2013 Senior PGA Championship Winners!

A little history: In 1897, Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis began hosting spectator and championship golf. Since 1916, The PGA of America has maintained its mission to elevate the standards of the profession and to grow interest in the game. In 1937, the Senior PGA Championship started as the most prestigious event in senior golf. 

The 2013 Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid was hosted by Bellerive CC. Kohki Idoki, 51, of Japan won with a 6-under 65 to finish at 11 under, beating front runners Kenny Perry and Jay Haas who ended up tied for second place. That’s a payday of $378,000 for Kohki. Jay and Kenny get $185,000 each for their trouble.

Meanwhile hundreds of volunteers scramble for a chance to work jobs on the Leaderboards and as course Marshalls. These volunteers do it for the thrill of being just a part of a world class event. They volunteer a year in advance and most aren’t certain of shifts or duties. They love the game. I was among them. I gotta tell ya, it is really is a thrill. If you are a golfer, you can’t believe your luck when you raise your hands to hush the crowd for Tom Watson to putt. Volunteers are a part of the week-long celebration that includes pro-am and practice rounds and goes on past the presentation of the Borne trophy.

Somehow it all comes together like magic. The course is gorgeous and it shows well on television for the Golf Channel and NBC broadcasts. Bellerive Country Club members have to be proud. It’s another triumph for St. Louis too. Concessions workers, security personnel, bus drivers, pro shop retailers, corporate sponsors entertaining guests, guests, fans, broadcasters and everyone who got a chance to be a part of this spectacular event. You are all champions.   

Congratulations to Kohki Idoki on a great win!

Stop, Drop and Roll

Hi Wes,

I've been meaning to write to you to thank you PERSONALLY for submitting to the writing contest.  It was fun standing in line with you at the SLCL, and  I really enjoyed your poem--WAITING IN LINE TO SEE CAROLINE!  Could definitely relate! I'm sure you'll continue writing--and maybe you'll submit again next year.  We'll have a new prompt--who knows how it will inspire you!

Amy Gage
Coordinator, Jade G. Bute Writing Contest
Chesterfield Arts is located at 444 Chesterfield Center, Chesterfield, MO 63017
May 9, 2013

(Amy - You Inspire and I think that is so very cool. My Caroline poem didn't win. This one can do no worse. Thank you Amy Gage.)
 
Why the poetry? Why write?
Who really cares? Day or Night?
An idea, a thought , a turn of a phrase,
To express a feeling, you say.

Top – down, focus groups, crowd-sourcing,

Your opinion matters, certainly worth voicing.
Yet it takes winning the hearts and the minds,
Of innovators, adaptors, a share of mankind. 

A composition, a prayer, a Van Gogh chair.
Interpret and comment - isn’t that fair?
Color and beauty, cut and paste.
In the eye of the beholder - no time to waste.

With zeros and ones, knowledge transfers,
Managers always looking for answers.
The books don’t lie but maybe big data does.

Good news, bad news, it’s not like it was.

A composite drawn from inference and transactions,

Of mindless musings and an aggregate of thoughtless actions.
Try to forget while crying online. Think of the sales.
Projections. BOOM. A bomb explodes, the terror prevails.

Posers, composers, foreclosures, look before you leap.

We learn we’ve miles to go before we sleep.
FDR said nothing to fear but fear
Tomorrow, a week, a month or a year

How long for soft science or hard facts

To break down, analyze, interpret, allow us to relax.
…Again, again it all begins.
For a period of time, at least, nobody wins.  

It must add up, point by point…maybe more than a year.
The meaning is abstract, fuzzy and yet, really so clear

You will never return to that time when everything was new.
Justice for all and equity for even a few.

Stoves, Bankers, Beer, Real Estate and Art

Roland L. Kahle, department manager of the Rigen Stove Co, bought about 50 acres on Rott Road in 1916. He planned to spend more than $20,450.00 to design and build a home there. It was four times the cost of an average house. Perhaps he wanted to keep up with his neighbors - South St. Louis businessmen Edwin Lemp, Joseph Griesedieck, Louis Stockstrom, and Adolphus Busch, Jr. who had summer or year-round residences in the area.

Fast forward 25 years. The Kahle property is sold to Henry and Matilda Laumeier in 1941. Henry’s new wife, the former Matilda Cramer is also the former the wife of Conrad Besch. The mature couple, Henry (in his early 60s) and Matilda, lived together in the house nearly two decades. She outlives Henry by nearly 10 years. (He died in 1959. She died in 1969). Her friendship with Wayne C. Kennedy, the Director of the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation, results in the eventual donation of the property to the county. Banker Adam Aronson, along with Wayne Kennedy and sculptor Ernest Trova worked together to establish what became the Laumeier Sculpture Park. (Trova’s donation of 40 works in 1976 made it official.)

