April 2010 Message from the President

by Jane Reiman

The light, the blues skies, and the warmer breezes are telling me it's spring. I'm excited about our upcoming MWGA golf season, and Im happy about what your MWGA Board has accomplished during the dark, snowy days of the Minnesota winter.

Your MWGA Board of Directors took on some challenging tasks this year, and we've had lots of lively and thoughtful discussion as we pursue ways to make your golf association more up-to-date, helpful, and relevant to you. An example of our work over the winter is the revision of the MWGA Bylaws, approved by vote of the Club Liaisons in January. The bylaws now define and permit meetings by remote and electronic means. We also streamlined procedures by a provision to permit a two-thirds vote of the Board of Directors to amend the bylaws when necessary. Speaking of up-to-date, you can view these bylaws on the "About Us" menu on our web site http://www.mwga-online.com.

This spring we will convene a committee to address issues of communication between the MWGA and its members. This has become especially significant as we transition from U.S. Mail to electronic communication methods. We've also formed a committee to assess our MWGA volunteer system. We want members to know the opportunities that are available, and we want to be sure that we contact anyone who expresses interest in volunteering. In mid-March, the Board met in a day long retreat with our MWGA Long Range Planning Committee headed by Kim Vanderwall, the MWGA's immediate past president. We will update our strategic plan as we look forward to 2015, the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the MWGA.

We also made some changes in tournament policy with the elimination of the "10 current scores" requirement and the elimination of the "President's Flight" in the Women's and Junior State Amateur Championships.

Your MWGA 2010 schedule has an enviable group of courses for you to play, and most of them are in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Be sure you use the final 2010 schedule that was e-mailed to you in early March and that is found in the yearbook and on the web site. We were able to honor a last-minute request by the host club for a change in the date of the Senior Women's Amateur. In light of the current economy, we understand and appreciate the sacrifice our member clubs make to host the MWGA, especially for the longer tournaments.

As part of our continuing commitment to encouraging women golfers of all abilities, we have added a new event to our lineup for 2010. This is the nine-hole association day the evening of June 21, at Dellwood Hills. For more information, check the online events schedule at http://www.mwga-online.org/new/assocdays.cfm?tyear=2010 , or see the information in your MWGA Yearbook.

I hope I've given you enthusiasm for the upcoming golf season as well as a peek at the behind-the-scenes, off-season activity of your MWGA Board. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at 507-252-0740 or at hmrjlr@charter.net.  You may also contact Paula Lutz in the MWGA office. The telephone is: 952-345-3961 and e-mail is paula@mngolf.org .

Happy Golfing!

Jane