our first match. Or so I thought.

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CEO's Report

Happy New Year! Here’s wishing you and your family a very healthy, happy and prosperous 2015. With the dawn of the New Year I’m reminded how lucky we are as PGA Professionals to work in an industry centered on fun and enjoyment. A hundred years ago, I was headed down a different path where conflict and disagreement were the norm. I’m fortunate my old friend Don Bails showed me the light and it’s been 30 years of working with folks out to have a good time….well, most of them! Thank you all for being part of the first group.

The 2015 tournament schedule is complete and on the web site. Tournament dates and important events are on the calendar. Please work our outstanding championships into your schedule and make plans to attend our spring and fall meetings. As we approach June 15 and the end of the MSR cycle, make sure you complete your requirements. Log in to PGALinks to check your status.

The Special Awards Committee just completed their work for the 2014 Section Special Awards. I wish you all could have seen the effort and flat-out work that the six professionals put into the analysis. The high quality of the professionals identified by the chapter committees made the selection process difficult. The Special Awards Committee based their analysis on the merits of each candidate’s performance, often sought additional information, and let the facts lead the way to a recommendation. “Fine Line” was a common point as the committee worked to reach their recommendations. However, their work is not yet done – they are already hard at work discussing improvements to the process for 2015, like more user-friendly bios! Look for a press release after the January 9 Board Meeting and notification of the winners by President Tunstill. Congratulations to all the Chapter winners. You are a very impressive group of PGA Professionals.

Gold Level Sponsors

Holk's Highlights

Brought to you by Grant Holcomb and:

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John Thorsnes

Facility: Wine Valley GC

Hometown: Medford, OR

College: Pacific Lutheran University

PGA Member Since: 1990

PNW PGA Board Member: 2011-2012

Both the PNW Senior Players' Championship and the Northwest Open will both be contested at Wine Valley GC in 2015. How did this course get started and what was your involvement?

"Wine Valley got started through a friendship with a local farmer who was an avid golfer and had 3 different pieces of property that he thought might be great sites for a golf course. After looking at a couple pieces of his property, I got ahold Dan Hixson and asked him to come over and take a look, as I thought they looked very good. Dan agreed and he designed many holes at the final site until we got it down to the final 18 that are here today!"

Silver Level Sponsors

carol pence

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8 Ways to Build Good Karma at Work

Carol Pence, PGA | PGA Employment Consultant | CPence@pgahq.com

If you want to succeed on the job, you need the support and respect of your co-workers. After all, you never know when you'll be asked to partner with someone on a project or need a helping hand from a fellow staffer. Having good relationships at work also makes it more pleasant to be there. Provided by Robert Half International, here are eight ways to build good karma at work.

Be friendly - While it may seem that your reputation is formed solely by the quality of your work, your attitude is a big factor. Smiling and saying hello to all you pass is an easy way to project a friendly and positive attitude. Other small acts, like opening a door for a co-worker can go a long way. After all, people want to work with those they like.
Offer a helping hand - It's certainly nice to take a break and relax between assignments, but if you can tell that a co-worker is stressing out over a project while you're kicking back, offer to give him or her a hand. They will remember the gesture the next time you need assistance.

Silver Level Sponsors

monte koch

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Get Pro-Active with Your Marketing in 2015

Monte Koch, PGA | Player Development Regional Manager | mkoch@pgahq.com

Avoid "e-blasting" your customers and try these tips for targeted success!

If you’re into your second or third decade as a golf professional, you can remember when the term “e-blast” was new and fresh. After more than a decade, it’s now old and tired. The brutal facts of the email game are obvious: "Too many, too often, too often not relevant"... This is how we feel about our own in-boxes - how can we expect it to be any different for our customers?

At my old facility, we thought we had it figured out when we moved our database from 6k to 16k. It was good, well-segmented, well-qualified list and the response rate was solid (at between 6-10% depending on the promotion.) But that was 2010 and 2011. There’s now a better way! It starts with four simple premises:

We all appreciate personalization, including our customers!
Personalization is becoming more priceless every day, and it doesn’t take long to remind a customer of your relationship.
Rapport, relationship and reciprocity builds loyalty and a desire to support.
100 key “rapport-rich” relationships are worth exponentially more than 10,000 “like-relationships” (as in Facebook likes).

Click "Read More" to learn about the Pro-Active Touch to marketing to your customers.

National Sponsors

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Your Emotions Could Cost You -4.32%

Blake Parrish | BP Financial Associates | blake@bpfinancialassoc.com

-4.32% is the difference the average investor fared compared to the 7.8% return of the S&P 500. To make it very simple, the S&P 500 returned 7.8% in 2012, while the average investor’s net return was a mere 3.48%, meaning the average investor did not even capture the market return of a simple balanced portfolio. How did this happen? It has been explained as the gap between our rational left brain and the emotional right brain.