AWWA Summer Workshop in Denver

Connie Schreppel and I attended the AWWA Summer Workshop in Denver, last week. There were lots of people there, representing almost all 43 Sections in AWWA. We met and heard from the new executive director, Gary Zimmerman, who plans to bring AWWA from GOOD to GREAT. He has great vision and is already implementing change. Lots of staff from AWWA were there and available to talk to about programs, events, and initiatives. Some ideas we got:

1. Reaching new audiences and potential members through the internet - blogging, facebook/myspace, web 2.0, and enhancing websites to be more interactive.
2. Making conferences successful, setting objectives, using SurveyMonkey to assess our events.
3. Reaching out to new potential members, currently outside of the water industry. In addition to high school and college students, look at displaced (laid off) workers, ex-military personnel, people returning to the workforce.
4. Working with our boards to improve the work we do (through self-evaluation and other tools).

We will bring ideas back to the board at our meeting in mid-August.

We also learned that AWWA is working on affiliation agreements between AWWA and its Sections. This will be undertaken by a committee of volunteers (the majority are AWWA Board Members) representing many Sections.

Any comments? We would like to hear from you!