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Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

16 November 2004, Gemini’s Restaurant, 4380 Wadsworth Blvd, Wheatridge, CO

ATTENDANCE:

Present:Curt Ahrendsen, Debby Barton, Laurie Batchelder Adams, Leonard Butler, John Briest, Roger Doak, Cindi Etcheverry, Stephen Gillette, and Dick Sprague

Absent: None

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

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order at 7:09 am as quorum present.

ADOPTION OF AGENDA: Gillette/Briest moved/seconded to adopt the agenda as sent. Motion carried unanimously.

MINUTES

Approval of 8 October 2004 Member Meet minutes and 15-21 October 2004 Email minutes: Ahrendsen/Batchelder Adams moved/seconded to approve minutes. Motion carried unanimously.

FINANCIAL:

Treasurer's Report: Ahrendsen reported $15,548.44 in checking, $17,353.58 in savings, and the e-investment at $10,000. The gross amount for the annual meeting was $10,799.70 (less than $11,000). He is still missing some last bills to pay. Final report on the annual meeting will be emailed to the board when the final bills are paid. There was $4,800 in sponsors and the rest from participants including an odd amount from some donation that is undetermined. There is also a bill to the national for $500 for insurance. Ahrendsen will check with national on this as discussion related that last year the insurance was withheld from the dues paid to the local chapter. Ahrendsen will send out the annual report due to national by 31 December 2004.

CHAPTER GOALS

Butler had received from national a booklet listing the national goals, resources, personnel and organization. He will send a copy to the board for their information as Batchelder Adams also has a copy as a national officer. Rest of meeting was dedicated to developing working committees to establish budgets, goals, programs and assignments. Members discussed the need for training with the adjunct that value given for membership will increase member numbers. Discussion held on need for more possibly more scholarships to assist smaller entities to get the training needed. Concerns address that having training available but the need to have attendance at the training. Consensus was that the primary goal for the chapter for 2004-2005 would be to reach out to train solid waste professionals.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS/DISCUSSIONS

Membership/Newsletter: Primary work would include newsletter developing and mailing and the maintaining of electronic mailing list and postings to members. Sprague, Gillette and Ahrendsen volunteered to work on membership and newsletter. Followup with Kathy Claes to obtain email list will be made. Discussion held on how to reach members. Consensus was to have a letter signed by president for new members to sendt out as a welcome. Discussion held that the chapter should send out a reminder notice on dues. Consensus was that all communication with members needs to emphasize web page access. Newsletter publish date goals are January, April, July/August and then fall (November).

Programs: CDPHE (Glenn Mallory) has indicated interest in partnering on training. Doak, Etcheverry and Ahrendsen volunteered to work on this committee. Chair will be determined among the three. Ideas for programs included results from annual meeting. Discussion held on having possible meeting to discuss results of the various surveys taken by CDPHE (recycling and landfill in particular). Annual meeting feedback discussed (copy of survey results are considered an attachment to these minutes as they were handed out to all board members). Concerns raised about needing more professionalism at the registration/checkin. Also problems with Friday afternoon attendance being very small and need to have either relevant topics or a major raffle or both for the afternoon. Consider changing the banquet and make the reception the big punch for Thursday night. Discussion held to have afternoon session on Thursday with reception and then Friday morning. Tour was not as well attended this year. Goal for next board meeting is to have possible outline of topics, dates, and such for programs for the next year. Discussion held that January may be too soon for a workshop because of need to get notices out during the holiday season. Committee will come back with proposal for workshop dates with recommendation that the first be held in February. Consensus was to establish the location and date for the annual meeting early in the year. Wastecon dates of 26 – 30 September was noted as a time to avoid.

Legislative: Batchelder Adams volunteered to do legislative this year again as she is also tracking for CAFR. She tabulates the local bills and status for posting to the website and prepares a heads up summary for posting to membership on important legislation that may have direct impact on operations. Goal is to track and report.

