Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

18 January 2005, Racine’s, 650 Sherman Street, Denver, CO

ATTENDANCE:

Present:Debby Barton, Laurie Batchelder Adams, Leonard Butler, John Briest, Roger Doak, Cindi Etcheverry (late), and Stephen Gillette

Absent: Curt Ahrendsen, and Dick Sprague

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

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order at 7:10 am as 6 of 9 directors present (Etcheverry arrived after the meeting was called to order.

ADOPTION OF AGENDA: No changes made at the beginning of the meeting, however legislative update added during the course of the meeting.

MINUTES:

Batchelder Adams/Doak moved/seconded to approve December meeting minutes and the budget email minutes. Motion carried unanimously.

FINANCIAL:

Treasurer's Report: Ahrendsen not present per email. No formal report provided. Budget was approved per email and the finalized copies were presented to all board members present. Barton will work with Ahrendsen and Mark McMullen to get information together to finalize the chapter’s annual financial report that was due by 31 December 2004. This will be done in conjunction with finalizing the audit. Re-registration with the Colorado Secretary of State was completed and accepted. Ticklers will be posted by Barton in July to the officer’s for follow up for filing by December next year.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS/DISCUSSIONS:

Membership/Newsletter: Sprague absent, however the officer’s can now access membership information on the national website. In addition, chapter activities can be posted to the national website also (such as the luncheon programs and annual meeting). Comments made that the national web site is not really user friendly. Sprague is working on the new member welcome letter. Newsletter is not yet ready to be published as of Sunday, 16 January 2005. A few small articles will be put in the newsletter if possible as small “ticklers”.

February program notice

Annual meeting notice (Glenwood Springs, 15-16 Sep 2005)

Nominating committee information

Programs: NE Landfill operators (POC: Alberta Naill, Fort Morgan) is interested in having some training. Various topics suggested included e-waste, ET covers, financial assurance and Operational issues. Next NE Landfill Operators meeting is scheduled in May in Yuma, actual date not known but believed to be second Tuesday (10 May). Comment made that the big Boulder conference is the beginning of June. Consensus was to look at a meeting possibly in Limon to include more than the NE Landfill Operators course. Further information on this will be pursued. February program was originally to be EPA updates but the contacts at Region VIII are no longer available so the program will be by Mark Walker, CDPHE, on the voluntary cleanup of Brownfields. Waste Management has volunteered to host the training in their training room. Butler will work with Etcheverry and Doak in setting up the food catering as well as obtaining CEU form from national. Consensus was to hold only two meetings this year because of the Boulder conference as well as CAFR in June. Work on the February and May programs and the Annual meeting. Some discussion held on partnering with CDPHE or other entities. Next director meeting the committee will have program, date and location (preliminary) to present. February program notice will be sent to Sprague to distribute to email members.

Annual Meeting: Final dates and location discussed. Etcheverry reported on her research into the Glenwood Springs area for the 14-16 September 2005 timeframe. Barton/Batchelder Adams moved/seconded to pursue using the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs. Motion carried unanimously. Batchelder Adams/Gillette moved/seconded to set meeting date of 15-16 September (Thursday/Friday) for the annual meeting. Motion carried unanimously. Costs at the Hotel Colorado are about $95 per night for lodging (plus tax); breakfast food at $6.50 to 13.00 per individual and lunch ranges $11 to $14 per individual, dinner to be determined. Discussion held to have the reception and banquet on Thursday evening instead of the banquet on Friday night. Involvement from the local folks near Glenwood Springs will be encouraged and sought. Next meeting goal for annual meeting will be to bring back a draft budget plus draft contract for using the Hotel Colorado. Discussion held on who signs the contract with the consensus that the program chair will sign after the board reviews the contract.

Legislative: Batchelder Adams reported HB1011 which is a bill to exempt certain loads from the covered load requirement. Sponsors are Rep Jim Reisberg (Weld County) and Sen Suzanne Williams (Arapahoe/Denver Counties). The bill has been assigned to Transportation and Energy. There are not filed bills for landfill bans (Used Oil, Tires, and Lead Acid Batteries) or bottle bills as of end of day 17 January 2005. Batchelder Adams will begin a table of information for website posting.

Scholarship: Discussion held on the available scholarships in the budget. In the past the chapter had student scholarships but not enough participants/requests. Discussion was held on how to get the information out to the high schools and colleges that a scholarship for environmental studies may be available. Briest will check with CSU, CU, and CSM. He will report back in February with a framework for an educational scholarship.

Nominations: Briest has prepared an article for the winter newsletter requesting volunteers to serve on the board. Discussion held on creative ways to encourage volunteerism to the board, programs and such.

Audit: Information Barton has to date has been good. She will work with Ahrendsen and Mark McMullen to complete the audit and the financial report. A report will also be provided to the board at the February meeting. E-loan has nothing to report and will be dropped from the audit reports in the future. Batchelder Adams volunteered to help with any local contact needed to complete the audit and financial report.

OTHER BUSINESS/REPORTS:

Website: Domain address has been renewed to 27 December 2009 (5 years). Discussion held with Erin Doak about types of files with emphasis on using adobe (.pdf) file format. His comment was that .pdf are easy to upload but the download may be harder for our users, especially those with slow connect speed. In addition, forms may not be possible to fill out when downloaded. Recommendation is to use MS Office formats and stay away from .pdf file format. Briest also provided suggested letter to be used for web and newsletter advertisement. Any comments should be provided to him by Friday, 21 January 2005. Cost for web/newsletter ad is $100 per year. The web ad will also have redirect capability for those with web addresses.

SWANA 2005 Landfill/Planning Symposium, Boulder, CO: Landfill session tour will probably be to Erie and the Management/Planning tour to the Western Waste Facility in Boulder. Keynote speaker is still to be finalized.

ADDITIONAL BUSINESS:

Debit Card/Banking: Gillette recommended that the board obtain two debit cards for use by the board members to use when treasurer not present to write checks or when checks are not acceptable (as in November at Gemini’s). Discussion held that it may be time to consider finding a new bank to decrease finance and account fees on the checking account. No formal decision made nor consensus reached – this will be followed up in February when Ahrendsen is present.

Glenn Mallory Retirement: Discussion held to invite Glenn Mallory to the February luncheon and present him with a small token of appreciation from board on behalf of the Colorado Rocky Mountain SWANA Chapter. Consensus was unanimous. Glenn’s interest includes wood carving and photography.

ADJOURNMENT:

Next board meeting will begin at 10 am at the Waste Management offices at 8310 South Valley Highway (I-25 and County Line Road), Suite 200, Englewood, CO. With no further business, Gillette/Briest moved/seconded to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 8:13 am.