GOVERNING BOARD MEETING
September 29, 2003
Marriott Conference Center
Moorhead, MN

1. CALL TO ORDER
Meeting was called to order by Chair Glen Gerads at 6:05pm.

2. ROLL CALL
(Position    Name    Attendance—Yes or No)
    Executive Board of Directors
Chair-elect:Doug Rovang, Rochester—Yes
Chair: Glen Gerads, Bloomington—Yes
Past Chair: John Thom, SEH Inc—Yes
Director: Bernie Bullert, St Paul—Yes
Secretary/Treasurer: Jon Eaton, Bloomington—Yes

    District Trustees
Northwest: Troy Hall, Moorhead—Yes
Northeast: Bud Krause, Duluth—No
Central: Bill Spain, St Cloud—Yes
Metro: Bert Tracy, Oakdale—Yes
Southwest: Butch Hybbert, Fairmont—Yes
Southeast: Myron Volker, Owatonna—Yes
At-Large: Scott Anderson, St Louis Park—Yes

    Councils and Committees
Administrative: Yasser Abouaish, Minneapolis—No
Conference: Steve Schneider, St Paul—Yes
Manufacturers/Associates: Ben Mason, ACIPC—Yes
Public Affairs: Kelly Lange-Haider, CH2M Hill—No
Small Systems: Don Christianson, Rural Water—No
Training: Stew Thornley, MDH—Yes
Water Utility: Bob Cockriel, Bloomington—Yes

    Guests
AWWA Association Representative Dixie Fanning
Cal-Nevada Section Representative Dave Rexing
Research Committee Chair Karla Peterson
Education Committee Chair Mike George

3. CONSENT APPROVAL

MINUTES APPROVAL:
May 30 and August 26, 2003 Meetings. One correction was noted and made on the 8/26 minutes; Abouaish was present at the meeting, not absent.

FINANCIAL REPORT (Eaton)
The Section Monthly Financial Status, as of Sep 1, 2003, was emailed to all the board members. The balance sheet continues to show positive gains and financial operation within the approved budget. The Section income was $130,563 and expenses were $108,127 for a net income of $22,436. Investments are continuing up since the beginning of the year by $11,317. The endowment fund has $22,542.95 and the general fund has $64,675.02. A new Class Report shows income/expenses bases on program.

ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR'S REPORT (Bullert)
As I have been forwarding all correspondence from the Denver and Washington, D.C. offices, I have no new issues to cover in my report.

To keep costs down because of declining attendance at events, AWWA Headquarters continues to monitor attendance and budget issues.

At this Board meeting, we will need to discuss the AWWA Strategic Plan Questionnaire and the AWWA Customer Satisfaction Survey as it relates to the Section.

We look forward to Vice-President Dixie Fanning being at the meeting and covering national issues.

DISTRICT REPORTS
    NW District (Hall)
Plans are in place for the 2003 Minnesota Section Annual Conference in Moorhead from October 1-3 at the Courtyard by Marriott. The Water for People Golf Tournament will be held at the Moorhead Country Club on September 30. The tournament is sponsored by the Minnesota Associates Council.

The Northwest District 3-day school will be held from December 2 through December 4 at the Northland Inn in Crookston. This year's school will have a slight different flavor than past schools. Highlights of the school are as follows. The morning of December 2 will be devoted to Vulnerability Assessments and Emergency Response. A panel on Source Water Protection and a fuel oil spill that occurred in the Red River Valley in May 2003 will be the focus that afternoon. It appears that a professional develop workshop will be offered after the business meeting on the morning of December 3. A combined product show and hands-on session is set for the second afternoon. The final morning, December 4, will have a variety of topics including: Arsenic, tower cleaning, safety, distribution microbiology, and on-line instrumentation.

    NE District (Krause)
Nothing new to report since the last issue of the Breeze.

    Central District (Spain)
The Central District held a successful spring Water School in June at Ruttgers Bay Lake Lodge in Deerwood. There were 70 registered attendees. The program was well received as indicated by positive evaluations of presenters. At the business meeting Ken Friedrichs of Sauk Centre was elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the Central District and Herb Watry of Litchfield is currently the Chair.

