My friend, Laura Benson, kept saying to me, “You have to interview Jo Helms for an article!” After several months, I finally was able to call Jo to set up an interview. And what an interview it was!
Jo Helms is the Volunteer Coordinator (17 years and running) for the Mountain View Collegiate Women’s Golf Tournament, beginning Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 17 at the Preserve Golf Club at SaddleBrooke. What would prepare a person to take on this remarkable task? The answer might be… you would never believe it!
Jo was raised in Iowa and received a two-year degree in accounting, then a four-year degree in marketing. During her 25-year career at Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, she met her future husband, Dick.
She “picked up” the game of golf at the age of 30 and found out that she liked the sport. Meanwhile, while raising three sons, she found the time (how–for heaven’s sake?), to volunteer as follows:
Pre-school board at their church, plus other church activities such as communion steward, usher, process weekly donations, and various committees
Served on the company credit union board
Served on the Country Club Court Homeowners Association Board
And her volunteering activities still hold especially true today. Since moving to SaddleBrooke Jo has found time for being on:
The Golf Committee of HOA-2; and
The board of the Mountain View/Preserve Women’s Golf Association
In addition, she:
Serves as the City Women’s Golf Association Tournament Director.
Is President of the Southern District Women’s Golf Association.
Then there is her current major volunteer passion of being the Volunteer Coordinator of the Collegiate Women’s Golf Tournament, which takes about six months of extensive preparation, including having these items in place:
Contacting about 250 volunteers, to work over the three-day tournament.
Determining the volunteer schedules for all the volunteers over the three days
With her committee members, coordinating volunteer assignments every day, assisting with the online scoring app with the scoring volunteers, preparing the instructions for the various volunteer roles, preparing the on-the-course snacks for the players and the volunteers, lanyards for the volunteers and printing the pairings for visitors and volunteers. All these critical items must be in place by the start of the tournament and every day thereafter.
The 54-hole tournament will be hosted by the University of Missouri and Kansas State University, while the other states represented will be: Arkansas, Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Nevada.
Each college team decides which golfers are to be sent to the tournament. There will be fifteen teams of five players for the tournament. There is online scoring—the volunteers who ride with the golfers input the scores on their private phones!
Admittedly computer literate, Jo meticulously establishes spreadsheets for all of the volunteer details and nuances of the tournament, which include a myriad of moving parts.
Of course, it takes a village of sorts to make sure that the tournament is planned down to the minutest detail. This year’s MV Collegiate Tournament Committee includes:
Jo Helms – Volunteers
Matt Hudson & Mike Karpe – HOA#2 PGA Professionals
Phil Gray – Rules
Laura Benson, Welcome Bags
Lori Hill – Housing
Also, Deb Bunker, Raye Cobb, Sandy Strack and Donna Vargas
In her spare time, Jo likes to visit her six grandchildren and read.
Jo Helms, where, oh where do you find the time?
For more information about the MV Collegiate Tournament, visit mvcollegiate.wordpress.com.
