Royal Melbourne created a set of President Cup 2019 Group Goals to help the maintenance staff achieve the desired results by following set guidelines. 

The first goal is to Own Your Job, meaning do the best you can do and when you walk away from it put your name on it. I just love this goal! How simple to get across the message of doing your best on every job every day. 

The second goal is Communication. This starts with the morning meetings led by Richard giving instruction and laughs to begin the day. TaskTracker is used for the job board showing jobs, vehicle and equipment numbers, and section leads. After the meeting everyone grabs their radio — yes, every staff member and volunteer has a radio — and meets with their section lead. In the section meetings out in the shop more information is conveyed to the crew about the specific jobs. 

Section leaders are the course superintendents and assistants. Unlike other tournaments I’ve been to where management looked over front 9/back 9 or had four groups with four to five holes each and all the mowers for that hole in the group. The course is broken up into: Greens, Fescue (Approaches), Fairways, Tees, and Bunkers. Each section has a lead checking in on all the work done to that area. I’ve been assisting greens mowers by moving turning boards so I’m in the Greens Section. Craig Anthony, East Course Superintendent, is the lead overseeing all greens mowers, greens assist (me), course set up, and rollers.

Another goal is Safety, which is huge in Australia. We are required to wear steel toe work shoes and had to pass an online safety exam before we could qualify to volunteer. The first day we had to have an orientation of the shop and PPE before doing any work.

Employee scheduling is very important to Australians. Some different rules apply like overtime after a certain amount of hours in one day, a meal stipend after certain hours, asking for volunteers on weekends before scheduling employees and other rules make for a favorable work environment. This has carried over into volunteer schedules. 

All volunteers are required to work the entire 11 days for the tournament. Five were full days 6am-2pm, and the rest split shifts. Of the split shifts most have three slots; AM, PM and an on-call mid-day shift. Each volunteers works every AM shift, but only one PM shift, which I find so refreshing, and one or two on-call shifts. This is one of the most unique schedules I have seen and a model from which to work from with future tournaments. 

Other goals are concentration on the task at hand, being organized, supporting each other, and to lead when necessary. The final goal is to have FUN! Get satisfaction out of owning your job and enjoy the experience of setting up the famous Royal Melbourne for 24 of the best golfers in the world.