CALENDAR OF EVENTS
2008:
October 23 - 25
The Green Industry & Equipment EXPO (GIEE)

October 24
TOCA Breakfast Reception
Kentucky Exposition Center, Press Center Room C109
Sponsors: Bayer Environmental Science, Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI)/PLANET
7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Louisville, KY

2009:
February 6
Golf Industry Show (GIS)
GCSAA Breakfast Reception
New Orleans

March 1
Environmental Communicator of the Year application deadline

March 1
TOCA Scholarship application deadline

March 1
TOCA Communications Contest entries due

May 12 - 14
TOCA’s 20th Annual Meeting
Westin Rio Mar Beach Golf Resort & Spa
Puerto Rico

MEMBER NEWS
TOCA welcomes the following new member:

Barbara Mulhern, RB Editorial & Consulting, Inc

Welcome Barbara!

TOCA currently has about 215 members, and last year it was suggested that we should try to grow an average of 40 members per year for five years. Now, 30 or 40 members a year for an organization with 200 members is a tall order and one that a lot of people consider a stretch.

So, OK, let’s stretch. There are more than 30 companies with multiple TOCA members. If these multiple members at each of these companies enroll just one more of their colleagues, we may find that the stretch is not so much of a stretch. And if your boss isn’t a TOCA member, ask why not? He or she is in the same business as you, and could with one $75 membership show support for the industry and gain access to all our member benefits. (Remember, your company’s first membership is $125 and all others are $75.)

Also, the Board members have been challenged to bring in two members each by the next meeting. With everyone’s support, TOCA will continue to have a strong balance sheet, with a healthy reserve for emergency purposes.

For more information about the membership drive, contact Den Gardner at 952-758-6340, who will put you in contact with one of the committee members.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATOR OF THE YEAR
As always at this time of year, TOCA begins its search for the next Environmental Communicator of the Year. Nominations for the 2009 winner are now being accepted. The award, sponsored by Project EverGreen, may be given to anyone in the Green Industry. It is presented each year at TOCA’s annual meeting and will be awarded for the 11th time, May 2009 in Puerto Rico.

Allied Golf Associations of Colorado are named the 2008 TOCA Environmental Communicator of the Year; the association’s tenth recipient.

TOCA SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
Perhaps you know of some deserving student currently pursuing a career in green industry communications. A niece or nephew? The kid down the block who used to mow your lawn but now studies marketing and landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota? Maybe it’s your intern, the one answering your phone as you read this very sentence. How about nominating him or her for a TOCA scholarship?

The TOCA Board of Directors decided to award one $2,500, fall semester scholarship (2009-2010 academic year) to an undergraduate college student pursuing a career in green industry communications. To qualify, students must major or minor in technical communications or a green industry related field such as horticulture, plant sciences, botany, agronomy, plant pathology, etc.
The applicant also must demonstrate an interest in using this course of study in the field of communications.

Detailed information and applications are available at www.toca.org/awards.html. Deadline is March 1, 2009, but it’s never too soon to identify, encourage and reward deserving students outstanding in the field. Or on the lawn.