(left to right) Geri’s sisters Kathy and Chris join Geri for this family photo taken at Tasha and Dean’s wedding.
Geri shares from her viewpoint that the entire TPI staff is all working together as a team with the common goal of serving our members. “Casey’s management style is an excellent fit for TPI. It’s exciting to work with someone who values my opinions and encourages me to express them. Te camaraderie Casey and I have is so special, I think we bring out the best in each other.”
“Allie and I get along really well and she’s doing a great job of taking responsibility for some of the tasks I have been doing. I love working with Liz; she has that magic touch for making an event extraordinary while making the process both easy and fun. Mike Blair is a gem, excellent at coordinating the Field Days. I call him my work husband. Jenny Carritt is a wonderful woman who loves TPI and always goes the extra mile. I love her, love working with her, and call her my blood sister. I’m confident TPI is in good hands.”
Plans for Australia
Leaving her extended family in the U.S. will be hard. But Geri says, “I miss my daughter horribly and I’m so glad she wants me to be close to her. Rodney and I are so looking forward to being there and creating special moments with our grandkids.”
Of course, Geri attended everything her daughter Tasha ever did. “Except for a few movies—I couldn’t manage Barney,” she says. So whatever those grandkids are interested in she’ll be in the stands cheering them on.
Tey are flying to Australia on Air New Zealand on March 17. Te costs of shipping furniture are exorbitant, so Rodney and Geri decided to just take the basics with them. If it won’t fit in the one suitcase they’ve allotted for each of them, it’s not going.
Tasha and her family live in Lilyfield, about a 10- to 15-minute drive from Sydney. In mid-November, Geri said, “Tasha is looking for an apartment for us in a suburb
TPI Turf News January/February 2025
and she’ll rent it for us before we arrive. We looked at a few places during my last visit and she has our “have to have it” list. We’ll stay in a hotel for three nights so we can buy the basics we’ll need before we can move in. It will be so wonderful being just a few minutes away instead of halfway around the world apart!”
Good-Byes are Hard
Geri says, “TPI is different than any other association or business. It’s a family of people, most of whom are part of family-owned businesses. I love the hearts of the members and the way they care about each other. I love the community that they have and how they reach out to help each other during floods, hurricanes, and family tragedies. I will miss talking to ‘my’ members. I feel that every member is my boss, and I enjoy doing everything in my power to help them. I love making them giggle on the phone. Tey have always been gracious and treated me with respect. I’ve enjoyed working with all the presidents and all the trustees, they have always been very kind. Te TPI conferences are a blast, and even though they are exhausting, I absolutely love them. I love how they bring our members together, how old friends reconnect, and how welcoming they all are to first-time attendees.”
As Geri looked back on all the wonderful people she has met through TPI over the years, her voice became tinged with emotion. She said the number of “special people” was way too long to list. As much as she is looking forward to the 2025 TPI International Education Conference & Field Day in San Antonio, it’s going to be bittersweet. “I dread saying I’m never going to see you again. I’ve known this day was coming for so long, you’d think I wouldn’t be weepy about it, but I think I’m going to be a blubbering idiot. It’s been tough and challenging many times, but it’s been fun and encouraging, too. It’s the best job I’ve ever had, the best last stop before retirement I could have ever imagined.”
Photos courtesy of Geri Hannah. 17
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