Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

7:00 am, July 15, 2008, Telephone Conference Call

ATTENDANCE:

Present: Kathy Andrew, Debby Barton, John Briest, Roger Doak (arrived late), Stephen Gillette, Susie Gordon, Tom Schweitzer, Cathryn Stewart, Tom Strickland

Absent: Neil Nowak, Dick Sprague

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

** - Member left before meeting ended

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

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting began at 7:02 as 8 of 11 directors present for a quorum.

MINUTES:

June Board meeting minutes were previously approved via email vote.

ADOPTION OF AGENDA:

Gillette/Andrew moved/seconded to adopt the agenda. Motion carried unanimously.

TREASURER:

Gillette reported that the 1 July 2008 balances for checking is $9,702.09 and savings is $18,873.38. The interest rate for the savings account dropped from 4.3 percent to 2.6% effective 8 July 2008. In addition, $400.36 will post to the savings account on 8 July 2008. Gillette had forwarded a copy of the budget report to all Board members. He has contacted National SWANA and they have never responded with an accounting of the insurance amount withheld from the membership dues forwarded at the beginning of the fiscal year. As of 1 July 2008, the chapter has a “profit/loss” of negative $932.49, however no funds have been accounted for the Road-E-O, to be held 26 July 2008, nor the annual meeting which will be in October. Overall, the chapter’s finances are looking good.

COMMITTEE REPORTS and ASSIGNMENTS:

Membership: Andrew reported 154 paid, active members with no unpaid or suspended memberships. She also reported there are 11 members that do not have e-mail and are on s-mail only. The last membership reimbursement from national was $326.

Technical Program/Meetings:

Technical Program:

No specific program is under development. No feedback received from either Bruce Philbrick or Lars Williams concerning the holding of a “hauler’s holler” in January/February to have sessions on defensive driving, operational issues or human resource hiring/retaining drivers.

Annual Meeting: The following items were discussed pertaining to the annual meeting.

Agenda/Program/Registration Form:

Strickland emailed to the Board members a copy of the current two page draft of the program agenda. Stewart reviewed the sessions, speakers and topic titles. At this time the operations session 3 is a bit weak. Session 4 is on Regulatory Pollution Control, Session 5 has not had full response back from speakers. Doak will assist Stewart in tracking down some speakers on asbestos in soils. Two additional speakers have been contacted and will be slotted into the Session 3 on operational issues as they are on environmental management and Leadership Colorado by Scott Meyers and Lynette Meyers. Discussion held to send out a preliminary e-mail blast with a link to the webpage to allow early registration. Goal is to have the first e-mail blast out by 1 August or sooner provided the issues with Paypal on the website are resolved. The newsletter which is due out by 1 August will also contain the link to the website and registration form. By mid August the final program and registration form will be sent to the membership. Strickland thanked Stewart for the assistance and work in pulling together the various speakers and topics for the program. Strickland will follow up again with Rocky Mountain Bottling Company that had forgotten about the tour taking place to ensure the tour is on their schedule. Stewart will continue to follow up for Session 6 on the Green Initiative topic.

Special Program – Retaining Good Drivers (refer to Session 3):

Stewart spoke with the Generational Studies point of contact, Robert Wendover. His charges for local (metro Denver) are $3,500 for a 2 to 8 hour presentation. Out of local area is $5,000 for his fee. Neither he nor his staff felt a 20 minute presentation would be adequate, however he would be willing to develop a program on retaining good drivers/employees which would include interviewing 3 to 5 entities to tailor his presentation to the industry. Consensus was this might be best for a “hauler’s holler” January/February technical session. Gordon commented that Gary Horton of Western Disposal may have some information that could be shared on Retaining Good Drivers and might be willing to give a presentation at the annual meeting.

