MINUTES APPROVAL:

October 3, 2005 – Board of Directors meeting

October 3, 2005 – Consent Report

October 4, 2005 – Board of Directors meeting

October 7, 2005 – Board of Directors meeting

 

Corrections: none noted.

 

FINANCIAL REPORT (Eaton)

The Section Monthly Financial Status, as of Dec 31, was emailed to all the board members. The Section income for 2005 was $222,479 and expenses were $198,237 for a net income of $24,242. Investments were up for the year by $14,841. The endowment fund has $67,731and the general fund has $127,558.

 

ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR'S REPORT (Gerads)

The AWWA Board of Directors met in Austin, Texas the weekend of February 11, 2006.  Following are the highlights from the meeting.

 

Election of Officers

The winter board meeting is the event where new officers are elected.  The newly elected officers officially take office this summer at the ACE.  They are:

      President-Elect:             Nilaksh Kothari, Wisconsin

      Vice-Presidents:            Luis Aguiar, Florida, Glenda Dunn, Texas, Joseph Mantua, Chesapeake, Janice Skadsen, Michigan, Craig Woolard, Alaska

      Director-at-Large:           Trina Mastran, Virginia Section

 

Treasurer’s Report

AWWA had a great year in 2005, recording the second highest net income on record.  Other items worth mentioning in this arena include:

·         A subcommittee of the Finance Committee is evaluating the qualified defined benefit pension plan for AWWA employees; and

·         The reinstitution of approximately $30,000 to support AwwaRF.  This money was removed from the budget a few years ago due to fiscal restraints.  It equates to approximately $1 per individual member.

Jon Eaton is on the Association’s Finance Committee and would be more than happy to discuss any of these and other AWWA financial information in more detail.

 

Ad Hoc Committee on Governance and Structure

Approved several items including:

·         Grant voting rights to WFP and AwwaRF representatives on AWWA Executive Board;

·         Add one additional Vice-President;

·         Assign one Vice-President to each Council as liaison member;

·         Create a standing committee on Governance; and

·         Vice President becomes VP for remainder of term (I tried to kill this one unsuccessfully).

 

Affinity Credit Card Program

Basically you can get a credit card with the AWWA logo on it and AWWA will get a kickback based on charges incurred.  There is no financial risk to AWWA and minimal impact to staff.  Similar programs yield up to $300,000 yearly.

 

AWWA Wastewater Standards Development

Presently no one is doing this or plans on doing it.  It will take awhile to get the program up and running, but in the long-term it will be an additional revenue stream for AWWA.

 

Miscellaneous Items Worth Mentioning

·         Nebraska Section offers P.E. exams at their annual conference as a way to attract YP’s and students;

·         Michigan Section has a new member luncheon attend by new members and committee chairs.  New members are offered committee assignments;

·         The Association has the 125th Anniversary logo available; Fiesta 125;

·         …and we will be receiving a survey from the Association on risk management.

DISTRICT REPORTS

            NW District (Hall)

The NW District water operators’ school scheduled for November 29 to December 1 in Thief River Falls was cancelled due to an ice storm in the northwestern part of Minnesota. A one-day school has been scheduled on February 22, 2006 at the Best Western in Thief River Falls, a Wednesday. The program will be similar to the first day of school that was cancelled. A split session will be held in the afternoon, a Small Systems session and a Treatment Issues session. A business meeting will be held just prior to lunch. A new Northwest District trustee and vice Chair will be elected at this meeting.

 

A planning meeting for the three day school later in 2006 will be held in May. A location and official dates will be selected at the February 22 business meeting.

            NE District (Lubovich)

The AWWA Northeast District planning committee re-conviened on Tuesday January 10th 2006 to carve out the schedule for their 2006 Northeast District Water Operator School.  Ruttger's Sugar Lake Lodge, Grand Rapids will be the location of the school.  Class dates are Wednesday, April 26 to Friday, April 28, 2006.  Registration will be $115.00 per person, with an increase to $125.00 per person after April 19th.  Ruttger's is holding a block of rooms until March 26th.  Studio rooms will be $65.70 per night and Lodge rooms will be $104.03 per night.  This pricing includes tax. Attendees may call 1-800-450-4555 and mention American Water Works Association to get the special rate. This will be the first time the Northeast District has held its school in the Grand Rapids area.

