Meeting Minutes
International Affairs Committee
December 15, 2015
The APWA International Affairs Committee (IAC) met on December 15, 2015. Committee members in attendance included Vydas Juskelis, IAC Chair, Tyler Palmer, Tracy Warner, Noel Thompson, Martin Pastucha, Joy Schaad, Ross Vincent, Inger Sundstrom, Doug Drever and APWA Board Liaison Richard Berning.
The following members were not in attendance: Chris Champion, Ville Alatyppo.
The meeting was staffed by Lillie Plowman and Dave Dancy.
A summary of the meeting follows.
The October minutes were approved, with amendments to include: the new educational components of the PWX and the idea of putting together an international summit. The recommended changes to the minutes were deferred to old business.
Two other clarifications include IFME has a first draft of their best practices in winter maintenance. The “2016 IPWEA New Zealand Conference", which is to be held in Auckland 23-25 June 2016. The IPWEA Conference is biennial and will be held in Perth in 2017.
The November minutes were approved.
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APWA Board Liaison Report
The IAC Strategic Planning meeting will be held on February 3-4, 2016 in Kansas City at the national headquarters. This is a unique opportunity and hopefully everyone has made their arrangement to attend. We are extremely fortunate to have this opportunity to come together and grateful that Larry Frevert, APWA Interim Director saw the benefit to bringing this committee together.
IAC Chair Report
Strategic Planning
The IAC will be asked to conduct a SWOT Analysis for APWA and our international presence on a sub-committee basis. This information will assist with keeping the big picture in mind and help direct and guide the short and long term goals that the IAC will want to implement. This information should be gathered prior to the face-to-face meeting.
The other thing that will be helpful will be the work that Noel’s task force is doing looking at the value of our international programs and exchanges. This could assist with the development of a statement of organizational value. Their work can be used as a basis for demonstrating the IAC’s worth within the organization.
The IAC will also need to see how APWA’s involvement with IFME and partnerships in general, current and future will be impacted. This also includes those partnerships that APWA maintains with Engineers without Borders, ICMA, and People to People to name a few.
APWA Board members Larry Stevens, Rich Berning, and Ron Calkins will be in attendance. APWA staff will be Larry Frevert, APWA Interim Director, David Dancy, Marketing Director, Brian Van Norman, Chapter Relations Director and Lillie Plowman, APWA International & Outreach Manager. The meeting will be facilitated by Dave Dancy and Lillie Plowman.
ACTION ITEM: Each Sub-Committee will be asked to meet and conduct a SWOT Analysis. A template will be provided for this to be done over the next month. It will be important to have this information collected prior to the next conference call.
Conference Call Times
In coming months, the IAC will need to look at rotating the conference call times. This will be so that our international partners can all participate equally. For the January conference call, it was determined it would be held on January 19th at 2:30 p.m. CT.
Chapter Liaisons
There was nothing to report at this time, as they have not been revived, and we do not have anything substantive to share with them at this time. We will hold off until after the face-to-face Strategic Planning meeting.
Updates from Sub-Committees
APWA/CPWA/Mexico Latin America Sub-Committee
Debbie Leistner, Sub-Committee member will travel to Brazil. While there, she will be vetting out a possible relationship with the Brazilian Association of Sanitary and Environment Engineering (ABES).
The Sub-Committee also submitted an article from ICLEI for the March APWA Reporter. Currently, the discussions pertaining to establishing a chapter in Mexico or having a Mexican Public Works Association is on hold. Both Tyler Palmer and APWA President Brian Usher were sent invitations from ICLEI to attend their spring public works conference.
Vydas Juskelis has asked Tyler to circle back around with the Center for Sustainability, following the conference call that was held in the fall.
CZ-Slovak Sub-Committee
The Sub-Committee will meet in January to discuss the memorandum of understanding between APWA and the Czech and Slovak organizations. Thomas Hlavenka for SVPS (Czech) has asked to participate in the IAC and Sub-Committee conference calls.
