SOUTHWEST SECTION – AWWA
Mid-Year Board Meeting Minutes
Shreveport Hilton—Shreveport, LA
Friday, February 6, 2015 1:00 PM
Saturday, February 7, 2015 8:00 AM
AGENDA
Chair Ben Bridges, Presiding
Establish presence of a quorum: 8 members present plus two additional members represented by
proxy, for a total of 10 members out of 13. Quorum is present.
Committee Chairs: Membership Committee Chair Scotty Boggs
Invited Guests: Curtis Davis, Local Host Committee Co-Chair; from Local Host Committee: Ken Bardett
with City of Bossier City; Qiana Maple with City of Shreveport; Rudy Zelmer with CDM Smith; Carolyn
Dowden and David Bradley with the Shreveport Tourist Commission; Steven Jackson with the
Shreveport Mayor’s office joined the meeting in progress.
1) Call meeting to order and recognize guests – Chair Ben Bridges
Mr. Bradley and Ms. Dowden welcomed us to Shreveport and said they are looking forward to
welcoming us again to Shreveport in October. They have set up a VIP tent for Saturday afternoon to
view the Shreveport Mardi Gras activities.
Steven Jackson addressed the group briefly and welcomed us. He discussed the infrastructure
improvements planned for the City’s water and wastewater systems over the next several years to
address the consent decree.
2) Approval of minutes – Chair Ben Bridges
a. Pre Conference Board Meeting – October 12, 2014
Motion to approve by Clayton Edwards; seconded by Robert Carr. Motion approved by
voice vote
b. Business Meeting – October 13, 2014
Motion to approve by Robert Carr; seconded by Dan Dawson. Motion approved by
voice vote
c. Post Conference Board Meeting – October 14, 2014
Motion to approve by Robert Carr; seconded by Dan Dawson. Motion approved by
voice vote
d. Electronic Board Meeting -- November 5, 2014
Motion to approve by Bill HagenBurger; seconded by Robert Carr. Motion approved by
voice vote
3) Financial Report – Treasurer Robert Carr
Limited experience with Quickbooks does not permit meaningful report at this time. Additional
training is needed for Executive Director and Treasurer. ED presented financial summary from
ACE14. Bottom line is that we made over $16,000, with compliments to the City of Tulsa staff.
No budget amendments were offered but the Local Host Committee is in discussions with the
Shreveport Convention Center about expenditures with the SCC.
4) Report from Section -- Director Clayton Edwards
a. AWWA Board of Directors Winter Board Meeting
Provided copy of report to Board members. He attended the 2015 AWWA Winter Board
meeting. The Board Special Session included an update on AWWA 2020: A Pathway to
One AWWA and he discussed the five major components of the AWWA 2020 plan. He
discussed the plan to establish an AWWA office in India. On membership, association
membership and revenue are dropping. AWWA is considering a different membership
model to clarify the benefits of membership. Jeanne Bailey was elected as Incoming
President-Elect. Four Vice Presidents were elected: Steve Dennis, Jon Eaton, Martha
Segal, and Brian Steglitz. Sally Mills-Wright was elected as Director-at-Large. Clayton
noted that all those elected were from utilities. Several revised policy statements were
approved. Membership dues for international members was approved, with the final
amount being studied by AWWA staff. He also mentioned that AWWA is working on the
clean water side of the business, and is looking to develop standards on wastewater.
Clayton is also part of an effort to create a Partnership for Safe Water counterpart on
the wastewater side, with the effort largely relying on conference calls to date. Clayton
briefly discussed the EPA grant to provide training to small water systems.
5) Report on Southwest Section Short Schools – Chair Ben Bridges
a. Dates and Location –
i. Louisiana Conference – March 10-13, 2015 – Alexandria, LA Ben is planning to
attend; the Southwest Section will have a booth set up.
ii. AWW&WEA – April 27-30, 2015 – Hot Springs, AR Ben will also attend this
event. ED Broussard and Membership Chair Scotty Boggs will plan to attend.
