bryen hart wrote:No response from parks and rec yet. Do locals usually work with them or is it more of a here is your coarse good luck kind of thing? I plan on doing a trash walk some time on Thurs. Not sure what else I can do without there approval. It looks like they panned to have te right side of hike one open up until the trees but it is now full of weeds but I don't won't to be in there with a weedwacker and get yelled at or worse. Any input from a local with more experience with this kind of thing would be helpful.
Jennifer Davis is the head of the rec department. I'd be surprised if you couldn't reach her. I think they would love to see the locals take some ownership of this course, but that being said, I'd try and reach out again until you hear something.
Brian Grant is also a good contact in the park and rec department. Maybe ask for him?
I gave the course a once over with a trash bag on Sunday. Pulled out no less than 50 bottles and cans and some broken glass. There's a lot more broken glass around but I ran out of time. Love this course.
181 courses and counting.... pdga #78243 nefa #2218
Got a hold of Jennifer davis who seemed very happy we wanted to start having tournies and leagues. She sent me the permit app but unless she let's us run it threw parks and rec we may have to start a nonprofit out of Peabody to make it possible from a money perspective. Does anyone have experience setting up a non-profit and does anyone live in Peabody and would be willing to use their address for it. Unless your a nonprofit in Peabody, parks and rec, or a Peabody school they charge 35 an hour to use the course. Still waiting on a reply for what teir she wants us to be right now but wanted to get ready to set up a nonprofit if we have to.
They have the fees to use the field setup so that if you are a non profit in Peabody there is a 25 dollar application fee per tournies. If your not it is 25 then 35 an hour.
Put 4 barrels on the coarse. Hopefully this will help with the littering issues we have been having. Sprayed them camo so they would not be eye soars.( not a painter they could be better lol). Park and rec seems willing to work with us on leagues and tournies as far as sponsorship for the fees which will be good. Nothing in the works for this year but we hope to run a birdie bash and trilogy challenge come spring time. Will also hold the ace race next fall hopefully. Looking into starting a scouting woods club to make it easier to host events but that will prolly be put together sometime this winter when I have more down time(ie: not disc golfing as much due to snow lol). Hoping that we can build a good community around this coarse. I know its not as big as Devin's or Pye brook but its a nice little course in a area with little else very close. I will try to keep this post updated with any new happenings at scouting woods.
Love seeing you get behind this, Bryen! Keep up the good work --- Jennifer is a pleasure to work with, and I know they're hoping a group latches on and starts rocking this course. Hopefully you can figure out the best steps to starting a non-profit, if that is the route you're looking to take.
From our research, non-profits are extremely time consuming to create and moderately expensive. When we started started our non-profit, The Explore Disc Golf Foundation, we used Foundation Group (http://501c3.org). It ended up being a couple grand, but worth it to be bullet proof and professionally done.
thanks for the trashcans! i pulled some more cans and bottles out of the woods... there's more cleanup to be done. next time im there with less of a rush i will do a bigger cleanup along the rock wall on 4. pulled 15-20 cans and bottles out of the woods around 5. people litter if there is litter around. if there is none, then maybe just maybe they will consider not tossing their beer cans into the woods.
181 courses and counting.... pdga #78243 nefa #2218
Jen seems more than happy to sponsor our events if given some advance notice. That makes starting the non profit unnecessary and at this time. There seems to be years worth of bottle right over the property line on 4 and 5. Also some large metal prices around as well. Both of those I hope to clear out today or tomorow as I have the days off. I am glad there are people taking pride in the coarse.
Just setup a blogger for the gmail account we started for the course. http://scoutingwoods.blogspot.com/. please add us to your circles and let people know about it. i will be updating both places with info. Also the gmail address is ScoutingwoodsDGC@gmail.com if anybody wants to email us about anything. We are also going to be sponsoring a tee sign at amesbury pines to hopefully add some foot traffic and show some good will to other local courses. (and be we i mean me cause we have no course money yet.)
Got a domain name for a course club www.scoutingwoodsdgc.com. but my website builder is being weird so i have not been able to get it online yet. also we have decided to have leagues next season on wed nigh at 5pm the first will be on April fools day. and i am going to make around 20 or so bag tags for the 2015 calendar year if anyone has any ideas on designs send me a pm or email.
Added a forum to the website this will be used for information on our league, bag tags and tournaments. i will still be posting some info here but dont want to clutter up nefa with all the details people may want on rules and standings and such. website is www.scoutingwoodsdgc.com
Spoke with Jen from parks and rec again going to have a sit down with her at some point soon. Seems i may have jumped the gun a bit with saying we are having a league but we will see. also if anyone has started a club for one of the courses in the area and is willing to help me figure out all the registering and sending in annual financial reports that would be great. i assumed we where small enough to avoid all that but i may have been wrong. May have jumped in over my head as far as the legislative stuff goes.
Started a thread on the SWDGC forums for discussion of starting up a non profit for the course. Could use some people that have more experience. Giggy told me who they used for The Explore Disc Golf Foundation but i do not have that kind of money to spend right now. If anyone has anyway they can help jump over to SWDGC forum and let us know.
Thanks for all your efforts to support this new course Bryen. The website is looking nice!
