TOCA President Ed Hiscock

By Ed Hiscock

I’m no different than anyone else. OK, so I’m a little different from everyone else, but the therapist keeps telling me to hang in there. What I mean about not being different is that I can get revved up about something, make a lot of big pronouncements, and all the while neglect the thing I’m pronouncing about.

If you heard me address the assembled TOCA group in Savannah last May, or if you read my previous TOCA Talk column, you know I support a membership growth plan for TOCA that recruits more members from firms that already have members. In particular, I always mention the “sign up your boss” aspect, in which you recruit your boss, because, after all, the boss is in the same business as you, and can benefit from the networking and educational programs TOCA offers.

Because I make such a big deal about boss recruitment, imagine my embarrassment when I returned from Savannah to realize that my boss – horror of horrors – was not a TOCA member, and that I had been talking the talk but not walking the walk.

That oversight was quickly corrected, but my experience highlights the fact that many of us may believe that our boss or other colleagues have already been initiated into the TOCA family when indeed they have not. This is the year to correct that oversight. TOCA currently has about 200 members, and for at least the next couple of years we would like to grow by about 30 to 40 members a year.

We can get a long way to that goal by recruiting non-members at our own workplaces. Your boss, certainly, but others in your office also have a significant stake in the green industry and can benefit by getting to know many of the players in our relatively small industry segment. And because a company’s first membership is $115 and all others are $65, we can include others in our offices at an extremely reasonable price. Visit toca.org to download our membership flyer and application form. Did I mention that we have fun?

On another topic, I’m hoping to see as many of you as possible at the TOCA Breakfast during the Green Industry and Equipment Expo in Louisville next month. The breakfast will be at 7 a.m. Friday, Oct. 26, in room C109 of the Kentucky Expo Center. You should have received, or soon will receive, a postcard and e-mail invitation to the event. Simply RSVP back to the TOCA office.