MINNESOTA AWWA
GOVERNING BOARD MEETING
8:00
a.m. to 12:00 noon, February 1, 2008
Riverwood Conference Center, Otsego,
Minnesota
1. CALL TO ORDER (Peterson)
Called to order at 8:10am.
2. ROLL CALL (Brown)
Position Name Attendance
Confirmed
Executive Board of Directors
Chair-elect.................................................. Bill Spain, SCTC Yes
Chair.......................................................... Karla
Peterson, MDH Yes
Past Chair.................................................. Scott
Anderson, St. Louis Park Yes
Association Director.................................... Glen Gerads, Bloomington Yes
Association Director Elect........................... Dave Schultz, MDH Yes
Secretary/Treasurer..................................... Dave Brown, Bluestone Engr Yes
Assistant Secretary..................................... Stew Thornley, MDH Yes
District Trustees
Northwest................................................... Brian Bergentine, AE2S No
Northeast................................................... vacant
Central....................................................... Lyle Stai, Willmar Yes
Metro......................................................... Carol Blommel Johnson, Apple Valley No
Southwest.................................................. Pete Moulton, St. Peter Yes
Southeast.................................................. Dean
Huschle, Northfield Yes
At-Large..................................................... Pat Shea, St Cloud Yes
Councils and Committees
Administrative & Policy (APC)...................... Bob Cockriel, Bloomington No
Conference (Conf)....................................... Corey Lubovich, Hibbing Yes
Minnesota Associates (MAC)....................... Tony Belden, Engineering America Yes
Public Affairs (PAC).................................... Myron Volker, Owatonna Yes
Training & Education (TEC)......................... Chris Glassing, ACIPCO Yes
Water Utility (WUC)..................................... Bernie Bullert, TKDA Yes
3. CONSENT REPORT
MINUTES APPROVAL:
September
17, 2007 – Governing Board meeting
September
18, 2007 – Governing Board meeting
September
21, 2007 – Governing Board meeting
Corrections:
FINANCIAL REPORT (Dave Brown)
The Section Monthly
Financial Status, as of December 31, 2007, income was $253,685 and expenses
were $253,056 for a net income of $629. Investments are up since the beginning
of the year by $22,394.
ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR’S REPORT (Glen Gerads/Dave Schultz)
The
AWWA Winter Board of Directors Meeting was held January 27, 2008, in Coronado,
California. Additionally, a Board Special Session was held on January 26,
2008, at the same location. This is my last winter board meeting as your
Director and as such In-coming Director Dave Schultz accompanied me as his
initial soirée into Association at the board level.
The following items are
submitted as a matter of general interest:
Election of New
Officers and the Selection of a New Executive Director and Treasurer
The following individuals
will assume office during the 2008 Annual Conference and Exposition in Atlanta,
Georgia in June:
President-elect, Craig Woolard (Director and Vice-president, from
the Alaska Section)
Vice-presidents, Dee Bennett (South Carolina Section), Dean Fritzke
(Pacific Northwest Section), Juan Carlos Perez Bofill (Puerto Rico Section),
Jeffrey Zdrojewski (New York Section).
Director-at-large, Daniel Duchniak (Wisconsin Section)
Director-at-large/service
provider, Joel Neulight
(Pennsylvania Section)
In addition to electing new
officers, this year the Board of Directors selected Gary J. Zimmerman as
the Association’s new Executive Director replacing Jack W. Hoffbuhr who is
retiring after leading AWWA for 12 years. The Board also selected Lee
Roberts as the Association’s next Treasurer replacing John Anderson.
Roberts begins his four-year term in June.
Other Items of Interest
The AWWA executive board has
been reading and reacting to a book entitled the 7 Measures of Success- What
Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t. This book is published
by ASAE & the Center for Association Leadership and based on the matched-pair
research methodology adapted from the work of Jim Collins, author of Good to
Great and Built to Last. AWWA’s Executive Committee identified three
primary actions to undertake as a result of the research, namely AWWA will:
·
Develop and
communicate the membership growth strategy;
·
Set performance
protocols for current and future programs, services, and products; and
·
Develop alliance
strategies
On a somewhat related note,
the ad hoc committee on Organizing for the Future is continuing their work as
well. The committee is actually broken down into six subcommittees:
·
Services and
Core Competencies;
·
Succession
Planning;
·
Information
Technology;
·
Consolidation;
·
Section
Relationships; and
·
Volunteerism and
Volunteer Involvement
Each of these subcommittees
is diligently at work, and I suspect over the next year the efforts of these
sub committees will manifest themselves in new initiatives. One outfall
already from the Section Relationships subcommittee is the need to update the
indemnification clause in the by-laws. A corollary to the indemnification
clause rewrite is the need to have written affiliation agreements between the
Association and the Sections. The affiliation agreement framework is
being developed. The plan is to have information on affiliation
agreements to the various Sections within the next few weeks.
