Key Points and News
1. Austin's City Courses announced Tuesday afternoon that they are reopening for limited play officially beginning April 15. The details are on their website. The courses are now taking tee-times for playing under new rules and safety plans. This will not change ASGA currently canceled tournaments. We will be working hard to try and find a way to play a tournament under these guidelines in time for our scheduled 5-26 Kizer event. Details will come to you in the future after we meet with the golf officials. 2. The city has been approached by several members and most recently your General Membership Delegate Lewis Howell to determine how annual prepaid membership programs would be handled. The final determination has not been made, but the city does plan to find a fair way to make us whole due to lost playing time while the courses were closed. A large portion of our membership does pay for and use a 6 or 12 months prepaid card. Once we know the final outcome it will be published. In the mean time Jack Scruggs our PARD Director will represent us well.
3. Please put Gene Payne, ASGA Website Chairman, in your thoughts and prayers. He has been battling some health issues in the hospital for a week or so.
4. Paul Redden has been diligently developing code for our new on-line sign up system and has put together a history and future thoughts about ASGA as it relates to this and other technology over the years. See the accompanying article below my sign-off. It is a great read and we really appreciate Paul.
The opening up of the city golf courses is a positive sign of having our lives back. We are using this time to improve. The committee to bring to life our on-line system for sign up consists of Shawn Higgins, Sam Jenkins, Paul Redden, Bill Burke, Lewis Howell and Travis McWhorter. All members have contributed and are currently working with our latest test. Paul has worked the hardest by far and with his skills in programming he is the most needed. Sam Jenkins has been great at adding his thoughts on systems and editing skills to increase efficiency. For the record Sam Jenkins recruited me to the board many years ago and one of his goals was an automated system. Later I became the president and was surprised that when I talked to them privately. more than half the board members indicated to me that they did not want a change. We settled for ordering some exploratory software for Paul to examine and put it once again on a "back burner."
At the conclusion of Paul's most recent term as president he approached me about running for president again. I had served 3 years before, but really felt I had left something undone. Paul said we would all get behind it and together we could get this done. So now with Paul and Sam ready to help us, we can finish what we started with the help of the dedicated committee, the board and the rest of the membership. We ask you to get behind this new sign up system when it is ready to be implemented and help us make this change to ensure our future. It will not be perfect, but we can make it better as we go forward. This is definitely one way that the time out caused by Covid-19 will pay great dividends for every member of the Association. I certainly believe so.
3. Please put Gene Payne, ASGA Website Chairman, in your thoughts and prayers. He has been battling some health issues in the hospital for a week or so.
4. Paul Redden has been diligently developing code for our new on-line sign up system and has put together a history and future thoughts about ASGA as it relates to this and other technology over the years. See the accompanying article below my sign-off. It is a great read and we really appreciate Paul.
The opening up of the city golf courses is a positive sign of having our lives back. We are using this time to improve. The committee to bring to life our on-line system for sign up consists of Shawn Higgins, Sam Jenkins, Paul Redden, Bill Burke, Lewis Howell and Travis McWhorter. All members have contributed and are currently working with our latest test. Paul has worked the hardest by far and with his skills in programming he is the most needed. Sam Jenkins has been great at adding his thoughts on systems and editing skills to increase efficiency. For the record Sam Jenkins recruited me to the board many years ago and one of his goals was an automated system. Later I became the president and was surprised that when I talked to them privately. more than half the board members indicated to me that they did not want a change. We settled for ordering some exploratory software for Paul to examine and put it once again on a "back burner."
At the conclusion of Paul's most recent term as president he approached me about running for president again. I had served 3 years before, but really felt I had left something undone. Paul said we would all get behind it and together we could get this done. So now with Paul and Sam ready to help us, we can finish what we started with the help of the dedicated committee, the board and the rest of the membership. We ask you to get behind this new sign up system when it is ready to be implemented and help us make this change to ensure our future. It will not be perfect, but we can make it better as we go forward. This is definitely one way that the time out caused by Covid-19 will pay great dividends for every member of the Association. I certainly believe so.
Travis McWhorter on behalf of the ASGA Board
Paul Remembers The History and Sees The Future of ASGA.