The program and registration has been mailed out for a one-day Water School to be held on October 29, 2003, at St. John's University in Collegeville. We will have a variety of topics that should appeal to area operators and students. Registration is $35.

The Central District will meet in early spring of 2004 to plan a 3-day Water School to be held June 9 - 11, 2004. The tentative location is again at Ruttgers on Bay Lake.

    Metro District (Tracy)
Nothing new to report since the last issue of the Breeze.

    SW District (Hybbert)
Southwest District will be hosting a one-day school at the Best Western in Marshall on October 16, 2003. The morning program will be on security issues. The afternoon session will be on well maintenance and will conclude with a tour of the Marshall water treatment plant.

    SE District (Volker)
Nothing new to report.

COUNCIL/COMMITTEE REPORTS
    Administration Council (Abouaish)

            Finance
The 2004 budget (proposal and comments) was reviewed and discussed. It proposes an income of $204,168, expenses of $203,611 for a net savings of $557. The Finance Committee recommends approving the proposed 2004 budget with the following exceptions:

Additionally, the Finance Committee suggests the UOM provide income/expense numbers for the Management School to determine if registration fees are appropriate.

The Finance Committee discussed the Fall Conference Exhibitor fees. The committee strongly suggests the Board review these fees. Current fees allow vendors to attend the conference at lower rates than the regular members.

Action Items:
1. Approve the 2004 Budget with the two changes.

2. Review and adjust the Fall Conference Exhibitor fees for the 2004 conference.

            Fuller Award
The committee has chosen an awardee and will provide the necessary information at the conference.

            Thompson Award
The committee has chosen an awardee and will provide the necessary information at the conference.

            Meritorious Service
No candidates were nominated. The committee will continue to solicit for nominees, for 2004 Fall Conference.

            Nominating (Director)
Not applicable until the 2004 fall conference.

            Nominating (Chair-Elect, Trustee-At-Large)
    Trustee at Large:
Herb Watry, City of Litchfield
Jim Sadler, City of Maple Grove

    Chair Elect:
Myron Volker, Owatonna Public Utilities
John Lapointe, Earth Tech

    Conference Council (Schneider)

        Conference Council
As preparations for the AWWA Minnesota Section Conference in Moorhead are coming to a head, I would like to take a minute to recognize and give my sincere thanks to those that have helped prepare for this event:
    Jon Eaton - Secretary Treasurer
    John Crooks - Program Committee Chair
    Troy Hall - Local Arrangements
    Jim Sadler - House Committee Chair

The committee chairs, along with their members have done a tremendous job in preparation for the conference. It looks like our vendor show will be full of some familiar and some new faces. I'd like to thank them for their support for the section.

The Program Committee had added a third concurrent session on Thursday that deals with current research issues for the water industry. This, along with the Technical, Computer and Operators sessions will provide our attendees with many choices of sessions to attend on Thursday. The General Sessions on Wednesday and Friday are also packed with interesting topics that affect water professionals each and every day.

The Local Arrangements group has been busy making the necessary arrangements and plan on helping us out throughout the conference.

The House Committee will be busy making sure everything runs smoothly and everyone has everything they need to have a successful conference.

I'd like to offer a special thanks to Jeanette Boothe who takes the time to lend her expertise at the registration table.

Lastly, thanks to Jon Eaton for all his work behind the scenes, without which, we would not be able to put on such a great show.

See you in Owatonna in 2004!!

        Conference Spouse
This year's Guest Program for the 2003 conference in Moorhead is set. The agenda can be seen in the Conference issue of the Breeze. The basic ballroom dance session for Wednesday evening is being excluded from the program, since it may interfere with the MAC Social.

        Conference Local Arrangements
The annual conference for 2003 conference in Moorhead is set for October 1-3 at the Courtyard by Marriott. The agenda can be seen in the Conference issue of the Breeze.

        Reception at ACE
An informal reception in Anaheim was held at the ESPNZone in Downtown Disney. The event was attended by a number of Minnesota Section members that attended the annual conference. Since there was another event in the same establishment that evening, some Minnesota Section members did not get word of the location in the restaurant from the hostess area. We will look at options for a formal reception again at the 2004 conference. Until the economy picks up and more Minnesota Section are traveling to the national conference, we will lower the estimated attendance for the 2004 reception at ACE. Therefore, we should not have to cancel our formal reception as in 2003, which was set for the Anaheim Whitehouse.

