STRI (Sports Turf Research Institute) Bulletin April 2014 | 页面 4

FIRST WORD
Gordon McKillop
Chief Executive, STRI

The first quarter has been a busy one
for us, both from an internal and an
external perspective. Firstly, the internal
perspective. During this time we have had
a seemingly non-stop trail (or should it be
trial) of auditors in our offices assessing a
whole variety of systems.
In February, we passed with flying
colours our 5-yearly inspection by the
Chemicals Regulation Directorate of the
Health and Safety Executive to retain our
ORETO certification. ORETO stands for
Official Recognition of Efficacy Testing
facilities and Organisations scheme. We
require this certification in order to do
chemical trials for companies such as
Syngenta, Bayer etc. In other words, this
certification is essential for us to be able
to conduct R&D projects and ensures our
processes are both effective and robust.
Two ISO audits have also been conducted:
Quality Management Standard (9001) and
Environmental Management Standard
(14001). This included a site visit with
one of our consultants to a Sport
England project to assess Quality and
Environmental compliance from a practical
perspective. We again passed and retained
our accreditations in both standards.
We also successfully passed our triennial
Investors in People audit. The auditor
commented that we were rather unique

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Bulletin April 2014 Issue 265

as she had never experienced every single
member of staff interviewed in a business
(18 in our case) being unanimously
positive in terms of their experiences and
opportunities within the business.
Our greatest achievement in this vein
has been our shortlisting as finalists in
two categories of the inaugural Sports
Technology Awards for our development,
in collaboration with the R&A and
Sheffield Hallam University, of the STRI
Trueness Meter which measures the
trueness and smoothness of putting
surfaces. One category was as Best use
of Technology in a Single Sport (in our
case golf); and the other as Best use of
Technology by a Governing Body (The
R&A). I am absolutely delighted to tell you
that at last week’s awards ceremony in
London, attended by 350 people, we won
the category of Best Use of Technology by
a Governing Body. There were hundreds
of entries from all over the world for this
inaugural competition and in our category
we were up against finalists from the USA,
Europe and the UK in a short-list of six.
Further details can be found at www.
sportstechnologyawards.com. Other
winners included O2, Sky Sports and
Match of the Day and, as the compere
mentioned, it was good to see both David
and Goliath types of organisations being
represented as winners.

Furthermore, The R&A has indicted
that it wishes us to implement the STRI
Programme of putting green assessment,
including use of the Trueness Meter, this
year for the first time at the