I just re-read your post on why you are seeking non-profit status and have to imagine there is a work-around. Would I have to pay $35 if I wanted to play for an hour? I would also encourage you to gauge interest and turnout for a league up there before going through this work. I hope you'd get a regular crowd but you never know. I also hope there is nothing in place now preventing folks getting together on a set night of the week to play. I understand that the city is pushing you to go through the proper channels. Maybe Park and Rec can sponsor you as well.
Ya I do not fault parks and rec for wanting all their ducks in a row at all. There may be ways around it they seem to be willing to work with me I just have go have the sit down with Jen to hash everything out at this point. Be holiday season everyone is a little busy so things are getting delayed somewhat but that is expected this time of year. I assume their would be no issue with regulars setting up times to play each other but since I wanted swag for people and standings and prizes and such I have go go threw all the official channels.
Have a meeting set with Jen on the 29th so i will have some answers on some things after that. I assume i will have a list of stuff to do after the meeting as well to get setup for stuff with parks and rec so i might not post info on whats going on right away. I am very optimistic about this meeting and do think Jen wants to make this a really nice course with good local support. SO i will talk to anyone who is still following this page prolly in the new year but maybe earlier if i am feeling ambitious lol. Also if anyone can think of any course improvements they would like to see let me know. As of know we want to install paver tee pads and make some benches out of some of the downed trees on the course. Also i am thinking i will have the bag tags in late Jan. if everything goes smoothly so let me know who wants one.
Ok so i just had my meeting with Jen from parks and rec. She was so helpful. I will be running tournaments threw the Peabody parks and rec department and they are going to handle pre-reg and marketing which is a huge help to me. We talked about four tournaments so far and league so there should be huge things happening at scouting woods this year. She is on board with usd working together to make things happen at and for this course so stay tuned her and at our website for more info in the future.
So trying to lock down dates for two tournaments currently. Fist is the vibram birdie bash tentative date is 4/25/2015 once i get the final OK i will set it up threw vibram so that should be official soon. The second is what i am calling the disc down derby. i am hoping this will force some of us to throw lower speed discs like we should be doing. Only discs speed 7 or less will be allowed to be bagged for this tournament tentative date for this event is 5/30/2015. pricing info is on the website and i will put in pre-reg links once these tournaments are finalized.
I also decided i will be delivering or mailing any lost discs found on the course. to many discs left for people have gone missing if you find a disc and can not meet up with the owner feel free to pm me and i will get it back to them if possible. people that do not respond to phone calls will have there disc listed on our new lost and found page for three months if it is not retrieved in that time frame it will be sold to fund course stuff(ie mailing back discs) or will be given away as a prize or to someone at the course that could use a new disc.
I am going to be asking Jen if we can put two metal boxes at the course one for lost disc drop of and one with a changeable code lock for pick-ups hopefully we can figure something out.
Also the disk down dirby players pack will have the custom stamped scouting woods rocs so anyone that wanted one but did not get one yet should signup for that.
More good news today. The disc down derby and the vibram birdie bash have been approved for the 2015 season!!!!!
The birdie bash will be happening on April, 25, 2015 and must be registered for ahead of time. There is a link to the reg on the website under events or you can search it on vibrams site. All the info you could want on this tournament is on the vibram birdie bash page but it is 2 vibram discs some other vibram swag a scouting woods sticker and prizes for the winner all for just $30.
The disc down derby will be held on may, 30, 2015 and will cost $20 to register. You will have to register for this tournament on the Peabody parks and rec site which will be linked on the website on the events page once the reg is up for it.(which should be within the week i hope.) There will be a player pack for this tournament and i trophy disc the player pack will consist of a custom stamped Scouting woods dgc roc and some disc golf stickers. This tournament is mainly to raise funds to get some improvements to the course. I wish i could offer up more as a prize but we do not have any money in the bank yet. I am going to be asking if anyone wants to sponsor holes. Anything that we gain from hole sponsorship will be given away as prizes for the winner and other fun little things like ctp and maybe some other little fun competitions at the event. The tournament will be 4 rounds threw the course 2 back to back then a break for lunch then the last two. we will not have food on site so you should bring food with you. there is a subway down the street that you could go to and if i can find someone to help me that will not be playing i may take orders for people in the am. That is not a for sure thing at this point so plan on getting your own food. If you sponsor a hole you will start on that hole the first time through. i will be sponsering hole 9 with a disc or two probably dyed by me so the prize may have to be a gag prize.(ie i am not great at dyeing discs.)
I hope to see a lot of people at both these events and i will keep you guys updated on other tournaments as they get more locked down. i am hoping to have one tournament a month for the season but we will see if i can actually pull it of.
i love that theres a league and tourneys planned for peabody. but im curious if there will be a regular tourney or if every event will have limitations ( 2 disc challenge, low speed discs, etc) ...
hope to make it back out soon. been a long winter.
181 courses and counting.... pdga #78243 nefa #2218
I am hoping to have a regular tourney at some point this year not sure when yet. The coarse lends it self more to beginer lvl play due to it length that's why I am mostly catering to newer and more casual players for the first two tournaments. Once I get a feal for the logistics of running tournaments at the coarse I will put something together that is more normal. Prolly just one for the year though. Possibly a doubles tournament as well but we will have to see.
There will be no league tommorow. I was informed by parks and rec there feilds do no official open until April 18th so we can not have official league until then. Also there is still 6 or so inches of snow on most of the coarse.
If anyone has anyway they can help jump over to SWDGC forum and let us know.