Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

15 December 2009, Telephone Conference Call, 1-877-879-6929

ATTENDANCE:

Present: Kathy Andrew, Debby Barton* Cameron Beul, John Briest, Stephen Gillette, Jerry Henderson, Neil Nowak*, Tom Schweitzer, Dick Sprague, Cathryn Stewart, Tom Strickland

Absent: Curt Ahrendsen

Others present: Juri (David) Freeman

Attendance Notations:

* - Member arrived after meeting called to order

** - Member had to leave before call was adjourned

*** - Individual joined via telephone conference call

Minutes are in the order of the agenda and not necessarily in order of discussions. Briest took minutes until Barton arrived.

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order by Stewart at 7:10 am as 9 of 12 directors present.

MINUTES: 17 November 2009 Annual Member Meeting Minutes had been previously emailed and approved by e-vote.

ADOPTION OF AGENDA: No information.

TREASURER:

Gillette stated that as of 1 December 2009, there was a balance of $19,165.15 in the checking account. Savings balance is $19.754.28.

Additionally, Gillette stated that he made a $440.00 payment to the IRS because the IRS indicated that the organization failed to file a Form 990. Gillette indicated that he paid the tax bill under “protest” as to not be charged any additional fees. Gillette also indicated that he has the proper documentation to validate showing that the proper paper work was filed.

COMMITTEE REPORTS and ASSIGNMENTS:

Membership: Andrew reported we have 153 active members listed by National SWANA. We have 6 suspended and most have decided to not renew.

David (Juri) Freeman is still showing as unpaid. He and Andrew will check with National on the actual status of his membership. In a follow-up e-mail forwarded to Stewart, he requested of National some proof of his status. Per National’s email to him, he is officially paid up as of December 8, and consequently did not appear on Andrew’s list which is current through the end of November. We have lost 6 and gained 8 so are remaining stable.

Technical Program/Meetings:

Quarter 1 (19 January 2010): The final draft version of the first quarter technical program is out for the board members for comment. Barton will complete in the afternoon and forward to Andrew to email to the membership list. Barton will follow up with National on the CEU form for the event.

Suggestion was to place possible Colorado Air Pollution Control Division contact or presentation during the lunch session. Geotech has a projector and Barton will bring a backup projector and her laptop for use. Lunch will be pizza and salad. The EPA presenter will have to leave by 1 pm.

Quarter 2 (tentative date 18 May 2010): Suggestion was to host an e-waste or tire related session. Further discussion will be held during the January Board meeting.

Quarter 3 (Jun-Aug): Greenhouse Gas may have to be revisited pending any significant EPA changes during the winter as well as legislative or congressional impacts.

Annual Meeting: By consensus the Board is looking to Eagle County for the Annual meeting with a preferable date of 16-17 September as the tentative dates. CAFR will be holding their annual membership meeting (typically a one day event) in September but they have not made a date choice yet. Consensus was to look towards the end of January to determine hotel/meeting room accommodations availability. Further discussion on holding a training meeting Monday-Wednesday preceding the conference will be held during the January Board meeting.

Scholarship: No requests have been received by Henderson. He has developed an article for the newsletter. He requested if there is any developed guidance or policy on scholarship awards. Barton will send to Henderson the 2005 material developed by Sprague for scholastic as well as professional development scholarships.

Nominations: David “Juri” Freeman was present during the call and introduced himself to the Board. He is interested in serving as a member of the board. Briest will forward additional information to the Board for consideration.

Legislative: State legislature is not in session and nothing new to report from congressional. Barton will be working with Nowak this year on the legislative committee.

International Board: Sprague reported that the revised policy on Chapters in Good Standing has been adopted. He also reported that there are several technical policies on many issues that have no expiration date. He has recommended that national develop a policy requiring a review of policies every five years or they will expire (sunset). National is taking his recommendation under advisement.

The next IB face to face meeting will be in April in Banff, Alberta to coincide with the Canada National meeting. Sprague also brought up the issue of reimbursement for all costs for IB representation at the IB meetings as well as WasteCon. Gillette commented that we should be supporting our IB representative since this is a requirement to maintain our good standing with National SWANA. Gillette/Barton moved/seconded to cover the travel costs of $2000 plus WasteCon registration for the future and to reimburse Sprague for the WasteCon 2009 registration. Due to discussion, Gillette/Barton withdrew their motion to allow for two separate motions to be made. Strickland/Gillette moved/seconded that Colorado SWANA reimburse Dick Sprague the WasteCon 2009 early bird registration fee of $644. Motion carried unanimously. Gillette/Barton moved/seconded that up to $2000 for travel expenses plus additional reimbursement for registration (early bird rate) for attendance of IB representative at WasteCon 2010 be authorized. Discussion held that registration should be made at early bird rate to save as much money as possible for the Chapter.