iii. OWPCA – September 28 – October 2, 2015
b. Advance Notification to Chair of Short Schools – responsibility of Trustee of each state
to confirm invitation to speak and make arrangements for complimentary room and
registration (if provided)
6) Time/Place Committee – Executive Director Don Broussard
a. Current information on future Annual Conferences
i. Shreveport, LA – October 4-6, 2015
ii. Rogers, AR – October 25-27, 2016
iii. Oklahoma City, OK – 2017
iv. Louisiana – 2018
7) 2014 Annual Conference Arrangements – Local Host Co-Chair Curtis Davis
a. Status Report
Curtis Davis provided a handout on Local arrangements. Saturday will include the
Visiting Officer’s Reception at McNeill Water Plant and Museum. The Broussards will
prepare a chicken and sausage gumbo. Meet and Greet will be held on Sunday evening
at the Shreveport Convention Center, in the exhibit hall. Thornton, Musso and Bellemin
will provide and fry catfish and fries along with jambalaya for the meal. A tour of the
McNeill Water Plant and Museum and of the Bossier City Water Treatment Plant are
scheduled. Qiana Maple is working on the spouse program. She provided a draft
schedule of events. The Red River Revel is going on concurrent with our October
conference, and there is free admission during the day. They are also considering doing
Painting with a Twist and going to the Boardwalk for shopping. Also, a river cruise is a
possibility, along with a tour of some movie sets local to Shreveport. Finally, a
winery/brewery tour might be a possibility.
b. Facility Arrangements – Discussions are underway with the SCC to purchase additional
food to reduce cost of facilities. Exhibit hall provides for about 80 exhibits. The local
Fire Marshal will not permit a serpentine path through the hall, like we did last year in
Tulsa. The Local Host Committee will provide WiFi within the SCC at no cost to vendors
and attendees. The SCC has reduced the charge from $1,000 to $500 for WiFi access.
c. Special Events (Pipetapping, Water Taste Contest, Top Ops, Meter Madness, etc.)
A Water Taste Contest and Top Ops Competition will be conducted. Rudy Zelmer
presented an idea to host a social for professional engineers to promote their
participation in the Southwest Section Annual Conference. The social is scheduled for
Monday evening at the Shreveport Convention Center. During the promotion of this
idea, Rudy will also solicit for presentations for the conference’s technical program. He
is also working on getting a sponsorship to support a college student to attend the
conference, with the idea to attract young people to our industry. While there was no
specific action taken, the Board liked the ideas presented, and encouraged Rudy to
pursue the additional idea of starting a student chapter at Louisiana Tech.
d. Other Items – ED Broussard provided a flash drive of all last year’s conference
documents prepared by the Local Host Committee in Tulsa to Curtis.
8) Consideration of Changes to Section Policy Manual – Chair Ben Bridges
a. Provision of Additional Complimentary Booth Space to state operator associations. No
action taken to change the permissive “may” to the directive “shall”.
b. Exchange of Section Mailing Lists to other associations – Motion by Bill HagenBurger
that the Section not share its paper or electronic member data with other associations.
Seconded by Dan Dawson. Requests should go through ED for distribution to members.
If ED has any questions as to the content or sender’s purpose, he will get guidance from
Board. Motion passed by voice vote.
9) Unfinished Business
a. Appointments Needed – WUC appointment needed for LA vacancy to replace B. J.
Francis, whose term expired in October, 2014.
10) New Business
a. Annual review of AWWA Assessment. After discussion, no change was made to the
assessment, which will remain at 15%. Ben appointed an Ad Hoc Committee to discuss
changing the Section assessment. Ben, Robert, Bill, Clayton were named to the
Committee. The charge is to have a recommendation for adjustment of the assessment
by this year’s Pre Conference Board meeting. Robert Carr asked for meeting notes on
the intent of the assessment (to cover cost of Executive Director?). Clayton idenitified
that the Section has to notify the AWWA Executive Director by May 15 of each year of
their intent to adjust the Section assessment.
b. Adoption of new Southwest Section human resources policies
Motion by Robert Carr to refer financial policies to the Audit Committee for discussion
and a recommendation to the full Board. Motion approved by voice vote. Motion by
Robert Carr to approve the human resources policies in globo. Motion passed by voice
vote. Clayton suggested that the Code of Conduct for Members be published in the
Summer, 2015 Journal.
11) 2015 Meetings – Who Is Attending? – Chair Ben Bridges
a. 2015 Schedule of Regional Meeting of Section Officers
i. Region I: October 16-17, Wilmington, Delaware
ii. Region II: March 26-27, Key Largo, Florida (Robert Carr will attend)
iii. Region III: April 24-25, Rosemont, Illinois (near conflict with AWW&WEA)
iv. Region IV: April 24-25, Kansas City, Missouri (near conflict with AWW&WEA.
