Minutes of General Business Meeting

Narragansett Water Pol= lution Control Association

P.O. Box 8805

Cranston, RI 02920

Minutes of General Business Meetin= g

November 14, 2006

Westerly Wastewater Treatment Facility

Meeting Ca= lled To Order by President Bernard Bishop 7:05 PM.

Members in= Attendance: Bernard Bishop (South Kingstown); = Janine Burke and P= eter Eldridge (West Warwick); Dennis Colberg (Quonset Point); Douglas Nettleton (Narragansett); Brent Herring (Aquarion Services/Narragansett Bay Commission’s Bucklin Point Facility); Thomas White (East Providence); David Perrotta= (East Greenwich); and Paul Desrosiers and Linda Yebra (Narragansett Bay Commission).

Minutes of= the Previous Meeting: Tom= White made a motion to approve the minutes of the October 10^th meeting= , as written. The motion was secon= ded by Peter Eldridge and unanimously approved.

Officer Re= ports:

Vice Presiden= t: Dennis= Colberg had nothing to report.

TreasurerR= 17;s Report: Peter Eldridge presented the Treasurer’s report and mentioned that he would= be making a deposit to the account the next day. He said there were still a couple = of receivables out there including payments for the Trade Show/Clam Bake from = Smithfield, North Smithfield<= /st1:place> and a couple of vendors and Ja= nine said she would re-invoice those that still haven’t paid. Janine Burke moved to accept the Treasurer’s report, seconded by Tom White a= nd unanimously approved.

Peter Eld= ridge went on to mention that the NWPCA web site was up for renewal which would c= ost $119 for another year of hosting. Brent Herring moved to approve payment of the web hosting fee, secon= ded by Tom White and unanimously approved.

Finally, Peter presented a summary of the OPS Challenge Team budget for the trip to Dallas for the nat= ional championships. He said they h= ad not originally budgeted for an Association dinner in Dallas but it had been OK’d by Bernie Bishop. That item put them over budget by about $300. Peter<= /st1:PersonName> said there were still donations coming in or expected in support of the OPS Challenge team and that anything received now would go towards next year.

Secretary: Janine Burke said there really hadn’t been too much correspondence to report= . She mentioned that NWPCA had recei= ved a letter of cooperative understanding between NWPCA and NEWEA regarding our commitment to support the U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize program. She said the agreement, which outl= ined the roles and responsibilities of WEF, NEWEA, and NWPCA, needed to be signe= d by NWPCA President Bernard Bishop and returned to NEWEA. Janine gave a copy of the agreement to Bernie Bishop.

DirectorsR= 17; Reports: Paul Desrosiers said he was asked to mention about the U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize cooperative agreement but that had already been covered in the Secretary’s report.&n= bsp; He said he was also asked to remind NWPCA about the 75^th Anniversary scholarships but that was already in the works as well. Paul reported that there was $300 available to the State Associations from NEWEA for reimbursement of expenses related to the Operator Exchange. He said he would draft a letter regarding this year’s Exchange Operator and requesting the $300 reimbursement which he would send to Janine to get to Elizabeth Cutone at NEWEA. Finally, Paul said he was expectin= g this year’s Exchange Operator, Linda Yebra from the Narragansett Bay Commi= ssion to arrive shortly at the meeting but in her absence, Paul presented the rep= ort she had prepared regarding her experience.= There was some discussion about the report which Janine said she would like to include in the next edition of The Pipeline and it w= as suggested that Linda include more details about the plants she visited.

Tom White reported that the Certification Board is sti= ll active but has not met in two months. He said the Board’s attitude, in general, about developing a certification re-training program with NWPCA is pretty good. Tom said he was encouraged by discussions and thought maybe something would be forthcoming before June. He said the next meeting was sched= uled for December. He recommended contacting the Board to initiate a collaborative effort. He didn’t think it would be necessary to resubmit legislation as in years’ past.

Standing C= ommittee Reports:

Membership: Janine Burke reported that there were 171 members now. She said she received some members= hip applications from Borden & Remington last month and that any applicatio= ns received from now until the end of the year were going to count towards 2007 membership. She said she would prepare the renewal invoices to hand out at the Holiday Party and would mail out the rest of the renewal notices by the end of the year. Bernie= Bishop asked Janine to email him the = list of members.

Public Relations/Outreach: Peter Eldridge reported that the NWPCA website= had 142 hits in October, that is, hits from different IP address. He said the average stay on the we= bsite was 17 minutes. He mentioned = that they had added a link to the 75^th Anniversary Scholarship right = on the front page and there had been 9 hits on that. Janine Burke said that she had checked out what other states have for information = on their website and she provided printouts for Pe= ter to forward to the webmaster. = Peter said the webmaster would likely be in attendance at the January meet= ing to discuss plans for the website in 2007.&nbs= p;

Janine Bu= rke said that in the past two years, we have been doing only two (2) issues of the Pipeline per year, once in the Spring before the Awards Ceremony, and once in late Summer.&= nbsp; She said we used to try to get out quarterly newsletters but that th= ere was a lot of effort and expense involved in that. She said she thought the bi-annual publication schedule was OK but she wanted to make sure everyone else was f= ine with that. Everyone was in ag= reement that two issues per year were fine. Janine mentioned that we might want to take a look at Pipeline advertising rates again. She said she knew that Tutela Engineering was interested in putting an ad in the Pipelines in 2007.