Scholarship: Briest volunteered to be on the committee. Discussion held that this should have a more important role for the next year. One suggestion was to “take the mountain to the prophet” by paying board members to take workshops to a location for members such as the NE sector of the state, if there is interest. Discussion held on establishing criteria for scholarships as well as after giving a scholarship publicizing it for future participation. Briest summarized scholarship committee role as 1) outreach, 2) framework for selection and 3) determine goals. Doak will work with CDPHE to see if there are additional solid waste groups in the state besides the NE which would be interested in partnering training.

Nominations: Bylaws dictate that Briest as past president serves on the nominating committee. Consensus was there is a need to continue outreach to smaller entities and communities for board members. Doak will keep board informed of any interested municipalities/cities that wish to participate on the SWANA board .

Audit: Barton volunteered to be on the committee. Bylaws dictate that the president also serves on the committee. Goal is to review fiscal audit and accountability as well as tallying election/ballot issues. Barton will work with Ahrendsen before the next board meeting to audit the books through end of fiscal year (31 Oct 2004).

Other related Discussion: Butler asked the board what should the role of the president be for the year. Consensus was to organize and encourage committees, serve on committees at his discretion (unless specified in bylaws), and provide coordination of the efforts made among the committees. Also listed was the welcoming for new members. Question asked about National Solid Waste Management Association (NSWMA) chapter partnering however there is no known chapter in Colorado. Barton commented they have a very good refuse driver’s training class. The winter newsletter should have a 2005 projected goals, plans and programs for the membership if available from the programs committee. Decision to be reached during the December board meeting.

OTHER BUSINESS/REPORTS:

International Board: Batchelder Adams emailed a summary report to all board members and it is incorporated as an attachment to these minutes. She emphasized that SWANA will be moving away from YAHOO and hosting their own site which means developing a privacy policy and the chapters will be needing to follow suit in the future. National will help local chapters with the legalese on the privacy policies. Also national is looking for subscribers on the applied research collection benchmarking project.

Website: Doak and Briest will continue to work on the website. Note that Briest will be the gatekeeper for all information from chapter/board to Erin. He will also negotiate the new contract for the fiscal year of 1 November 04 – 31 October 05. Costs for past has been $1971.89 (about $150 per month), much of this was initial set up for the website. Discussion on how to bill sponsors was held. Decision was that we need to actively encourage sponsorship by using the counter for information as to how many hits are occurring on the webpage. Doak also noted that the webhosting fee of $120.89 is due 12 Dec 04. The domain name renewal is due 27 Dec. For three years, the cost is about $51 and for five years is about $60. Gillette recommended that we consider a five year domain name renewal rather than three years. Invoice will be sent to the gatekeeper (Briest) for approval and will include annual webhosting bill, five year domain name renewal plus any contractual payments due. Copy of 2004 contract to be provided to Barton to include in annual report. New contract will be sent out via email for voting by the board prior to next meeting, if possible.

SWANA 2005 Landfill/Planning Symposium, Boulder, CO: Discussion held on the upcoming conferences to be held jointly in June in Boulder. There is still a need for abstracts which are due 22 November. Sprague is conduit for national on the landfill portion and Batchelder Adams for the planning and management portion. Chapter needs to actively participate as it is in our state. Board asked to encourage members to send in abstracts. Also looking for some keynote, dynamic speakers. Ideas should be sent to Sprague or Batchelder Adams.

NEW BUSINESS (added to end of agenda/meeting)

Amicus Brief Status: Briest asked about status of the money to be contributed to national. Ahrendsen confirmed that the money had not been sent. Batchelder Adams will follow up with national as to status of need.

Email Address change: John Briest has new email contact – as he no longer has a BFI address.

ADJOURNMENT

Due to holidays, the regular scheduled board meeting for 21 December has been moved to 7 December and will be an afternoon session beginning about 1:30. Location will be in the Golden area (note: Table Mountain Inn, 1310 Washington St, Golden, CO). With no further business, meeting adjourned at 9:12 am.

BOARD MEMBER ASSIGNMENTS ON WORKING COMMITTEES:

Email Votes proposed before next board meeting:

• Website contract