 

Wednesday, April 26 will begin with a welcome from the Mayor of Grand Rapids.  The morning topics of discussion will be Grant Monies, Water System Security and Water Resource Programs.  The afternoon session will consist of the Northeast District Business Meeting, Gopher State One Call updates, and Recreational Surface Water Technologies.

 

Thursday, April 27 will consist of two off site tours.  The morning will include a guided tour of the Blandin Paper Mill.  The afternoon will offer a $4.00 per person guided tour of the Forest History Center.

 

Friday, April 28 will touch on such subjects as Meters, Hydrant Maintenance, Automation/Flow Control, Sampling Techniques/Preservation, as well as a Panel Discussion on Operator Issues.

 

The Northeast District is anticipating a great turnout and encourage AWWA members as well as non AWWA Operators to attend.

            Central District (Stai)

The next Central District Three-Day School will be held June 7 - 9, 2006 at Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge located at Deerwood, MN. A block of rooms has been reserved for people that want to arrive the day before. The Central District Education Committee will be meeting soon to set up the agenda for this school.

 

There were 115 registrants (75 regular and 40 students) for the annual St. John's School which was held October 26, 2005. Due to popular demand, this school will again be held at the same site this fall with the date yet to be determined.

            Metro District (Blommel-Johnson)

Meeting was held at the Champlin Legion on 1/25/06 and moderated by Paul Coone / District Chair.

 

48 Member were present.

 

An election was held for the vice-chair for the metro district with one nominee; Mark Hartfiel / City of Brooklyn Center. Paul Coone announced the election winner. Mark Hartfiel – City of Brooklyn Center. Mark was not present. Paul extended a thank you to Mark and the City of Brooklyn Center for accepting the nomination and position as vice-chair.

 

Trustee Report / Carol Blommel – Carol stated that she attended the Regional Meeting in Chicago with other section officers. She met many new people in the AWWA organization and enjoyed the opportunity. She learned more about the direction and vision the AWWA has for our section.

 

Water Utility Council / Curt Johnson– Met on January 19th and discussed Legislative involvement regarding impaired water issues /  Xcel energy and pumping rate structures / Discussed how to structure Mutual Aid on an AWWA level. / Discussed the creation of a “calling tree” for a quick response to our legislators when needed for hot issues.

 

Glen Gerads / Its election time and we have four candidates running for president elect and seven for vice president. Glen would like any input you can share on the candidates.

 

Energy Committee – Vern Jacobsen – Ed Sorenson/ Vern stated that all large and small utilities should plan on rate increases in the upcoming year. Anywhere from seven to sixteen percent depending on the size of your utility.

 

Education Committee – Stew Thornley stated that Metro school dates are April 18th – 20th. This will be the last year we hold our Metro School at the Thunderbird due to rising costs and The Thunderbird indicated their profits with our school are poor and they will increase their rates to nearly double what we are currently paying. The 2007 Metro school will be held at the Earl Brown Center located in Brooklyn Center. Estimated costs are 5500 to 6000 dollars. You can expect registration fees to increase about 40 dollars per person next year.

 

Paul Coone asked any new members and guests to please stand and introduce themselves to the group. He thanked them for there involvement.

 

Paul Coone solicited any new business. With none received, he adjourned the meeting.

            SW District (Moulton)

The officers and school planning committee of the Southwest District of the Minnesota AWWA is scheduled to meet on January 26, 2006 at the Mankato office of the Minnesota Department of Health. The topics to be discussed include the following:

1.  Discus and set an agenda for the April 4, 2006 training session to be held in Wells, Minnesota.

2.  Discus and set a preliminary agenda for the October 12, 2006 training session to be held in Windom, Minnesota

3.  Prepare and set locations for 2007 training sites

4.  Conduct an officer's business meeting to examine budget requirements and future expenses

5.  Discuss and solicit District Officers for the upcoming calendar year

            SE District (Halvorson)

The S.E. District Fall One-day water school was held Friday, October 28, 2005, at   the American Legion in Faribault.  There were 45 operators in attendance.

