Minutes
SWANA Florida Sunshine Chapter
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
July 28, 2013
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Hyatt Regency Sarasota – The Keys
Call to Order and Roll Call: Mitch Kessler, President, called the meeting to order. Deb Bush, Secretary, called roll:
In Attendance
Mitch Kessler, President Tammy Hayes, Vice President
Deb Bush, Secretary Sam Levin, Treasurer
Warren Smith Jim Becker
David Deans Tonja Brickhouse
Keith Howard Kim Byer
Bob Hyres Crystal Bruce, Chapter Administrator
Absent
Rick Stevens Dan Rodriguez
Approval of Minutes -Sam Levin moved to approve the Board of Directors Teleconference minutes dated April 15, 2013. Seconded by Tonja Brickhouse. Motion Approved
Consent Agenda
Membership – Sam Levin
Collection & Transfer – Bob Hyres
WTE – Kelsi Oswald, Joe Treshler, Warren Smith
WRAPP – Ray Moreau
Legislative – Ray Moreau
Disposal – John Banks
By-Laws – Tonja Brickhouse
International Board Report – Tammy Hayes
Technical Division – Ray Lotito
Warren Smith asked the Membership Committee chair whether any benefit had been observed from the SWANA International efforts to increase membership. Sam Levin said that it was hard to quantify since the Chapter had made some efforts to increase and retain membership as well. Warren inquired if we had heard anything from SWANA International about the membership efforts. It was reported that nothing was received. Chapter membership is up 1.1% this year, but it is not known if it is directly attributed to the Chapter efforts or SWANA International. Tammy Hayes will contact SWANA regarding any data to show the results of their membership drive efforts
Warren Smith moved to approve the Consent Agenda. Seconded by Deb Bush. Motion Approved
Committee Updates
(a) Finance and Budget Committee (Sam Levin)
1) Treasurer’s Report - The Chapter has $294,000 in their checking and savings accounts. The current budget has the revenue from the Road-E-O in it but the expense of sending the winners to International will come out of next year’s budget. The budget projection anticipated a $36,000 loss this year. Current projections indicate a positive balance. Factors for this include that the revenue from the Summer Conference is included; however the expenses have not been recorded. The Summer Conference projected a profit of $20,000. Now it is estimated to be $25,000.
2) The Treasurer reported the budget for next year has not been prepared yet. Crystal asked Committee Chairs for their budget requests. She heard from only a few. There will be a conference call to review and approve the budget as done last year.
(b) Nominations and Awards Committee (David Deans)
1) New Officers and Directors - Only 19% of our members voted, but that mirrors national numbers. The Slate of Officers consisting of Mitch Kessler-President, Tammy Hayes-Vice President, Sam Levin-Treasurer and Deb Bush-Secretary were all elected for a two year term. New Directors elected were: Keith Howard, Rick Stevens, Bob Hyres and Mike Gordon. It is positive that there was interest in becoming a Board Member with 8 candidates for 4 positions.
Jim Becker moved to accept the slate of officers and directors voted by the membership. Seconded by Tonja Brickhouse. Motion Approved
2) Discussed how to generate interest in participating and moving up in the organization. Mitch said that he spoke to many members and told them that the best way to get on the Board is to show up and do something. It was noted that two people who wanted to be on the Board are active in other organizations, but don’t show up at the meetings or conferences. Mitch will reach out to the people who were interested in serving on the Board, but were not elected, to ask if they would like to serve on a committee.
3) Discussed what can be done to stimulate more people to vote. Crystal will investigate some options before the next election.
4) Awards - A Professional Achievement Award will be given to Lindsey Sampson and an Outstanding Contribution in Support of the Chapter award will be presented to the City of Kissimmee (for hosting the 2012 Road-E-O). David said that he would have liked to see more than one nomination for awards. Mitch mentioned several people who make contributions have already received awards. The Board and Committees need to make an effort to recognize and nominate those members who are making contributions to the industry and organization.
(c) Conference Committee (Tammy Hayes)
1) 2013 Summer Conference:
· There was a MOLO Course scheduled for this conference, but only 4 registrations were received; therefore, the training was cancelled.
· Pre-Registered: 145 attendees and 11 guests for 156 total (there are 26 exhibitors, 60 attendees from public sector, 85 attendees from private sector and 4-5 on-site registrations so far)
· Just under $10,000 in sponsorships
· Projected profit is $20,000-$25,000
· Received compliments about the program and agenda. Tammy discussed the process used by Marc Rogoff for selecting the presentations and setting the program.
2) 2014 Summer Conference: Tammy reported that they are looking at somewhere in Southeast Florida such as Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach. Suggestions were to add Palm Beach or Jupiter. The committee will research options.
3) 2014 Winter Conference: Work continues on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Recycle Florida Today (RFT) for the winter meeting which is scheduled for January in Orlando.
(d) Scholarship Committee (Lenny Marion):
In Lenny’s absence, Tammy advised the Board that the Committee had three outstanding submittals for the 2013 scholarships. The committee had a difficult time distinguishing the best two of the three. It recommends the Board award $2,000 scholarships to each of the three students who applied for a scholarship.
Tonja Brickhouse moved to award a $2,000 scholarship to each of the three students, for a total expense of $6,000. Seconded by Sam Levin. Motion Approved
New Business
(a) WASTECON Flag Volunteer - Marc Rogoff volunteered to carry the Florida flag at WASTECON.
