Well, that was quick!  I must admit, I was a little apprehensive about serving as the Central Ohio GCSA’s President.  When I joined the board in 2014, I had full intentions of being involved and serving our association’s board as a committee member that was willing to do whatever was needed.  Then, two years in, President Carl Wittenauer and Vice President Mike Takach looked at me in a board meeting and said “you're next….are you up for it??”.  My response was yes, but in my mind I was thinking this was crazy.  I was somewhat new to my job and still had a lot to tackle at my property which included several larger projects, furthermore, my wife and I just had our first son (life is just too busy to do this right now….right?).  But deep down I knew that these were just excuses that I was making for myself to try to avoid something I was a little unsure of.

I was always told that if there was something that you were uncomfortable with, public speaking in this case, continue to expose yourself to it.  And sure enough, that was the case, as time went on the uncertainty disappeared.  So in the end, I'm the one that really benefited from this commitment in so many ways.  The apprehension of public speaking was the biggest hurdle, the rest was a cake walk.  Our association has been led by years of great leaders and we are currently run by a board of passionate members, so all I really had to do was steer the proverbial ship.

I feel like I’m leaving the association in at the very least the same condition that I received it, if not even a little improved.  We have made some slight tweaks over the last couple of years that I hope have added to members' experiences.  I am also confident that the association is being turned over to somebody that will do great work.  This isn’t the first time that Chris Allender has taken over for me, but if it’s anything like the first, I think Central Ohio GCSA can expect big things.

Although it flew by, the last two years were great and I’d like to thank everybody for their support, words of encouragement and the opportunity to serve the association.  I look forward to continuing to serve the board, but now as a member of a very prestigious group (of which I’m very PROUD to be a part of)....Central Ohio GCSA Past President!

Sincerely,
Matt Doran
Superintendent, The Links at Groveport
Past President, COGCSA