Discussion held on if the travel budget was adequate for actual travel costs. Sprague commented that Long Beach was significantly more costly than Tampa was in 2008. Further in the past his previous employer had covered many of the costs now incurred by him personally to be the IB representative. Several members reiterated that the Chapter should cover costs of IB director to not encourage and enable volunteers to fill this role in the future. Motion was called to vote and was carried unanimously.

Web site/Webmaster: Strickland will be working with Erin Doak on the updating the webpage for the GHG technical session. He has not had the time to work on a new contract nor to investigate options.

Newsletter: Henderson went over status of the newsletter articles:

President’s Corner – Stewart – still needed

Annual Meeting Recap – Henderson – draft completed

Scholarship – Henderson – draft completed

January Technical Program – Beul assigned, Nowak had sent in a brief synopsis. Flyer will be attached to the newsletter.

Treasurer report and audit status – Gillette – received

Legislation (Greenhouse Gas) – Nowak – received in part. Nowak will work with Strickland to add some more detail

History project – Sprague will change to request for additional information as he wraps up the project

Additional articles:

Potential for Exam proctoring at the 2010 Annual meeting and tutoring event – Barton

Request membership for input on whether to host a certification course and which one in conjunction with the annual meeting – Barton

Photos: Henderson asked for Board members to send any photos they have of past events.

Deadline: Final draft will be completed by week of 21 December, final revisions the week of 28 December and newsletter sent out the week of 4 January.

Road-E-O: No activity at this time. Any decision to hold a Road-E-O will have to be made and volunteers assigned to work on the issue by the March Board meeting and no later.

OLD BUSINESS:

Bylaws review: Sprague forwarded to Barry Sharnoff, SWANA National legal counsel, the current bylaws with proposed changes as well as the review conducted by Mark McMullen. The review will probably be completed by the middle to the end of January. Mr. Sharnoff was limited to the $1000 as previously quoted.

SWANA History Project: Nothing further to report – see discussion under Newsletter.

Air Quality Guidance Document Stakeholder: Stewart and Briest met with two individuals from the Air Pollution Control Regulatory Division (Dena Wojtach and Theresa Amoroso) plus Charles Johnson Solid Waste Unit on 9 December 2009. The meeting lasted for about 1.5 hours, Charles was present for about 1 hour of the meeting.

Discussion held on the outreach needed, especially to the smaller entities on air rules as they have limited resources for information on compliance and assistance and could feel intimidated by not knowing who to call at APCD, unlike Solid Waste where they can call their assigned inspector. Charles discussed how solid waste unit was hoping to have outreach sessions in 2010 and perhaps air pollution control could participate/piggyback with the outreach.

Asbestos issues were also discussed with the folks as being confusing on fees and the communication needs between solid waste and air. Air division wants to create a broad guidance document from a big perspective perhaps similar to the geotechnical work group. They cannot include rule interpretation as the regulations and rules are in a dynamic state right now. They also want to work with the solid waste unit on the outreach program for the rural areas in particular and would like to provide some compliance assistance and discussion on the looming regulations. They would like SWANA assistance during the outreach process, the manner not firmed up as to whether it would be using the email network and/or a request of a physical SWANA presence. They also requested some examples of problems encountered in the field that they could address and perhaps develop some guidance and assistance on. Examples of actual problems encountered can be provided to them at any time, and will be discussed and compiled during the January board meeting, if possible.

NEW BUSINESS:

Annual Progress and Annual Financial Report: Barton confirmed that she had sent the full report to National before Thanksgiving.

Next Board Meeting: The next Board meeting will be 19 January 2010, 2650 E 40th, Denver, C) (Geotech Environmental) beginning at 7 am and will end by 9 am as the technical session will begin at 10 am..

ADJOURNMENT:

With nothing further to discuss, Andrew/Strickland moved/seconded to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned 8:40 am.

Respectfully submitted,

Deborah Barton
Secretary