This year, the Grounds Management Association (GMA) is celebrating its 90th anniversary, making it the oldest association for grounds care that is out there. Although predominantly focused on the UK, grounds managers elsewhere on the European continent and beyond, take a leaf from everything they develop. Sportsfields.Mag caught up with CEO Geoff Webb.
With the results of the English grounds managers being showcased on international TV multiple times a week, it is easy to understand why grounds managers around the world watch in awe at what is achieved in the UK. In our interviews with sports turf professionals in other countries or on other continents, the GMA is often mentioned as the one organisation that they look to for guidance, in the absence of a national representative body. Geoff Webb, CEO of the GMA, can understand where that is coming from. “I think it is because we are probably the longest established association of its kind within the sports turf world,” he says modestly. For a 90-year-old the GMA is still pretty active and dynamic. Although Webb admits that the GMA primarily focuses on the UK, it does lend a helping hand to organisations elsewhere in the world to get to a similar level. “The experiences that we’ve had to get to where we are, we have shared with others,” he states. “Quite often, we go over to, in particular, the Sports Field Management Association (SFMA) in America, and we’ve had Americans come over to us.” And with the help of a passionate turf professional from the Balkans, some of the online training courses that are available on the website, have been translated to Serbo-Croat.
While the GMA does not specifically cater for foreign professionals, Webb points out that their annual trade show, Saltex plays an important role in bringing these international professionals together. “Saltex in particular has become a kind of global meeting point for the sector. Last year we had people from about 55 countries visit the trade show itself. So I think the show helps get the name out there and the companies and the products that they all have from within the UK. But I have to say that there are some really good products across Europe and some leading companies across Europe as well,” is his invitation to the world.
A joint success
The pitches we see on TV are the absolute very best of what grounds management in the UK has to offer. Yet, most of the GMA’s effort is directed to grounds management at grassroots level. “We work closely with the sports governing bodies in this country on what we call a pitch advisory service. That programme really is encouraging best practice in how to maintain sports pitches at community level. We work across sports, in particular with football but we also have two codes of rugby here rugby league and rugby union and we have cricket. What we do with all four of those sports is work with their teams to look at where we can improve the services themselves, but also to improve the standards of the people that are involved with those surfaces. We have a unique programme and a really good relationship with the sports governing bodies to work on a strategic basis, with targets set to turn pitches from poor pitches into good ones.” Data on the state of pitches is collected by means of surveys. “We’ve done over 10,000 site surveys across England and the results are really, really interesting to us. We use the data to assess the overall pitch quality which align to our pitch grading framework (GMF) and also the educational attainment levels of those maintaining the surface / facility.”
Raising the profile
Another focus area for the GMA is raising the profile of the industry. “We need to fight that corner all the time and make sure that people are paid fairly and appropriately for the work and the skill sets that they’ve got. So we do a lot of work year-round to raise the profile of the sector.” At the same time, a lot of effort is put in to save the profession from unrealistic pressure. “One of the biggest issues is how the ground staff manage capacity and how they then manage themselves, because they are asked to do more hours of work, probably on the same pay, and possibly don’t get the overtime pay that they deserve as well. This can drive stress levels to a high end and a high degree.” To some extent, he blames Covid for this. “I think Covid exacerbated that, when a lot of facilities were shut down and they were using skeleton crews. In some cases, we know that people haven’t reemployed the workforce to take that pressure off the existing team.”
Making a point
Every so often, the GMA has to actively step in to protect the industry. Recently, they felt obliged to issue a statement following some unsavoury remarks made by the hosts of a popular podcast about the profession. “This kind of incident should be classified as unfortunate misunderstandings driven by ignorance. Not the ignorance of ground staff or sports turf managers, but it is ignorance of the facts that they have not actually gone out and tried to work out for themselves,” Webb says referring to the hosts. “And the kickback that they have had subsequent to their article being shown to the world has really caused them to rethink what they said, why they said it, and to regret it. To me, that shows you that we’ve got more power these days to suppress such attitudes, which are outdated and old fashioned.” While the GMA was quick to issue the statement, Webb rather views it as being an incident. “I think the fact that incidents like this hit the news is because they are so rare.” [pms-restrict subscription_plans=”7998, 10994″]
Continual education
Sports turf management, be it the management of synthetic, hybrid or natural turf, requires continual education. Webb is pleased with the number of students that register for one of their online or face-to-face courses every year. “We are certainly seeing through our education programme an uplift in the training and learning that people are undertaking. We’ve got 11 online training courses, one of which is actually in Serbo-Croat. And we’re getting more face-to-face training courses and more people coming through the door wanting to learn the basic fundamentals of: How do I prepare pitches? This allows us to do this training from entry level, which is for a volunteer working in a community environment, through to foundation degree level, which would be for the professionals.” In May 2023, the GMA launched the Grounds Management Framework. “Basically, this brings two things together. One is the skillset of the individuals appropriate to the site and the scope of facilities they are working at. The second is the technical competencies of the grounds that they manage in the first place. So we can measure at two levels the progress not only of the pitch, but of the people managing that pitch.” The framework was developed in cooperation with the sports governing bodies. “It took us a decade of conversations behind the scenes, lobbying, advocacy work and persuading investment to come into the sector in their facility strategies,” he points out when asked whether venue or facility owners value the role of the grounds team. “But it is now really taking hold. And I think now there’s a much better acceptance of the fact that a skilled sports turf manager is essential to the athlete and the athlete’s performance.” According to Webb, they now work quite well at a professional level with, for example, the sports scientists and the coaching staff that are there to support the player’s development. “If we can provide data on top level pitches, which the switched on ground staff all do now, then the outcomes are that much better and the relationships start to improve as a result of that interaction.” Elsewhere in this edition, you can read what is already possible thanks to data-driven turf management and what the future has in stock. “
Futureproofing the GMA
Although 90 years of age, the GMA has no intention to slow down or to go rest on its laurels. “One of the things we’re looking at is the digital evolution, which is why we are working on the website. It will have more of a user friendly design and an enhanced member portal that will provide more personalised access to the resources and more exclusive content, and we are looking to enhance the overall member experience. We also have plans to have much more interactive features within the website, such as forums, live chat support and virtual event hosting capabilities, all to really create a greater feel for the community engagement and the collaboration you get with that.” Recognising that we are in a mobile driven world, the website will be fully optimised for smartphones, tablets, etc. “When out on the fields, they can actually be using their phone on the go and accessing what we’ve got.”
In line with the dynamic developments regarding managing synthetic, hybrid or natural turf sports surfaces, the GMA is proofing itself for the future.
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