The Accreditation Committee
continues to work on the G Series Standards, also know as the Utility
Management Standards. Both the G Series Standards and guidance manuals
are being prepared. Thirteen other AWWA Standards were approved at the
meeting.
The Strategic Planning
Committee is no longer a standing committee of the Board of Directors.
The responsibility of the Strategic Planning Committee has been given to the
Executive Committee with the Chair being the Executive Director and the Vice
Chair being the Treasurer. Though this item passed it was not unanimous.
Treasurer John Anderson
presented AWWA’s Business Plan. The business plan focuses on providing a
roadmap for the next three years. Tied closely to the business plan is
the annual budget. The 2008 Budget was approved with a projected income
of $32,645,900 and projected expenses of $31,709,300 resulting in a net income
of $936,600 and capital expenditures of $905,000. The 2009 dues rates
were also approved and the four-year dues plan was conceptually
approved.
The AWWA Board of Directors
next meeting is in June at the ACE. That will be my final meeting as I
hand the reigns over to Mr. Schultz. Boy how time flies, until then…
Glen M. Gerads
Minnesota Section Director
DISTRICT REPORTS
Northwest
District (Brian Bergantine)
Northwest
District MN AWWA Operator School, November 27-29, 2007, Crookston
According
to Jeanette Boothe, Environmental Health Division of the MDH, there were 48
attendees at the NW District School in Crookston. Eight individuals paid the late sign-up fee
of $125 and 40 individuals pre-paid the $100 fee, for a total fee of $5,000. An additional $127 was collected from the
vendors that displayed for lunches:
Topics
covered at the operator school included:
(1) managing your distribution system; (2) role of the general
contractor on projects; (3) chemical safety; (4) proper testing techniques and
testing of equipment; (5) safety; (6) water tanks including glass-fused to
steel; epoxy coated steel, and concrete tanks; (7) coatings for water towers,
tanks, and standpipes; (8) distribution system modeling; (9) arsenic treatment
at the Sabin WTP; (10) the role of Minnesota Rural Water Association; and (11)
meters. Additionally, topics included
Water for People, Drinking Water Module, and My Kids (Jarrod Christen).
The
business meeting was called to order at 8:34 am by Chair Gary Hultberg on
November 28, 2007. The Secretary’s
report was read from the November 29, 2006 meeting in Detroit Lakes by Brian
Bergantine. Report was approved as read.
Brian
Bergantine, District Trustee reported the following: (1) John Thom, who has provided operator
training and was present, was selected the 2007 Leonard N. Thompson Award; (2)
A new award was handed out this year, Volunteer of the Year. If anyone had a particular candidate in mind,
they were to contact Brian Bergantine; (3) Two Operator Status AWWA memberships
were drawn for this year during the noon lunch.
Anyone who was an operator that was not a member or that would like to
continue their 2008 membership was encouraged to apply. Larry Rudh, Fergus Falls, and Matt Moltzan,
Detroit Lakes were drawn to receive the memberships; (4) The operators in
attendance were questioned as to how many would be interested in going to, or
thought their utilities would let them go to, Duluth for the MN AWWA annual
conference if their expenses were paid.
Several operators felt that they would be able to go if their expenses
were paid for by the Section; (5) It was announced that AWWA will decrease the
number of regions next year and that North Dakota and South Dakota will be now
included in with Region III.
Chad
Troitte, Water for People committee member, reported that donations are going
well and tickets are on sale for $10.
Vendors have donated prizes for the raffle drawing. The NW Section donated three (3) $25 Wal-Mart
Gift Cards as prizes. In all the NW
Section raised $290 for Water for People.
Monte
Ruch, Fisher, was nominated and approved for the position of Vice Chair. Larry Rudh, Fergus Falls, would move up to
Chair.
