Grant Zellner PDGA:
Nate Heinold is PDGA number 49340. Nate works for the Ledgestone Corporation and is the current PDGA Board of Directors president. His term is expiring. And so Nate running for re-election to the PDGA Board of Directors in the 2023. board of directors elections. Nate, thanks for joining me today. For those that might not be as familiar with your background, can you give us a little Cliff Notes, if you will, on your background in disc golf.

Nate:
Sure, I've been playing disc golf for 23 years now. So since I was a wee little high school student, started the Ledgestone kind of event to grow my insurance business. And over time, that's dwarfed into my full-time job and we run the Ledgestone open every year. And as a large charitable event, we've raised $532,000 for charity since 2014. We now have evolved into running other events like DGLO and certain majors. Um, and so that's been my tournament background. Um, I used to play more. I still enjoy playing, but most of my time has spent promoting. Um, I've, I've been on the PDJ board for the last six years. I've served everything from secretary and treasurer to vice president to president. And I'm also the volunteer chairperson of the Paul McBeth foundation. So I kind of have my hands in a lot of different areas in disc golf and it's my life passion

Grant Zellner PDGA:
No doubt about that. Well, let's dive right into some policy related things so that those that are making their vote this year know what you've been about and what you will continue to be about or any new things that'll be part of your focus in the coming term, should you be re-elected. Let's start with things centered around membership. As you know, of course we're a member organization, so we're always looking to serve current members well and to recruit, if you will, new members to get ourselves as the PGA in front of new audiences and increase membership amongst certain demographics, youth and education, for example, or women, etc. I would like to know as a board member how you intend to contribute to these membership objectives.

Nate:
actually have a pretty bold and big idea. I kind of want to make it my one of the main things I'm known for on the PDJ. If you read my platform statement on pdj.com for re-election, I am proposing a program that would directly fund new courses in underserved areas. So the PDJ has had grants over the years. Smaller grants, these grants would be very large, could pay for half of the course. We would be looking to invest in international projects, domestic cities that have no access to disc golf, tribal land projects, putting courses at youth camps. Right now, I think we're seeing a flatlining in the disc golf industry. plethora of inventory. We're seeing some retailers, you know, seeing a slowdown, but we're not seeing a slowdown in events, but we do need more courses to continue to grow the sport of disc golf. And I think our memberships or our membership as a whole can grow if we get into those areas that don't yet have disc golf. So my effort would be a very bold and expensive program, but I think worth the investment. to directly grow disc golf in areas that don't have any disc golf and spend a considerable amount of money doing that. And I would fund that by raising our membership dues, just $5 a year for our members and put all that money into that program.

Grant Zellner PDGA:
Are you talking about both foreign and domestic, as they say, growth when it comes to this program?

Nate:
Yeah, we would, I think I've kind of, and it's just a ballpark number, of course I would work with staff and board, but looking at trying to focus one third of the resources maybe overseas, one third towards youth programs, whether it's a day camp or a school, I think putting a nine hole, and these courses would be geared towards short read courses, not. the Northwood Blacks, W.R. Jackson's. We don't need more championship courses. Those are gonna be put in regardless because of the tourism benefit. We need easier courses, white level 18 hole courses, red level nine hole courses, putting courses in schools and day camps or church camps. And then, you know, additional money set aside for tribal land projects. I've seen a lot of success from, you know, certain groups putting courses, you know, getting into these. you know, tribal lands and just a great way of recreation for them. And I think if the PDJ can help with funding, we can find our next significant growth opportunity. But then through that program, we would potentially have PDJ branded kiosks and have design standards that we ask people to do, Hey, make sure you don't put a basket right next to a walking path or don't put a basket on a 45 degree hill with no, you know, with no sod or seed down. And so. So ask them to do certain things. Have PDJ branded, you know, basket bands. If we're giving them money, we want the PDJ brand to get out there. For my first 11 years of playing, I never knew what the PDJ was. I played events every year, but they were unsanctioned. And so if we're putting this investment in, let's get our mission out there and let other people find competition. So that's what I would love. to get passed later this year and try to implement starting in 2024, knowing that it would be a multi-year project.

