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January 2010
 UMass Amherst Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences alumnus Richard Gagnon has been selected to receive the 2010 Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) Excellence in Government Relations Award in the compliance category. Mr. Gagnon is a GCSSA Class A superintendent at Segregansett Country Club in Taunton, MA.
The award will be presented on Feb. 9, 2010 at the 2010 GCSAA Education Conference during "Celebrate GCSAA!" The conference will be held February 8-12, in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show at the San Diego CA Convention Center.
"Rich is such a passionate leader in our industry," says
GCSAA President Mark D. Kuhns. "It is an honor to recognize his government relations work. He is a shining example of GCSAA and its members seeking to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."
In a cost-saving effort, Gagnon hired high school students to work on his grounds crew. In preparation of employing minors, he teamed up with Ron Smith of Sports Club Management, a company that provides training for employees concerning right-to-know, safety training, and labor laws. Together, they sought to get the attention of the Massachusetts Attorney General's office to better define child labor laws as they relate to golf course management.
Gagnon put together a checklist of all the commonly used pieces of golf equipment, and included color photographs to better enable reviewers in the Attorney General's Office to determine how the law applied to each piece of equipment.
Using information from these proactive efforts, the Fair Labor Division in the Office of the Attorney General helped interpret the laws as they apply to the turf management business and clarified the tasks minors may perform in the workplace. The information was compiled into a checklist that Gagnon shared with other golf course superintendents across the Commonwealth to assist in complying with state child labor law requirements.
"Rich took it upon himself to tackle an issue that he knew would require a lot of time and effort, but one that he also knew could cause problems to the industry if it was not addressed," Smith said. "The potential trouble the use of teenage employees could have caused was eliminated thanks to his foresight, his ingenuity, his powers of persuasion, his work ethic, and his professionalism."
Gagnon graduated from Bishop Fenwick High School in his hometown Peabody, MA, and earned a B.S. degree from Salem State College in 1991. He is also a 1995 graduate of the University of Massachusetts with a B.S. degree in Plant and Soil Science. Gagnon served as the assistant superintendent at the Salem Country Club in Peabody from 1996-2003 before becoming the head superintendent at Segregansett. He and his family currently reside in Mansfield, MA.
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