HFDS Forum - Homegrown Course Designers and HFDS

One of the resources that HFDS provides is a community of knowledge, experience and wisdom through its members, contacts and other resources that can assist or benefit disc golf projects. In addition, HFDS has credibility with many localities as an organization that can represent the interests of the local disc golf community and be a source of valuable information. HFDS provides suggestions, constructive criticisms, endorsements and sponsorships for disc golf projects and proposals.

To that end, I encourage people who want to have a course installed to seek advice from HFDS on how to accomplish that goal. When you come to an HFDS meeting there is almost 100 or more combined years of disc golf experience at the meeting.

One concern that has been raised by some of those homegrown disc golf course designers that I have spoken with is the protection of their intellectual property rights, ideas, work-product and time investment in developing a course design and proposal and the relationships in promotion of their ideas. To that end, I have prepared a draft of a non-disclosure and non-compete agreement between a course designer and a consultant with the course designer to promote this process and to encourage homegrown designers to seek out a protected exchange of information. Yet, input from disc golfers and course designers would be of benefit in improving that non-disclosure and non-compete agreement to meet their concerns.

I make this post to promote discussions on the topic. Often times a local disc golfer has an idea and has developed a relationship with a local church, governmental entity or property owner but lacks the know-how, experience and technical knowledge to bring the idea and the relationship to fruition. HFDS as an unincorporated not-for-profit association can be a conduit for bringing together common interests to help such homegrown course designers. While course design is not rocket science, there are many pitfalls along the way that a trusted community effort can help avoid.