New York Rural Water Association

As most of you have heard by now, we have lost two members of our field staff to other businesses. Both Yvonne Tucker and Tim Shudt have moved on to bigger and better things. Both of these individuals were excellent employees as well as great people. They will be truly missed, not only by myself and the rest of our staff, but by all the members of our Association and our Associate Members. They both performed their jobs with the utmost professionalism. However, we have reloaded, so to speak, and have filled their positions with two quality individuals. As you read on, you will learn more about those gentlemen in this issue. The other companies sought both Yvonne and Tim out because they recognized their knowledge and abilities. I am sure that both Yvonne and Tim would be the first to admit that they gained a great deal of that, while working for, and, with you. I remember sitting down with Pat Scalera, our Executive Director, in mid November of last year, and saying to her what a great staff we had and how fortunate we were. Then all of a sudden, just one short month later, we were minus two members of that staff. So, as many of you have found out in the past, that's how it works! Now, our challenge is to bring Mike Dill and Steve Grimm, our newest employees into the Rural Water family. Our goal is to be as efficient and as successful as we have been in the past. We were very fortunate to find two quality individuals to replace Yvonne and Tim. Therefore, I am confident we will not miss a beat when it comes to providing services to our members. So join me in wishing Yvonne and Tim good luck in their new careers and welcoming Mike and Steve to the Association. Now on to other things, for those of you who have attended NYRWA training seminars in the past, you have a good idea what we as an Association are trying to accomplish. Our goal is to provide quality training for both water and wastewater operators throughout the state. As I explain at each seminar, we have to project a whole years worth of training by March to fulfill our grant requirements. This operating plan has to be approved by our Board of Directors for the following year. That's why I ask for your input on the assessment sheets we hand out at each session. I'm always looking for ideas and suggestions to make the training better. Once this operating plan is approved, the real work starts. Going to our Associate Members first, we try to find presenters for the topic's selected. As you can imagine it takes some time to coordinate the entire session. Fortunately for me, our training coordinator, Valerie Swartz does a great job putting these all together. The one thing we always tell our presenters is that we don't want them to do a "sales pitch". However, we have to realize that the presenters get no compensation for their time, so when you see their company names and logo's on their slides and handouts, that's how it works! We can't and don't always utilize Associate Members for our presentations. We do have a list of non-members who have helped us out in the past. That gives them the opportunity to see how it works and then we encourage them to become Associate Members. We are always looking for new and innovative presentations that will provide both information and allow for some fun. I have been looking to find some operators who have "mastered" a particular topic or technique that will help others to learn. Then I can work on getting them to share that info with fellow operators in the region. If you would like to pursue that possibility or know someone who might be willing to share their knowledge, I would love to hear from you.

Another topic, which I have received several questions on lately, is referring member systems to Associate Members. As always, this Association supports our Associate Members every chance we get. These are the businesses which in turn, supports us by presenting at seminars and helping the field staff out with information. In addition, these businesses exhibit at our annual technical conference and sponsor Rural Water activities, among other things, throughout the year. Our entire staff often refer to these businesses for information to help our member systems with problems they may be experiencing. When we are asked for more than we can supply, we refer them to our magazine for a list of our Associate Members. We are truly blessed with many businesses, which advertise and support us in so many different ways. Their support along with our steadily growing membership will allow us to keep this organization strong and viable, along with enabling us to provide the training, technical assistance and support that are vital to the water industry across New York. And That's How It Works!