    Manufacturers Council (B. Mason)
The Minnesota Associates Council held meetings on Dec. 20, 2002, April 25, 2003, and August 22, 2003. Our Annual Conference meeting will be held Oct. 1.

Accomplishments this past year include:

    Public Affairs Council (Lange-Haider)

        Public Information
Another year, another State Fair! The committee had a difficult time staffing the booth this year. The committee is wondering whether the section is accomplishing what they want through the state fair. Is the message correct? Is this an effort we want to continue investing in? A follow-up meeting will be held with the PI committee members to discuss the state fair fall out.

This years CCR winners are:
            Central: City of Ortonville
            Metro: City of Bloomington
            Northeast: Hibbing Public Utilities
            Northwest: City of Fergus Falls
            Southeast: City of Waseca
            Southwest: City of Mankato

With the overall being the City of Bloomington. The PI committee is questioning the value of continuing with the CCR competition. This will be another topic at the next meeting.

        Publications
The exhibitor brochure was mailed out in June. With the assistance of MAC members, all the exhibitor booths, eight sponsorships, and over ten pages of advertising were sold.

The conference issue of the breeze was prepared and mailed in early August. Forty-five advertisers were in the publication. Last year's annual business meeting minutes and year-end financial status were published in the breeze for review by the general membership before this years business meeting.

The conference brochure was mailed out in early September. Registrations continue to come in.

Both brochures (exhibitor and conference) and registration forms were posted on the web for quicker access by the membership.

At the time this report was written, the conference program was being printed.

        Water for People
The Water For People fund raising for 2003 is not complete. We have conducted three raffles at district schools and have raised $814 (net). The major fundraiser for the year is coming up at the annual golf tournament. We have corporate sponsors for all 18 holes. We have also sent information on Water for People with the booth confirmations.

        Membership
This is the major kick off for the section membership recruitment contest. The contest will run from July 2003 to July 2004. The grand prize is thought to be a $500 travel voucher.

Currently, membership is down to 958 for the 2001 high of 992 members. Individual memberships are the primary losers. The economy seems to be affecting membership.

There will be a young professionals get-together in October at the St Anthony Power Labs. Dates and times will be announced at the conference.

The membership committee is looking for new members/recruiters to jump start section memberships.

        Scholarship
Our Advanced degree scholarship awardees this year are; Andrew Wagstrom, South Dakota State University, Civil Engineering; Paul Morken, North Dakota State University, Civil Engineering; and Matthew Smith, University of Minnesota, Civil Engineering.

I am working on the bios for the luncheon presentation and Breeze article. I will pass these along when finished. Andrew and Matthew will not be at the luncheon. Troy Hall is working on Paul to attend; something about his next paycheck may depend on it. Unfortunately I will not be at the meeting as I have other commitments that week, so I will need someone to do the scholarship presentation at the luncheon.

        Gimmicks and Gadgets (Action Now)
No report.

        Small Systems Council (Christianson)
No report.

    Training Council (Thornley)

        Safety Committee (Bill Anderl)
I do not plan to hold a safety meeting in Moorhead, but instead I have plans to set up a table near the registration area to provide a visible presence and conduct a mini-safety contest for prizes. I have the banner for the table and will likely need to have it up early on Wednesday morning.

        Management Schools (Yasser Abou-Aish)
The 2003 Water Utility Management Institute was held March 17 to 20 at the Earle Brown Continuing Education Center at the University of Minnesota campus in St. Paul.

        Education Committee (Mike George)
The Minnesota Section districts have completed their spring schools. The Southeast District had its three-day school in Rochester in March, the Metro District had its three-day school in Bloomington in April, and the Northeast District had its three-day school in International Falls in April, a month earlier than usual. In addition, the Southwest District had a one-day school in April in Fairmont, and the Central District had its three-day school at Ruttger's Bay Lodge outside Deerwood in mid-June. Each of these schools has featured a half-day vulnerability assessment workshop.

The Training Council and Education Committee have coordinated two other water security workshops, both tailored for systems serving populations between 10,000 and 50,000, in conjunction with the Minnesota Public Works Association. Bill Anderl led both workshops, held on April 3 and May 28, using the new Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool (VSAT) software from the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.

