The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America has put on pause a search that would move its headquarters and 120 jobs from Lawrence to Florida.

Steve Mona, chief executive of the Lawrence-based association, said its board of directors decided at its annual meeting this weekend to postpone any votes on a move until at least February 2004.

“The process will still continue,” Mona said, “but essentially what we’ve said is we want to take a pause right now. We don’t feel any sense of urgency at all on the issue.”

At its meeting in Atlanta, the association’s board also agreed that any decision to move the headquarters would have to be put to a full vote of the association’s approximately 22,000 members across the country. Previously, the association sought to put the decision solely in the hands of its board of directors.

The actions pleased members of the association who have been lobbying to keep the headquarters in Lawrence.

“Compared to how I felt a month ago, I’m very encouraged,” said Dick Stuntz, an association member and vice president of golf facilities at Lawrence’s Alvamar Golf Club. “I think the chances are definitely greater that they’ll stay than they were a month ago.”

The association, which has been based in Lawrence since 1972, announced late last year that it would consider leaving Lawrence to be located in an area that is considered more of a golf destination. The association had been considering Phoenix, Orlando, Fla., and Jacksonville, Fla., as possible homes.

Mona said several concerns about a move were brought to the board’s attention during the annual meeting.

“There were a lot of strong opinions that expressed concern, especially about the future of our staff,” Mona said. “I heard a lot of people say we have a great staff and it has taken a long time to get to where we are, so why would we want to do anything to disrupt that staff?”

It was expected many members of the Lawrence staff would not move to the cities the association has been considering.

Olivia Holcombe, executive director of the Kansas City, Mo.-based Heart of America Golf Course Superintendents Assn., said staff loss was one of the reasons her organization started an effort to slow down any potential move.

The Heart of America group, which is a chapter of the national association, sent a letter to all 22,000 national members before the meeting. That letter urged members to vote against a proposal that would have given the board authority to decide on moving the headquarters.

After the letters went out earlier this month, the association’s board decided to pull the relocation issue off its agenda.

The board also decided that a vote on the issue could only happen during the annual meeting, not during a special meeting of the membership. That’s significant because it means the earliest the association could vote on a possible move would be in 2004.

Mona said he expected the association’s board to direct consultants to continue seeking offers from the three cities, especially the two in Florida. But he said he was uncertain whether the association would be ready to put the issue to a vote in 2004.