 

On January 5, 2006, the planning committee held a meeting at the Southeast District Office of the Minnesota Department of Health to plan the upcoming Spring Water School.   Attending: Myron Volker, Owatonna; Dean Huschle, Northfield; Bob Keiper, Winona;  Karla Peterson, Stew Thornley, Jeanette Boothe, Cindy Cook and                 Paul Halvorson, all from MDH.

 

The S.E. District Three-day Water School will be held Thursday thru Friday March  29-31, 2006 at the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in Rochester: http://www.ramadarochester.com/ 

 

The tentative agenda and a registration form are linked at:

http://mnawwa.org/section/southeast.html

 

The Southeast District business meeting will be he held the last morning of the school on Friday March 31, 2006 at 8:30am.

 

The registration fee for the school will be held at the same level of the past several schools; $125 pre-registration (before March 20) and $135 at the door.

            Trustee-At-Large (Sadler)

 

 

COUNCIL/COMMITTEE REPORTS

            Administration Council (Cockriel)

 

Awards (AbouAish)
A written report will to be provided at the meeting
Finance (Barb Woolsey)

The Finance Committee met on February 1, 2006 at the Bloomington Water Treatment Plant. Barb Woolsey (chair), Doug Rovang, Dave Brown, and Jon Eaton were present. Karl Streed was absent.

 

The section financial status and investments as of Dec 31, 2005 were reviewed.

 

Action items from the previous committee meeting (Sep 05) were reviewed and board action noted.

 

The committee was told the board approved the expenditure for the creation of an educational CD through Hamline University. The section and MDH have each approved a $30k expenditure (total of $60k). The contract has been modified and returned to Hamline with the first of three payments. The second payment is expected to be due around the May board meeting and the final payment in July 2006.

 

The secretary/treasurer will review and clean of old information from the archive (records management).

 

A quote was requested from KDV to prepare and file the section 2005 tax return. The committee recommends approving the $800 budgeted expenditure.

 

We’re on track with our financial plan! Expenses have increased this past year and the profit was lowered from $42K to $21K.

 

The committee reviewed all bylaws, policies, and procedures applicable to the committee. The following policy/procedure changes are recommended:

 

ARTICLE VI

SECTION FINANCES

The Section has approved a dues assessment of ten dollars ($10.00)5% of annual AWWA member dues that will be charge annually to each member of the Section at the time of a new or renewed membership.  This assessment does no apply to students or retired members. Per bylaw 6.1.

 

The Section will charge an adminis­trative fee of three dollars ($3.00) per registrant per day for all schools and conferences.  This fee will be used for the general support of the Section. Per bylaw 6.2.

 

The Section will pay the expenses of the Association Director and his spouse to attend the Association Winter Board meeting.

 

The Section will pay the expenses of the Secretary-Treasurer to attend the Annual Association Conference and Exposition. The Secretary/Treasurer shall utilize the free ACE registration given to the section by AWWA to attend to Section business and volunteer at the annual conference.

 

The Section will pay the expenses of the incoming chair (chair-elect) to attend appropriate leadership training (RMSO, Summer Leadership, etc) sponsored by the Association.

 

The Section will pay the registration and hotel accommodations for the visiting Association Representative at the Annual Section Conference.

 

The Section will pay the expenses of the Assistant Secretary to attend the Annual Section Conference

 

The Section books will be audited by the financeial committee annually.   The books will be audited by a professional auditor every three (3) years.  Per bylaw 6.4.

 

The fiscal year shall be the calendar year

 

The Section Chair, Director, Secretary/Treasurer, and Association Representative MnAwwa Fall Conference hotel accommodations will be paid by the section.

 

The Section will waive the registration fee for other Association Section’s Officers to attend MnAwwa Fall Conference.

