ILLINOIS WATER ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
Volume 24, No. 2 - Summer 2003

WEF IDEAS AND STRATEGY

The WEF held one of five exchange meetings at the Dearborn Inn, Dearborn, Michigan, Friday and Saturday, April 25-26. The Michigan WEA was the host. Mary Johnson, Greg Brunst and Toby Duckett represented IWEA. Representatives from 6 different Member Associations (MA) were present along with WEF staff and officers.

There are several reasons for these meetings held in various locations around the country. The key reason is to provide an opportunity for small groups of MA officers to exchange ideas between themselves and the WEF staff. This format allows an open discussion on topics for future direction of the WEF. All MA officers and members should attend to understand what works or does not work for other associations.

Bill Bertera, WEF Executive Director, provided a report on the current financial status, and his goals for WEF's future. He noted that WEF has reduced its number of employees from 115 to 88 to help keep costs down. He talked about the need for the WEF to lead in all matters of the water environment and be able to make the quick decisions to keep us as a leader. Other topics included insurance, textbook sales, possible changes in international focus, and the 401k plan.

Marty McLemore, WEF Membership Chair, presented a membership strategic plan. The different table groups discussed what was important to them as a key focus for WEF membership. Of the twenty different topics, no one group picked the same top five. This demonstrated how diverse our needs are and how hard it is to pick key reasons to join and stay as a member. This was a very good session and time to share ideas.

Larry Jaworski, WEF President-Elect, presented the current thinking on governance. Three key ideas now are: the inability to respond quickly, current governance by the Board of Directors does not adequately support or implement the strategic plan, and representation.

Surveys were sent out to 1000 WEF members and 200 completed them. Six major points came out of that survey: 95% feel more formal coordination of committee work is needed; 95% feel the committees should support the strategic plan; 87% feel the WEF should support the MA products; 86% feel that committee work should lead to WEF future officers; 83% feel that all members are not represented properly; and finally 82% feel the Board of Directors should have input to the WEF executive committee. Needless to say, this is a very important issue for us to address at this time. Larry requested input by the first part of July since some issues will come before the Board of Directors in October.

Linda Kelly, WEF Stockholm Junior Water Prize Chair, presented her goals and the current status of this program. She stressed that all of our MA's should send a winner to Dallas in 2003 and Portland in 2004.

Mr. Rutherfords, PWO Representative to the WEF Executive Committee, presented the current strength and direction of the PWO. They now have a vision statement, they started an operations challenge for four member teams, they are looking at the global status of operators, they work on the PWO Pipeline and Operations Forum newsletter, and attend all exchange meetings.

The last day was spent hearing from all the MA's present on current strengths and weakness. It was very clear that the strongest associations are those with a large active membership, professional office staff, and clear membership opportunity. IWEA, your MA, is strong, but we can be better. Your officers will focus on these matters and your input will assist.