Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

20 Jul 2004, 7:00 am, LaPeep's Restaurant, 8081 E Orchard, Englewood, CO

ATTENDANCE

Present: Debby Barton, Leonard Butler, John Briest, Stephen Gillette, Mark McMullen, and Dick Sprague

Absent: Curt Ahrendsen, Laurie Batchelder Adams, Kathy Claes, Roger Doak, and Jim Kriss

Minutes are in the order of the agenda and not necessarily in order of discussions.

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order at 7:17 am as 6 of 11 members present. Note that Ahrendsen, Batchelder Adams, Doak and Kriss had previously stated unavailability for the meeting.

ADOPTION OF AGENDA: No additions to agenda

MINUTES

Approval of May Board of Director Meetings:Gillette/Sprague moved/seconded to approve minutes of 18 May 2004. Motion carried unanimously.

FINANCIAL

Treasurer's Report: McMullen brought treasurer’s report for Ahrendsen. Checking balance is $8,818.78, savings/CD balance is $17,353.58 and e-loan to SWANA remains at $10,000. Discussion held on request by SWANA to the chapter to roll over the two existing e-loans for 4 years at a 4.5% interest rate. Currently, $5,000 is due in July 2005 with a 6.96% interest rate and a second $5,000 is due in April 2007 with a 4.59% interest rate. Questions raised during discussion is how solvent is national SWANA, will the money be present with interest at end of the term, can we split the roll over (can we redeem the 2005 balance due in 2005 yet rollover the 2007 loan), what benefits accrue to the chapter to roll over the money for an additional 4 years at the lower rate (reduced fees at conferences or increased money to chapter members?). Briest will check with national on these questions and send out information requesting action by the board via an email vote.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Membership: Claes absent so no report. Chapter will need to get informational notices on the annual conference and business meeting out to members in late August.

Programs: No programs planned apart from the annual meeting.

Annual Meeting: Butler brought final draft agenda for the conference. All slots are currently filled. Gillette able to obtain the Mayor for the introduction to the conference and the public relations officer from Rocky Mountain National Park for the luncheon speaker. Questions were raised about tour preregistration and costs. The tour will be more of the park for 2.5 to 3 hours with hopefully some mention of solid waste & recycling issues in the park. The end of the tour is to stop to listen to the Elk bugling. Consensus was that the rate should be same as the last year with a discount of $25 for early bird registration. Ahrendsen will be asked to work on sponsors. Claes will be asked if she can help at registration table. Barton will handle the official notices to include mailings of actual business meeting notice, ballots, and conference registration. Consensus that there would be four levels of sponsorship. Bronze at $100 would have a tabletop display. Silver at $200 would have a tabletop and listing on the sponsor board. Gold at $500 would include tabletop, sponsor board and listing at conference beginning. Titanium would be all sponsorships over $500. Gillette stated Larimer County would provide up to $1000 sponsorship to include a tabletop display and support of the conference. Butler and Barton will get the final program to the board within 1 to 2 weeks. Moderators are needed and Sprague, Briest, and McMullen volunteered to assist. Deadline for hotel reservations is 20 September so conference early bird registration will use that as a baseline. Consensus reached to make registration fee significantly different for members versus nonmembers. Consensus is to use the conference as a membership drive. Sprague suggested each board member be given members to make follow up calls in August or early September to encourage attendance. Consensus reached to offer a discount attendance registration (including “free”) for speakers. Gillette commented that the Larimer county speakers would be paying registration in full as they would be attending the entire conference, however not all speakers would be inclined to attend the entire conference if they had to pay. Barton recommended making the annual meeting registration brochure a .PDF file and posted to the website for the membership.

Legislative: No state pending issues except the potential for a plastics bottle bill being considered again for the next state legislature. Gillette provided a quick summary of national bills pending. One bill involves increasing a tax credit to help in remediation of contaminated sites (HB4480). There are some bills concerning wetlands issues as well as e-waste. Batchelder Adams had sent out a national synopsis to the board members which has more detailed information.

Scholarship: McMullen provided a proposed amendment for the bylaws pertaining to scholarship, awards, stipends and other related awards. Sprague recommended that one statement be added that the decision of the board is final. McMullen and Barton will work on drafting the formal bylaws amendment as proposed addition for Section 10.l9. The amendment will be sent to the board members requesting an e-vote (IAW bylaws). The current wording presented by McMullen with the change requested by Sprague is as follows:

“From time, to time, the Board of Directors may offer scholarships, awards, stipends, or tuition for approved programs associated with the organization in furtherance of the mission of the organization. The money for the scholarship, awards, stipends, or tuition shall come out of the general account of the Chapter and may be used for any purpose approved by the Board. The Board, by vote in accordance with these bylaws, shall determine the amount of any scholarship, awards, stipend or tuition offered, the method of advertisement, and shall clearly state the minimum qualifications and/or criteria necessary to be considered for the scholarship, award, stipend, or tuition. These criteria shall be clearly stated in any advertisement and the decision of the board shall be final.”

Nominations: McMullen provided copy of the proposed ballot. Past President position will remove places to vote and replace with statement that “No vote required”. McMullen confirmed company/organization name for each individual. Fax number will be included to fax ballots back. Deadline for mailed ballots will be 1 October. Also added to the top of the ballot is the statement that the business meeting would be at Estes Park on 8 October.

