President's Message
September 2010
Friends,
I extend appreciation to Texas Senator Dan Patrick for his terrific guest speaker presentation at our 4th Annual Dinner Meeting on August 26th. He enlightened us about his two terms in office (he's voted on over 8,000 bills!), the politics of politicians in Texas government, our good Texas politics legacy that has left Texas with $5.0 billion in "rainy day funds" that no other state can boast, his genesis of S.B. 361 to create protective measures in Harris County that will provide water during major emergency events (like Hurricane Ike did), and more. He ended by requesting us all to keep abreast of the legislation being considered and to get involved and continue Texas' legacy of providing for future generations.
For the business side of our August 26th dinner meeting, we covered Chapter challenges and success as well as upcoming chapter activities. You can follow along by viewing our power point presentation webpage at http://www.setawwa.org/en/art/69/. Your Executive and Standing Committee (ESC) struggles with the following challenges. If you have ideas on how to address these struggles, please send me an email.
1. Operator and Service Provider iInvolvement
2. Member involvement (22 Counties) in Chapter activities and ESC
3. Unemployed or underemployed members and non-members in the water/wastewater profession
Foremost on my mind are those water and wastewater (W/WW) professionals who are either underemployed (working less than 40 hours per week) or experienced a ‘reduction in force’ and have been unable to find contract work or permanent work. What can we do as an association to help? I researched some options and coordinated with the ESC on one item. To see the options for searching or posting a job, please view our "Job" webpage. If you know of other methods I missed, please email me and I will include them with this list.
AWWA national has a reduced fee YP membership of $99.00! Go to AWWA’s Young Professionals Centerwebsite for more information.
First Beaumont Luncheon Meeting:
Hello AWWA members in the Greater Beaumont Area! It was a pleasure to meet you at our June 17th luncheon meeting at Lamar University in the Lamar Room of the Mary and John Gray Library. We had a great turn out of almost 30 members including four graduate students from Lamar University. Former Mayor Guy Goodson gave an informative presentation focusing on the following topics:
- Pending federal legislation, i.e. Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act of 2010.
- The state interim charges to the Committees on Natural Resources as to the implementation of the State Water Plan and the progress of Groundwater Districts, Groundwater Management Areas and the Texas Water Development Board to implement the Plan and how the $300-500 billion in costs can be funded.
- All the major agencies that address natural resources and the environment are under sunset review next session. The Texas Legislature is charged with evaluating whether agencies such as the TWDB, TCEQ, PUCT, Soil and Water are meeting the State's long-range planning goals.
The catered food and service was wonderful as was the surrounding of the University Reception Center where the Lamar Room is located on the top floor of the library. To view the photo album of the event, please go to our webpage http://www.setawwa.org/en/photos/albums/v/6.
Cordially,
David Dow, P.E.
