PDGA Executive Director Resigns

[BrotherDave]

This sounds like a job for our ol' buddy MTL

Yep. Robert Leonard would get disc golf to overtake the NFL in popularity with one hand tied around his back.

 

[Dr.Smooth]

Details.. what does it pay, the appointment, where you work at etc...

No I'm not interested just want to know what we are working with here.

 

[onemilemore]

Details.. what does it pay, the appointment, where you work at etc...

No I'm not interested just want to know what we are working with here.

Believe the full listing is coming out tomorrow. Hope you like Georgia.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

They should bring someone who knows how to raise money, even if they are a non-disc golfer.

They won't, but they should.

That'd be a smart move.:thmbup:

 

[DavidSauls]

Details.. what does it pay, the appointment, where you work at etc...

No I'm not interested just want to know what we are working with here.

Good questions. I'm sure the answers will be forthcoming.

All of the speculation on who it will be, or should be, or whether that person comes from inside or outside the sport, needs to back up and ask, Who wants the job?

Strike off the list everyone who doesn't want to re-locate, or might not want to re-locate to Augusta.

Or might not want to travel as much as the job entails.

If we want an outsider who can raise lots of money---low on my priority list---surely that person is valuable to a lot of companies and organizations; does the PDGA pay enough to draw him or her from other job offerings?

Someone imaging the job entails shaping disc golf to his vision, might find that it entails a lot of mundane duties and not so much power.

A decade ago the PDGA was lucky to have a capable and willing person already located in Augusta. It'll be interesting to see how this candidate search goes. At least this time, the disc golf universe is about 3 times as big, so perhaps there'll be more insiders to choose from.

 

[chris deitzel]

As a member of team Vibram since 2009 I'd say there is about a 1% chance Steve dodge runs.

He just left his position at Vibram so he could move to Virginia to be near his kids. I highly doubt he will take a job that requires him to leave Virginia. But....who knows.

 

[cjdiscgolf]

As a member of team Vibram since 2009 I'd say there is about a 1% chance Steve dodge runs.

He just left his position at Vibram so he could move to Virginia to be near his kids. I highly doubt he will take a job that requires him to leave Virginia. But....who knows.

Why are people using the word runs?

The word is apply.

 

[dashiellx]

With technology the way it is, I'm kinda surprised moving to Augusta would be mandatory.

 

[Discette]

With technology the way it is, I'm kinda surprised moving to Augusta would be mandatory.

20 years ago, the PDGA was run out of someone's spare room in Canada. Now the position also involves overseeing the International Disc Golf Center and managing the PDGA staff. Relocation to the Augusta area will be required.

Here is some history:

PDGA Gets a Permanent Home
"When people would ask where the PDGA was located, I always told them it's in half of a room in a house on an island in Canada," said current PDGA Executive Director Brian Graham #5861 with a chuckle. It might sound like a joke, but Graham wasn't kidding when he responded that way.

For decades, the PDGA "headquarters" was simply the home of whoever was running the organization. Graham would have been referring to then PDGA Executive Director Brian Hoeniger's home in Toronto, where the PDGA was "headquartered" for many years.

Hoeniger has perhaps the longest tenure with the PDGA as a staff member, with his first day as Administrator being January 1st of 1997. At the time, Administrator was the one and only paid PDGA position, and Brian happily accepted the position. Hoeniger took over for Becky Powell, who was serving as the Administrator in Weatherford, Texas. Powell took over in 1995 with the tough task of essentially rebuilding a broken PDGA, but she pulled it off gracefully.

In 2002, as more staff positions were added, Hoeniger was promoted to Executive Director. With the sport getting bigger and bigger at the turn of the millennium, Hoeniger and the Board of Directors agreed that the PDGA should return to the USA. But…to where?

Cut to 2002, Brian Graham is working with the Greater Augusta Sports Council and Columbia County Parks on a series of land development projects. The Director of Columbia County Parks, knowing of Graham's interest in disc golf, presents Graham with a 90-acre piece of land in Wildwood Park to see if he thinks it has good course potential.

It definitely did. But Graham knew it could be so much more. Why have one course when there is room for three? What if there was a clubhouse, and a pro shop? Or a disc golf museum? A hall of fame? A new home for the PDGA, which was already in need of relocation?

The gears started turning and everything started falling into place. The county and the parks department approved. Graham then presented the proposal to the PDGA Board of Directors at the 2003 summit and they approved. Discraft and Innova were on board. DGA was on board. The Disc Golf Hall of Fame was on board. Everyone was in, and construction began.

Graham later realized that everything he was describing and working towards at the time came from an article he read in Disc Golf World News, written by none other than Dan "Stork" Roddick, in which Stork detailed a mythical disc golf mecca with all the amenities of a high-end golf clubhouse plus championship courses. It was a "wouldn't it be great if" type of piece, and with a bit of luck and a ton of helpful partners, Graham was making it happen.

Hoeniger and his wife Lorrie moved down to Augusta for the next two years while the facility was being built, renting out their house to a friend in Toronto. To get started, they both lived in and ran the PDGA from a park ranger facility that was offered by the parks department while PDGA's permanent headquarters was being built. They eventually rented a home near the entrance of the park and used the ranger station as a dedicated office. Things were starting to get real!


