President's Message

Wade Peterson
Baraboo, Wisconsin
February 2013

Happy New Year!

2013 looks to be another year with great change!! The website will continue to make improvements. We hope to continue making improvements on the on-line registration. We recently received the results of the Evaluation and Interest forms from last year’s conference. At our next meeting, we will review the results and discuss adding some of the suggestions to this year’s conference. Several communities have gotten or have seen the draft of their new WDPES permits. Tonight, I make our phosphorus presentation to the City Common Council. I think I might start off the presentation with something like this “Have you ever read the children’s book: Everyone Poops”.

We had our first board meeting with our 2012 – 2013 officer line-up in early December. We had several items on our “to-do” list. We reviewed the 2012 financial report, the committee reports, the 2013 budget, and changes to the Executive Secretary duties along with the position’s compensation.

The 2012 financial report hadn’t encompassed December’s numbers, but as a whole, we were looking pretty good.

Some of the highlights for committee reports were: Nominations – three of the five Director positions will be up for election in 2013. Depending on who gets elected Vice President, a fourth Director position may be open. Membership – It looks like there will be 49 new life members in 2013!! We are starting to see some large groups of life members and this is starting to have some effects on our budget. At the 2013 annual conference, we will have some discussion on possible changes to Life Membership. Operators Training – Director Lutz is working on some more Microbiology Sessions. Director Bergles has teamed up with AWWA and DNR to sponsor a new training opportunity. “The Closing the Loop: Issues Common to Water & Wastewater” will be held at the end of January. Directory – much was discussed about the future of the Directory. When the smoke cleared, it was decided to continue the Directory but charge for it. In the 2013 conference registration you will see a check box for the Directory with a $10 fee. Web-site - Director Bratz and Webmaster Meifert have made some nice improvements to the website. If you haven’t been on the site is awhile, check it out!! WWOA.org. The new item added was email alerts. Technical Program – VP Zimmer updated the board on the events for the annual conference. Exhibit Committee – T. Mulcahy & J. Shaw presented their report. The main issue was the size of the convention center at Stevens Point. After a walk around, some new ideas about vendor booth locations and areas for technical sessions were brought forth.

Then it was on to the 2013 budget. The board worked through every line item to make the budget as complete as possible. Again, look for the new $10 fee for the Directory.

The Executive Secretary duties were reviewed and some changes occurred. Then the board discussed the compensation/contract of the Executive Secretary. It was decided to not offer Richard a two year contract. A one year contract offer was approved by the board. (Much discussion was held about whether this fit within the organization’s bylaws). Richard declined the one year offer. The board held discussions on looking for a new Executive Secretary and then the meeting was adjourned.

The winter round of regional meetings should be in full swing as you read this. I see several meetings listed on the WWOA Events calendar. I hope to make two of these meetings towards my goal of visiting all the regions this year. When you see me this year, feel free to stop and say “hi”. Let me know what you think of WWOA and if there is anything we can do to better serve our membership.

I’m looking at the flyers for the Government Affairs Seminar and Spring Biosolids Symposium. As usual Kevin Freber, et.al. (GAS) and Lyle Lutz, et.al. (SBS) have done a bang-up job putting together interesting and informative programs.

The Annual Conference will be here before we know it. October 22-25. Get your hotel reservations in! A list of the hotels is on our website. We are looking into setting up bus service for the outlaying hotels.

Lastly, I truly do thank Richard and his family for all their work in the WWOA! This change has drawn a dark cloud over my term as President and for that I am sorry. Some have claimed that I have let politics and arrogance affect my decisions. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Sincerely,

Wade Peterson
WWOA President