Disc Golf Talent Pool

This may seem strange to some, but I've spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about the financial crisis and people not having jobs.

If there are large numbers of people out there who do not have jobs, but who are not yet starving (And I know this is so from personal experience!) then wouldn't it be nice to connect all those skills and hours of potential work time in ways that invest in disc golf?

What if we knew, here in Ann Arbor, how to reach 35 unemployed guys with time on their hands, and could gather them in one spot to build a new course or benches or signage, or go store to store looking for club or tournament sponsorship? Or design posters or YouTube video spots . . . etc.?

Not sure what that would take. I think it could really be powerful to invest in disc golf this way, because I think this economic situation is really going to favor disc golf anyway.

Thoughts?

[Mike Inscho]

Work is work and money is money. Where would you get the funds to operate such things? There are a bunch of grateful volunteers in the disc golf community that would put a weekend aside to help build a new course in the area to be the first one's to play it. I know I would. I see the points you are coming from though.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Mike, your avatar is very distracting :)

[Mike Inscho]

haha.. I'll change it if you want. I was actually on DGRUS when she approached me to be honest.

[Wicked Dyes]

I'm all for it.. I am available Wednesday thou Saturday. The rest of the week I've got the kids. Let me know where you need me. I am great with Auto Cad R14, took 4 years in high school working with it. I can design just about anything you need from mechanical to architectural including landscaping. I also have connections with a local hardware store (father in law is part owner), and I might be able to pull some strings on some supplies. Let me know if I can help.

[huk life 24/7]

GREAT idea Terry!!!!!!!!!!

[mr ed]

hey now,great idea Terry.Perhaps a local tourney with a seperate sign up sheet listing one's resume,job preference/skills;If not a tourney, then you would have to be at different dg courses with same info sheet to sign;Sort of an unemployment office concept to gather info and pass on."Word of mouth" might just find that person to fill that 'empty' job employment.Disc Golf Job Fair Day,weekly/monthly;enables a DG'er to enjoy a day of rec golf by dropping off their resume /employment preference.

[Donny Olow]

Sounds like a Plan !!!!

[Mike]

Great idea Terry. I know from playing around the A2 area the disc golfers possess a broad group of skills, from construction, to desk jockeys. I think that if you have a good piece of land where the city/county is willing to give you the opportunity to "have at it" sort of speak, a great course could be constructed for minimal money. Bare bones approach supplies, equiptment rental, gas, time. I know I have helped a few times on courses with my equiptment/construction skills, operating Bobcats, front-end loaders, backhoes, building teepad forms, benches. That makes short work of many labor intensive tasks on a course, and you don't have to wait until the city finally gets a guy out there to do very little in one day. In the A2 area many players seem to have done some kind of sales at one time or another, that is what it takes to get sponsors, sell the event sponsorship to the business basically. I'm sure if you get the word out to some people around there you would get a decent response, if I were around I would definitely jump on board and help where I fit in. Just this weekend over at the Intercollegiate event in Mt. Pleasant, one of the students there is building a new course just outside of town for his final project, instead of a thesis. I thought that was very cool and not to mention many of those local guys will be helping him carry that project through to completion.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

I really like those ideas. It would seem that adding a place at tourneys where people could post resumes or jobs might be interesting to try.

mr ed said:

hey now,great idea Terry.Perhaps a local tourney with a seperate sign up sheet listing one's resume,job preference/skills;If not a tourney, then you would have to be at different dg courses with same info sheet to sign;Sort of an unemployment office concept to gather info and pass on."Word of mouth" might just find that person to fill that 'empty' job employment.Disc Golf Job Fair Day,weekly/monthly;enables a DG'er to enjoy a day of rec golf by dropping off their resume /employment preference.

[Linc Morgan]

You know disc golf might even dip into the ball golf pool too. Disc golf is less demanding on the wallet for those who can't afford the country club anymore. Local government might see disc golf as a less expensive way to fund park improvements. Unemployed disc golfers could have plenty of time to gather funds for new courses and navigate the red tape of government. GOOD TIMES FOR DISC GOLF!

[William Gilbert]

Terry you are definately the thinker out there.
We could put people to work finding funding to conrete tees, wood to build the forms, signage, trash cans, refreshment for the workers etc. at Waterworks. I know foz has it in his long term dreams i am sure the city wouldn't have a problem with it.
We will be needing the same kind of stuff at ypsilanti but i don't know how that donation would work as do they give the money to A3 or the property. we could of course sell tee, tee sign, bulletin board sponsorship for the ypsi courses.

MBD may also benefit from some of these ideas as well. I think the city would love some financial backing to finish that long slow process?

[Luke B]

gotta pay people...people who have no jobs aren't gonna work for free


however the pay doesn't have to be in $$$... for example if am player bob has extra time, and he finds new sponsors for an upcoming trny, he gets a free entry. or you get disc donations from players(discs they have won that they can't sell or don't want) and pay people who work on the course in these.