2007 Winter Meeting / Conference Call

 

Wednesday December 19, 2007 @ 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

 

Minutes

 

                   I.            Roll Call – Todd Butz, Brad Forester, Chris Glassing, Bo Johnston, Michelle Stockness, Lisa Vollbrecht.

 

                II.            Approve Minutes from Past Meeting – Bo motioned to approve, and Brad seconded.

 

             III.            Review and Approve Agenda – Michelle motioned, and Chris seconded.

 

              IV.            New Business

 

A.  The annual YP summit will be held in Austin, TX on May 1. 

 

Typically the Chair-elect from our section represents us at the Summit.  However, Lisa is unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.  Michelle expressed interest and will represent us pending she can clear it with her employer.  Michelle will work with Todd to learn more about the details and expectations involved.

 

B.     YP Happy Hour (Held January 11).

 

Michelle brought up the idea to hold a YP happy hour.   

 

                 V.            Workgroup Chair Reports / Ideas

 

                                                                  1.            Membership (Bo Johnston) – Bo and Todd presented AWWA YP at a MEESE meeting at the University of MN.  The meeting was attended by approximately 20 civil engineering graduate students.  We co-sponsored the meeting with WEF YP and another Air Pollution Group by providing pizza.  We talked to the group about AWWA in general, the YP group, and its benefits.  We were well received and Tim LaPara, University of MN professor, had very good things to say to the students about joining professional organizations.  Several students expressed interest in joining YP and have done so.  We sponsored the 3 students by giving them a free 1 yr membership.

 

WEF offered free admission to their annual conference if students signed up for a 1 yr membership.  WEF also paid half of the membership dues.  We may want to consider this in the future.

 

This meeting was time well spent.  We should plan on doing this every year and perhaps even try to extend it to undergraduates.  In addition, we could also extend it to other universities / schools.

 

We will continue to invite the MEESE group to our activities.  They have environmental seminars every week, which we could attend and offer to host a social hour afterward.  This could be used as an opportunity to promote our fresh ideas contest.

 

The membership is looking for help to drive membership and wants to target students.  They have promotional materials available (videos) and members of their committee would be willing to do joint presentations with YP to target student membership.  They have also expressed interest in working with us to develop a “new members orientation / welcome” at the State Annual Conference.  

 

                                                                  2.            Social (Lisa Vollbrecht and Michelle Stockness)

 

Facility Tour/Social Options:

a.      St. Paul, MN WTP

b.      Cold Spring Brewery

c.       Watress manufacturing facility

d.      Johnson Wellscreens manufacturing facility

 

We will aim to host 3 tours this year -  Spring, Summer and Fall.          

 

                                                                  3.            Public Affairs (John Chlebeck) – No report.   

 

                                                                  4.            Fresh Ideas (Brad Forester) – Jabin Joseph and Alireza Ahmadi Motlagh were chosen as the winner and will be representing MN at the annual conference in June.

 

Brad will continue to work with membership to host a social for MEESE group to promote Fresh Ideas for our 2008 contest.

 

                                                                  5.            Poker Tournament (Doug Klamerus)  

 

We had 45 contestants this year, up slightly from last year.  Several ideas were discussed on how to draw more players.

 

a.      “Lightning round” where players would go “all in” on one hand.  This would limit the time commitment to about a half hour or less, which may appeal to people who do not want to commit an entire night.

 

b.      We could have a separate “beginner” table to attract people who might be intimidated by playing in the large tournament.

 

              VI.            Announcements and Schedule Next Meeting –

 

Next meeting – At the MN Rural Water Conference in St. Cloud the week of March 3.

 

Chris motioned to adjourn the meeting.  Bo seconded.