Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

18 November, 2008, HDR Offices, 303 E 17th Ave, Ste 700, Denver, CO with Telephone Conferencing

ATTENDANCE:

Present: Curt Ahrendsen, Debby Barton, Stephen Gillette, Susie Gordon**, Jerry Henderson, Tom Schweitzer, Cathyrn Stewart, Tom Strickland

Absent: Kathy Andrew, Neil Nowak, Dick Sprague

Others present: Cameron Beul (Golder & Associates) and Brenna Barrett (Waste Management)

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 called to order by Stewart at 7:10 am as 9 of 12 directors present for a quorum. Introductions were made of all people present.

MINUTES:

September and October Meeting minutes approved via email votes.

ADOPTION OF AGENDA:

Gordon/Gillette moved/seconded to adopt the agenda with the addition of annual report/audit, bylaws committee formation, adopting the annual budget and discussing refunding Summit county registrations. Motion carried unanimously.

TREASURER:

Gillette reported checking balance as of $18,586.84 and a savings balance of $19,273.74. Gillette reported PayPal fees were approximately $300 for the annual meeting registrations, however registration money was in the bank which made accounting faster and easier.

Summit County had two registrations for the annual meeting but called two days before to cancel as they had an emergency to handle. Gillette recommended that a refund of their registration fee be made. Nowak/Gordon had moved/seconded via email to refund Summit County their two registrations. The motion was held in abeyance until the Board met. With no further discussion, motion was called for a vote. Motion carried unanimously.

Gillette provided a budget for the 2008-2009 operating year. Strickland/Ahrendsen moved/seconded to adopt the proposed 2008-2009 operating budget. Gordon asked if the budget would allow flexibility for changes such as for scholarships. With no further discussion, motion called to vote and was passed unanimously.

COMMITTEE REPORTS and ASSIGNMENTS:

Membership: Andrew emailed her report as she was unable to be present. Membership stands at 159 with 3 unpaid. She contacted the three with the result of two no longer working in the area and one renewed. She also revised the letterhead to use to welcome new members. There were no undeliverable emails from her last email which means all current emails are functioning. Discussion was held that a membership growth goal should be established. One suggestion was a goal of 10% which equals 16 new members. As Andrew was not present to ask what our historical increase has been for the past five years, further discussion was tabled to the December meeting.

Technical Program/Meetings:

Several topics were discussed as potential luncheon or lengthier workshops during the year. Among the topics considered:

Defensive Driving

Fugitive Dust Controls for all levels and types of operations (transfer stations, maintenance areas for haulers, landfills, recycling centers)

E-Waste Recycling and issues (based on the recent 60 minute expose of a sham recycler from Colorado)

Storm Water Manager (regulatory and a consultant panel), and a tour of an e-waste facility (Luminous Recycling or Waste Management or both in the Denver area or Lifespan Recycling in the Grand Junction area)

Consensus was to shoot for a January e-waste technical program. As the board typically meets the third Tuesday, in January this would be after the Martin Luther King holiday. Consensus was to move the January meeting and technical session to Wednesday, 21 January 2009. Gordon, Stewart, Brenna Barrett and Cameron Beul will work on e-waste program. Schweitzer and Barton will work on the Fugitive Dust with a goal of spring. Curt Ahrendsen will work on Storm Water Management for the third quarter. Discussion held about merging the fugitive dust and storm water management into a morning and afternoon session.

Annual Meeting: Strickland reviewed the results from the surveys he received. He recommended we consider a better carrot to obtain more surveys from participants. Overall the conference was well received. Some recommendations to have at least one joint session but liked having concurrent sessions with a variety of topics. Both tours were well received. Overwhelming the survey participants prefer the September/October timeframe for the conference. The consensus of the survey was to continue to rotate the annual meeting around. Most people felt the exhibits were useful and they would like more time to spend with the vendors. Most of the survey respondents were not interested in hosting the annual meeting. Many of the survey participants were unaware of the scholarship opportunities especially for other than college students. There is great interest in have Composting and recycling certification program as well as MOLO for the state. Overall the website has been used and is showing continued growth in use especially for paying for attendance at conferences, training and meetings. Several folks indicated they would like a member email address on the website. Five respondents “volunteered” to host the 2009 Road-E-O. Survey respondents felt that overall the chapter is doing a good job keeping membership informed, however many want the training classes to be kept within reach of small entities with limited budgets. A few requested more advocacy for Colorado efforts. Keeping the state CDPHE presentation at the annual conference was requested. And some felt this was the best state conference yet. For more detailed information, Tom Strickland has all the surveys and results available for review. Discussion held on where to host the 2009 conference. Montezuma County has possibly volunteered to host the 2010 conference. Steamboat springs was suggested for 2009. Stewart will talk with Laurie Batchelder Adams to discuss possible conference tours and offerings in Steamboat Springs. Further discussion was tabled to the December Board Meeting.