The third Drinking Water Institute for teachers was held in Rochester in June.

        Research Committee (Karla Peterson and Lih-in Rezania)
The planning committee for the workshop met at the Moorhead Water Treatment Plant on May 19, 2003. The committee proposed holding the workshop Tuesday, April 27, 2004 through Thursday, April 29 at the Courtyard by Marriott Moorhead Area Conference Center. The next planning meeting will be held October 28, 2003 at the Moorhead Water Treatment Plant.

Doug Lubben and Ray Hozalski volunteered to organize a concurrent session on Thursday, October 2, 2003 during the annual conference. The session would be focused on a variety of research topics. The proposed schedule includes 45-min presentations by each speaker and is follows: Arsenic Occurrence-Mindy Erickson, University of Minnesota; Arsenic Removal-Marc Edwards; Optimization of Systems for Iron/Manganese Removal-Delvin DeBoer, South Dakota State University; Membrane Fouling-Yu Chang, HDR; Taste and Odor Control-Dave Schuler, St. Paul Regional Water Services; Disinfection By-Products-Ray Hozalski, University of Minnesota; and TOC/AOC and Distribution Systems-Troy Hall, Moorhead Public Service. The committee would also like to maintain a concurrent session on research each year. Doug Lubben will contact John Crooks on the Conference Committee to help promote the poster session at the annual conference. Since the annual conference is located in Moorhead, the committee would like to encourage participation in the poster session by students at the University of Minnesota, University of North Dakota, and North Dakota State University.

The fall committee breakfast meeting will be held Wednesday, October 2, 7-8 am, at the Courtyard by Marriott in Moorhead. Agenda items include discussion of the upcoming workshops, utilization of the website, participation in the annual conference and poster presentations, research needs, and participation on AWWA Research Foundation committees.

    Water Utility Council (Cockriel)
The Water utility Council last met on June 26, 2003 at the St. Paul Regional Water Treatment Plant. Draft minutes of the meeting have been posted on the Section website, located @ http://www.mnawwa.org/ for your information.

One of the issues discussed at our last meeting included the upcoming 2004 Legislative session and what, if any issues that the WUC should try to advance during that session. The sales tax on municipal water system capital purchases for distribution systems was discussed and it was decided to hold off on bringing this issue forward at this time due to severe state budget problems.

Another issue discussed was the recent changes proposed by the Gopher State One Call (GSOC) board regarding their desire to eliminate the credit for blanket (over) notification for excavations, or No Locate Required (NLR's) as well as the attempt by MUCA to propose legislation that would require cities to be responsible to locate any private services connected to their utility systems.

The GSOC NLR issue is on our radar as we continue to work with the LMC to ensure that cities have a future "voice" in any operational changes to existing policies that impact the both the operations of the city's utilities as well as adversely impacts their budgets. While the GSOC board has announced that their changes will go into effect on January 1, 2004, we will continue to work towards resolving the apparent financial inequities that this proposed change imparts on many medium to large utilities.

The proposed MUCA legislation was successfully stalled in the 2003 session due to the efforts your Section, the City Engineers Association and, of course, the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC). Because of our combined efforts, the Legislature pulled the proposed bill and directed its authors to work with MUCA and the fore mentioned groups to try and resolve our differences with the hopes of bringing a refined bill back to them in 2004. A meeting has been scheduled with Representative Cox, the bills author, and several MUCA members on September 30, 2003 to continue the discussion and work toward common ground on the issue of locating private services. Don Volk, Lakeville PW, will represent the WUC at that meeting and hopefully report back at the Business Meeting at the Annual Conference in Moorhead, MN.

Lastly, this is my last report as the Chair of the WUC. I will be turning the gavel over to your new Chair at the Annual Conference. I thank each of you for your commitment and participation over the last 3 years. It has been an honor to serve this organization in this capacity and I look forward to other opportunities to serve the Section in the future. As always, the Water Utility Council is still looking for dedicated water professionals to join the Council and participate in issues such as the ones highlighted above. If you are interested in becoming a WUC member please contact Doug Rovang, in-coming Section Chair to discuss your interest.