Since inception the Austin Senior Golf Association (ASGA) has striven to provide an environment for the enjoyment of golf for the collective membership from initial signup to publishing of results. The operation has evolved from a completely manual operation when the ASGA was founded in 1974, to an email, then text-based website to the current database-driven website. The operation has and continues to be run by an all-volunteer staff of ASGA Board of Directors and other committed members.
Advanced technology allows changes and improvements to be realized in a number of areas of the Organization operation. One area in development for near-term action is a membership email announcement list with the intention of improving communication on notices such as cancellations, tee times/results postings and ASGA News blog notices. Also the next Board of Director Meeting is being planned to be conducted on ZOOM a virtual on-line system.
The process for signing up for tee times for ASGA events has been essentially unchanged since the Organization was set up: Call the course on Wednesday before the next Tuesday tournament or get in line at the course and signup your team or foursome.
Signups are taken starting at 7:00 on an alternating basis between in-person and telephone calls. There are typically eight tee times per hour thus the first two hours are taken by the first eight in line at the course and the first eight to get their call answered at the course. Members repeatedly calling in often do not get connected to the course until the calls decrease as tee times are assigned. This means to ensure getting a desired tee time either get up at 3:00 A.M. and go to the course or get lucky connecting by phone.
There has been a lot of discussion over the years and apparently some attempts to change the system, but none were able to succeed. Many members have expressed increased frustration with the process even to the level of some dropping out of ASGA. Of course there are a few that prefer no changes be made.
Travis McWhorter outlined to the membership that one of the goals for 2020 was to get the system automation done. The Board of Directors approved the concept and a committee of six was formed to develop an on-line process requesting tournament tee times and is actively being tested now. The intention is to have it ready to go at the first or near the first tournament after we return from the Covid-19 shut down. You will learn more as we go and some of you will participate in part of the preliminary tests.
Key elements include verification of ASGA membership, a fillable form for one to four members, provisions for requesting a range of an acceptable tee time for the group with a preference on one of three time ranges. Tee times will then be randomly assigned by an unbiased computer seeking the desired time range as close as possible to the request.
Our belief is that this process will ultimately result in a better environment for the majority of the membership, save time, be fair and bring us into the 21st century and allow us to grow. We will always be working to improve as we go into the future.
Advanced technology allows changes and improvements to be realized in a number of areas of the Organization operation. One area in development for near-term action is a membership email announcement list with the intention of improving communication on notices such as cancellations, tee times/results postings and ASGA News blog notices. Also the next Board of Director Meeting is being planned to be conducted on ZOOM a virtual on-line system.
The process for signing up for tee times for ASGA events has been essentially unchanged since the Organization was set up: Call the course on Wednesday before the next Tuesday tournament or get in line at the course and signup your team or foursome.
Signups are taken starting at 7:00 on an alternating basis between in-person and telephone calls. There are typically eight tee times per hour thus the first two hours are taken by the first eight in line at the course and the first eight to get their call answered at the course. Members repeatedly calling in often do not get connected to the course until the calls decrease as tee times are assigned. This means to ensure getting a desired tee time either get up at 3:00 A.M. and go to the course or get lucky connecting by phone.
There has been a lot of discussion over the years and apparently some attempts to change the system, but none were able to succeed. Many members have expressed increased frustration with the process even to the level of some dropping out of ASGA. Of course there are a few that prefer no changes be made.
Travis McWhorter outlined to the membership that one of the goals for 2020 was to get the system automation done. The Board of Directors approved the concept and a committee of six was formed to develop an on-line process requesting tournament tee times and is actively being tested now. The intention is to have it ready to go at the first or near the first tournament after we return from the Covid-19 shut down. You will learn more as we go and some of you will participate in part of the preliminary tests.
Key elements include verification of ASGA membership, a fillable form for one to four members, provisions for requesting a range of an acceptable tee time for the group with a preference on one of three time ranges. Tee times will then be randomly assigned by an unbiased computer seeking the desired time range as close as possible to the request.
Our belief is that this process will ultimately result in a better environment for the majority of the membership, save time, be fair and bring us into the 21st century and allow us to grow. We will always be working to improve as we go into the future.
Paul Redden, ASGA Past President
