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Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

8:04 am, April 15, 2008

ATTENDANCE:

Present: John Briest, Stephen Gillette, Tom Strickland, Susie Gordon, Tom Schweitzer, Dick Sprague (recording); Kathy Andrew late (8:28)

Absent: Susie Gordon, Neil Nowak, Dick Sprague

Attendance Notations:	* - Member arrived after meeting called to order
	** - Member left before meeting ended

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order at 8:04 am.

MINUTES:

Adoption of March Board of Directors meeting minutes – Tom Strickland/Stephen Gillette; Unanimous

ADOPTION OF AGENDA:

Tom Schweitzer/Tom Strickland moved/seconded to adopt the agenda. Motion carried unanimously.

TREASURER - (Gillette):

• The Chapter’s checking account balance is $9,679.70 and savings account balance is 18,873.38. Our E-business loan to SWANA has a balance of $16,253.25, giving total assets of $44,706.33. There are no current liabilities.
• All except one member paid for the February technical program; Gillette to follow up on this. Otero County’s check will be returned.
• We have 18 people pre-registered for the April technical program.

COMMITTEE REPORTS and ASSIGNMENTS:

Membership (Andrew):

• Leonard Butler wants to remain a member of CO SWANA.
• Dick sent new member (Mettler scales) information to Kathy.
• Susie and Stephen said that Bruce Philbrick (Loveland) has expressed an interest in seeing CO SWANA sponsor more technical sessions for public sector collection. Is this a wake up call? Several parties (6 or 7) are forming a separate public sector collection group; meeting sometime soon – Stephen to follow up on time and date. This is similar to what Lars Williams said in Rocky Ford. SWANA is not just landfills, recycling, etc. We held a Rod-e-o last year; our Rod-e-os are for collection and transfer vehicles. The Board discussed needing some collection people as directors on the Board since none of the current Board of Directors has much collection experience; Tom Strickland is the closest to this field. Perhaps we should approach Bruce. We have the funds to facilitate some collection activities. It is hard to get collection people on Board because of time commitment. The Annual Conference will have at least one technical session on collection. We could have subcommittee with Board member liaison/reporting back to Board. Tom Strickland to call Bruce asking how we can help.
• Kathy Andrew reported that CO SWANA has 155 active members, four of whom are new members. Two members are inactive. Kathy sent welcome letters and an information packet out to the four new members. 14 members are past due according to the January membership report. These past due members may have renewed, but SWANA slow at posting dues.

Technical Program/Meetings:

• Technical Program (Strickland):
  • Today’s technical session (on geosynthetics) – John Briest said that CEU forms are available for today’s meeting. Any Board member can sign the CEU forms. Stephen said that 18 people are pre-registered. John Briest needs to leave at 2 PM for CDPHE meeting, and Neil will wrap up training.
  • Future technical sessions – John Briest stated that we try to do two or three technical training sessions each year. The group brainstormed some ideas for future sessions, including:
    1. Tom Strickland volunteered to ask Bruce Philbrick whether there is a specific collection topic that his group would like to suggest. Perhaps demonstration of different types of collection vehicles would be of interest. Some of our sponsors (e.g., Kois Brothers) might be willing to bring in some equipment.
    2. Perhaps we could do something for landfill equipment operators, such as preventive maintenance. However, if we focus too tightly we will have very few participants. This might be a good topic for a webcast, especially since landfill operators cannot travel easily.
    3. Dick Sprague suggested combining Rod-e-os with UT SWANA. They do a landfill event each year, and we do collection events when we have volunteers to organize these events. Perhaps we could make these events available to each other’s members to get coverage for both without additional work.

• Annual Meeting (Strickland):

  • Tom Strickland said he will issue the call for papers in a few weeks.
  • He has printed labels for Save the Date postcard, and will mail to membership today (April 15^th).
  • Tom Schweitzer contacted bus companies about providing service for the tours. The type of bus is dependent on the number of people attending. A 5-hour minimum engagement is the industry standard. We will have better availability if we make reservations well in advance. The bus companies require a deposit. Pricing is fuel cost sensitive, but locks in at reservation. Susie Gordon asked if alternative fuel buses are available. Should we reserve now, or wait a while? The Board decided to wait until May to make a decision. Tom Strickland said that Denver’s annual tour of master composters is using one of the charter companies and we can see how they do on April 17^th.
  • Tom Strickland has been in contact with the caterer regarding food and AV equipment. The caterer can provide either buffet or served meals. Tom is leaning toward a couple of buffets, but a served luncheon to give more time for networking and a keynote speaker. Tom confirmed that the Board wants to have Laurie Batchelder Adams present the keynote speech during lunch. Tom is reworking registration form to have registrants designate entrée for the served lunch. No contractual issues have arisen to date, and Tom will have more information at the May meeting. The band will be sending a letter confirming their performance and price. Cathryn Stewart agreed to be the point of contact for the call for papers, as already published on the ‘Save the Date” postcard. Last Board meeting had brainstorming session on potential topics, and the Board had agreed that we need a balanced agenda, with papers that will appeal to a wide variety of interests. We also want to have different speakers from past years to keep interest high.

Educational Scholarship/Grants (Gordon):

• Susie Gordon will follow up with Roger Doak on Lake County landfill staff person (Jennifer Martinez) who requested and received a training scholarship. The Board wants scholarship recipients to agree to write articles for the newsletter.
• No one applied for a scholarship for today’s technical meeting.
• Stephen Gillette stated that we need to continue giving young people with interest in waste management educational scholarships.

Nominations (Briest):

• John Briest reiterated that we could use additional Board members, especially in the collection area.

Legislative (Nowak):

• Neil Nowak distributed via email a table showing legislation currently under consideration or recently acted upon.
• 2008 has been a quiet year for legislation related to the waste management industry.

International Board (Sprague):

• Dick Sprague said that few IB activities had occurred since Wastecon. He has two conference calls in May and June, then an IB meeting in late June in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Web site/Webmaster (Briest for Doak):

• Erin Doak will have the Beta version of the new webpages available soon.
• John Briest will follow up with Roger Doak on advertising on the website.

Newsletter (Sprague):

• Newsletter did not reach Kathy Andrew. Sprague to resend as soon as possible.
• The Board would like to aim for a July newsletter, which will include ballots for 2008 – 2009 officers. A listing of articles will be developed during the May Board meeting.

OLD BUSINESS (Briest):

• CDPHE’s Geotechnical Working Group will meet again on April 22^nd after a lull. This is really a restart of the Working Group following issuance of the guidance document. The working group is developing needed guidance to establish an improved level of consistency in the area of document review, specifically the review of the facility engineering design submittals and as-built construction certification reports. This guidance document is an effort to promote consistency regarding the desired content of such documents and the CDPHE review and approval process.
• Chapter officers’ conference call is scheduled for next week. Debby Barton will attend for the Chapter.

NEW BUSINESS (Briest):

• CAFR’s annual meeting will be May 19th – 20th in Aspen. Since many Board members will be attending, we will hold our May meeting via conference call. Briest will set this up for 7 – 9 AM for that day.
• Summer face-to-face Board meetings were discussed, and June 17th and August 19th were selected. We will hold another conference call meeting on July 15th. The Board agreed that this will be enough for planning the annual meeting.
• Several Board members suggested that we should have conference call capabilities for every board meeting. This may mean we need to plan where meetings are held. Briest to follow up.

ADJOURNMENT:

• 9:15 am Stephen Gillette/Tom Strickland.