GOVERNING
BOARD MEETING
September
18, 2006
1. CALL TO ORDER (Lapointe)
Called to order at 18:39pm
2. ROLL CALL (Eaton)
Position Name Attendance
Confirmed
Executive Board of Directors
Chair-elect............................................... Scott
Anderson, St. Louis Park... Yes
Chair........................................................ John
Lapointe, US Water............. Yes
Past Chair................................................ Myron Volker, Owatonna.............. Yes
Director.................................................... Glen Gerads, Bloomington.......... Yes
Secretary/Treasurer................................ Jon Eaton, Bloomington............... Yes
Assistant Secretary................................. Dave Brown, Bluestone Engr...... Yes
District
Trustees
Northwest................................................. Troy Hall, Moorhead..................... Yes
Northeast................................................. Corey Lubovich, Hibbing.............. Yes
Central..................................................... Lyle Stai, Wilmar.......................... Yes
Metro........................................................ Carol Blommel, Apple Valley....... Yes
Southwest................................................ Pete Moulton, St. Peter................ Yes
Southeast................................................. Paul
Halvorson, Rochester.......... Yes
At-Large................................................... Jim Sadler, Maple Grove.............. Yes
Councils and Committees
Administrative & Policy (APC)................ Bob Cockriel, Bloomington.......... Yes
Conference (Conf)................................... David Schultz, MDH..................... Yes
Minnesota Associates (MAC)................. Jim Norton, SEH.......................... Yes
Public Affairs (PAC)................................ Kelly Lange-Haider, CH2M Hill...... No
Training & Education (TEC).................... Karla Peterson, MDH................... Yes
Water Utility (WUC)................................ Kurt Johnson, TKDA.................... Yes
Guests:
Association
Representative................. Terry
Rolan................................. Yes
Association
Representative Guest...... Linda Rolan................................ Yes
3. CONSENT REPORT
MINUTES
APPROVAL:
May
19, 2006 – Board of Directors meeting
Corrections: none noted.
FINANCIAL
REPORT (Eaton)
ASSOCIATION
DIRECTOR'S REPORT (Gerads)
None
DISTRICT
REPORTS
NW District
(Hall)
The
2006 three day operators’ school will be held in Detroit Lakes at the Holiday
Inn from November 28 through November 30. This school will include a split
session Tuesday afternoon (November 28): one for small systems and one for
large systems. The small systems session will go through the different
perspectives of organizations and businesses involved in a municipal well
drilling project. An operator breakfast and vendor show will held Wednesday
morning. The following are some of the presentation topics scheduled for the
school: arsenic, Hurricane Katrina effects on water operations costs,
distribution modeling, asset management, regional ground water modeling, SCADA,
and more.
Brian
Bergantine of AE2S will be moving into the position of trustee for the
Northwest District at the 2006 Section Conference in Duluth.
NE District (Lubovich)
None
Central
District (Stai)
The Central District held
their annual three-day school at Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge by Deerwood, MN on
June 7-9, 2006, with 60 people in attendance. The feed-back from the evaluation
forms was very positive, with most people wanting nothing changed for next
year. The Water For People raffle was very successful due to the great support
we received from our vendors: American Flow Control, Northern Waterworks, U.S.
Filter, Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, and Hawkins Chemical.
In addition, for our grand prize, Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge donated a two-day
stay at their facility. We are already under contract with Ruttgers for next
year with the dates being June 6-8, 2007.
The Central District will
be holding their next annual one-day school at St. John's University on October
18, 2006. Last year we had 114 attendees which was an all time high record for
this event. For this year, the Education Committee has put together what should
be another interesting agenda. Another drawing card has always been the
excellent noon meal put on by the St. John's dining staff.
Metro
District (Blommel-Johnson)
None
SW District
(Moulton)
None
SE
District (Halvorson)
The
S.E. District Fall One-day water school will be held October 27, 2006. The school will be held in Red Wing at the
new Iron/Radium Removal Plant at 1468 Pioneer Road. Registration will be $25, $30 at the door.
The
S.E. District Three-day Water School will be held in the last half of March
2007 at the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in Rochester: http://www.ramadarochester.com/ .
The
Southeast District will have a planning meeting for this school in December.
Dean
Huschle, from the City of Northfield Water Division will take over as the
Southeast District Trustee at the Fall Conference in Duluth.
Trustee-At-Large
(Sadler)
COUNCIL/COMMITTEE
REPORTS
Administration
Council (Cockriel)
No
report.
The
Finance Committee met on September 1, 2006 at the Bloomington Water Treatment
Plant. Barb Woolsey (chair), Doug Rovang, Karl
Streed, and Jon Eaton were present. Dave Brown was absent.
The section financial status and investments as of July 31, 2006 were
reviewed. The Section continues to be slightly ahead of the financial plan.
