Newsletters from September of 2023
thru the Spring of 2024
MINUTES OF MEETING OF September 19, 2023
Dick Muri opened the meeting and introduced Connie Hebe. She is the Deputy Director of Public Services for the Pierce County Library System. She gave an interesting overview of the Pierce County Library System, the focuses of which are “learning, enjoyment, and community.” She pointed out that, “Public libraries have endured for centuries to provide free access to information to protect the right to think, to exchange ideas.” On their website, https://mypcls.org/about-us/, that the system provides a variety of services at 19 locations in Pierce County and online.
Expanded the focuses accomplish the following:
Learning:
• Supports growth and curiosity.
• Prepares preschoolers to learn.
• Promotes school and career success.
• Strengthens skills and knowledge.
Enjoyment:
• Helps people enjoy their free time.
• Inspires imagination.
• Fosters love of reading.
• Creates opportunities to discover.
Community:
• Connects and strengthens communities.
• Brings people together.
• Activates communities with welcoming buildings and online spaces.
• Connects people with information and community resources.
Connie described that
• They serve people where they are through “pop up” libraries.
• That the System has lots of partners. For instance, it continues to offer COVID test kits at libraries through partnership with the Pierce County Health Department.
She showed plans for the interim “brick and mortar” Lakewood Library to be located on the intersection of Gravelly Lake Drive SW and Alfaretta Street SW for which construction is underway.
There was a discussion of what was to happen with the site of the old Lakewood library building which is to be demolished.
Property taxes fund the Pierce County Library System. The Pierce County Library Foundation helps with funding. Efforts are underway to develop a strategic plan for the System in 2024.
COMING EVENTS
Our new president for this coming year, Dr. Mike, expects to be back with Vim, Vigor & Vitality for this next meeting on September 26. The speakers next week are Coach Alyson Morse and Alan Anderson who ride heard on the Gig Harbor Canoe & Kayak Team.
Please join us in-person at the TC&GC but if you are not able then join us on ZOOM.
If anyone needs help, instruction or training on the ZOOM connection process I would be glad to lead them down the garden path to becoming a ZOOM comfortable user. You all know that as technology advances it doesn’t go away, or even backwards, but continues to require us to meet its updated capabilities. Let me know if I can help. JohnMc jhmcg3@gmail.com
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Chuck Foster, Club Secretary, sitting in for Scribe Phil Sloan who, currently, is being messed around with in India but threatens to return in the not too distant future.
MINUTES OF MEETING OF September 12, 2023
“Most of us who play the game of golf, and even those who don’t know the names Arnold Palmer and Jack Nickolas. Oue speaker today has competed with both of them as well as working with other big-name golfers and many other sports celebrities! Wayne started off as a young man in the insurance business and by some strange quirk of fate, wound up in the professional golfing industry. There he consulted, worked for and worked with a number of the biggest names in golf while remaining rather anonymous to the rest of the world.
He retired in 2012 from his company, Tournament Services. His son now owns and runs the business or as Wayne puts it “The business runs him.”
“I’ll let him tell you how he went from a mild-mannered insurance executive to a mild-mannered owner of a fascinating business in the professional golfing industry that most of us never heard of!”
Wayne related that he got started when he helped set up an LPGA tournament, which lead to requests to set up some PGA senior tournaments, which lead to him forming his company to provide set up services for PGA tournaments. He said that tournament sponsors often hire management companies, who hire his company, under contract, to provide everything from training volunteers, stands, roping the course, signage, to porta potties.
He distinguished between the PGA TOUR and the PGA of America. The PGA of America is composed of American professional golfers like club pros, while the PGA Tour was formed in 1968 when a subset of touring professionals broke away from the PGA of America and includes foreign players. The PGA Tour co-sanctions tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Canada. Wayne stated that, while the sponsors pay for tournaments, the PGA Tour makes all the decisions.
He talked about the Saudi funded LIV golf tournaments, which started 2 years ago when they bought 48 players to play in 7 tournaments of 54 holes, no cuts, and shotgun starts in team competition. Last year there were 13 tournaments.The PGA TOUR has typically organized 40 tournaments a year which does not include the 4 major tournaments, The Masters, The US Open, The Open Championship, and the PGA Championship. In response to the LIV tour high prize money, the PGA TOUR doubled the purses for designated events, in 2023, and signature events, in 2024. There will be a total of 8 signature events in 2024, which do not include the majors, playoff events and Players Championship. There will be smaller fields and increased purse sizes. To learn more about these events go to this site: https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/pga/pga-tour-what-are-elevated-events-which-tournaments-bm10/.
Wayne commented that for these tournaments 50 of the top players have to play or be fined and that in the undesignated tournaments you won’t know the players. LIV and the PGA TOUR have agreed to merge and all law suits have been dropped. There are many questions such as, “How are the players, who did not go to LIV, going to be compensated for turning down large amounts of money.” Wayne’s comment, “It’s a mess!” He then said but “golf is doing well.”
In response to a question, Wayne indicated that caddies make 5 to 10% of the golfer’s winnings.
COMING EVENTS
This Fall, we will be resuming our “who are those guys” in which new and old members give talks about themselves, what you have done and what you are now doing which will help us get to know each other better.
Next week our speaker is Connie Behe of the Pierce County Library System speaking on the Lakewood Library and the County Library System.
Please join us in-person at the TC&GC but if you are not able then join us on ZOOM.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Chuck Foster, Club Secretary, sitting in for Scribe Phil Sloan who, currently, is messing around in India but threatens to return in the not too distant future.