countdown to tpi’s 5oth

anniversary in 2017 1990-1999

Attendees take in one of the education sessions during the 1995 TPI Midwinter Conference in Orlando, FL.

In 1995, 11 “Media Fact Sheets” were made available to members for public relations use. Te name change of the ASPA Ben Warren Memorial Foundation to the International Turf Producers Foundation (ITPF) was announced. Te Articles of Amendment to officially make that change were submitted in June of 1997. Since its inception, ITPF had raised over one million dollars for turfgrass research.

1996

Te TPI 1996 Midwinter Conference as held at the Stouffer Renaissance Austin Hotel, Austin, TX, February 1-3. Conference chair, Wayne Tornton, Todd Valley Farms, Mead, NE, would be elected TPI 1996-1997 President in July. Te pre-Conference seminar on Financial Management focused on solid financial concepts for determining return on investment, which fit the Conference theme, “Let’s Get Down to Business.” Despite a day with 19-degree F. temperatures and ice, warming weather allowed the off-site banquet and the field day to be held.

Te Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sacramento, CA, was the site of TPI’s Summer Convention and Field Day, July 25-27.

Field Day Host was Delta Bluegrass, Stockton, CA. A pre- conference tour included: the campus of the University of California-Davis, Sierra Sod and Supply Farm and the Bunyard Sod Farm. A Family Business session was a conference highlight. Te first post-convention tour visited Pacific Sod in Patterson, CA, where the Spyder forklift system of pushing the turf off the pallet at the installation site was demonstrated; Delta Bluegrass Farm; and A-G Sod Farm in Stockton, CA. Te second post-convention tour visited the Crenshaw and Doguet turfgrass sod operation.

“Turfgrass: First Aid for the Earth,” a TPI pro-turf, full- page ad, appeared in four major green industry magazines in 1996. TPI’s public relations program reported placement of 336 articles in 271 different consumer or professional publications reaching over 17 million potential readers. TPI’s “Turf Resource Center” had established itself as a source for reliable and scientifically-supported information about turfgrass for writers and editors. Te Atlanta, GA, Olympics used turfgrass sod in many competitive sites and public areas.

1997

Larry Gatlin, entertainer at TPI’s 1996 Midwinter Conference in Austin, TX, signs autographs as Lee Ann Wagner and Merle Pittillo look on.

18

Attendees on the bleachers try out “the wave” during TPI’s 1997 Summer Convention and Field Days in Minneapolis, MN.

TPI Turf News September/October 2016