 

The section should adopt a reimbursement and travel policy.

 

The section should adopt an investment policy.

 

The Section will waive the banquet ticket fee for the AWWA Life Member awardees and their spouses to attend the Fall Conference banquet.

 

The Section will charge district approved and/or section approved fees to support the Drinking Water Institute: ten dollars per fall conference registrant (approved at the Fall 2003 conference), five dollars per 3-day school registrant for the NW, NE, Central, Metro, and SE districts and two dollars per school registrant for the SW district.

 

Fund levels should be maintained as follows:

Operating Fund – Money retained in the checking account to cover expected expenses without transferring money from the reserve. This is a contingent liability operating fund for the current fiscal year, not a long term reserve The Board approved the minimum amount to be 10% of the budgeted expenditures.

 

Reserve Fund – The amount of money (capital) retained for future or contingent liabilities. The Board approved the minimum amount of 50% of the annual budgeted expenditures.

 

David Morris Endowment Fund – The investment interest of this fund will provide a perpetual source of money for section scholarships needs.

 

All target financial levels should be reviewed every 3-5 years to assure they meet the Section’s goals and needs.

 

ARTICLE VII

SECTION GOVERNANCE

Section Secretary-Treasurer

The Secretary-Treasurer shall be responsible for the preparation of the business and recording of the proceedings of the Section and Board Meetings.

 

The Secretary-Treasurer shall perform such other duties as the Board may direct.

 

The Secretary-Treasurer shall prepare a budget for review and adoption at the pre-conference Board meeting of each year.

 

The Secretary/Treasurer shall provide monthly updates of the section finances including any investments.

 

The Secretary-Treasurer shall prepare a financial statement based on a financial year beginning January 1 and ending December 31.  This statement shall be audited by an Auditing Committee appointed by the Administration Council Chair.  The Committee shall report the findings of the audit at the annual Section business meeting.

 

The Secretary-Treasurer shall pay be responsible for payment of all authorized bills. All by checks, which shall be signed by the secretary/treasurer, countersigned by the Chair, and initialed by the section bookkeeper (if one exists). The secretary/treasurer may utilize a debit card issued against the section checking account to pay authorized expenses.

 

Assistant Secretary

The Section Assistant Secretary shall be responsible for the preparation of the business and recording of proceedings of the Section and Board Meetings in the Section Secretary-Treasurers absence.

 

The Section Assistant Secretary does not have Board voting privileges except in the absence of the Section Secretary-Treasurer.

 

The Section Assistant Secretary has general responsibility for the registration and financial documentation of the Annual Section Conference.

 

ARTICLE IX

COUNCILS/COMMITTEES

Finance

Assigned To:   APC as a committee

 

Purpose:

To manage the financial activities of the Section and to advise the secretary treasurer on financial matters.

 

Members:

The committee consists of five (5) members: three members are appointed by the Section chair, the fourth member is the Section Secretary-Treasurer, and the fifth is the Section Assistant Secretary.

 

Members appointed by the Section Chair serve three (3) year terms that are staggered so that one new member is appointed each year.

 

The committee chair is appointed by the Section Chair to a 1 year term.  The chair can be appointed for multiple terms.

 

Policies, Procedures, Activities:

See bylaws (article 6), policies, and procedures (article 6 and 7) for specific guidelines.

 

The committee recommends a letter be sent to Dave Peterson thanking him for his 3 year service to the finance committee.

 

Items for the next committee meeting include reviewing the year-end report and auditing the 2005 financial records.

 

Action Items:

1.  Approve the 2005 tax preparation cost as presented

2.  Approve the policy & procedure changes as noted

Information Technology (Carol Kaszynski)

The IT Committee met in January 2006 at the Bloomington Public Works building.  Scott Anderson, Carol Kaszynski (chair), Stew Thornley, and Lisa Vollbrecht were present.  Dave Wagner was absent.

 

As a relatively new committee, a good portion of the meeting was spent determining the goals, objectives, and direction for the upcoming year.