4. CONSENT DISCUSSION ITEMS
Finance Committee Report - Gerads requested the budget for the Summer Leadership be doubled from $1600 to $3200 so four people can attend each year instead of two.

Scholarship Committee - Spain questioned the number and types of scholarships. Thom suggested creating a taskforce to review the committee and suggest improvements. Gerads approved the taskforce and appointed John Thom as chair. Thom will gather other members and the taskforce will report back to the board at the January meeting.

WFP Committee - Rovang requested clarification of the WFP $3k funding; Eaton clarified the expenditure.

A motion was made by Spain to accept the changes to the budget and finance committee report and form a taskforce to review scholarship committee activity. Rovang second the motion. The motion was unanimously approved.

5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Strategic Planning (Gerads) - A working session will take place tomorrow morning, Tuesday, from 8a-10a. Glen Gerads will present the vision, mission, and goals to the membership at the opening session on Wednesday.

Regional Officers Meeting (Eaton) - Scheduled for October 24-25 (Friday and Saturday) in Duluth, MN. Board members are encouraged to attend. The MN Section will be sponsoring a train ride social before dinner (from 5:30pm to 6:30pm) at the train museum on Friday evening.

2004 Conference (Hall/Schneider) - Planned to be held in Owatonna, MN the first week in October 2004.

Formation of IT Committee (Gerads) - This was discussed at previous meetings. Chad Hill has been selected to chair the committee and has already assembled the committee members. Rovang motioned to form the committee under the Administrative Council. Second by Hall. The motion was unanimously approved.

Joint WEF/AWWA Management Conference (Gerads) - Gerads could not get WEF to move on this issue. The issue was tabled.

Records Management Task Force (Eaton) - Bill Lloyd is reviewing the storage records. The board suggested all records be kept 5 years at a minimum. Financial type records (taxes, bank statements, etc.) must be kept 10 years. Board meeting minutes and Breeze magazines will be kept for historical purposes.

6. NEW BUSINESS
Annual Fall Conference Location and Fee Structure (Gerads) - The board discussed the pros and cons of holding the annual conference at a single location. The district trustees will discuss this issue among themselves and their members.

The board generally agrees that the conference registration fees should cover all the conference charges and the exhibitor fees go directly to the endowment fund. The suggestion was made to ramp fees over a two or three year period versus one large increase.

The board will further discuss these issues at length at the January board meeting.

Management Institute (Gerads/Abouaish) - Nothing to discuss. Abouaish continues to discuss the institute with the university.

Proposed Bylaw Changes including Council Voting Representation (Eaton) - Gerads explained events surrounding this issue since the August meeting. Bullert gave a history of the board structure and why it changed approximately 10 years ago. The board further discussed this issue and agreed the previous board vote (from the August Strategic Planning meeting) stands in favor of council chairs as voting members of the board.

A motion was made by Anderson to adopt the recommended AWWA bylaw changes in addition to the approved section bylaw change. The motion was second by Tracy and unanimously approved.

Board Member Duties (Eaton) - These will be developed in the next year with the assistance of the board.

Winter Board Meeting (Eaton) - A suggestion was made to make the January meeting a longer training type meeting, starting late Thursday afternoon. The meeting will break for a provided dinner then continue into the evening. The board meeting will take place the following morning. The meeting will be at a centralized location to encourage attendance by all members

Customer Satisfaction Survey (Bullert) - Bullert requested the board help him complete a survey about satisfaction of AWWA services (five core areas of focus: communication, productivity, quality, responsiveness, leadership). The survey was completed.

AWWA Strategic Planning Survey (Bullert) - A national strategic planning session will again take place at the winter board meeting. AWWA is asking section's views AWWA's strengths, successes (legacy), values, vision and mission, new major strategic areas.

National Awards (Gerads) - The City of Minneapolis submitted an application supporting Yasser Abouaish for the new Diversity Award. The section is recommending an application be approved for an AWWA Honorary Membership for Gray Englund. A motion was made by Thom to approve and submit the application. The motion was second by Bullert and unanimously approved.

7. NEXT BOARD MEETING
Friday October 3, 2003 at the Marriott Conference Center in Moorhead, MN

8. ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made by Anderson to adjourn the meeting at 8:12pm, second by Thom, and unanimously approved.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jon B. Eaton
Secretary/Treasurer

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