Scholarship: Two requests have been received for college scholarship. Brittany Gable sent her request on 18 September 2008. Her request was tabled at the October meeting. Marilyn Sparks sent her request in after the October meeting. Ms. Gable is a senior at Colorado State University in environmental education. Ms. Sparks is a freshman at the Colorado School of Mines. Both requested $1000. Gillette/Barton moved/seconded to award $500 per student to stay within the just approved operating budget of $1,000 for scholarship. Discussion held on whether the Gable scholarship request could be considered as part of the just closed 2007-2008 fiscal year as no college scholarship was provided, only a MOLO scholarship. Concerns were raised about setting a precedent of 2 scholarships given every year. The question was called and the motion was defeated by a vote of 1 aye, 7 nay, and 1 abstain (Barton abstained). Strickland/Schweitzer moved/seconded to award $1,000 scholarship to each individual with the understanding this exceeded the current year budget and this would not be considered a precedent to award two scholarship annually. Question called. Motion carried with 7 aye, 1 nay, 1 abstain. Discussion held that additional guidelines and deadline dates should be established for college type scholarships. Henderson and Gordon will work on developing some criteria for board consideration.

Nominations: No report at this time as interested individuals are always welcome to attend and consider membership on the board. Cameron Beul and Brenna Barrett have expressed interest in becoming more involved with the chapter.

Legislative: Nowak will continue as the private sector and Gordon as the public sector for legislative reporting. Colorado Association for Recycling (CAFR) is proposing product stewardship e-waste state legislation. Sprague forwarded via email information on some national legislation. Section 14 and 17 rule making on agricultural compost and EP waste impoundment respectively is scheduled for 18 November hearing.

International Board: Sprague not present so no report. Stewart will request a short summary from Sprague to attach to the final minutes.

Web site/Webmaster:Tom Strickland volunteered to be the board liaison for the Website and contract. He will work with Roger Doak and Erin Doak to update the contract, obtain procedures and begin being the liaison. He also indicated he has some ideas to float with Erin regarding the web page.

Newsletter: Winter issue will be due out January 2009. As Sprague was not available, no definite deadline was established for getting article to him for the winter newsletter. Some articles to be included:

President’s Corner (Stewart)

Annual Meeting Overview (Stewart, Strickland, Schweitzer)

Scholarships (Gordon and Henderson). Suggestion made to include a short paragraph from the recipients plus a photo

Financial Update and audit results (Gillette)

IB Report (Sprague)

Technical Session on Fugitive Dust and Storm Water (Barton) Newsletter will be coming out too late for announcing the e-waste session.

OLD BUSINESS:

Road-E-O: This activity will be considered as part of the working committee for future agenda. In addition to the grand winner, Andrew Stewart, the city and county of Denver sent 4 participants. All felt the experience was good but they were concerned that they did not get adequate time to familiarize themselves with the equipment. They also reported that the written test was not very efficient, in some cases waiting 5 hours to take the test. Next year’s national event will be in Key Largo, FL.

NEW BUSINESS:

Annual report/audit: Ahrendsen/Strickland moved/seconded to approve the audit prepared by Barton for the fiscal year ending 31 October 2008. Motion carried unanimously.

Bylaws review: Mark McMullen had indicated a willingness to review the chapter’s bylaws which have not been updated since September 2004. Ahrendsen will be the Board liaison on the committee.

Next Board Meeting: Annual holiday luncheon at a location to be determined. The meeting date will be 16 December 2008. Stewart will inform everyone of where the board meeting will be conducted. Discussion held to hold close to CDPHE as there is a geotechnical work group session that will be ending at 11:30 am.

ADJOURNMENT:

With no further business, Briest/Ahrendsen moved/seconded to adjourn the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 am.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Barton
Secretary