President's Message

Bruce Bartel
Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District
December 2009

It is hard to imagine that I am already two months into my term as President of the WWOA. Time sure flies. As President the phone calls and emails have become more frequent and I consider that a good thing. It means that people truly care about this organization and the wastewater profession. Keep the phone calls and emails coming, I will do my best to give you an answer and if I can’t I will try to find someone who can.

The WWOA is coming off another successful conference that was held in Green Bay. There were approximately 750 people attending this year’s conference which is a fantastic showing during these economic times as people look for ways to cut back on expenditures. Congratulations to Dave Carlson for coordinating the technical program. Dave did an excellent job in putting things together.

I hope that everyone who attended the conference had the opportunity to take in the keynote speaker, Eric Alexander. He had a wonderful and inspiring message to share with all of us on overcoming obstacles not only in your personal life, but also in your professional life. His message also told us to not allow other’s doubts in your abilities to get in the way of achieving your goals. If you didn’t get a chance to hear Mr. Alexander, I hope you were able to attend technical sessions that were helpful to you or had the chance to walk the exhibit area to learn more about this unique industry. If you missed a technical session or would like to review any of those you attended, you can find the majority of the presentations at www.wwoa.org. This is something new for this year and was a suggestion brought to the Board’s attention last year. I personally have gone back and looked over a few of the presentations myself and have found this feature quite useful.

I had the opportunity to have a brief conversation with a couple of our fellow operators from the State of Michigan at the conference. They expressed to me how they enjoyed the conference and how impressed they were with it. Comments like these speak volumes about the quality of the conference.

I would like to congratulate all of the WWOA award recipients that were recognized at the annual awards banquet during the conference. An impressive and very deserving list of individuals was recognized. I would ask that you please consider nominating an individual for any of the WWOA awards to be given out next year. There are many truly deserving people out there, but it takes someone to nominate these individuals for them to receive an award and the recognition they deserve.

The WWOA Board of Directors has already begun planning for the 2010 Conference to be held at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. Planning began literally the Friday afternoon of the 2009 Conference. Randy Thater, Technical Chairperson, is particularly busy in getting things ready for next year. The 2010 Call for Papers is out and in the mail to all members, but can also be found on the WWOA web site and this issue of The Clarifier. Please give some thought to submitting a paper for consideration for a technical presentation at the 2010 Conference.

As I stated at the conference, please feel free to contact myself, or any WWOA Board member, to give us any of your thoughts, comments, questions, or concerns. I can assure you that anything brought to the attention of any one of us will be discussed via emails, phone calls, or at a Board meeting. My contact information, as well as any Board members, can be found on the back page of The Clarifier or on the web site. We need as much input as possible from the membership in order for us to better serve the needs of this organization and its membership.

I would like to wish everyone a happy and enjoyable holiday season. Having lost a sister and step-dad over the last three of years, I would like to remind everyone that we all have special people in our lives. Make sure you take the time during this holiday season to give these special people a hug and let them know how much you care about them.

That is all for now and until next time – take care.