OTHER BUSINESS/REPORTS

International Board: Batchelder Adams provided written report to Briest. Copy will be forwarded to Barton to include as attachment to the minutes. As a summary, dues will increase by $6, $2 due to CPI and $4 to go into national reserves. Strategic plans for 2005 to 2009 are being addressed by national. Discussion on who is attending WasteCon 2004 held, at this time, Batchelder Adams and Barton are going. Sprague and Butler may be going. Mention made of reimbursing a director to attend but no discussion made. Officer nominations/ballots for national are out; Barton commented that there was a typographical error on the ballot. Butler has been unable to access the ballot to cast his vote. Discussion on arid symposium held later in meeting.

Website: Briest reported he has received the maintenance contract for the website. Beginning date is 1 April 2004 but there is no provision for termination, length of contract, cost increase or renewal. Consensus was to have a short maintenance contract from 1 April to 1 October 2004 then enter into an annual contract coinciding with the chapter’s fiscal year. [Note from Secretary, the fiscal year for the chapter begins 1 November].

Newsletter: Sprague volunteered to do the newsletter for the next year. Recommendation was to have the summer/fall newsletter ready to go out by mid August to coincide with the next board meeting and to meet the at least 30 days notice of the annual business meeting. McMullen will address chapter road-e-o. Briest will do a president’s corner as well as sponsorship information and the notice on the rate change. Gillette & Batchelder Adams will prepare a legislative article. Butler will prepare an annual meeting summary article.

Road-E-O: As a follow up to the May board meeting discussion on the chapter winner’s support to attend the national meet as well as the 26-27 May email discussion, the stipend allowance was readdressed. Gillette/McMullen moved/seconded to provide $1200 as a stipend to Warren Saunders, employee of city of Thornton and the 2004 Colorado Road-E-O Grand Champion for the purpose of attending, participating and representing the Colorado Rocky Mountain Chapter at the 2004 International Road-E-O in Denton, Texas. Briest asked what the board’s liability is if money is given to the winner who attends the national road-e-o then enjoys the party life and causes an accident. In the past, the board paid for the registration directly and provided a stipend to the winner to offset lodging and travel costs. No accounting was requested. This was considered a stipend and not a reimbursement request so checks were cut directly to the winner. Gillette asked if the money could be sent to the winner’s employer and no one agreed to that suggestion. Sprague volunteered to develop a hold harmless statement for use in the future as part of the giving of any stipend. With no further discussion, the motion was called to a vote and was passed unanimously.

Bylaws: Barton provided the board two points concerning the bylaws. The first is a recommendation to change Article 8.3 to add the word “past” in front of president. This is to formalize what had been understood and was not changed during the last bylaws revision. Sprague recommended that in the event the past president is not available or willing to serve, a statement that “in the absence of an active past president, the president will appoint a presiding officer.” Sprague/Butler moved/seconded to approve the bylaws wording change as modified. Motion carried unanimously. Second issue brought to the board is the details on how to conduct email voting. As several items will be sent out over the next two weeks requiring email voting, article 6.6 should be followed. Briest noted that all proposed bylaws changes must go to national at least 30 days before action requested by membership.

NEW BUSINESS

Landfill Symposium versus Arid Landfill Symposium: National has already selected Boulder as the host city for the June 2005 Landfill Symposium. Site is the Millennium Harvest House. The Arid Landfill subcommittee is not active and there is not interest in Utah , New Mexico or other states to host a regional arid landfill symposium. However, one of the subsets of the Landfill Symposium is intended to address Arid Landfill issues. Steve Smith of SCS Engineers in Arizona has been in contact with Briest about this issue. Kent Drinker of national SWANA has been in contact with Dick Sprague about the symposium. In addition, Tom Parker and Dick Sprague have indicated a willingness to help with a small portion of the landfill symposium but not to any degree as the arid landfill symposium in Grand Junction . SCS engineering is also looking at tying in Arid Landfill issues with their 2005 annual meeting. Bottom line – there are no plans for a regional Arid Landfill Symposium; however there will be a session on arid landfills at the Landfill Symposium. Tentative dates for the Symposium are 6— 10 June 2005 . Barton commented this may conflict with CAFR annual meeting which traditionally is the first Monday/Tuesday of June which in 2005 is 6-7 June. Briest and Sprague will continue to work with national SWANA to firm up information and will report back to the board.

ADJOURNMENT

The board meeting will be Tuesday, 17 August at 7 am at LaPeep’s. With no further business, meeting adjourned at 9:15 am.

BOARD MEMBER ASSIGNMENTS AS RESULT OF JULY MEETING:

Briest: Discussion with SWANA on e-business loans, newsletter articles, Landfill Symposium (in conjunction with Sprague), Website maintenance contract
Butler: Work with Barton on completing annual meeting registration, meeting newsarticle
Barton: Work with Butler on annual meeting notices with .PDF file conversion, work with McMullen on bylaws amendment, forward board approved bylaws change recommendations to SWANA
Batchelder Adams: Work with Gillette on legislative newsarticle
Gillette: Work with Batchelder Adams on legislative newsarticle
McMullen: Finalize board/officer nomination ballot, Work with Barton on bylaws amendments, Road-E-O article
Sprague: Release statement for future stipend, awards, scholarships, etc., work with Briest pertaining to SWANA 2005 Landfill Symposium

Email Votes proposed before next board meeting:

e-business loan rollover request from national [2 votes, 1st 29 July 04, 2nd ]
final annual meeting program and registration form [ ]
possible approval for website maintenance contract [ ]
Bylaws change for scholarship/awards committee, section 10.9 [completed 26 July 04]

Attachments: