MEETING NOTES

CWEA LEADERSHIP MEETING—LOCAL SECTIONS, COMMITTEES, PAST PRESIDENTS

May 24, 2004; 10 am – 2 pm, Martinez &

May 25, 2004; 10 am – 2 pm, Irvine

  1. Welcome

Planning and Program Development Committee (PPD) Chair Kathy Suter welcomed those in attendance.

The following individuals were in attendance on May 24 in Martinez:

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Kathy Suter, PPD Chair & President Elect

Nick Pinhey, Facilitator and Past President

Gayle Tupper, P3S Chair

Julie Taylor, Director of Professional Development and Member Services

Mike Donovan, Past President & History Chair

Paul Louis, Board Member

EJ Shalaby, Scholarship Chair

Don Cottier, SCVS Chair & Operator Training Vice Chair

Steve Swanback, NRC Past Chair

Elizabeth Allan, Executive Director

Lenny Rather, TCP-NRC Liaison

John Larson, Past President

Darren Greenwood, Board Member

Maura Bonnarens, Government Affairs Chair

Steven Agor, President

Angela Nielsen, Exec. Assistant and Coordinator of Leadership Development

Teresa Herrera, NRC Vice Chair & NRTC Co-Chair

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The following individuals were in attendance on May 25 in Irvine:

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Kathy Suter, PPD Chair & President Elect

Nick Pinhey, Facilitator & Past President

Ralph Palomares, SARBS President

Toby Weissert, Treasurer

Tara Robinson, CORB/DAMS Past President

Angela Nielsen, Exec. Assistant and Coordinator of Leadership Development

Elizabeth Allan, Executive Director

Paula Zeller, Vice President & Op Training Chair

Hoyt Pemberton, Maintenance Training Chair

Elmo Dagondon, Board Member

Rick Roper, CORBS President & Tri-State Delegate

Julie Taylor, Director of Professional Development
and Member Services

Connie Leonard, LABS President

Steven Agor, President

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Facilitator Nick Pinhey reviewed the ground rules for the meeting.

  1. Purpose

PPD Chair Suter reviewed the purpose of the strategic plan, noting that it:

  • provides a process to ensure our relevance over time.
  • reflects our thinking about how the world should be different as a result of what we do as an organization.
  • identifies what we are not doing today that we must do in the future to be successful.
  1. Planning Background

PPD Chair Suter provided a summary of background information about the strategic plan, including:

  • key terms and language;
  • how it will link to the annual plan of work; and
  • work that has been done so far.
  1. The Draft Plan Review & Feedback

Facilitator Pinhey opened the discussion of the draft strategic plan by reminding the group that the focus is on the plan, rather than the steps we’ll need to take to implement it. He noted that we need to be sure that we have the right targets before we can determine how to get there.

  1. The Soul of the Plan – Purpose and Values

The purpose reads, “To enhance the effectiveness of wastewater professionals and to benefit socieity through the protection and enhancement of the water environment.”

Values included professionalism, responsibility, accountability, integrity, adaptability, excellence, knowledge, inclusion, and fun (each with descriptive language).

Feedback on the purpose and values (core ideology) included:

  • Purpose – substitution of “water environment professionals” for “wastewater professionals”
  • Purpose – modify last half (starting with “and to benefit…”) to “in order to protect and enhance public health and safety.”
  • Values – addition of “teamwork”
  • Values – addition of “healthy dialogue and solicitation of differing opinions”
  • Values – substitution of “incorruptible” with “integrity” under “integrity”
  • Values – promotion of where the Code of Conduct can be found under “integrity”
  • Values – addition under “knowledge” of sharing of information
  • Values – addition of “outreach”
  • Values – addition of “inclusion” to encourage others to join and partner with us
  • Values – move “fun” to top of list
  • Values – addition of “education”
  • Values – addition of “responsibility”
  • Values – addition of being seen as leaders in maintaining the water quality

Facilitator Pinhey summarized the survey results for this section.

  1. The Body of the Plan
  1. Big Audacious Goal & Vivid Descriptions

The Big Audacious Goal reads, “The public will value (recognize, respect, and support) wastewater professionals as stewards of the environment.”

