The President’s Message – Bring on 2021!

By Russell Warner, TOCA President

We all know 2020 was the worst, which makes the thought of 2021 that much sweeter. But before we move on with the new year, let’s reflect on some of the good things we can take from 2020.

Zoom calls. I know they aren’t perfect and we would much rather be sitting face-to-face, but I have found my virtual meetings to be extremely productive. They have offered me the chance to meet more people than I might have had the chance to be with face-to-face, and they offer an extraordinary amount of schedule flexibility. No longer must I coordinate schedules of 20 people before I hop on a plane and travel across the country.

Alone time. I am sure everyone reading this knows that I am about as big of an extrovert as you can find. I still have that in me, but I ended up enjoying the more low-key year. There was far less to commit to, giving me more time to be home, work on personal projects and just relax.

Ingenuity. The ingenuity that we have seen throughout our industries in 2020 was incredible. So many hurdles were jumped to live everyday life and to run businesses. From superintendents creating ways to minimize or eliminate normal physical touchpoints on the course to landscape contractors planning ways to keep their employees and customers safe while getting their jobs done at a high level, I have really been amazed. These are ideas that will carry us beyond our time with COVID.

Relationships. In my more than 14 years in this industry, I have made a lot of friends and built a lot of great relationships. Being able to reach out to everyone for support and advice throughout this year has reminded me how valuable those relationships are and made virtual 2020 much easier and more bearable.

As we move on to 2021, do not forget the lessons learned from 2020. It will still be a while before life returns to some semblance of normal, so let’s use those lessons to make 2021 an incredible year. I hope to see you all very soon!!