Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

7:00 am, April 17, 2007, The Egg & I, 6818 S Yosemite, Centennial, CO

ATTENDANCE:

Present: Kathy Andrew, Debby Barton, Laurie Batchelder Adams, John Briest, Leonard Butler, Roger Doak, Susie Gordon*, Neil Nowak, Dick Sprague, Cathryn Stewart, Tom Strickland**

Absent: Stephen Gillette

Notations: * - Member arrived after meeting called to order

** - Member had to leave before meeting was completed.

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

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order at 7:06 as 10 of 12 directors present for a quorum.

ADOPTION OF AGENDA: Sprague/Batchelder Adams moved/seconded to adopt the agenda. Motion carried unanimously.

MINUTES:

March meeting minutes previously approved via email.

TREASURER:

Gillette not present but sent his report with Gordon. Checking account has $14,964.57, the savings account has $17,977.12 and two e-loans total $10,000 principal. The first E-loan is due out 30 April 2007 with interest due to the chapter of $984.07. The t-loan of $10,000 consisting of the first E-loan with interest plus the additional $4,015.93 will be processed during the month of April. A letter has been prepared for National indicating the chapter’s intent. The checking balance will be drawn down once the check is issued to national. Money for the web site ads is to be sent to Gillette.

COMMITTEE REPORTS and ASSIGNMENTS:

Membership: Andrew reported that the chapter has 148 current members as of 31 March 2007. There are three members that are currently on suspension and 15 scheduled for renewal. Andrew provided the Board a list of those members that do not have current emails. Several Board members volunteered to contact individuals on the list. A few are noted to have no emails at this time.

Technical Program/Meetings:

Annual Meeting:

Gillette traveled to Rocky Ford and took pictures of the locations. Copies of the photos were handed out to the Board members. He was able to meet with the individual who will be the point of contact for the catering.

Status of talks/topics is as follows. The assignment of tracks has not yet been done as still trying to finalize the speakers/topics.:

Charles Johnson, CDPHE, has confirmed he will give a “State of Solid Waste” for Colorado and will need about 20 minutes.

Jeff Hunter, an attorney, will give a talk on compliance issues: “The Feds and the Press Are at YOUR door – Are You Ready?”. He needs about 45 minutes

Stephen Gillette, Larimer County, confirmed to talk about Fishing in a Single Stream on recycling impacts on solid waste for about 20 minutes

Direct Sale of Landfill Gas still needs a confirmation of speaker. Briest will follow up.

DADS Landfill Gas to Recovery presentation confirmed for Doc Nyiro and Leonard Butler

BNSF and the Overview of Spill Management and Hazardous Material Transport is still being pursued by Roger Doak.

Biodiesel and Alternative Energy – Roger Doak is trying to get a firm confirmation on a speaker.

Colorado and Global Climate Change – Presentation by Rocky Mountain Climate Organization with Susie Gordon as point of contact.

SE Colorado Association and recycling in the Southeast Rural Colorado Communities will be giving a presentation. Point of contact is Kathy Andrew

CU Recycling and long term plans from the Director of Environmental Education has been confirmed by Tom Strickland.

Rick Wallner, Chief of Interpretive Services, Bent’s Fort, La Juanta is willing to talk at Thursday’s luncheon. Point of Contact is Deborah Barton.

Other topics to be considered include: Colorado College’s Report on the State of the Rockies (recommended by Dick Sprague for further consideration), E-Cycling in Colorado by Dag Adamson is a potential topic, and Stewart has received a potential of 12 abstracts from one organization that is willing to give one of them at the annual meeting. Stewart provided a copy of the abstracts to the Board members and requested they give her feedback by Friday, 20 April 2007 of their recommendation.

Interactive talk or ice breaker: Butler had forwarded sample “pocket card game” which is a form of trivial pursuit but is centered on safety in the solid waste industry. This is an area that will be pursued more fully and may include Bunko, Trivial Pursuit, Round Table competition or something similar.

Technical/Luncheon Programs: A hauler topic has been hard to develop for May. Briest recommended we consider a lab visit as the next technical session. As Patty McClellan of Evergreen Labs is a member, she was recommended as a possible host and presenter on quality controls, laboratory analysis, laboratory procedures and related topics. This would be considered a follow on to Ken Niswonger’s presentation in March. Discussion was held that May would be too soon to have the session because of logistics so June 19 (third Tuesday of the month) would be the target date. Briest will follow up and see if the lab would be willing to host such a session. Discussion held on having an e-session in May but due to the lead time required to coordinate such a session, May would not be feasible. A lead time of at least two months and preferably three is needed.