(b) Committee Chair Appointments and Membership Involvement - Mitch spoke to all committee chairs. Some of the feedback that he received was “there are always the same people involved or that it was a good ole boys network”. Mitch plans to open up the business meeting to obtain comments and suggestions from the membership. Discussion included:
· The Chapter needs to be pro-active about advising members that all they need to do is show up to get involved. Keith stated an email blast was sent to committee members announcing the scalehouse conference call. Similar pre-meeting announcements may also be beneficial to other committees. The key is getting the word out and letting the membership know when an event or meeting is scheduled.
· Using the Training Committee as an example, the members responded that they wanted Landfill Training, yet only four people signed up. Perhaps, if we identify an area and add a short specific training or update at the winter meeting, it will stimulate interest in getting Kim help on the Training Committee while providing a service to our members. The Chapter will pay for the training.
· Discussion was held regarding advertising the Board conference calls. Every Board call should be an open call. It was suggested to add committee information and interest requests in the “Welcome to SWANA” and renewal email. Crystal will inquire if it’s possible to receive notification when a member renews. Sam already sends an email to new members and will add the committee information.
(c) Chapter Business Meeting - Mitch requested that each officer who provides a report or gives an award encourages participation in the Chapter. Mitch plans for the Chapter Business meeting to be interactive with the members. He will ask the members what they want from the organization and how the Chapter can best use the resources to encourage involvement and participation.
Old Business
(a) ARF Subscription- Last meeting we discussed SWANA International’s offer to let the chapters join the Applied Research Foundation at a per member price. There are different committees for each solid waste focus area (Landfill, WTE, etc.) Mitch spoke to Jeremy O’Brien about the possibility of obtaining a better subscription rate for our chapter since we are such a large chapter. The original cost was $10 per member for each committee which equals $5,400 per committee or about $25,000 per year. The ARF said that the cost would be $10 per member for the first committee and $5 per member for each subsequent committee per year. Board discussion indicated this was not the best use of Chapter funds and requested Mitch to send a letter to SWANA explaining the Board rationale and reasoning for not joining.
Comments from Chapter Officers and Directors
· Warren Smith raised the question of how much money does the chapter need to have in the bank. What is the maximum account balance amount the chapter can have and still qualify as a non-profit organization? We need to determine what we need to have as a reserve or rainy day fund, and beyond that, what we can do to spend some of the money. Mitch suggested selecting random members throughout the state and give them free conference attendance. Tammy Hayes and Deb Bush suggested lowering the conference fee for all.
· Kim Byer said that from the last survey, members requested training that currently does not exist such as Scalehouse Accounting or Safety. She suggested spending money to have those specific training programs developed. The training would be generic enough that it would not favor any certain company, but would be specific enough to provide Best Management Practices. She would be able to get SWANA and TREEO to offer CEU’s for attendance and the chapter could provide the training free of charge.
· Tammy Hayes said that she noticed there is not a big difference between member and non-member conference attendance fees. The small difference does not incentivize membership as a benefit to attend the conference.
· Bob Hyres said that he noticed in the Board Packet that we earned $3.00 in interest. He knows that interest is not that great right now, but there is an American Express Savings Account that pays 0.85% interest and is FDIC insured. The $250,000 would yield over $2,700 in interest per year. Crystal will look into this.
· Warren said that he was a member for over 35 years. He talked about the beginnings of the organization and early development of Hillsborough County Solid Waste Division and building the Transfer Station which was the first site tour at the initial GRDC meeting which evolved into SWANA. He said this was a great organization and he knows that the Board members know that because they are involved.
· Dave Deans said he had been involved in the organization since 1980 and would soon be following in Warren’s footsteps by retiring. He is glad to see that we are talking about the opportunities for the organization. He said that when he took over as president his goal was to get more public sector people involved and he is glad to see that it has been realized.
· Sam Levin said a Board conference call to approve the Budget is needed. We may not be able to put new ideas into this new budget, but we can always change the budget mid-year.
· Jim Becker said if we allowed students to come at no charge perhaps we should allow retirees to come at no charge. That will help with institutional knowledge.
· Keith Howard talked about how MOLO certification was handled in Alaska. Dave Deans said that through the State Training committee the CEU credits were developed for participation. The training committee did not think that having them take the same class every three years was beneficial. Keith agreed that we should focus our efforts on enriching the CEU program. He also offered the idea of having a paid speaker to draw more people in and offer a different perspective.
· Keith said that RFT and Publix are pushing an objective of turning organic waste into a recovered material. He wonders if the organization should offer a position on this issue. Keith expressed concern that outside entities diverting material from his franchised system may negatively impact his system.
· Mitch responded that diverting materials from a franchised system is a big issue for the entire industry. Impacts include taking revenue from systems, collection issues, franchise agreements, recycling, and other counties wanting to take the material from the franchise. It is a great example of a topic that impacts different focus areas of the industry such as the franchise side, collection side and recycling side.
· Warren stated that the organization does not take positions on such matters because we have membership on all sides of this issue. This may be a good topic for a panel or roundtable discussion.
· Tonja Brickhouse suggested the chapter do something legislatively to promote the “Slow Down to Get Around.” She said she is working with another organization and legislative affairs personnel to promote it. Other board members said that NSWMA is working on this with their lobbyist.
· Mitch asked that all Board members attend the business meeting. He also said that he will put together a committee to work on some of the suggestions that were brought up at this meeting.
Scheduling of Next Board Meeting and Adjournment-
The next meeting will be a conference call to approve the budget. Crystal will propose some dates and send them to board members.
Adjourn - Warren Smith moved to adjourn seconded by Kim Byer. Meeting adjourned at 4:40 pm
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