I Wondered What in the World He Was Talking About

Brett Lemcke, Landscape Industry Certified,, R.M. Landscape, Inc.

Brett Lemcke, Landscape Industry Certified, remembers vividly his first trip to GIC. It was 1998. He was a freshman at SUNY-Cobleskill and attended the event along with a handful of other students from the school.

“Every year, our professor, Jack Ingels, took a group of students to GIC,” Lemcke recalled.  “The group was primarily made up of upper classroom but I knew from the beginning that this is something to be involved with. It was a fun trip and we attended as many seminars as time allowed. Most of the education, however, was way over my head. I remember sitting in on a Kevin Kehoe presentation and wondered what in the world he was talking about. P&L statements and balance sheets, they were all new to me.”

Fast forward 16 years and the vice president of R.M. Landscape in Hilton, NY, understands Kehoe’s language and other financial nuances thanks in large part to never missing a GIC.  “After graduating from Cobleskill I worked full time in the family business,” said Lemcke.  “I always brought something I learned from the seminars back home from the event. Early on, I focused on attending seminars that were more operational in subject matter. Then, as I grew with the business, I looked for more business and financial help, including benchmarking information that would compare how our company was doing to others within the industry.”

What he learned in seminars and workshops was complemented by a network of friends he made along the way. “The networking was and still is very valuable,” Lemcke emphasized, adding that it was largely responsible for his company joining a peer group two years ago.

GIC and PLANET have helped his company in other ways, he remarked.

“Our involvement facilitated a transition into more of a maintenance company. As we move forward I look for PLANET and its many resources, including GIC, to help us grow organizationally.” Lemcke noted that one of his company’s challenges today is to get “all the right people on the bus.” He expects that learning curve to be shortened dramatically by sharing stories with his peer group and other PLANET members.

A PLANET Board member, Lemcke chaired the Industry Recruiting committee for a number of years and was on the Landscape Management Specialty Group committee.  He has also participated on the Student Career Days’ subcommittee and served as chair of the event. 

“Cobleskill sends a team to Student Career Days (SCD) every year,” Lemcke related.

“Because of my involvement with SCD while a student there, I still enjoy stopping by the Student/Employer Roundtable Recruiting session at GIC.  It’s almost a mini SCD career fair and affords a great opportunity for PLANET members to introduce their companies and potential employment opportunities to students.” This year’s roundtable, he added, will be held on Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. 

Being on the PLANET Board and attending leadership meetings held during GIC has limited the amount of time Lemcke can spend in seminars and walking the trade show floor. This veteran of 16 GICs, however, knows his way around and how to make the most of his time. Whereas the seminars, workshops, and trade show are all valuable and certainly by themselves worth a trip to Louisville, he would be among the first to say that nothing trumps seeing his friends there and continuing the networking experience with peers.