Director's report
We are past ACE24 and I am happy to report that ACE24 was a big success with over 10,000 attendees. For those from Nebraska who were able to attend, I think we would all say that it was a great conference and a wonderful venue in Anaheim, California. The conference attendance surpassed last year's, and next June it will be held in Denver, Colorado.
There were many takeaways from the conference and the AWWA Board meetings, to me, most notably was that AWWA filed a petition with the US Court of Appeals regarding the new PFAS rule. While AWWA supports safe drinking water and eliminating PFAS from our drinking water, AWWA feels that the EPA did not rely on sound science when establishing the rule and underestimated the nationwide cost and affordability of the rule. The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) joined AWWA in the filing of the petition. The petition can be found on the AWWA website.
If you recall, we had a request from Bruce Dvorak to participate in a UNL program aimed at educating high school teachers about the water and wastewater field and environmental engineering. The training will include providing a curriculum for them to take back to their students with the goal to gain awareness and encourage high school students to consider education and careers in the water industry. Based upon the request, we voted virtually via email to approve funding for UNL. The course will take place on July 29th and 30th. It will comprise of a day and a half at Kiewit Hall on UNL's campus; please refer to the draft agenda for more details.
The Nebraska Section met its membership goal in 2023; however, we are falling behind in 2024. As of May of 2024, the Nebraska Section had 301 members. Our goal for growth at 1% would be 306 members but we should aim for 2% to 3% growth, if possible. Please do what you can to promote AWWA and recruit new members.
I do not believe anyone from the Nebraska Section attended the RMSO this year. I encourage attendance to the RMSO; the Nebraska Section will pay travel expenses for attendees next year. Nebraska should have one to two members attend each year. Let's plan ahead for next year and commit to attending.
Upcoming events:
- Summer Workshop: July 25th and 26th in Denver, Colorado.
- AWWA's Summer Workshop is a day and a half training for Section Leadership. Sessions focus on training and development for AWWA volunteers in leadership roles.
- AWWA provides instruction on association management best practices, guidelines and model programs.
- Attendance is open to any section volunteer in a leadership role, whether staff or volunteer.
