1.So how does the design industry attract new creative talent for the future as very few new architects are entering the field. The ASGCA is trying but they have more members leaving (one way or the other) then joining their organization (and very few will ever meet their requirements to fill the ranks). Maybe only a handful of architects are needed and we don’t have to worry. The problem if there is one will sort itself.
2.This is simply asking the question where does this profession go if we don’t find more ways to attract and showcase new talent?
Mark,You ask two questions above:
1. yes the problem is sorting itself right now. And not to dwell on ASGCA but watch their requirements change ...Associations are an industry. GCA is not...
2. As much as GCA is not an industry , it is also not a profession. It is a craft and the younger guys have been brought into the business realizing that. IT IS WHAT IT IS...
Mike,
Not sure why you would continue to downgrade what a golf course architect is, other than you seem to think it helps you competitively. Your advice is not far off in reality, but I figure many younger aspirants will in fact have those qualities required.
And, of course, I disagree with you that it is not a profession, because it is......and, to keep dwelling on ASGCA, yes, our admission standards have changed many times over the years I have been in the Society, and are still changing. It is obviously hard to require 5 new courses in this environment, while it was required in the go-go 80's when we seemed to be getting applications from land planners and others we wouldn't consider gca's. As usual, you are still bitching about things that may have been true 20 years ago but aren't now, and in some cases never were!
To answer Mark's original question, yes, I get some applications from the younger set. Perhaps as many as I ever did. And, ASGCA just accepted about a dozen (mostly) young new members who seemed thrilled to be in the profession and thrilled to be at the ASGCA meeting, so I think the next gen is in pretty good shape.
If you discourage them, I tend to think it's because you have a negative personality yourself (Mike), at least to some degree (Mark)
, Or at the very least, are succumbing to grumpy old guy syndrome........ "Kids today!"
I always tell them the first test to become a gca is having the will power to overcome all the negative Nellie's out there who say it isn't possible. Heck, I came into the profession in similar (or worse) times in 1977...right after the 1974 oil embargo/Watergate/recession years and I was told golf was dead and that I was wasting my talents if I went into gca. Add in the World Atlas of Golf, where the intro itself proclaimed golf dead because the tax write offs had been reduced, and look what happened. I admit I did wonder if I was going to be able to finish my career in my chosen profession. I did!
Or, as my mentor said, "Golf has been going strong for over 500 years, I think it still has another few hundred years in it."
In my opinion, a lot of things will happen. On the positive side, I think creativity will continue to increase. On the negative side, perhaps through lack of more formal training/apprentices of whatever kind, I do see some of the same mistakes being made that us old guys made 30 years ago, by owners and gca's. I guess each generation just has to learn their own lessons.