Area leaders hoping to keep the headquarters of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America in Lawrence have bought themselves at least another year.

Officials with the association, which employs 120 in Lawrence, have agreed to postpone a vote on moving the headquarters to a more “golf-centric” area in Florida or Arizona until at least February 2005, association president and chief executive Steve Mona said Wednesday. Previously, the association said it might be ready to vote during its annual meeting in February.

Mona said the board of directors also had created an 11-member “resource group” that would study the issue and make a recommendation about a possible move to the board of directors.

“There has been no question that there has been concern about the process we’ve used to deal with this issue,” Mona said. “There’s been a feeling that it has been rushed and that it came out of the blue. So we’re definitely slowing the process down.”

Mona said there had been concerns that the process was tightly controlled by the board of directors. To address that, all 11 members of the task force are nonboard members.

The association, which has been based in Lawrence since 1972, announced late last year that it would consider leaving Lawrence for an area that was more of a golf destination. The association is considering Phoenix, Orlando, Fla., and Jacksonville, Fla., as possible homes, but it also is considering remaining in Lawrence.

Any decision to move from Lawrence would require a vote of the association’s membership. The association has about 22,000 members.

Dick Stuntz, vice president of golf facilities for Alvamar Inc. and a member of the association, said he thought the new process would help Lawrence’s chances of retaining the association.

“It will take some of the politics out of it,” Stuntz said. “I think what this process will do, is even if the decision two, three or four years from now is to move the headquarters, it will be a much better researched and discussed decision.”

Stuntz said he thought the group would take a hard look at the effect a move would have on the association’s 120 staff members.

“We’ve heard estimates that 80 to 90 percent of the staff wouldn’t move,” Stuntz said. “That would be very disruptive to the association. It would really require us to go back to the drawing board in terms of having a staff.”

None of the 11 members on the task force is from Lawrence, but Mona said it did include one area resident, Sandy Queen, who is a golf course superintendent for the city of Overland Park.

Mona said it was possible that a vote to move the association might not even take place in February 2005.

“We’re not saying that it will be in 2005,” Mona said. “We’re just saying it won’t be in 2004. The group may come back and say there is no need for a vote at all because the optimum location is Lawrence, Kansas.”

Mona said he expected the group to determine a timeline at a meeting in September.

Area economic development officials have said keeping the association in Lawrence was a priority for the community. The association’s 120 jobs pay an average annual wage of about $43,000.

Lynn Parman, vice president of economic development for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said the association not only provided better-than-average jobs but also gave Lawrence significant national recognition.

“It really exposes Lawrence to a lot of people from around the country,” Parman said. “It is really a part of our identity.”

Parman is leading a group of seven to 10 people from the golfing industry, the city, county and the state who are trying to convince the organization to remain in Lawrence.

Parman said the group was primarily gathering data that compared Lawrence to the other cities under consideration. The group is compiling information on how much it would cost the association to replace both its building and its staff.

“The way we look at this most recent announcement, is that they have only decided to delay their decision,” Parman said. “We’re still taking all this very seriously.”