Fergus
Falls was selected as the site for the NW District three-day school, and it
will likely be held during the first week in December 2008. A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the
business meeting at 8:50 am.
The
guest speaker at the business meeting was Ernie the Angler, who spoke about his
experiences of getting into fishing, the creation of his character, and his
outlook on life. A product show was held
at the motel and was followed up by a hands-on training session at the
Crookston WTP as well as a tour of the facility.
Northeast
District (vacant)
No
report.
Central
District (Lyle Stai)
The annual one-day Central
District School was held on October 17, 2007, at St. John’s University. There
were 86 people in attendance. Some of the topics covered included: distribution
system maintenance, GIS, new plant startups (Lake Lillian and Cosmos), PFC
contamination in the metro area, and well maintenance. The noon buffet meal,
which was served in the Great Hall, was just as delicious as it has been in the
past years. A drawing was held for two complimentary AWWA memberships. Rene
Sol, a utilities lab technician working for the city of St. Cloud, received an
Operations membership. Nicholas Voigt, who is in the water and wastewater
program at St. Cloud Technical College, received a Student membership. Numerous
door prizes were given out at the close of the session.
The
next annual three-day Central District School will be held June 11-13, 2008, at
Ruttger’s Bay Lake Lodge, located near Deerwood MN. This has been a very
popular setting for the people who have attended this school in the past years.
The Planning Committee will be meeting in the near future to set the agenda for
this school.
Metro
District (Carol Blommel Johnson)
Southwest
District (Pete Moulton)
The Southwest District met
in Truman on October 4th where 40 operators
were in attendance.
Presentations were completed by the following:
* Water for People - Chris Voeltz, Saint Peter
* Southeast Minnesota Flood Update - Mark Sweers, MDH
* Maintenance of Chemical Feed Pumps - Mike Clements,
Hawkins Chemical
* Gopher State One-Call Updates - John Eisle, Minneapolis
* Hydrant and Valve Maintenance - Rick Warner, American Flow
* Backwash Discharge Regulations - Beckie Olson, MPCA
* Water Appropriations and Ethanol Facility Demands – Leo Getsfried,
MnDNR
* Water Updates and Well Management - MDH staff
* Business Meeting and AWWA Update was conducted by Section Trustee
Pete Moulton
* MnWARN Update - Pete Moulton AWWA, Saint Peter
* Chris Voeltz the Minnesota Water for People co-chair was acknowledged
as the “Volunteer of the Year”
for the Minnesota
Section of the AWWA.
In February, the SW
District planning committee will be meeting in
Mankato to make plans for
the one-day school in Redwood Falls on
Wednesday April 2nd,
additional information is available by contacting Mark Sweers,
mark.sweers@health.state.mn.us, 507-389-5561.
Southeast District (Dean Huschle)
The
SE District 2007 fall one-day school was held in the Northfield Community
Resource Center on Friday, October 26th. Topics included: a panel discussion on the
flooding in SE Minnesota, pump house evaluations, wind generators, commercial
drivers licenses and the St. Cloud Technical College water program. 41 people were registered for the school.
A
planning session was held on December 13th in Red Wing to plan the
3-day spring 2008 operator’s school. The
following were present for the meeting:
Paul Halvorson, Myron Volker, Stew Thornley, Corey Aadalen, Wylie
Rindels, Shawn Mulhern, Jeanette Boothe, Steve McCuskey, Mike Glende and Dean
Huschle. The SE District 2008 spring
three-day school will be held at the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in
Rochester from Wednesday, March 12 to Friday, March 14th.
Rick
King from Winona has taken over as the SE District Chair and Mike Glende from
Faribault was elected as SE District Chair-elect at the spring 2007 school in
Rochester.
If
you have any comments or suggestions for upcoming events in the SE District, I
can be reached at dean.huschle@ci.northfield.mn.us.
Dean
Huschle
SE District Trustee
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE REPORTS
Administration
Council (Cockriel)
The
Finance Committee met on January 4, 2008 at the Bloomington Water Treatment
Plant. Barb Woolsey (chair), Doug Rovang, Karl Streed, Jon Eaton, Stew Thornley
and David Brown were present.
The
section financial status and investments as of November 30, 2007 were reviewed.
The Section continues to be slightly ahead of the financial plan. Committee reviewed reasons why some financial
numbers are noticeably different between 2007 and 2006.