Aronson was instrumental in finding Beej Nierengarten-Smith, to be the director of the park for nearly two decades. (But she resigned in a cloud of controversy about her management.) In December 2002, a $1 million gift from Adam & Judith Aronson. They set up the Mark Twain Laumeier Endowment and the Aronson Endowed Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Glen Gentele, as director, was able to restore public trust in the institution by uniting the Board of Directors and staff behind a mission, long term vision and a strategic plan. In 2009, Gentele accepted a position at another museum and Marilu Knode was offered the executive director and endowed professor position at UMSL.

Fire and Ice. Carts and Cocktails. LOVE meier. Art Fairs. Exhibitions (i.e. Not without my Dog, Finding a Home in an Unstable World, The River Between Us, Mound City) Site Specific work. Abstract Expressionism. Figurative. Contemporary. Monumental. Minimal. Conceptual. Educational. Kids Classes. Field Trips. Docent tours. Gallery talks. Landscaping. Lawn Care. Gifts. Grants. Time marches on ... on Rott Road.    

A Tale of Two Cities (errrr cultures)

Having had the pleasure of serving as Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications Director at two premiere contractors, I can see the impact culture has on the workforce. One size doesn’t fit all. I have been involved in marketing communications assignments for other A/E/C clients, but it was the eight years I spent at those two firms where I got to see up close and personal how important corporate culture is to an organization. Both firms have enjoyed remarkable success. Both are places where people have enjoyed long, prosperous careers. Both have cultures that are reflections of their founders.

The former is very focused on one building type. They want to be the premiere designer and builder of hospitals in the U.S. They have worked on (if not completed) more than 1,000 projects on hospital campuses across the country. The later is more diverse. It counts among its areas of expertise, the ability to design and construct large warehouse/distribution facilities. It isn’t the building type that defines these two firms, however.

The hospital builder is closely held and tightly controlled. This company’s founder occasionally points out, with a chuckle, that he and Fidel Castro came into power at the same time -1960.  The other firm is more collaborative and is open to growth via strategic business units (SBUs) and more flexible on choices among a variety of project delivery methods. Both companies are among Engineering News Record top contractors year after year, and both offer employees opportunities to work on projects of which they can be proud.

Neither is fully good or evil. Both organizations have strong points. Both places offered me opportunities to present powerful stories of expertise, processes and best practices. In both cases, I found editors willing to publish stories of success in design and construction. Interestingly, the stricter/more rigid culture has its perks: a formal work schedule with no more than an hour for lunch usually means rational work hours most days. The later, on the other hand, allows people the flexibility to participate in industry functions/events and get an early start on holiday vacation time and time off for family which can mean some disruption in scheduling/planning at that firm.

The point, if there is one in this posting - Culture is important. There is probably more than one right answer. There are always trade-offs. If you are in the C-suite, you might be in the best position to set the tone and think through the implications.

Sales and the $13.99 Deluxe Stud Finder

Mark Moyer is ready to present at Washington University, St. Louis. The Knight Center classroom setting is really ideal for a guy who has fine-tuned his skills as a coach and sales trainer at three top-flight St. Louis firms over the last three decades. He is a coach, trainer, speaker and champion of sales professionals everywhere. The ExecLink organization is pleased to present him as the latest in a series of presentations to senior executives. After routine announcements and an introduction, Mark moves to center stage and begins.

“So I’m on my knees in the guest bathroom.” Mark’s opening line is fantastic. It’s sort of like something you might expect in a screenplay of a Quentin Terantino movie because the audience is immediately engaged and curious. Mark goes on to fill the audience in on the home remodeling project that includes routine carpentry he learned from his father. He uses this story skillfully to explain that an investment of $13.99 for a deluxe stud finder at Home Depot will relieve him of the trial and error of hammer and nail to find that room’s structural studs - the studs of which he hopes to hang the bathroom cabinet.  

The $13.99 purchase spares him the time on his knees working around the commode and it illustrates a kind of salesmanship akin to the maxim “people don’t want to buy a 3/4” drill-bit. What they really are buying is a ¾” hole.” Mark has the room captivated as he goes on to expel some myths about sales and salesmanship.

Mark hates the unfortunate practice of training salespeople in such a way as to create the impression it is all about your stuff. “The person with the power to purchase is the one in charge and that means the sales process needs to be about them – NOT your stuff in a sales scenario. Of course, your stuff is part of what you are going to be armed with in the materials supplied by the marketing folks. To be effective, you need to make it about your prospect and his or her stuff," he says. Moyer suggests you can boil it down to three lists: BUSINESS, PERSONAL and PROFESSIONAL attributes of your prospects. “Instead of worrying so much about what to say, a good sales person understands that the dialogue must be about how you can change that person’s life.”