 

We are focusing on several initiatives that will affect the organization in a positive way.  These include enhancing the on-line registration for the annual conference, offering Internet connection to conference attendees, conducting a committee meeting at the annual conference, seeking new members to the Committee, expanding and improving the MN AWWA website, and last but not least studying the feasibility of phasing out The Breeze hard copy mailings.
Membership (John Berrigan)
A written report will to be provided at the meeting
Nominating (Glen Gerads, Myron Volker)
A written report will to be provided at the meeting

 

            Conference Council (Schultz)

We had a great turn out for this year’s conference in Duluth.  Total number in attendance was 425.  This is the largest number in attendance ever for Minnesota Section AWWA.  The weather could have been a little better but it was fun to watch the 15 foot waves come in from lake Superior.  Total net profit for the conference is $22,381. This is $1,266 better then budget. 

 

Next years annual conference in Duluth will be held September 20th – 22nd 2006.  We are well into the planning of this conference.  We are working hard to improve the conference and attendance to make this years conference even better then last.

 

            Manufacturers Council (Norton)

The MAC Consent Report consists of the minutes of our 12/8/05 MAC meeting held at Engineering America's Office. The minutes of this meeting were also handed out at our Business Plan Meeting Friday, 12/9/05, held at Bloomington Fire Station #1.

 

The only change since that meeting is that MAC will not be hosting the Minnesota Breakfast at the National Conference in San Antonio since this is the 125th Anniversary and we will participate in that special function

instead. There will not be a Minnesota Breakfast in San Antonio. We talked about picking that up again in 2007 and that is the plan for now.

 

            Public Affairs Council (Lange-Haider)

Public Information (Stew Thornley)

The Public Information Committee continues to put out a "This Month in Minnesota AWWA" bulletin with news for AWWA members.  The committee also had a booth at the Education Minnesota Professional Conference on October 20, where it promoted drinking water as a career as well as our annual Drinking Water Institute for teachers.  The committee is planning on having a booth at this conference again this fall.

 

Also, by next year a new chair should be in place to take over this committee.  Stew plans to remain active on the committee as a member.  Committee members have been informed of this desired change and to determine if any current members are interested in becoming chair.

Publications (Erik Juhl)

For 2005, the Publications Committee had an income of $18,658.50 and expenses of $15,189.39.  The expenses included computer and software maintenance, bulk mailing fees, and all graphics layout, printing, and mailing expenses. Please note the Autumn Breeze expenses are not included as the publication was not mailed until January 2006. Even with that “minor bump in the road”, income exceeds expenses.

 

Some errant design elements were introduced into the Autumn Breeze (Issue 122) by our print provider. (Did you notice, for example, the "Emphatic Phrase: Here" at the top of the first page, or the missing logo in the banner?) None of the aberrations resulted in any factually incorrect information in the magazine's content, so rather than demanding that they reprint and resend the run, we agreed to a 50% discount for the cost of printing.

 

The committee produced four issues of the Breeze and all the 2005 Conference materials including the exhibitor registration, conference registration, and conference program.

 

The Publications Committee expectation continues to be that we will break even or have positive income in 2006.

Water for People (Bernie Bullert)

The Water for People Committee met on 1-5-06. Present were Scott Anderson, Bernie Bullert Ed Sorenson, Lyle Stai, Chris Voeltz, and John Chlebeck.

 

Summary of discussion: 

 

Scott listed where he raised funds last year.

·         SE District – Rochester 3-day school, Myron Volcker and Shawn Mulhern put on a raffle.  Dates Mar. 29-30, 2006.

·         SW District – Hasn’t had any fund raising efforts. Chris will check with the district. They have only one-day schools.

·         Central District – Lyle has handled 3-day school fund raising efforts in June.

·         Metro – Dawn Horner at HDR did the fund raising at the 3-day school in April.

·         NW – 3-day school in December has been handled by Troy Hall for fund raising efforts.