Educational Scholarship/Grants: Erin Doak, Webmaster, has prepared the application for the webpage to allow it to be printed as a print preview or formal print out for records. The last piece of the application process is the documentation required for the scholarship. The goal is to complete the application process by the end of the week and have it posted to the web page by the end of April. Gordon and Doak are preparing press releases for college students for release by the end of April with a follow-up press release in August. They will also develop a press release for the membership on training scholarships to be sent out via email. The press releases will contain link information to the website for the application.

Nominations: No additional report at this time. Batchelder Adams stated she will be unable to continue as an active board member next year because of time requirements as the National SWANA chair. She will try to attend meetings as time and work permit but she requested that the board find a replacement for her for next year.

Legislative: Gordon gave presentation on federal legislative issues. In particular the Surface Transportation Board (STB) concerning solid waste rail transfer stations is still awaiting a ruling but the anticipation is that the railroad lobby is strong enough to force exemption from state and local disposal laws. The New Jersey laws concerning rail transfer stations were recently declared invalid. Michigan is trying to obtain national legislation on trans-boundary waste transport but as this affects international commerce, the chances of a national law is pretty slim and any state laws may be declared invalid. The third federal issue is on Climate Change. To date, SWANA does not see any single piece of legislation that is taking the front. They anticipate there will be an amalgamation of various proposals.

For local Colorado state legislative activities, the primary bill of interest is HB1288 which has passed the house and is currently assigned to the Senate appropriations committee. Some amendments have been made such as exempting ash monofills, the additional money from the tire fee would be split 50/50 instead of the proposed 70/30, left over money would be rolled forward to the next year. Another amendment that is being considered is to move the technology advancement grant from Colorado Commission of Higher Education to the Department of Health. The Environmental Purchasing bill (HB1220) was sent to the governor on April 16. The Metal Record Keeping bill (HB1141) has passed both houses with amendments. The Junk Mail (HB1303) bill is dead. And the Motor Vehicle Recycling Bill (SB070) is in the house appropriations. Butler and Barton both asked if there was any information on a late bill concerning the transfer of the HSRF fund to the Rocky Flats cleanup. No one knew anything about such a bill and neither Barton nor Butler could remember the number of the bill for further information. [Note the bills under discussion are HB1357 and SB110.]

International Board: There will be a conference call for the region in May but Sprague will be unable to attend as he will be out of country. He will be sent a summary of the information and will give to the Board at the June meeting.

Website/Webmaster: Renewal notices were went out with payment and/or commitment due by 30 April 2007. The March minutes have been posted as well as the February technical presentation. Erin Doak will be able to attend the May meeting to discuss webpage potential.

Newsletter: The summer issue deadline for articles is Friday, 1 June 2007. Newsletter topics and assignments are as follows:

President’s Corner: Briest

Annual Meeting: Gillette/Stewart

Program – Stewart

Location/logistics - Gillette

Summary on February Luncheon Workshop: Doak

Road-E-O: Briest will coordinate with Adam Lovato on details to be in the article

Legislative Summary: Gordon/Batchelder Adams

Scholarship: Doak/Gordon

WasteCon: Batchelder Adams

Board Member Nominations: Butler

Bio on the newest board member (Nowak): Butler

Implementation SB 5-141 Doak will ask Jerry Henderson and Cindy Smith to write the article

CAFR Meeting summary – Gordon

Hazardous and Solid Waste Commission: - what is it and why is it important to the non hazardous solid waste community: Butler

Geotechnical Stakeholder meetings: Briest

Any photos or pictures should also be sent to Sprague for possible inclusion in the newsletter. He will try to incorporate some of the Rocky Ford photos.

Website advertisers will also be listed in the newsletter.

OLD BUSINESS:

Road-E-O: Date for the Colorado Road-E-O has been narrowed to either the second or third weekend of August. The issue is finding a location to host the road-e-o. The chapter will host the insurance and provide a stipend for the winner to the national Road-E-O, winner will have to be a member of SWANA. Details are still being worked on by the Road-E-O committee.

Chapter Call: The next scheduled Chapter call is 13 June 2007.

Future Planning: The chapter is pretty much on track except for the number of technical sessions. The consensus of the Board members is that with the June session, summer season, Waste Con and annual meeting, a third session is not doable this year.

T-Loan: Refer to Treasurer’s report for details.

NEW BUSINESS:

CDPHE Stakeholder Meetings: The only current stakeholder meeting is on Geotechnical. The next meeting for the geotechnical work group is Monday, 23 April 2007.

Next Board Meeting: The next Board meeting will be the third Tuesday, 15 May 2007 beginning at 7 am at The Egg and I, 6818 S Yosemite, Centennial in the back meeting room. Erin Doak, chapter's webmaster, will be attending. Briest will send out notice to verify location and time if a different location is needed to meet with Erin.

ADJOURNMENT:

With no further business, Sprague/Batchelder Adams moved/seconded to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed unanimously and the meeting adjourned at 8:47 am.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Barton
Secretary