Grant Zellner PDGA:
So if you build it, they will come.

Nate:
That is what happened in Finland. I mean, that's what's happened in states like Michigan, even Illinois. I mean, I think if we give people access, they will become fans and they'll become players and they'll support the PDGA. They'll wanna play events. They'll go buy disc golf network subscriptions. They'll go buy discs from retailers and manufacturers and that helps grow the sport. So I think that really... this all-encompassing project would be a way for us to move forward and to really find the next bubble of opportunity.

Grant Zellner PDGA:
You mentioned there in your explanation, people finding competition and an opportunity to play on these courses. We're always at the PDGA focused on the competition aspect. That's another of the major focus points a year in and year out. Uh, that entails of course, increasing the number of events. It entails improving the quality of those events at all levels from amateur to the top professionals. And of course, it entails finding the people, in some cases, the very special people it takes to lead those events, to direct those events. They need training and they need support. Can you talk about your thoughts with regard to that aspect of the game and that aspect of, shall we say, increasing the supply to meet the demand for competition?

Nate:
Yeah, I mean, during COVID, that was the biggest complaint that we heard is, Hey, I'm a member and I'm, I'm, I'm not able to sign up fast enough to play. And so we made the decision. I pushed really hard to require a membership, um, just to play B-Tier. So non-members can no longer play B-Tiers. And I'm going to look to later this next month pass. Um, I'm looking to implement for 2024. to require membership to play in C tiers. And so that's a bold decision for some people who are used to not being a member and able to play our competitive events. But at the end of the day, the PDJ needs to serve our members. And so that's one thing I would like to do. And then we may look to implement another tier that's for beginners or a one round only flex event that would allow non-members to get their feet wet. But that's one part of what I'd like to get passed in the next year to increase competitive opportunity for our current members. Additionally, I've been very supportive of our PDJ event support team, which really has helped newer TDs especially, but even me. They've sent me stuff before saying, hey, Nate, this event that you just posted on Disc Like, wow, okay, even I'm learning. And so that team has really helped and we need to continue to invest in that. But also if you look at, right now we're seeing 20% event growth still. We have so many events and we're still seeing growth, but we're not seeing enough new TDs come about. We're seeing a lot of existing TDs just try to run more events. And I think One thing I've pushed for is trying to allow TDs to be better compensated. And we did change our tour standards to allow TDs to take a little bit of money from running events. Right now, most TDs just make money if they're able to make money off player packs or that kind of stuff. And so we need to make sure that TDs are not burning themselves out. And so continue to look for ways to make sure that TDs can. make a reasonable compensation instead of making, you know, $1.47 an hour. Let's make sure they can at least, you know, get something for their effort. Because if they do a great job, they will keep doing it and provide those competitive opportunities for players. And they'll want to run an A tier or a silver series event. They'll want to get to the Jeff spring level or the Steve dodge level. They'll shoot for that because back. When I was first running events, I went to the USDGC and said, or I went to 2012 AM Worlds and I watched that TV and I said, I wanna do that someday. I saw Monster Booth and I was like, wow, that's, I saw barricades and it excited me back 11 years ago. And then I got to the USDGC and saw a rope and I was like, wow, rope, I want that. I want a rope. So no, I'm just, yeah, you. You take things from events that have been successful and you learn. And so I would tell any new TD, just go volunteer for an experienced TD and you're gonna steal great ideas and there's nothing wrong with that.

Grant Zellner PDGA:
It's a great point. We've got a little bit of time left, Nate, and I want to make sure I give you a chance to talk about any other issues or priorities, or we could call it problems that you'd like to solve. Anything that we haven't discussed yet. You want to make sure that the voters know should they elect you to a new term on the PDJ Board of Directors. These are things that you will be focused on on their behalf.