Dave
noted that the 2008 budget recommended by the finance committee was slightly
revised by the board at the September 18, 2007 board meeting. Budget revised by
the board added $13,400 in expenses.
This was the net change of $16,000 added to the Publications Committee
expenses to cover the contract costs with Image Communications and the $2,600
deduct for the Water For People Committee which was the result of the
transposition of the income and expenses numbers for that committee in the
previous 2008 budget.
Dave
reported that the 2006 audit is complete.
Dave will email 2006 audit and management letter to committee for their
review.
Finance
committee members serve three year terms and Karl Streed’s term was up as of
this meeting. The committee chair, Barb
Woolsey, will locate a new committee member prior to our next meeting. Barb discussed her plan to retire as the
Section’s bookkeeper within 6 months.
Barb will stay on as chair through the end of 2008.
Jon
showed the committee an investment policy that he is working on. Once this policy is complete he will send it
to the committee for our review and once the policy is final he will send it to
USBank and Wells Fargo to get proposals for managing the Section’s investment
funds. Jon plans to have received quotes and be able to make a recommendation
to the finance committee prior to our next meeting in May 2008. The committee
will then review these proposals and make a recommendation on which firm to use
to manage our investment funds at the board’s May 2008 meeting.
Committee
again reviewed the five year financial plan ideas previously presented. Committee still plans to prepare a formal
written five year financial plan and present the plan to the board when it is
complete. The committee discussed
elements to be considered in the five year plan. There was considerable
discussion about the secretary/treasurer duties and how to distribute the
workload to have less of an impact on the secretary/treasurer. Since there is $9,360 budgeted for
administrative support the committee discussed hiring a contractor using these
funds to provide administrative support and bookkeeping services. Since Barb is retiring as bookkeeper hiring
someone to do bookkeeping and administrative support would be a logical choice.
Doug Rovang will prepare a proposal defining our needs for bookkeeping and
financial administrative support. The
finance committee is recommending that the administrative support work be based
on a contract and not hire an employee at this time.
No
report.
Conference Council
(Corey Lubovich)
No
Report.
Manufacturers Council (Tony Belden)
Minutes
of the December 6th, 2007 Meeting of the Minnesota Associates Council Minnesota
Section, AWWA
The December 6, 2007 MAC meeting was held
in the conference room of Engineering America, in Oakdale, MN. The meeting was called to order by Council
Chair Tony Belden at 9:00 AM.
1. Attendance
A. MAC members present at the meeting: Tony
Belden, Dave Scheerer, Todd Bredesen, Rod Ganther, Scott Bredehoft, and Greg
Johnson.
2. Approval of Minutes
A. David Scheerer, MAC Secretary, presented the
minutes from the August 30, 2007 MAC meeting.
Bredesen made the motion to accept the minutes. Bredehoft seconded the motion. The motion passed.
3. 2008 MAC Roster
A. MAC Chair is reviewing the current
roster. The Chair is required to add one
additional voting member to the MAC, for a total of 10 voting members.
B. MAC members suggested to the Chair that
Associated members that are active in the MN Section should be given
preferential consideration as future MAC members
4. Purpose of MAC
A.
In an effort to better define the purpose of the MAC, MAC members proposed
linking the “Purpose of MAC” statement with the “MAC Annual Items/Tasks” list.
B.
The revised Purpose of MAC statement:
The
Minnesota Associates Council shall be responsible for the following Section
activities and responsibilities:
1.
The MAC shall advise the Board on issues of interest to the Section’s associate
member.
2.
The MAC shall motivate associate membership to participate in Section
activities and governance.
3.
The MAC shall seek opportunities to partner with other entities having related
interest.
4.
The MAC shall be responsible for the following Section Annual Conference
activities:
a.
Vendor exhibit session
b.
Conference social activities and events such golf and fishing tournaments,
evening social activities, and other events as directed by the MAC Chair or
Section Board
5.
The MAC shall keep all Section members informed on national MAC (Manufactures
& Associate Council) activities and issues of importance to the MN Section.
6.
The MAC shall be responsible for soliciting funds for the David B. Morris
Scholarship fund.
7.
The MAC shall be a strong supportive Council for MN Section young
professionals.
5. Committee Reports
A. Social Committee: Chair Todd Bredesen gave
the report.