Feedback on the big audacious goal and the vivid descriptions (envisioned future) included:

  • Goal – change term “big audacious goal” with emphasis on “goal”
  • Goal – substitute “stewards” for “partners in protecting” or “true environmentalists” or “for their contributions to society”
  • Goal – do/do not change “wastewater professional” to “water quality professional”
  • Goal – there was discussion as to whether an external goal was beneficial to the needs of the members
  • Vivid description – note that certification will be mandated by regulators
  • Vivid description – note that collaboration will be with other professional associations and key stakeholders, with particular emphasis on CASA and Tri-TAC
  • Vivid description – note that we will be recognized as the first or in-action environmentalists
  • Vivid description – delete the description regarding baby-boomers
  • Vivid description – add “community colleges” where universities are mentioned
  • Vivid description – reword description to reflect a positive action (e.g. in number two, to demonstrate pride vs. will be proud)
  • Vivid description – add “the public will understand the customer-service response of collection systems workers to overflows as being as fast as they are.”
  • Vivid descriptions – it was noted that the number and scope of the vivid descriptions were overwhelming.

Facilitator Pinhey summarized the survey results for this section.

  1. Assumptions & E-scanning

In addition to grammar and tone changes, feedback on the assumptions (trends) included:

Work & Workplace Trends

  • 4 – reword for clarity and separation of OIT and high-level operators
  • 5 – addition of “due to technological advances such as SCADA.”
  • 6 – addition of pollution prevention and stormwater
  • 7 – belief that this may be a current occurrence vs. trend to watch for in 5-10 years
  • 14 – there was mixed opinion regarding its accuracy

Science & Technology Trends

  • 1 – reword for clarity
  • 4 – believed to belong under “work and workplace”

Demographics & Social Trends

  • 1 – note that this refers to changing professions during one’s working career
  • 11 – note that this refers specifically to consulting engineers
  • 11 – there was disagreement that this was accurate
  • 13 – this will likely vary by region, with focus on drinking water issues first
  • 13 – belief that this may be a current occurrence vs. trend to watch for in 5-10 years

Economic Trends

  • 2 - belief that this may be a current occurrence vs. trend to watch for in 5-10 years
  • 5 & 12 – were seen to be linked
  • 6 – add more about accountability including social engineering (for public access and land use)
  • 7 – note that this will vary by municipality
  • 8 – note that this may become more accepted (except in the case of drinking water)
  • 13 – note that treatment plants will require more funds to offset the cost of regulations, but collection systems regulations will not require additional funding to implement

Government Trends

  • Add increase number of mandates focused on watersheds
  • 4 & 7 – were seen to be linked
  • 7 – note that there are multi-media issues such as increase SSO issues and air scrubbers

Globalization Trends – no modifications were suggested

Facilitator Pinhey summarized the survey results for this section.

Director of Professional Development and Member Services Taylor summarized the importance of using environmental scanning as a planning tool. She suggested that if there are industry publications that identify trends, or if individuals notice an issue, product, or problem re-occur with a relative amount of frequency that they call the office. Until the e-scanning process is fully developed (with leaders involved more intensely and resources are available), staff will maintain a folder of the input for later review.

  1. Mega-issues

In addition to grammar and tone changes, feedback on mega-issues included:

Partnerships with other associations, regulator, and environmental groups

  • Add legislators to list of partners
  • Delete “should we” from last bullet
  • Add “how do we shift from a place of animosity to respect for regulators?”
  • Add “how do we identify partners?”
  • Add “how do we leverage our role on Tri-TAC?”

Public education and perception

  • Modify to read “Education and Perception of the Industry and Association”
  • Add “how do we become involved in community outreach events?”
  • Add “how do we encourage and support agencies to have a public education program?”
  • Add “how do we demonstrate the value of what we do?”
  • Add “how can we leverage what agencies already have?”
  • Add “how do we become involved with children’s museums?”
  • Add “how do we find the volunteer and other resources to support this program?”

New workforce and outreach to students

  • Add “what do we have to offer to all levels of students?”
  • Add “how do we address curriculum so students can be prepared to enter the workforce?”
  • Add “how do we encourage the new workforce to become engaged as volunteers?”
  • Add “how do we start apprenticeships?”

Certification and training

  • Add “how can we management to recognize the value of contact hours and certification?”
  • Add the possibility of partnerships with more associations than just ABC.
  • Add “how do we make certification mandatory?”

Other questions were noted:

  • How can we become more relevant to management of agencies?
  • How do we outreach to agencies?

Facilitator Pinhey summarized the survey results for this section.

  1. Goals & Objectives

In addition to grammar and tone changes, feedback on the goals, objectives, and strategies included:

Goal 1 – The public will increasingly value what wastewater professionals do to enhance the water environment; and wastewater professionals will rank their profession as highly desirable and rewarding.