·         NE – 3-day school in April is handled by Cory Lubevich

·         Rural Water is not participating

·         Golf Tournament @ fall conference, hole sponsors pay $200 to WFP. Longest drive and putting contest also go to WFP. ( closest to the pin goes to endowment) The Twins tickets in the past have also gone to endowment fund. The collection at the banquet has gone to WFP.

 

Raffle gifts are usually $25-$50 and are provided by exhibitors or speakers.

 

Annual fund raising efforts have been $10,000 to $15,000.

 

Bernie discussed he has been talking to MAC about an alternative sponsorship where MAC members would make a annual WFP contribution or combination WFP/Endowment contribution for a year and receive recognition in the Breeze, a sign for their booths, and at the golf tournament.  MAC is interested and has set up a sub-committee to pursue it further.  Bernie is on the sub-committee.

 

There was also discussion on other groups to pursue for contributions:

·         Water Quality Assoc.

·         Well Drillers

·         Minnesota Ground Water Assoc.

·         Rural Water Assoc.

·         Waste Water group

·         APWA

·         ASCE

·         CEAM

·         Rotary

·         Underground directional drillers

·         Large regional corporations outside of National’s pursuit.

·         John Packard – Culligan

·         Glenwood – Inglewood

 

There was also discussion on a spring walleye fishing contest, or a skeet shoot.

 

The next meeting will be Feb. 16 @ 10:30 at Eden Prairie City Hall.  Bernie will present current videos or Power Points available for the conferences.

Scholarship (Gerry Smith)

The activities of the Scholarship committee have focused on the  management institute scholarship.  An announcement of management scholarship was mailed to approximately 700 public water systems that would qualify for the scholarship based on the number of service connections.   This year we received 12 applications.   Three applicants did not qualify for the scholarship because of not meeting the membership conditions.   Six scholarships were awarded.  The process developed by Jon Eaton and the scholarship committee has worked very well.   The scholarship application has been taken off the website at this time as we are now past the deadline.  It will be reposted in April or May as a reminder for utilities in their budget planning. 

 

The advanced degree scholarship application has been updated is available on the Section website.  An announcement and application has been placed in the January Breeze Light.  The same announcement and application will be published in the director (February) edition Breeze Light and Directory Issue.  The same announcement will be sent to MRWA for their spring edition of the “Today” publication.  Plans are in the works to have the scholarship materials available at the schools and at the AWWA Section booth at MRWA. 

 

Membership activities should be wrapped up in February.

 

Work on the new scholarships and review of existing scholarships is on track, and an update on this information will be available for the spring board meeting.   

Young Professionals (Chris Glassing)

The committee met in Maple Grove on November 18, 2005 and conducted a conference call meeting on January 20, 2006.  Major accomplishments of the committee since our meeting in October 2005 are outlined below.

 

The committee developed a guidance document to introduce structure within the committee and direct committee members now and in the future.  The committee will vote to accept this document at the March meeting.

 

Four sub-committees were created; membership, social, public affairs (community involvement), and fresh ideas.  All YP members are encouraged to participate in at least one sub-committee.  Decisions and work will be conducted within the sub-committees and updates reported to all YP committee members.

 

The membership committee will focus on building membership within the YP committee as well as within the section.  This committee plans to conduct a lunch seminar at the University of Minnesota.  The seminar will include a discussion of career opportunities and invitation for membership to AWWA. 

 

The social committee is planning an event in conjunction with Minnesota Rural Water Association Conference in March.  The event will include a social meeting at the Green Mill Restaurant followed by a tour of the Cold Stone Brewery.  The committee will be extending invitations to all AWWA members as well as MRWA members.  In addition, the social committee will be working with the conference committee to plan a social event sponsored by the YP committee at the sections annual conference.

 

The public affairs committee was developed to focus on YP involvement within the community.  The committee is currently working on organizing two events.  The “Water Tower Competition” will target grade school students through teacher involvement.  The “Student Poster Competition” will involve any student who would like to submit a poster, including AWWA member children.

 

The fresh ideas committee has developed preliminary documents to initiate a competition as directed by national AWWA.  The committee is currently working on ideas for implementing the program including participation, prizes, and logistics.