Entertainment= : Peter<= /st1:PersonName> Eldridge report that we were all set for the Holiday Party at the Kelley Gazerro Post in = Cranston. He said the main menu would be the= same and that he would be picking out some appetizers to start. Bernie= Bishop said he was curious about the capacity of the dining area at Kelley Gazerro and Peter said he would check on that.

Someone asked about the format of the elections. Janine suggested having a formal meeting at the beginning, with Bernie summarizing= the activities over the last year. Janine said she would draft an agenda and emai= l to the Executive Board. It was a= greed that Tom White would lead the elections portion of the meeting as in the past. Bernie said we were sti= ll soliciting Executive Board members and that he would like to get the slate = to Tom ahead of time if possible.

Operator Trai= ning: Tom White had reported on the futu= re of Mandatory Training for Re-Certification during his report earlier.

Regarding proposed training for the Next Generation of= Plant Managers, someone mentioned that a similar NEIWPCC course that was slated t= o be held in Warwick was cancelled because only one person had signed up. Bernie wasn’t sure there was= a lot of interest in a course like this at this point. He suggested we table this item un= til the Spring when we could talk to Carmine Gonecon= te of the Narragansett Bay Commission again about it.

Regarding the NWPCA “Course of the Year,” = Bernie thought that doing something similar to what the New England Water Works Association does, have one all day course which include lunch. Peter<= /st1:PersonName> Eldridge said he was still looking into the televised sewer line inspection training. He mentioned that it could be done similar to what was done with the malodor training held at We= st Warwick, a half day session with lunch included. Someone suggested that we survey m= embers and Superintendent for courses they would be interested in. Someone mentioned a person from New Hampshire wh= o was an expert on clarifiers and hydraulics who might be willing to work with us on= a training session. Dennis Colberg said he liked the idea of a collection system topic with the opportunity to get certification as was discussed in the past. There = was some further discussion about various venues for the NWPCA Course of the Ye= ar.

Regarding training grants to members, Bernie said that= he would like for next year to be able to reimburse NWPCA members for tuition = for NEIWPCC courses to increase participation.= He suggested we put an item in the newsletter and draft a grant application form. He also sug= gested that we set aside a given amount each year, say $1,000, and dole it out on a first-come, first-served basis. He said this would be specifically to cover costs not picked up by employers.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Tom White made a motion to put asi= de $1,000 for 2007 training grants to NWPCA members with the amount to be increased at any time by a vote of the Executive Board. The motion was seconded by Janine Burke and unanimously approved.

Special Co= mmittee Reports:

Operations (O= PS) Challenge: Peter Eldridge said that the Rhode Island OPS Challenge Team did a fantastic job in Dallas. He said they had a great time, they behaved very professionally and represented us well. He said they also did well in the competition, finishing 22^nd overall, out of 43 teams from all ov= er the country, including Hawaii= , as well as Canada and Argentina. He said the team did really well i= n some of the individual events including placing 14^th in the Collectio= ns event, 15^th in the Lab event, 19^th in the written Operations test (which was a marked improvement from the NEWEA competition)= and 24^th in the Safety event. Dave Perrotta mentioned that the competition was a lot different at WEFTEC than what had been involved at the regional competition. Peter<= /st1:PersonName> said they will be making a short presentation on the national competition at the next Wastewater Operators Certification Board meeting in December.

Golf Tourname= nt 2007: Peter<= /st1:PersonName> Eldridge reported that Scott Goodinson is willing to serve Golf Tournament Committee along with Doug Nettleton. Peter said that Scott h= as also asked Peter Connell and Bill Wilber to help out as needed which they have agreed to do. Bernie= Bishop said the date for the Golf Tournament was already set and the committee sho= uld plan to get together after the first of the year.

Trade Show/Cl= am Bake 2007:   Bernard Bisho= p said that Brent Herring had volunteered to work on this committee as well as all= the Association officers. Bernie = said the date was set for this event as well and the committee should plan to get together after the first of the year.

Old Busine= ss:

By-Laws and Constitution: No report o= n this.

NWPCA Scholar= ship Fund: Janine Burke said the form was all set to go and that the plan was to issue the NW= PCA Scholarship applications in Ja= nuary with a deadline for submission at the end of March. Janine said this would allow us time to go through the application and have a deci= sion in time to present the check at the annual Awards Banquet. She said the scholarship was suppo= sed to be for $1,000.

NEWEA 75^=
th Anniversary Scholarship Fund: &nb= sp; Janine Burke said the applications for the NEWEA 75^th Anniversary Scholarships were do= ne and the deadline to apply was December 15^th. She said a decision will be made a= t the Executive Board at its January meeting. Paul Desrosiers reminded everyone that the scholarship winner(s)’ name should be forwarded to NEWEA as soon as possible. Bernie= Bishop said he would also like to invite the recipient to the annual Awards Banquet for a formal presentation. Janine said she would email any applications received to the Executive Board beforehand to review. Bernie and Dennis Colberg volunteered to serve on the review committee.

Calendar for = 2007: The group reviewed and discussed t= he calendar of events for 2007. Several changes were suggested and Janine was going to revise and email the calendar to everyone. Peter<= /st1:PersonName> Eldridge said he would get it on the website.

New Busine= ss:

Having arrived at the meeting, Operator Exchange parti= cipant Linda Yebra talked about her experience and said she would write an article= for the Pipeline and provide some pictures she had taken as well.

Meeting Ad= journed: With no further business = to conduct, Tom White made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Dennis= Colberg seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. Meeting adjourned at 8:25 PM.