As head of the committee for the project, which he was referring to at the time as the National Disc Golf Center, Graham continued working closely with Hoeniger and the Columbia Country Parks & Recreation department on the development of the property.

After running the 2006 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships in Augusta, GA as co-Tournament Director with another local disc golf celebrity, Pete May #12700, Graham decided to take a year away from disc golf. His plan was soon thwarted when, after 11 years of dedication to the organization, Brian Hoeniger and Lorrie Gibson decided it was time to hang it up and head back to Toronto. With the Executive Director position up for grabs, and practically in his back yard, Graham could not pass up the opportunity and threw his hat into the ring.

Brian Graham was awarded the position by the PDGA Board of Directors and his first day as PDGA Executive Director was April 1st, 2007. The International Disc Golf Center officially opened its doors just a few weeks later.

The facility now boasts three championship courses, a pro shop, office space for the PDGA staff, the "Steady" Ed Headrick Memorial Museum, the Disc Golf Hall of Fame, picnic pavilions, and more. Less than a decade has passed since the IDGC opened and the sport is growing so fast that there will soon be the need for an additional facility to accomdate the growing staff required to serve the growing membership.

Link to above article: http://www.pdga.com/history

 

[TimSyl]

20 years ago, the PDGA was run out of someone's spare room in Canada. Now the position also involves overseeing the International Disc Golf Center and managing the PDGA staff. Relocation to the Augusta area will be required.

Here is some history:




Link to above article: http://www.pdga.com/history

Once again, Discette clarifies things, per usual.

 

[dashiellx]

20 years ago, the PDGA was run out of someone's spare room in Canada. Now the position also involves overseeing the International Disc Golf Center and managing the PDGA staff. Relocation to the Augusta area will be required.

I do not doubt you, but it just seems to be a waste of that person's time. Shouldn't the ED being working to grow the sport and the PDGA brand and not what basically amounts to running a museum/clubhouse/retail store and being an office manager.

 

[corin_brown]

Once again, Discette clarifies things, per usual.

Lol. :clap::thmbup::hfive:

Actually, while we're on the subject, I can't think of anyone better to be CEO of the PDGA than Suzette.

 

[corin_brown]

With technology the way it is, I'm kinda surprised moving to Augusta would be mandatory.

Really? You're surprised a CEO would of an organization like the PDGA would be required to be in the office whenever possible? So "with technology the way it is," I guess tech companies like Apple, Google, Boeing etc. shouldn't require their CEO's to live in SF & Chicago?

 

[cjdiscgolf]

Lol. :clap::thmbup::hfive:

Actually, while we're on the subject, I can't think of anyone better to be CEO of the PDGA than Suzette.

Suzette is great. But I don't think the org would have the spouse of owner of Innova as the exec director. We have enough conflicts of interests to begin with.

 

[corin_brown]

I do not doubt you, but it just seems to be a waste of that person's time. Shouldn't the ED being working to grow the sport and the PDGA brand and not what basically amounts to running a museum/clubhouse/retail store and being an office manager.

So, if you're on the PDGA board, you'd be fine with your CEO and highest paid employee living nowhere near your corporate offices?

CEO's of companies of all types and sizes must travel a lot. But the idea that they can run meetings & manage an office of any size 100% remotely seems a little...

 

[corin_brown]

We have enough conflicts of interests to begin with.

Lol. Hey, if it's good enough for POTUS, it should be good enough for the PDGA.

 

[JC17393]

I do not doubt you, but it just seems to be a waste of that person's time. Shouldn't the ED being working to grow the sport and the PDGA brand and not what basically amounts to running a museum/clubhouse/retail store and being an office manager.

That isn't remotely what the ED job amounts to. Oversees the staff and premises isn't all that hands on since there are designated staff to handle those operations. But it is still important to have the ED on site at the organization's HQ when he/she isn't out promoting the sport at various conferences and conventions.

Worth noting that there are only two paid positions on the PDGA staff that haven't, to date, required the person to relocate to the IDGC, and those are the technology-based jobs (IT and Media). The current Tour Manager, Events Manager, and Membership Manager all re-located to Appling/Augusta and the IDGC when they were hired, as did their predecessors. If they couldn't telecommute, I can't see how or why the ED would.

 

[Discette]

Lol. :clap::thmbup::hfive:

Actually, while we're on the subject, I can't think of anyone better to be CEO of the PDGA than Suzette.

No thanks, I already have the World's Greatest Job!

 

[Three Putt]

20 years ago, the PDGA was run out of someone's spare room in Canada. Now the position also involves overseeing the International Disc Golf Center and managing the PDGA staff. Relocation to the Augusta area will be required.

I forget the name of the woman who was the ED the first time I contacted the PDGA. Becky, maybe? Anyway, I was a n00b and had no idea that if I called the PDGA I would be calling her house in Texas. She was very nice and polite to the idiot that just called her house expecting some sort of actual organization and explained to me that legally the PDGA was mostly a collection of boxes that was still in the attic of the last ED's house and she was waiting for them to be sent to her. I got the feeling she had been waiting for a long time. That was probably in '95 or '96. The PDGA is a lot closer to now to the organization I expected it to be then.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Becky Powell - a top woman pro at the time. I think she was the PDGA Administrator at the time. John Houck may have been the Commissioner then which was the top position before the org was realigned.