Following on from the recent circulation of the Grounds Management Association – ‘Interim Works on Football Pitches’ – guidance document, Staffordshire FA delivered an online pitch maintenance workshop to volunteer groundsmen from grassroots football clubs across Staffordshire. The workshop focused on maintaining pitches over the coming days, weeks and months, ahead of when grassroots football is finally able to resume. 
A copy of the meeting recording and the slides used during the workshop can be found below, along with the interim guidance document produced by the Grounds Management Association. 

The workshop was hosted via a Microsoft Teams Meeting and Staffordshire FA were joined by our two pitch advisors – Regional Pitch Advisor for the Grounds Management Association, Kevin Duffill, along with the Grounds Manager at Stoke City Football Club, Andy Jackson.

A healthy turnout tuned into the meeting to listen to the advice and guidance from Kevin and Andy, in addition to updates on the Staffordshire FA pitch improvement programme and funding opportunities to support pitch maintenance work. Attendees were invited to ask questions throughout the evening via the online chat facility and some really productive discussions took place throughout.

Gareth Thomas, Staffordshire FA, said: “This was the first time we had embraced Microsoft Teams to deliver a workshop to our network of groundsmen, with all previous workshops over the years being delivered face-to-face, but the format worked very well and the feedback from the attendees regarding the communication and content has been extremely positive. It’s certainly something we will look to repeat in the future to cascade key messages, guidance and good practice to groundsmen across Staffordshire.

“In addition to providing some key updates on the Staffordshire FA pitch improvement programme and funding opportunities which can support the ongoing maintenance of grassroots football pitches, we were once again indebted to our two pitch advisors, Kevin Duffill and Andy Jackson, for their time, expertise and enthusiasm. The programme has made a really positive impact across Staffordshire in recent years and Kevin and Andy have been at the heart of it from day one. Their ongoing commitment to the programme and the relationships they have built with many clubs and groundsmen across Staffordshire over the years has had a huge impact.

Many thanks to everyone who tuned into the meeting for your time, contributions and positive feedback; hopefully the information and guidance will prove extremely useful as pitches are maintained in this interim period ahead of when football can finally resume. In the meantime please stay safe and keep in touch if you require any additional guidance or support.”

Below is a collection of some of the initial feedback received from attendees post-workshop:

‘Thanks for the content and passing on advice. All welcome and appreciated’. 

‘Thanks Gareth, Kevin, Kevin & Andy, excellent meeting, very informative’.

‘Thanks to all involved in putting this on tonight’. 

‘Really interesting and informative, many thanks’.

‘Thanks for tonight guys, really appreciate your time given to this’. 

‘Thanks guys, absolutely spot on’. 

‘Thanks for tonight – very, very useful!!’. 

‘Good session - very informative - thanks!’

‘Thanks for hosting and giving your time up, always approachable and very much appreciated’. 

‘Thanks for tonight, well-presented and very informative’. 

‘Thanks for your time and effort in putting this on. Very informative and extremely useful’. 

‘Brilliant meeting, thank you Gareth, Kevin, Andy and Kevin’. 

‘Thank you and well done for this evening’s presentation. I found it very informative and really useful. I enjoyed the Microsoft team communication which was easy to use’. 

Please find below a recording of the meeting and also a copy of the presentation slides, along with the Grounds Management Association interim works guidance document.

DOWNLOAD: PRESENTATION SLIDES

DOWNLOAD: INTERIM WORKS GUIDANCE

FULL MEETING RECORDING

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