Nate:
You know, one thing that I've been very focused on the last, honestly, six years, almost my entire term has been, obviously I've had priorities, but it's been the pro side of the game. You know, back in 2017, when I first ran, I ran on a platform of trying to create this fourth consistent major and it took time. And I'm very proud of the fact that we eventually created the PDJ Champions Cup and it's now been run twice very successful in a very wonderful venue but continuing to elevate The professional side of the game and working closely with the disc golf Pro Tour Has been a passion of mine honestly for the last six years You know, we obviously merged the two tours a few years ago So continuing to give opportunities for professionals allows people to have something to root for. It gets fans into the sport that don't even play. There are many people who watch, believe it or not, they watch tennis, but they never play tennis, or they watch golf. We need more fans that don't play. And if we have that, we have people maybe becoming a PDJ member. that don't play, which there are some. We have one on our current board of directors. He's a fan, his family is just a fan. And so I think that aspect there is one thing I wanna continue to work closely with, but then also youth and education. I'm very passionate about getting disc golf into the hands of our young children or just children in general, and maybe college kids, high school, just how we get disc golf. um more ingrained onto that side has been a challenge. There are a lot of people see contracts for baseball players and football players and they say I want my kid to take that avenue right. Um and so how do we get you know parents and kids excited for disc off and I think it it's we just have to continue to invest in the grass you know roots level. Just a lot of small things work I think. You know, we probably have to start at a higher level in terms of, we may need to start at the collegiate level and work our way down, you know, and continue to support programs like Uplay that are kind of doing the heavy lifting of the teaching. And so, but I think the coming back to my main platform and the main program that I want to pass is this course funding project where let's get those courses in the ground, those beginner courses, shorter courses, they could be four whole courses, six whole courses, nine, 18, let's get them in those areas, but then let's also through that program, we could give small grants to people to say, hey, we want you to run two clinics a year, we want you to give out these 100 discs to these newer players, just that kind of stuff, we can get plastic for cheap, let's just try to get these let's try to give the opportunity to these kids to play and I think if the PDJ is spending a little money on that that will come back to us in the long term because as I said right now I think we are seeing a little bit of a slowdown at the top level in terms of maybe some interest maybe some economic concerns and let's make sure that the PDJ is the one actually being proactive to grow the sport and not reactive you know sometimes um people complain that the that the PDJ is very reactive to things, I don't always agree with that, but this is one opportunity for us to be proactive.

Grant Zellner PDGA:
We've covered a lot of ground in the last 16 minutes and change Nate. We've hit on three or four major points on your personal platform. So by way of wrapping things up and trying to tie things up with a bow here, are there any other points that you'd like to take this opportunity to make by way of sort of campaigning for yourself, for lack of a better term? before we leave it to the voters starting on July 1st.

Nate:
You know, over the last six years, I've been very passionate about this job on the board. Obviously, it's been a volunteer job. I wasn't even intending to run again. In fact, we just passed term limits, and so this will be my last time running. Over the last six years, I've been involved in some of the highest level decisions, and I've spent... a lot of time doing that and I'm very passionate about it. I've, I helped author our gender eligibility policy. I pushed for splitting off the masters and amateurs into their own world championships so we could highlight both of those events. You know, I've been at the forefront of some major rule decisions and some decisions not to implement major rules because sometimes It's better to do nothing. And I've really put a lot of effort into being on the board and providing expertise to the executive director and the staff and to engaging in the current board to try to find compromise. That's probably the thing I'm most proud of is our current government doesn't always like to get along and compromise. And certainly not every decision that we make at the board level. has been unanimous. In fact, most of them are not, but I do try to get both sides to come together. And I would say that the current board would say that's the best quality I have is that I try to listen to both sides and I try to find a middle ground in most cases and pass a policy that at least... has more than four votes. We have seven board members, so my goal is to try to get five or six knowing that probably there's always going to be somebody who doesn't want to vote for something. But that's, I really enjoy the work and I would love to serve one more term to give back to our members.

Grant Zellner PDGA:
Nate Heinold is PDGA number 49340. He's the current PDGA Board of Directors President. Term expiring, so running for re-election to the PDGA Board of Directors in the 2023 Board of Directors elections, which begin on July 1st. Nate, I really appreciate your time, and thanks for the candid comments about your focal points during the upcoming term, should you be re-elected. We appreciate it and wish you best of luck in the elections.

Nate:
Thanks, Grant. Appreciate it.