Colorado SWANA - Swana international board

SWANA International Board - Mid-Year 2004 Meeting Report

June 2004 – Silver Spring, Md

The SWANA International Board of Directors (IB) and Executive Committee (EC) held their mid-year meetings in Silver Spring, MD on June 13-15, 2004. The following are the highlights of the decisions made and the actions taken.

FY 2005 Budget and Membership Dues Increase. The IB approved the FY 2005 Budget recommended by the Finance Committee with operating revenues of $4.75 million and operating expenses of $4.68 million. This Budget includes a $6.00 increase to the National membership dues for both Regular and Corporate Members. This increase includes a CPI adjustment of $2.00 and a $4.00 amount that will be set aside to fund the Board Restricted Reserves. The FY 2005 budget also continues to set aside in a reserve fund, $72K per year to payback the E-Business Chapter loans plus interest. In response to Colorado and other chapter concerns about the dues increase, staff will detail the planned fund accrual into the Board Restricted Reserves for 2005 and beyond.

Roll-over of Chapter E Business Loans. The Regional Council Directors asked that Chapters with loans coming due within the next eighteen months consider rolling over their loans now for an additional four years at an interest rate of 4.5% compounded quarterly. This would guarantee those Chapters a good interest rate for four years and smooth out the repayment schedule. Colorado ’s first loan repayment from SWANA is due July 2005 (and second in April 2007) and our first two loans were made at 6.96% and 4.59%, respectively. I recommend that the Colorado Board roll that loan over for another 4 years (BOARD ACTION NEEDED on or before Aug 24th).

D&O Insurance Allocation. The IB approved the recommendation of the Membership and Chapters Committee to revise the allocation of the Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance charge to the Chapters so that it would be based on the number of members in each Chapter. This allocation will reduce the insurance payments to be made by the smaller Chapters and will be implemented in the FY-05 insurance allocations made this Fall. Colorado and Region One supported this revision.

Strategic Management Plan FY 05-09. The IB approved the Five-Year Strategic Plan proposed by the Planning Committee with the exception of the proposal to consolidate the Landfill and Landfill Gas Specialty Symposia and shift other events on-line in 2007 and beyond. Note that the Landfill Gas Division is not convinced that consolidation works for them – several other division (including Waste Reduction, Recycling & Composting; Collection & Transfer; and Special Waste) are now co-locating and are finding increased attendance and decreased spending.

Need to Strongly Support WasteCon 2004. Especially in light of press about consolidating WasteCon with WasteExpo and APWA (which to date has resulted in no actual communication with SWANA or requests from SWANA membership), the IB agreed that a strong showing in Phoenix will 1) be the best response to the rumors and 2) will provide us the best indicator of the show’s success. (BOARD ACTION?)

Officer Nominations. The IB approved the following Nominating Committee recommendations for Officers for FY05 with elections by the general membership to be carried out on-line beginning July 15, 2004 :

President – Richard Mauck, Director of Streets/ Automotive Services, City of Santa Clara, CA
Vice President- Andrew Quigley, Executive Director of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County
Treasurer - Thomas Parker, Senior Project Manager, Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc., Albuquerque, NM
Secretary- Laurie Batchelder Adams, LBA Associates, Denver, CO

Awards Committee. The IB approved the following recommendations of the Awards Committee for 2004:

Robert L. Lawrence Distinguished Service Award:

J. David Myers, General Manager, Monterey Regional Waste Management District, Marina, CA

Life Member Award:

Paul Stoller, Vice President, Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts

Professional Achievement Award – Public Member:

John B. Abernethy, Manager of Solid Waste Operations, Sacramento County Department of Public Works, Sacramento, CA

Professional Achievement Award – Life Member:

Jack Friedline, Development Services Manager, City of Mesa, Mesa, Arizona

Professional Achievement Award – Retired Member: 2 awards

Pete Chavez, Solid Waste Management Director (Retired), City of Scottsdale, AZ

Paul Smilanich, Superintendent Solid Waste Collection (Retired), City of Sacramento, CA

Honorary Member Award:

William (Bill) W. Hinkley, Bureau Chief, Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection Bureau of Solid and Hazardous Waste, Tallahassee, Florida

Miscellaneous. I discussed Colorado ’s dissatisfaction with staff’s willingness to accept our financial support for a opening reception at the April Training Center in Denver. SWANA has cut opening receptions to save costs, but acknowledged that chapters should have other options to sponsor, such as a breakfast, break or lunch. They acknowledged that their actions were the primary reasons the Colorado chapter did not play a host role last April.

Carol Fearns, SWANA’s COO, is leaving and the Executive Committee is currently working to replace her.

Region One voted to support adding 1 or 2 arid landfill sessions to the 2005 Landfill Symposium ( Boulder, CO ) instead of developing a stand-alone arid landfill conference the same year. The Landfill division is agreeable and Kent Drinker (SWANA staff) will coordinate. NM, AZ, UT and CO chapters are all in the mix, with CO currently represented by John Briest and Dick Sprague.

Early Bird Registration for WasteCon ends August 20th. Register at www.wastecon.org