  • Objectives – should include regulators to look to CWEA as a place for knowledge.
  • Objectives – add educate the public on the value of certification, education, and training of wastewater professionals
  • Strategies – the public education committee should brainstorm how they can be effective in supporting this goal.
  • Strategies – add use of a baseline survey

Goal 2 – CWEA will be an inclusive and accessible association; serving wastewater professionals, their organizations, and related communities.

  • Goal – substitute “wastewater” with “water environment”
  • Goal – substitute “organizations” with ”employers”
  • Objectives – add seeking out of non-traditional members (such as regulators and educators)
  • Objectives – add inclusion of more partnerships with people in leadership roles.
  • Objectives – add increase student opportunities for involvement
  • Objectives – add partnerships with CalTrans and City Counsels for training with confined space and flagger training.

Goal 3 – Through CWEA’s products and services, California’s water quality industry will have an increasingly professional, competent, and ample workforce.

  • Objectives – there was some question as to whether this can be done, and how to get a data source that would show progress
  • Strategies – add a presentation about CWEA to be given to human resource managers

Goal 4 – Industry employers will increasingly value, recognize, and require CWEA certification for career advancement.

  • Objective – add to determine if there are other certification classifications that should be mandated.
  • Strategies – add a way to develop training requests into classes
  • Strategies – add working with ABC
  • Strategies – add finding a way to balance mandated certification while maintaining ownership of the certification program

Goal 5 – CWEA will be recognized as the leader in protecting our water environment through the development and sharing of information and knowledge.

  • Objectives – add partner with other training providers
  • Objectives – add for CWEA to become a source of information to the media
  • Strategies – add development of a method to determine what training is necessary and a way to provide it.

Goal 6 – Legislative bodies, regulatory agencies, environmentalists and other stakeholders will view CWEA as a key partner in legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry.

  • Objective – add providing training on being a media contact
  • Objective – add strengthening our relationship with CAS to become more involved in the legislative process

An additional goal was suggested: Ensuring the future of CWEA – to deal with governance structure, goals, leadership development, and continual evolution of the association over time so that we can accomplish our goals.

Facilitator Pinhey summarized the survey results for this section.

  1. Next Steps
  • The next steps in finishing the strategic plan draft were reviewed:
  • Planning & Program Development Committee reviews input on plan.
  • Recommends plan for Board adoption in June.
  1. Brainstorming

Ideas for distribution and talking points for leaders to use with their local sections, committees, members, and agencies included:

  1. Start with vision and the 6 goals
  2. Point-out that each local section and committee will help implement our plan
  3. Highlight that strategic planning is an ongoing process, requiring continual input . Our planning model includes specific opportunities to give input, including the annual October leadership planning meeting.
  4. We will continue what we are already doing well. Our plan’s focus is on what we are not current doing but need to do in order to stay relevant to our members.
  5. Public education has always been part of our mission, this is just giving it a new emphasis
  6. If we succeed in meeting our big audacious goal (or even some of the goals that lead to it); we will be more attractive to employers.
  7. Working in cooperation with local sections and agencies will allow us to do more, faster.
  8. We are filling a void, not trying to duplicate what others are already doing
  9. We are helping to prevent a resource void in the future by planning today.
  10. We have to communicate our plan better than “here it is, go read it” to the membership.
  11. Have a fun review session
  12. “Sell” it
  13. Don’t do as a track during AC/conference – we need a captive audience
  14. Present at local section and committee meetings (before the main speaker)
  15. Create a fun/cartoon version for the highlights
  16. Use cards/postcards with bullet-points; distribute 8 key points per card/meeting (handout as a series, not all at once)
  17. An adequately trained and ample workforce benefits agencies and employers now and for the future.
  18. Our strategic plan will help focus and channel our energy on the local section, committee, and state levels; and help us to get volunteers and ideas
  19. Our strategic plan can be used to help plan local section and committee activities – and cultivates partnerships
  20. Everyone who attends meetings are dues payers, and the strategic plan (and these meetings) allow for you to provide input on how the dues ($) are spent.
  21. Local sections have been involved in writing our plan, now’s the time to get behind it.
  1. Wrap-up

Leaders were encouraged to plan for the October Annual Leadership Planning Meeting

  • Tentatively October 19, 2004 in Ontario
  • Invitations will go to:
  • Local Section leaders
  • Committee leaders
  • Past Presidents
  1. Adjourn

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