Mark presents without the crutch of presentation deck favored by so many PowerPoint and/or Keynote speakers. He eschews the notion that sales is about trickery and manipulation. He dispels myths and offers insight into the art of sales. He reminds us too that a win to a salesperson is not always scientific or mathematic. (In those areas one can expect the results to be precise and expected whereas sales results will not always be as simple as a formula or like 1+1 = 2.)   

State of the Media

A Rainy miserable day in April didn’t keep the 100 or so guests for flocking to the following event this week:

April 18, 2013 – Pew State of the Media Moderator Rachel Lippman with Amy Mitchell (PEW Research acting director in from Washington DC) and panelists (Jim Steward, DICOM; Denise Bentele, Common Ground; Jill Gainer, Hughes Leahy Karlovic). The venue, UMSL at Grand Center St. Louis Public Radio facility, on Olive next to channel 9 and around the corner from the Fabulous Fox Theater. Afternoon function was scheduled from 4:30-6:30 p.m. as a special joint presentation of the St. Louis Chapters of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

The program was kicked off with announcements from the chapter presidents of the AMA and PRSA respectively and handed over to the moderator who introduced Amy Mitchell from PEW Research Project for Excellence in Journalism. Newspapers are more focused on content delivered in digital form. News departments continue to struggle with smaller staffs. Cable content is moving to interview and other less expensive formats. Ironically, longer format pieces are growing in popularity. “Declines in television news viewership among younger demographics is noticeable again - Especially surprising in an election year,” says Amy Mitchell.

Jim Steward of DICOM still enjoys reading (every word) of the daily newspaper in the morning. He often reminds clients that they should not project their own media habits onto strategic plans, but this is sometimes unavoidable. “I might have to include CNN just to shut a guy up who always wants to see CNN somewhere in the schedule.” Jim’s company offers at least one national client a platform that monitors negative stories. Jim was well prepared, having appeared earlier in the day on St. Louis Public Radio along with Amy Mitchell.

Denise Bentele added that the smaller staffs in newsrooms have changed the way her public relations firm will coach clients and position stories. She added that clients need to understand that the challenge is still to package stories that will be of interest to viewers/readers/listeners.

Jill Gainer offered a particularly poignant example for St. Louisans of how news is delivered with the proliferation of social media. “I recall hearing of the death of Stan Musial on twitter first, and from a friend even before any news media reported it. Of course, I still sought out media for additional content.”

Rachel Lippman skillfully involved each of the panelists, but as expected the time vanished quickly. The meeting adjourned as the crowd dispersed, some quickly as if to rush to another meeting while a portion of the audience remained to network, mingle and share thoughts on the impact of these trends in news media impact their respective roles in pubic relations and marketing.

The partnership of AMA and PRSA appeared to be a success. Planning and execution of the program was very much a team effort that included coordinated, if a bit fragmented at times, efforts of chapter leaders in programming both professional associations.         

Hail Docent Volunteers

Docents at Laumeier Sculpture Park are dedicated volunteers who add value to the visitor experience. The term Docent is derived from the Latin word docēns, which is the present active participle of docēre (to teach, to lecture). But you don’t have to understand Latin to benefit from a docent lead tour or to recognize the impact of this mighty group.

“You are on the front line for us.” Museum Director Marilu Knode said at a recent docent meeting in the gallery space. She is right. Consider the mission statement: Laumeier Sculpture Park is a living laboratory where artists and audiences explore the relationship between contemporary art and the natural environment.  The staff at Laumeier manages a complex range of activity from development, education, interpretation to curatorial decisions, the park gets 300,000 visitors a year. They range from art scholars to residents just walking the family dog. Chances are they will encounter a tourist group, a group on regularly scheduled free tour or courtesy “Got Questions?” golf cart. In each case, docents are involved.

There are more than two dozen Docents affiliated with Laumeier Sculpture Park. They come from a variety of backgrounds but all share a love of art. Each has participated in an eight-week training series lead by Clara Coleman, Director of Interpretation. The learning continues well beyond that initial eight weeks, however. Clara inspires the group in monthly meetings and periodic correspondence that might include information about artists, events and trends in contemporary art. Clara also schedules docent lead tours for students and groups which are organized year round. It could be a group of 30 third graders who unfortunately had their tour cut short by thunderstorms (April showers!) or college students looking to complete an assignment involving the current exhibition The River Between Us. Docents are often leading the discovery process. Ask a docent a question and you will find a wealth of information. Sometimes, you will stump a docent. (And that’s okay too, because it adds to the journey and challenge. Curiosity fuels us all to learn more about the art around us each day.)

ST. LOUIS - Third graders from Mason Elementary take a photo break at the park last November. This is just part of a group that included 50 students and five adults. Docents Wes Morgan, Maureen Jennings and Jahn Epstein were on hand for the scheduled tour that day. The kids had a blast. Photo by Wes Morgan.