Sponsorship:

Gordon has a list of past and potential sponsors. She will forward a copy to the Board members to review and add additional contacts to the list. Consensus was that the website needs to be fully operational with a good link to the registration and sponsorship forms. Calls will be made in August prior to the next Board meeting on 19 August 2008. Strickland reminded everyone that the early bird registration deadline is 5 September 2008.

Member Survey Call:

Briest mentioned that in the past the Board members have taken pages from the member directory and called the membership to ask for their input on the activities of the local chapter, remind them of the upcoming annual meeting, and get any other input. This is a time consuming task of the Board members however the consensus was this was a benefit to the membership to have a call coming from a Board member. Survey will be developed based on previous years.

Educational Scholarship/Grants: No requests received to date although some inquiries have been made about a sponsorship support to WasteCon in Tampa, Florida. No educational scholarships have been received. Gordon reminded everyone to emphasize the scholarship availability for attendance at the annual meeting.

Nominations: No feedback has been received from either Bruce Philbrick or Lars Williams. Both are very busy and may not have the time to devote to the chapter or to be a representative for the hauling members.

Legislative/Regulatory:

Section 9 – Waste Impoundment Regulation Meetings:

Nowak forwarded information about the CDPHE hosted stakeholder meetings on Section 9 –Waste Impoundments. Doak mentioned that Section 14 – Composting is also under revision with stakeholder meetings. The next areas to be tackled by CDPHE include Section 1.8, Financial Assurance; Section 2 – Minimum Standards and Section 3 – Landfill Standards. Discussion held on sending stakeholder meeting information out to the chapter membership. Consensus reached that notices on CDPHE hosted events will be sent to the membership provided Andrew receives them.

Geotechnical Meeting:

The next meeting will be held on 13 August 2008 from 1 to 3 pm.

Grant Process:

Gordon reported that out of 56 applicants for the HB1288 grants, 12 were awarded. To date, 10 have signed their contracts and notices to proceed, the remaining two are in process. The SB182 grant process is under review with applications due in by October 2008 with awards for research and technical type grants.

International Board: Sprague not present. Briest will request a short summary of the June IB meeting and have them attached to these minutes if possible. (See Attachment A to these minutes).

Web site/Webmaster: Erin Doak sent out a Beta test version link with password to the Board members. Gillette had been unable to log on and Andrew/Barton had not seen their invite to test. Any comments on the beta version are due to Roger Doak by 18 July 2008. Advertisers that have paid to date are AquAeTer and WeaverBoos. Geotech and Golder have not yet sent in their advertising payments. Doak will continue to follow up.

Newsletter: Summer newsletter has been delayed due to Sprague’s serious illness. The new release date is by the end of July. Doak and Gordon will follow up with Jennifer Martinez on her article. Strickland plans to send a short article on the Road-E-O plus some photos for incorporation in the newsletter. Gordon will get her articles completed and in to Sprague by the end of the week.

OLD BUSINESS:

Road-E-O: Strickland anticipates 20 to 30 contestants but has only 10 to 12 preregistered so far. He has received about 6 to 7 commitments for about $3,000 in sponsorships of cash and additional sponsorship for another $2,000 in-kind match. No money has yet been received. Working budget is about $6,000 which includes $1,000 to sponsor the grand winner to represent the chapter at the national Road-E-O in Kentucky in September. When money is received, it will be forwarded to Gillette for depositing in the chapter’s bank account as a separate fund accounting. Strickland has had several volunteers but can always use more if they show up.

NEW BUSINESS:

Next Board Meeting: The 19 August 2008 Board meeting will be a combined face to face and telephone conference call if possible. Strickland will check on the availability of his conference room to host the 7 am meeting. Barton will plan on attending face-to face enroute on her vacation so can meet at any front range location.

Outstanding Member: Briest reminded everyone to be thinking of an outstanding member to be recognized at the annual meeting in October.

ADJOURNMENT:

Gillette/Doak moved/seconded to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 8:37 am.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Barton
Secretary

ATTACHMENTS:

A - International Board Update By Dick Sprague

Events

Membership