Action items from the previous committee meeting (May
06) were reviewed and board action noted.
The secretary/treasurer will change after the
conference from Jon Eaton to Dave Brown. The committee appreciates the efforts
given by Chair Woolsey and recommends the current chair continue in her
position.
The committee will seek quotes for a professional
audit of the 2006 financial records and present a recommendation to the board
at the January BOD meeting. A professional audit is required every three years
or when the Secretary/Treasurer position changes.
The
committee will address the Section Travel Policy and forward a recommendation
to the APC chair and Board for consideration at the January BOD meeting.
The
2006-07 budget was reviewed line by line. The committee recommends the BOD
approve the budget as submitted.
Action Items:
1. Approve
the 2007 budget as submitted.
The
IT Committee submitted a $4,000 budget request to cover proposed expenditures
in 2007.
The
funds directly correlate to the Action Items/Tasks that the IT Committee
formulated during the first half of 2006.
These requested funds are needed to fulfill those goals and objectives
and to satisfactorily meet the “purpose” of the Committee, which is “…to
provide a comprehensive resource for electronic water-related information and
technology services for the MN AWWA section.”
The
requested funds are to enhance and revitalize the MN AWWA Website using
professional web developers. The site
will potentially contain:
-Vendor
list with category description
-Regulations
-District
Initiatives
-Promote
the use of technology as a tool for doing business more efficiently
The
costs were difficult to estimate and at the time of the budget request $4,000
was appropriate. After obtaining
further information, the original estimate is low.
The
current costs of web development are:
Consultation: $200 per hour
Home Page: $850 – 1,250 for design of home page (includes design,
layout, graphics, and complete
development)
Additional Pages: $125 - $225
Updates: Billable at $125 per hour
The
current website contains approximately 30 pages and with the home page, it
could easily cost $6,000. We would like
to increase the requested budget amount to $7,500, to include the webpage enhancements
and maintenance fees.
AWWA National membership statistics through August 31, 2006 show we have an increase of 68 new Minnesota Section members since January 1, 2006. Current membership is at 1038 individual, utility and service organization members. We have met our goal of 1,000 members. Our multi-section membership count has increased to 44.
The overall member numbers are moving in the right direction, but we need to work on retaining and increasing our utility membership count, which is at 109. The membership statistics are attached.
Section
Rankings – Minnesota has the highest growth in Division IV
Sections are recognized for their growth. There are seven competing divisions based on section size. Minnesota, is in Division IV. The rankings for Division IV as of 6/30/2006 were:
1. Minnesota Section, 0.60%
2. Wisconsin Section, 0%
3. Alabama-Mississippi Section, -0.10%
4. Arizona Section, -0.20%
5. Indiana Section, -0.50%
6. Chesapeake Section, -1.10%
Annual
Membership Committee Meeting
The regular annual meeting of the Membership Committee will be held Thursday, September 21st at 7:00 am in the French River Room 2, in the Duluth Exhibition and Convention Center, at the Minnesota Section’s Annual Conference in Duluth, MN. See you then!
New
Members
We have many members since our last April update. They are listed here and on the next page:
· Scott Bredehoft, GS Systems
· Vernard L. Hawkinson
· Anthony Heddlesten
· John Flaa, Fargo Electronics, Inc.
· Eric Lynne
· Corey L. Bjornberg
· Zachary Maruska
· Martha Y. Burckhardt, Saint Paul Regional Water Services
· Robert Krueger, FilmTec
· Ms. Stephanie Beyer, Johnson Screens
· Ms. Stephanie Beyer , Johnson Screens
· Mike Ekholm, Johnson Screens
· Dan Ganfield, Johnson Screens
· Ehrich Shaw, Johnson Screens
· Tom Steinke, Johnson Screens
· Brian Jandahl, Hydro Metering Technology
· Jamie Wallerstedt, WSB & Assoc., Inc.
· Mark A. Sloan, MDH
· Jerry Roehl, City of Golden Valley
· George F. Valvoda, City of Pine City
· Bruce Berthiaume, St. Louis Park Water Department
· John Laumann, St. Louis Park Water Department
· Christina Skalko, , Bonestroo
· Norman L. Miranda, Howard R. Green Co.
· Jay S. Kemp, Howard R. Green Co.
· John Flaa, Fargo Electronics, Inc.
· Jeffrey Nyland, City of Brooklyn Center
· Jeffry B. Giddings, DIPRA
· Rochelle L. Spielman, MDH
· Roger G. Scharf, University of Minnesota
· Lucas A. Martin, Minnesota Dept. of Health
· Matthew Hillbrand, Vessco, Inc.
· Heather Silseth, AE2S
· Scott Petlewski, Shaw Environmental Inc.
· Tonya Chandler, Shaw Environmental Inc.