It was mentioned that John Mick from the Chicago Chapter would like to participate on this Sub-Committee, so Martin Pastucha was asked to follow up with him.
APWA/CPWA/IPWEA/PWEA-NZ Sub-Committee
The Subcommittee members have all been assigned to work on various projects. Scott Brandmeier is currently working on contacting Chapters to see what study tours they offer. When the IAC Chapter Liaisons reconvene, then the Subcommittee would like for Scott to participate in these conference calls as well.
A few others are also taking a look at the statement of organization value. Taking a bird’s eye view of those things that are valued in this partnership and that extend beyond this scope.
Once the strategic planning meeting has occurred, then a few others will look to see if anything needs to be done concerning the review of the Partnership Agreement.
Richard McCoy, Australian native, relocated to Minnesota, and the key person for the International Reception will join the IAC conference calls in the spring to provide ongoing updates.
APWA/CPWA/Nordic Sub-Committee
The Sub-Committee held a working meeting on December 1, 2015 and a full meeting on December 9, 2015. The Sub-Committee is diligent about documenting the accomplishments of the Nordic partnership and the processes they are utilizing. During this call, the Subcommittee reviewed the survey analysis materials from past Congresses and also how they might be able to utilize the information from the JR applications. They also looked at the strengths and needs of both sides of the Atlantic. This Sub-Committee has agreed to prepare their findings to share with the first Chapter IAC Liaison conference call.
An invitation has been extended to President Brian Usher to attend both the Swedish and Finnish Associations’ annual meetings/conferences.
Predictions are that there will be about ten individuals coming from Finland to attend PWX, and they are planning on stopping in Chicago.
Reports
IFME
The Fall IFME Board meeting held in Denmark went well. There is a representative from Russia that is looking at joining. IFME is currently working on a new website that should be complete around June of 2016.
Doug Drever continues to work on the Spring IFME meeting that will be held in conjunction with the CPWA board meeting in Ottawa.
It was reported that IFME has worked on a guide related to winter maintenance. This guide has been distributed to members of the IAC. If anyone has any comments or feedback, please email them to Doug Drever. Please note that Denmark and Sweden have yet to submit their information for this guide. It is not certain what the delay is for this information. Of note, Kristina Nelson, member of the Nordic Sub-Committee as offered to assist with the Swedish translation to English if needed.
Ville Alytyppo has inquired about a framework for municipal engineering qualifications. Finland would like to adapt it in their country in the next year or so. Vydas has indicated that there are some states in the United States that have some things in place already.
It was suggested that perhaps a list of topics and courses could be pulled together by each country and then these could be combined into one document. Each country would also provide how these should be delivered.
Jennings Randolph International Fellowship Award Program
The International Affairs Committee (IAC) Jennings Randolph International Fellowship Program Task Force reviewed and ranked 18 applications (five for Australia, two Finland, three for New Zealand, six for Sweden, one for Mexico and one for Europe). They recommend: Bruce Kaplan, $2,300 – New Zealand (waterfront redevelopment experience of Auckland, New Zealand, specifically concerning its central rail terminal, the Britomart Transport Centre) and Matt Rodrigues, $2,000 – Sweden (Sweden’s implementation of the Vision Zero Initiative to eliminate transportation related fatalities and serious injuries) to the IAC. A vote was taken and the passed that these two individuals be recommended to the Eisenhower Institute for their consideration as the 2016 Jennings Randolph International Fellows. This information will remain confidential until the Eisenhower Institute confirms the selection of both individuals.
The Task Force has noted that in the next conference call they will select an alternate, in case, one of the individuals is unable to attend. There are also plans to discuss how they can recognize those individuals not selected and perhaps utilize their ideas from their study tour topics.
International Outreach
Review APWA Reporter Schedule
· February – Due December 25th ICLEI
· March – due January 25th – 2016 JR Fellow Announcement
· April – due February 25th IPWEA
Finland is working on a water resources article, perhaps for the May issue.
Other Business
The IAC added two topics to the list for the next agenda: PWX “Educational format” and “International Summit.”
Submitted by: Lillie Plowman, Staff