Winter 2008-9 Newsletter

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

by Cathryn Stewart

New Year’s greetings, Colorado SWANA members, from the new President of the CO-SWANA Chapter for 2008-2009.

I officially started my year as president on November 1, 2008. But really, it started when a board member invited me to consider serving on the board that directs and plans events for the chapter. I’m glad I did accept the invitation. I attended the next board meeting, was approved, and quickly got involved with a great group of people. My impression of CO-SWANA compared to other professional organizations in which I’ve been involved was – and continues to be – that all of the board members pitch in as they are able. This high degree of active participation and brainstorming when planning activities makes serving on the board less of an obligation and more of a professional development/networking tool that completes one’s toolbox.

What does the CO-SWANA Board do? Officially, it manages the activities, property, and affairs of the CO-SWANA Chapter. In actuality, we plan quarterly technical meetings (often a luncheon talk) and an annual meeting that moves around the state and is usually held in the Fall; produce a semi-annual newsletter that is distributed electronically to the members; disseminate other time-critical announcements and information on training opportunities, regulatory and legislative updates, and National SWANA policy; award scholarships; provide a vehicle for networking and furthering the solid waste industry; and more. The CO-SWANA Board coordinates with National SWANA on membership (new and renewing), training schedules, and planning National SWANA continuing education offerings, the most popular of which is the Manager of Landfill Operations (MOLO).

The CO-SWANA Board meets monthly – usually over breakfast or an early morning conference call – which is a great way to start the day. E-mail helps board members stay in touch as we find snippets of time to work on tasks during the month. I’ve enjoyed contacting speakers and hearing, “Sure, thanks for the opportunity to speak to CO-SWANA about the latest in ____ (for example, low-flow groundwater sampling methods, or the latest in e-waste recycling).” Folks, we have a reputation out there as a means for keeping our members up-to-date on solid waste issues.

If the CO-SWANA Board isn’t producing the meeting contents that you need to hear for a good return on your investment in SWANA membership, please contact any of the board members, and we’ll do what we can to add to your toolbox of knowledge. If you’d like to be considered for serving on the CO-SWANA Board in the near future, please contact me. If you have an appropriate talk or nascent ideas that could be molded into a presentation, contact us. See you on January 21^st at the first quarter 2009 technical meeting on Electronic Waste Recycling and Disposal. Here’s to a safe and profitable 2009 working in the solid waste industry!

Scholarships

by Dick Sprague

The Colorado SWANA Chapter has been active for several years in providing scholarships to deserving individuals. These scholarships are available to college students who are pursuing degrees related to environmental management in general or solid waste in particular. The following short articles are from two students who have current Colorado SWANA scholarships.

Scholarships are also available to SWANA members who need assistance in pursuing continuing education. This assistance can be used for attendance at Colorado SWANA events, SWANA certification training, or other solid waste-related training. See the Colorado SWANA website for more information. And speaking of training opportunities, see the Compost School advertisement at the end of this newsletter.

Jobs Board

by Dick Sprague

While you are visiting the scholarship webpage, don’t forget to look at the Jobs Board webpage. This page is intended to list open positions in Colorado and neighboring states. You can use it to post jobs within your organization, or to find new employment.

Spring Technical Session: Fugitive Dust and Stormwater Management
— Back-to-Back Training

by Debbie Barton

Although we will not be showing “The Fugitive” with David Jansen in his quest to find the one armed man, we are planning a technical session to control or at least reduce fugitive dust emissions from various operations including recycling (paper dust), transfer stations (trash and dried mud), composting (chipping and turning), and landfills (haul roads and placing of covers). In conjunction with the fugitive dust emission class, a second session will be held on Stormwater Management. Our goal is to offer these back-to-back classes this spring. If anyone has some questions or concerns on these topics that they would like addressed, please notify Deborah Barton, Montezuma County Landfill, 970-565-9858. Meanwhile, keep looking to the chapter’s web site for updated information on location, date, and time. Continually searching for ways to improve our operations is a trademark of our professionalism and stewardship of and for the environment.

Colorado SWANA members enjoy the 2008 annual conference

by Tom Strickland

Golden, Colorado

The Chapter’s Annual Conference held October 2^nd & 3^rd in Golden, was one of the highest attended conferences in recent Colorado SWANA history. The conference also had one of the largest programs ever with 24 presenters, 8 technical sessions, a workshop and two tour locations. Thank you to all our conference presenters for volunteering your time and sharing your knowledge. Feedback from conference attendees was incredibly positive. The field trips to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Rocky Mountain Bottle Company were a big hit. Unfortunately, time constraints didn’t allow tours of both facilities by each tour group. We’ll work on better estimating time blocks for next year’s conference.