· Frank Bisek, City of New Prague
· Rick Nozel, Microwave Data Systems
· Steven W. Duff , City of Chisago
Recruiters,
and Award Recommendations:
We have a record twenty-one named endorsers for new member recruitment this year. Each will be recognized for their efforts at the awards ceremony. Way to go!
· Allen Anderson
· Scott Anderson
· Jon B. Eaton
· Todd L. Gatz
· Glen M. Gerads (2)
· Allen J. Lamm
· John F. Lapointe P.E.
· Douglas J. Mandy
· Steven R. Mereness (3)
· Pete Moulton (2)
· Brian A. Noma
· Karla R. Peterson P.E.
· James Saefke (2)
· Stew Thornley
· Mark D. Wallis P.E.
· Nancy Zeigler
· Corey Lubovich
· David L. Peterson
· Robert H. Smude
· Lyle A. Stai (2)
· Keith Redmond (23)
Membership
awards are recommended to the best recruiting efforts for 2006:
Lyle A. Stai,, Top Recruiter - Operators
Steven R. Mereness, Top Recruiter – Individual Members
Keith Redmond, Top Student Recruiter (23) and Recruiter of the Year!
No
report.
Conference
Council (Schultz)
No
report.
Manufacturers Council (Norton)
No
report.
Public
Affairs Council (Lange-Haider)
Public Information (Stew Thornley)
No
report.
Publications (Erik Juhl)
At the time of this
writing, the conference program has just been sent to print, marking the
completion of our conference projects for 2006 (which also included the
registration brochure and call for exhibitors from earlier this year). The
program is 24 pages in total, about half of which is advertising. We have sent
out all of this year's Breezes except for the last Light Breeze, which will
report on activities of the Conference and the meetings held there.
I propose a moderate
increase in our Breeze ad placement fees. We have been able to maintain our
current pricing for more than 5 years. A small increase now will ensure that we
remain above water for the foreseeable future and that we can continue to
support our Breezes and Light Breezes. Our publications have always been
self-supporting, and it's in the section's best interests to make sure that we
have sufficient income to cover publication, mailing, and equipment upkeep
costs. I suggest the following schedule for annual contracts (ad placements in
the two big Breezes and three call-outs in the Light Breezes):
1.00 page color $1800 (now
$1600)
1.00 page gray $940 (now
$875)
0.50 page gray $620 (now
$535)
0.25 page gray $460 (now
$400)
0.12 page gray $380 (now
$345)
For
a single ad, we would charge 1/2 the annual rate plus $50. (This continues our
current practice of charging extra for one-time ad placements, because it's
easier to manage the accounting if advertisers are encouraged to pay annually.)
The budget proposed for Publications in 2007 was developed around this pricing
structure. By putting this pricing in place now, we'll have time to prepare our
ad materials in advance of the end of the year when we re-sign most of our
advertisers.
Water for People (Bernie Bullert)
No
report.
Scholarship (Gerry Smith)
No
report.
Young Professionals (Chris
Glassing)
No
report.
Training
Council (K. Peterson)
The Education Committee will be conducting Water Works! Drinking Water Institutes for Educators at the Minneapolis Water Works ultrafiltration plant in August. The committee is continuing to work with Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education (CGEE) to expand the scope of the Institutes through a module on a CD-ROM and on-line learning. The module should be ready this summer or fall.
The 25th Annual Midwest Regional Water
Utility Management Institute was held March 13-15 at the College of Continuing
Education at the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. 43 participants were in attendance, setting
a record for the Institute! Speakers
included Rosie Barry, Karen Ray, Kit Welchlin, Michael Johnson. Further information regarding the Institute
is available at www.cce.umn.edu/mangement or by contacting Glen Gerads,
Bloomington or Scott Anderson, St. Louis Park.
The
Committee co-sponsored a Surface Water Treatment Workshop w/ the ND and SD
Sections in April 2006. The workshop
was a success with 170 in attendance.
The MN section share will be approximately $1600, with the next workshop
to be held in 2008.
The
Committee is sponsoring an Upper Midwest Membrane Technology Workshop in August
2006, drawing approximately 200 attendees from the WI, IA, ND and SD
Sections.
The
Committee also plans to continue to attract nationally recognized speakers to
the annual conference research session.
Speakers request that their expenses be reimbursed. 5-7 national researchers are
anticipated.
The submission date on the AWWA Utility
Safety Award was moved up to February 14, 2006, which made it impossible to
nominate any water system for the 2006 awards.
In lieu of the national award, a new MN Section award will be announced
for the annual conference.
Bill Anderl was recently elected to
AWWA National Safety Committee Chair and Tom Ozello replaced him as committee
chair. The safety committee is working
to recruit at least three more volunteer members.
The
committee is interested in sponsoring informal coffee meetings for operators
from small systems in various parts of the state and is looking for volunteers
to help coordinate these meetings or get-togethers.
Water Utility Council (K.