Bill HagenBurger will attend)
v. Region V: October 2-3, Banff, Alberta
b. ACE15 June 7-10 in Anaheim, CA
c. Summer Workshop/Volunteer and Section Staff Workshop July 21-23, 2015 in Denver,
CO Ben and ED plan to attend. Once the Vice Chair nominee has been identified,
he/she will be invited to attend the Summer Workshop.
12) Announcements –
a. Reminder of Section Mileage and Meal Reimbursement
i. Mileage = $0.575 per mile
ii. Breakfast = $7
iii. Lunch = $11
iv. Dinner = $23
Please note that while meal receipts are not required, meal reimbursement is for actual expenditures
(including tip), not to exceed the amounts shown above.
b. Dinner tonight at 6:30PM at The Blind Tiger. Details were provided during meeting.
13) Council and Committee Reports
a. Auditing Committee –Dennis McGehee -- written report submitted. Audit Committee is
seeking a financial professional to review (not full audit) the Section’s financial records.
b. Awards Committee –Robert Hart – no report
c. Communications Committee – Don Broussard – Spring, 2015 Journal is at the publisher,
with an expected mailing date of March 6, 2015
d. Education Committee – Bill Clark – Bill has been working diligently to get the Area 1 and
Area 2 Small Systems Workshops scheduled. As of yesterday, all six of the sessions have
been scheduled, with the last one set to be the Area 1 Workshop in Alexandria, LA in
August, 2015.
e. Fuller Award Committee – No report
f. Kellogg Award Committee – No report
g. Manufacturers/Associates Council – Brad Hammond submitted a written report.
Discussion is ongoing regarding a MAC sponsorship of a non-member utility to attend
our annual conference in Shreveport. The MAC is also planning a reception during the
Shreveport conference. MAC is also desiring to implement the John A. Lechner Award
and will coordinate with the Awards Committee. Finally, the MAC members were
assigned to visit specific booths in Tulsa to get feedback from exhibitors, and that report
was passed on to the Local Host Committee for Shreveport. Ben, as a MAC member, is
coordinating MAC events with the Local Host Committee
h. Membership Committee – Scotty Boggs provided a hard copy of his report.
Membership is up, with a total of 1,106 members. The Section will receive some money
for achieving its membership goal. Retention is down though. Total membership is the
highest it’s been since 2012. Scotty complimented the Trustees and Deputy Trustees on
contacting Late and Dropped members. The Membership Committee has held quarterly
meetings in each quarter and will schedule a call soon. Plan is to order some
promotional items to send to members as their renewal date nears, to entice them to
renew their membership. Scotty reported on the video game his son set up last year at
the AWW&WEA to garner attention to our membership booth there.
i. Miller Award Committee – No report.
j. Nominating Committee – Blake Weindorf – ED needs to check with Blake
k. Performance Evaluation Committee – Ben Bridges – Committee met with ED this
morning. Overall review was that he met or exceeded expectations. Some goals were
set up for next year: increase efficiency/aptitude in Quickbooks; get Treasurer involved
in Quickbooks training; work on Executive Director’s O&M manual, including a 90-day
look-ahead calendar; work on Access training. No salary adjustments were
recommended, but there was a discussion of incentive pay for achieving certain targets.
l. Program Committee – Position is not filled --- no report. The Local Host is planning to
do a Call for Papers to seek technical presentations.
m. Scholarship Committee – Deadline to submit is June 25, 2015.
n. Water for People Committee – Perry Nelson – Perry submitted a written report.
Committee is gearing up to do the AWW&WEA conference.
o. Water Utility Council – Larry Lloyd submitted written report. Council has been very
active, and is planning for this year’s AWWA Fly In. Congress approved funding at FY15
levels. Report on Louisiana’s Emergency Chlorination Rule, which requires a minimum
free chlorine residual of 0.5 ppm at every point in the water distribution system, in
response to N. fowleri discovered in two systems in Louisiana and one child’s death.
p. Young Professionals Committee – Rachel Watts submitted a written report.
14) Other Business –
15) Recess – Tour Hotel for Technical Session/Exhibitor Booths and locations – Tour is scheduled for
4:00PM; meeting is recessed until Saturday morning at 8AM
Motion by Bill HagenBurger, second by Dan Dawson to adjourn. Motion carried by voice vote.