Also, we are indebted to our conference sponsors for helping to make this such a successful event. Annual Conference sponsors were:

• Titanium Level: Golder Associates, Inc. and Larimer County.
• Gold Level: Central Fiber - Topcoat Division, El Paso County, Evergreen Analytical Laboratory, LifeSpan Technology Recycling, Waste Management, Inc. and Weaver Boos Consultants, LLC.
• Silver Level: American Environmental Consultants, AquAeTer, Argus-Hazco, Blackhawk Technology, Colorado Lining International, CTI - Clear Water Constructions, GeoTech Environmental. Kaul Corporation, Nolte Associates, Inc. Otto Container Management, Ted Miller and Associates, Wagner Equipment and Waste-Not Recycling.
• Friends of Colorado SWANA: City & County of Denver, Doty & Associates, New Belgium Brewing Company and Pitkin County.

An announcement on the location of the 2009 Annual Conference will be made within a few months; we hope to see everyone back in 2009 along with new attendees. If you would like to be a part of the 2009 conference planning committee, please contact Tom Strickland at 720-865-6813 or here.

SWANA International Board Update Wastecon October 2008 Meeting

By Dick Sprague

Laurie Batchelder Adams

SWANA’s International Board (IB) met in Tampa October 18 and 19, 2008, the weekend before Wastecon 2008. This was Laurie Batchelder Adams’ last meeting as President, and she passed the gavel off to Carl Newby, Arlington County, Virginia, during Wastecon.

Executive Director John Skinner presented the State of the Association message: SWANA is very healthy financially. In addition, SWANA achieved a record membership in 2008, passing 8,000 members for the first time. SWANA headquarters implemented some new initiatives to increase membership, including a special rate to new members (Augu2008). SWANA staff will follow up with the new members receiving a special rate in an attempt to spur their membership renewal.

Several issues lead to significant discussion, including:

• When a chapter IB Director cannot makean IB meeting, it has become common practice for the chapters to send an alternate. While present at the meetings, these alternates frequently vote on motions. SWANA General Counsel, Barry Shanoff, lead a discussion on this unofficial voting and proxies. SWANA is constituted as a nonprofit organization under California law, which does not allow directors to vote by alternates or proxies; in fact, many states have similar restrictions. This means that a chapter may send an alternate for information purposes, but that alternate may not vote on actions before the IB. This reinforces the importance of IB directors’ attendance at every IB meeting unless business activities absolutely preclude attendance. I added to the discussion by reinforcing the need for IB directors to vote on issues before the Board between meetings.
• A motion to add a representative from each Technical Division to the International Board. This would add eight additional IB members to a Board of 63 members. The intent of the motion would be to actively involve the Technical Divisions in the business decisions of the Association, and increase their buy-in to these decisions. Much discussion followed, primarily along the lines that the Technical Divisions were already represented by the Technical Division Representative, that the current IB was large and somewhat unwieldy, and that the motion did not include sufficient framework to allow IB members to adequately evaluate its merits. The result was a motion to table this issue to the May 2009 IB meeting, and direct the Executive Committee to draft a more complete framework.

Much of the business of the International Board is accomplished in committees consisting of five regional ‘committees’ and four committees (the Finance, Membership/Chapters, Planning and Policy Committees). Since becoming your representative to the IB, I have been a part of the Membership/Chapters Committee, but I found that this Committee’s charge did not well meet my temperament or passion. Consequently, I transferred into the Policy Committee, and volunteered to be the primary author for redrafting policies MA-14 SWANA Policy Position - Determination of Chapters in Good Standing, and policy MA-10 SWANA Policy Position - Role of Chapter Directors on the International Board of Directors.

Please let me know if you have issues that you would like considered by the Association.

Financial Statement

by Stephen W. Gillette

The following page presents the Colorado SWANA Chapter’s financial statement for the calendar year 2008. Please direct any questions to Stephen Gillette.

Balance Sheet
	01/01/08	12/1/2008	CHANGES
ASSETS
Cash and Bank Accounts
Checking	$10,909.98	$18,867.10	$7957.12
Savings	$18,419.80	$19,273.14	$853.94
TOTAL	$29,329.78	$38,140.84	$8811.06
OTHER ASSETS
E-Business Loan	$16,153.25	$17,364.30	$1,211.05
TOTAL ASSETS	$45,483.03	$55,505.14	$10,022.11
LIABILITIES & EQUITY
Liabilities	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Equity	$45,483.03	$55,505.14	$10,022.11
TOTAL Liabilities & Equity	$45,483.03	$55,505.14	$10,022.11

Compost School

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Dick Sprague
HDR Engineering, Inc.
103 East 17th Avenue, Suite 700
Denver, CO 80203

(303) 764-1520
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