Johnson)
The
council will meet on Wednesday Sept 20.
Motion to approve the consent items except the APC report
were made by Stai, second by Volker, and approved unanimously.
4. CONSENT DISCUSSION ITEMS
Administrative & Policy Council
Information Technology
Committee
The committee requested a budget of $4k without
detail. The Finance Committee set the budget at $2K. The IT committee provided additional
documentation and requested a $7.5K budget. This item will be deferred until
the board discusses the budget.
Membership Committee
Chair Lapointe commented on the association’s
change in counting members. The new method shows membership over 1000 now (1038
total). Chair Lapointe discussed past membership numbers and plans to challenge
the section to increase membership to beyond pre 9/11/2001 numbers, which were
higher by 10s of members.
President Rolan discussed individual and utility
memberships, that the association has changed the way they count members (the
point system), and the breakdown of utility memberships (small systems versus
large systems and that small systems contribute just as much as the large
systems financially).
Lapointe suggested the section find a membership
ambassador to be paid to increase the membership (paid staff). Rolan discussed
paid staffs role in the North Carolina section and how they address membership
recruitment.
Awards
Chair Lapointe sent a letter (Cockriel received
a copy of the letter) recommending Doug Mandy for Honorary Membership. Chair
Lapointe received a nomination form from AWWA and gave it to the APC chair for
processing.
Motion to approve the consent discussion item was made by Gerads,
second by Halvorson, and approved unanimously.
5. UNFINISHED
BUSINESS
A. Strategic/Business
Plan Update (Volker)
Volker discussed the process and
updating procedures. Most notable was the addition of the Chair-Elect to assist
the Past-Chair in completing the process. Anderson noted that some committees
did not respond very well and some did. He would encourage the lesser involved
committees to participate more. The plan content will be reviewed at the
Tuesday morning meeting.
B. Hamline
Educational CD (Peterson)
The CD project should be complete in
the next month or so. John Shepard will give a presentation at the January BOD
meeting. Peterson distributed a project update, highlighting items to be
completed.
C. Policy
& Procedure Update (Cockriel)
Cockriel has reviewed the policies and
procedures, and noted some inconsistencies. So far four items have been
identified: 1. council chair transition (to only replace one third of the
positions at any one time) 2. officers holding only one position at time (not
noted in the bylaws/policies/procedures) 3. current practices of the Board
approving appointments at the post-conference meeting and 4. review/create an
out-of-state travel policy. Cockriel will continue to review the governing
documents and have a more formal report at the next board meeting.
6. NEW
BUSINESS
A. 2006
Association Meetings (Lapointe)
Annual
Conference & Exposition (June) – The Fiesta 125 and San Antonio ACE was a
well attended event. The first annual President’s Reception was a real hit. The
anticipated attendance was only half of what actually showed up. Lapointe
discussed the Fiesta give away items and that controls should be in place to
control the spending (perception). Norton requested table information
(discussing what can be given away) be given to all section to better prepare.
Leadership
Meeting
(July) – Four people attended the meeting. Moulton gave an overview of the
meeting/workshops. There was much discussion about paid staff and membership.
Moulton provided Chair Lapointe documentation about membership.
RMSO (Oct) – The following people would like to
attend: Anderson, Schultz, Gerads, Volker, Brown, Peterson. Eaton emailed the
association to hold positions for the meeting. Gerads suggested that new board
members hold off going to the meeting. It was noted that AbouAish requested to attend
the RMSO at the sections expense.
A motion
to deny the request by AbouAish for reimbursement to attend the RMSO, based on
past board practices of sending only current board members, but encourage
attendance if so wished by Sadler, second by Lubovich, and approved with one opposed vote.
B. Fall
Conference Update (Schultz)
The conference numbers are close to last year. The vendor exhibition is sold out with
some vendors on a waiting list. The guest program has grown to over 30 and will
be based out of The Inn. The Board will meet at the DECC tomorrow to discuss
the budget and business plan.
Schultz discussed the Thursday evening events
(harbor cruise social and dinner), the YP sponsored Texas Hold’em tournament to
raise money for the endowment, and the Tuesday Board Appreciation dinner.
The MAC chair discussed the Minnesota and
Wisconsin conference being on the same week and the difficulty it places on the
vendors. It was suggested that Wisconsin change back to the last week in
September. The MAC chair also discussed the sold out exhibition and the
possibility of moving to the west side of the DECC.
The central district is paying for Rosie
Ehlinger (widow of John Ehlinger) to attend the conference. Herb Watry will be
giving a plaque to her at the banquet.
C. Council
Chair Transition Schedule (Cockriel)
See unfinished business item C.
D. Safety
Committee Name Change (Peterson)
It was requested to change the committee name to
the Safety/Security Committee. Gerads suggested the committee address this in
the business plan. Rolan suggested emergency planning be included in the plan.