1. Todd reported that the planned MAC social
event at the 2007 Annual Conference in Duluth was a success.
a. The event raised $300 in donations for WFT
and the Endowment Fund
b. The MAC social cost were within the budget of
$4,000
c. The MAC discussed how future money that we
collect for WFP and EF should be split.
No
action was taken, however, Tony Belden will ask for Section Board guidance on
this issue at the next Board Meeting.
B. Exhibits Committee: Chair Scott Bredehoft
gave the report.
1. The exhibits session at the 2007 Annual
Conference went well. There was very
little negative feedback from exhibitors or attendees.
2. Lunch in the exhibit hall is important to
keep attendees in the exhibit hall.
Other ideas for keeping attendees in the exhibit hall were discussed.
3. Scott Bredehoft will present a plan to the
MAC Chair for improving exhibit hall traffic.
a. MAC members suggested that the plan include a
drawing for one or more major prizes to be given away in the exhibit hall.
b. The prize winners must be present in the
exhibit hall to win.
c. Drawing would be coordinated so that it will
not interfere with technical sessions.
d. If necessary, the MAC Chair will ask the
Board for additional funding to support the effort to get more people into the
exhibit hall and to keep them in the exhibit hall once they are there.
4. Scott will seek feedback from conference
attendees on their perception of the value that the exhibit sessions add to the
Annual Conference.
C. ACE Meal/Social: Tony Belden gave the report.
1. Tony volunteered to again coordinate the MN
Section breakfast at the ACE which will be in Atlanta, GA in 2008.
a. Tony will
try to get a guest speaker for the ‘08 breakfast.
D. Endowment Committee: Chair Rod Ganther
gave the report.
1. Rod reported that Endowment Fund revenue
goals were met in 2007.
2. Rod reported that he will be meeting with
Vern Jacobsen and Bernie Bullert to develop EF ideas.
6. National MAC Meeting Report
A. Ben Mason
was absent, Tony Belden submitted Ben’s written report to the MAC
B. Best value contracting: Tony submitted a written report on “best
value” construction contracts that was prepared by the law firm of Leonard,
Street, and Deinard. Highlights of the
report include:
1. State and local governments in the State of
Minnesota will soon have the option of awarding contracts based on “best value.” They will no longer be limited to awarding a
contract based solely on low bid.
2. The Minnesota Associates Council supports
this concept.
C. Construction Project Bonding: The MAC
discussed some of the unnecessary and expensive bonding requirements that are
starting to appear in construction project payment and performance bond
specifications.
D. As part of our purpose to educate the MN
Section on important associate member issues, the MAC suggests that the
following two topics be added to the 2008 Annual Conference program.
a. “Best Value Bidding”
b. “Construction Project Bonding – which ones
protect the owner and which ones waste the owner’s money.”
7. Young Professionals
1. No Report
8. Next Meeting
A. The next MAC meeting is scheduled for 9:00
AM, Thursday, April 3rd, 2008, at the Engineering America offices, in Oakdale,
MN.
9. New Business
A. Tony Belden reported that the 2008 MN Section
annual conference will be on the same dates as the Wisconsin Section
conference.
B. MAC members asked that Tony Belden express to
the Board why it is important to keep the MN Section annual conference in
Duluth.
10. Adjourn
A. Dave Scheerer made a motion to adjourn the
meeting. Scott Bredehoft seconded the
motion. The meeting was adjourned.
Public Affairs Council (Myron Volker)
Public Information (Terry
Neuman)
No
report.
Publications (Rod Volker)
No
report.
Water for People
(Bernie Bullert)
Water for People
January 2008 Report
Earned Income for 2007:
|
District |
|
|
Central |
$520.00 |
|
Metro |
$711.00 |
|
SE |
$685.00 |
|
SW |
$600.41 |
|
NE |
$227.00 |
|
NW |
$215.00 |
|
|
|
|
Spring Golf Tournament |
$702.00 |
|
Personal Contributions |
$300.00 |
|
|
|
|
Annual Conference |
|
|
Fishing |
$1,450.33 |
|
Ribbons |
$700.00 |
|
MAC Social |
$310.85 |
|
Golf |
$3,670.75 |
|
Donations (SUSA, Vendors) |
$1,400.00 |
|
|
|
|
Section Donation |
|