Minutes of SWANA Rocky Mountain Chapter Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

Geotech Environmental, 2650 E 40th Ave, Denver, CO 80205, 7 am

ATTENDANCE:

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

Absent: Curt Ahrendsen, Kathy Andrew, Neil Nowak

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

Attendance Notations:

* - Member arrived after meeting called to order

** - Member left before meeting ended

*** - Individual joined via telephone conference call

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 7:02 am as 8 of 12 directors present.

MINUTES:

December meeting minutes were previously emailed. One correction noted was to change the meeting date from 18 November 2008 to 16 December 2008. Gillette/Strickland moved/seconded to approve the 16 December 2008 meeting minutes as corrected. Motion carried with one abstention (Gordon).

ADOPTION OF AGENDA:

Gordon/Sprague moved/seconded to adopt the agenda. Motion carried unanimously.

TREASURER:

Gillette reported checking balance as of 31 December 2008 of $17,106.10, savings balance of $19,273.74 and the e-loan asset balance of $17,364.30. Barton commented that as the chapter made over $25,000, an IRS report will have to be filed. Both student scholarships were paid in December and the budget has $250 left in the scholarship line item.

COMMITTEE REPORTS and ASSIGNMENTS:

Membership: Andrew sent out an email on 20 January 2008 with membership information in case she was unable to be present. We have 159 members currently. The two new members from CDPHE were sent welcome packets. There are no suspended memberships. The biggest renewal period will be March/April and reminder notices will be sent out. The e-mail is going very well with no bounce backs. Only 11 members are still on s-mail.

Technical Program/Meetings:

E-Waste: Due to the gracious sponsorship of Geotech Environmental Equipment, Inc. and Waste Management of Colorado, the chapter will make a profit to help provide quality affordable training and provide a scholarship fund. A total of 59 individuals are preregistered for the event with thirty paying by website paypal. Due to the response, the attendees will be broken into two groups for the tours with ½ going to Luminous Recycling and the other ½ visiting the Recycle America facility then trading locations to finish the tours. Lunch will be provided at the Recycle America location.

Fugitive Dust/Storm Water Management: No report as Barton, Ahrendsen and Schweitzer did not get together during the holiday break. The plans are tentatively looking to an April date for the training. Details will be completed and presented during the February board meeting.

Webinar/Third Quarter training. Discussion held on whether to host a third training session as a webinar. Consensus was to have a webinar in early July if it is held. Consensus was to work with National SWANA on potential webinar topics as well as discussions with CDPHE on perhaps hosting one of the regional outreach meetings as a wrap up via a webinar training. Sprague will obtain list of potential topics from SWANA. Henderson will check on potential regional or regulatory webinar updates from CDPHE. Further discussion will be held during the February Board meeting.

Annual Meeting: Eagle County will not be able to host the annual meeting until 2010. Montezuma County agreed to delay hosting an annual conference until 2011 or later. Discussion on an alternative location was held with decision to research Colorado Springs/El Paso County. Preferred dates would be 8 and 9 October with alternate date of 1 and 2 October. WasteCon will be held 21-25 September 2009 in Long Beach, CA. Strickland will ask Andrew if she will be the liaison for local arrangements. Discussion held on the possible members for the planning committee. The past several years the vice president has been the de facto chair of the planning committee. Ahrendsen will be asked to help with the annual meeting as the Vice President. Schweitzer volunteered to help. Discussion held that Nowak had been assisting in finding a location and will be asked to assist. Consensus reached to wait until the February Board meeting to send out save the date notices as determination on availability for the annual meeting will be made at that time. Some possible topics for the annual meeting were discussed and included: Results of the first grant proposals including statistics for the first full year of operations, one year results on the landfill gas energy plant at DADS with Doc Nyiro asked to present. Stewart will provide a list of the suggested topics based on the annual meeting 2008 survey. Those topics will be added to the end of these minutes as an attachment.

Scholarship: No new applications received since the last meeting. Sprague reported he had received news articles from both recipients. Some refinement of the articles will also include an invitation for members to apply for professional development scholarships.

Nominations: No report at this time. Both Cameron Beul and Brenna Barrett continue to indicate interest in working on and with the Board. Discussion held on what the maximum effective number should be. Barton read from the by-laws the following:
“The number of elected directors, who, together with the president, past president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and international chapter director, shall constitute a minimum of a nine (9) member Board. The past president and international chapter director may serve in a dual capacity with another office as approved by the Board. At least one director shall be elected from the private sector and one from the public sector.”

There is no cap or maximum number listed, only a minimum. Sprague commented that national has 63 directors which is quite cumbersome. Discussion held that 14 directors would be a little less than 10% of the membership. Consensus was to circulate the resumes of the two individuals for consideration before the next Board meeting.

Legislative: Nowak emailed a table report yesterday afternoon. Gordon provided a quick review on three potential bills of interest.

Electronics (manufacturer take back) – not yet introduced as it is in draft stage.

SB09-052 Funding Source for Higher Education - Colorado Commission on Higher Education requesting to receive 100% instead of 40% of the technical assistance grant funds from the waste tire development funds.

HB 09-1056 Solid Waste Disposal Administrative Penalties - Increasing administrative and other penalty fees for violation of solid waste regulations.

International Board: No new report. A question was asked of Sprague as to national SWANA’s position on e-waste, in particular any current updates to older position papers. Sprague will check into this at the next International Board meeting.

Web site/Webmaster: Discussion was held to put on a special thank you section for sponsorships of training efforts for the chapter. Strickland reported that a page for job openings and opportunities has been developed. Discussion held that imposing an “automatic” thirty (30) day limit of time may help get older announcements off the site in a timely manner. Strickland will work with Erin Doak. Strickland will be following up on various ads and their renewal.

Newsletter: Final draft is ready for proofing with anticipated release date of 23 January. Henderson and Sprague will work together to try to release the summer newsletter out in the May-July timeframe. Sprague asked Board members to take lots of pictures of events to add to the newsletter.

OLD BUSINESS:

Road-E-O: No report. This item may be moved to either new business or working committees for future agendas.

Bylaws review: No report. This item will be moved to the working committees section of the agenda as reviewing bylaws is listed as a specific committee in the bylaws.

HB1288 Grants: Gordon commented that the next round of grants based on HB 1288 has $1.8 million dollars available. Information will be sent to Andrew to forward to SWANA members.

NEW BUSINESS:

Next Board Meeting: The next meeting will be at 7 am on 21 February as a telephone conference call. Buel will look into the availability of Golder’s ability to set up the conference call, and Stewart will notify the Board members of phone number and any pass codes required.

ADJOURNMENT:

With no further business, Gordon/Gillette moved/seconded to adjourn the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 8:23 am, 7 minutes ahead of target completion.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Barton
Secretary

ATTACHMENTS: