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Student Design Competition

Student Design Competition. We are looking for volunteers to help out with judging the competition and will involve the following tasks, review of design notebook, attend video call where teams present project, submission of graded rubric for each team, debrief call to discuss team grading/score. If this s something you would be interested in, please reach out to Sam Nieslanik at [email protected].

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Spokane Area Quarterly Facility Tour and Social

Join us for a tour and social on April 17th, 2024, at the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board (HARSB)! Starting at 3 pm, we’ll tour the facility then head over to a bar (TBD) at about 5 pm for a social gathering. If you’re interested, please register here – it’s free for everyone! The tour will provide 0.2 CEUs for Washington and Idaho, pending approval. This event is hosted by the Students and Young Professionals Committee, but everyone is welcome to attend.

Meet the 2024 WAVE Cohort!

The WAVE program engages students and emerging professionals from diverse backgrounds with the water industry through a series of workshops and attendance of the 2024 PNCWA conference. The workshops focus on the various paths within the water industry, networking, skills development, employment opportunities, and conference preparation. Each month until the conference, we will highlight our participants. Here is a quick introduction of Theresa, Celeste, Max, and Mo.

Theresa Passe

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Designing Your Work Life Book Club on April 18

The Leadership Development Committee is excited to continue our book club discussion series on April 18th from 11:00 am to noon PT. We’re reprising the January discussion with Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The book introduces design thinking to living, learning, and succeeding in our work lives. The concept is thinking like a designer. What exactly does that mean?

Design Thinking Includes:

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Stormwater Committee Quarterly Newsletter

Hi everyone and welcome to the Stormwater Committee! This article is the first quarterly newsletter from the Stormwater Committee to provide information on past and upcoming committee events.

2023: A Year in Review

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Spokane Area Quarterly Facility Tour and Social

Join us for a tour and social on April 17th, 2024, at the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board (HARSB)! Starting at 3 pm, we’ll tour the facility then head over to a bar (TBD) at about 5 pm for a social gathering. If you’re interested, please register here – it’s free for everyone! The tour will provide 0.2 CEUs for Washington and Idaho, pending approval. This event is hosted by the Students and Young Professionals Committee, but everyone is welcome to attend.

The WAVE Program: Welcome the 2024 Cohort!

Please consider supporting the cohort through participation or sponsorship!

The WAVE program engages students and emerging professionals from diverse backgrounds with the water industry through a series of workshops and attendance of the 2024 PNCWA conference. The workshops focus on the various paths within the water industry, networking, skills development, employment opportunities, and conference preparation. Each month until the conference, we will highlight our participants and the program. Logo, company name Description automatically generated.

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Government Affairs Update - January 2024

Federal

  • The House Appropriations Committee is proposing to eliminate funding for the Clean Water and Drink Water State Revolving Funds by more than half in the FY24 budget. It’s critical that your Senators and Representative hears from you about the need to maintain federal funding for critical local water infrastructure investments. Use WEF Water Advocates call-to-action to send a message today! 


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Leadership Development Committee Virtual Book Club!

The Leadership Development Committee is excited to announce monthly virtual book club gatherings featuring one of our favorites.  On the book club wish list for this year are a number of our favorites including Start with Why by Simon Sinek and The One Thing by Gary Keller.  We’re also looking for your suggestionsHave a favorite that you’d like to discuss with your fellow PNCWA’ersHave one that you’ve wanted to read but needed the motivation to get to itContact Mark Poling at [email protected] to share your titleWe’ll be reviewing them at our monthly Committee meetingWe’d also love to have you join us!

We’re starting with Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave EvansThe book introduces design thinking to living, learning, and succeeding in our work livesThe concept is thinking like a designerWhat exactly does that mean?

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Spokane Area Quarterly Facility Tour and Social

Join us for a tour and social on January 11th, 2024, at the Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility run by the City of Spokane! Starting at 3 pm, we’ll tour the facility then head over to Backyard Public House at about 5 pm for a social gathering. If you’re interested, please register here – it’s free for everyone!  This event is hosted by the Students and Young Professionals Committee, but everyone is welcome to attend!

 

Learning Hour Panel: Creating a Capital Improvement Plan - Real World Advise

Capital Improvement Plans (CIPs) are a roadmap used to document the plan for a utility to maintain, expand, and repair their assets. Whether your utility has a long-established practice of creating a CIP or you're just starting out, join us for a panel discussion and learning hour to discuss with your peers what they have learned about creating a CIP. We have two amazing speakers that are creating CIPs in real-time. Both Vanessa and Jeff are Capital Program Managers within their respective utilities who have been involved from the beginning of creating a CIP program and evolving them over time. The UMC is also creating a shared location where we can post examples of CIPs, and tools used in creating them.

Date & Time: December 6, 2023 @ Noon to 1 PM
Panel Speakers: Vanessa Johnson Clark Regional Wastewater District, Jeff Stallard Clackamas Water Environment Services 

Register Today

Government Affairs Update - November 2023

Federal

  • The House Appropriations Committee is proposing to eliminate funding for the Clean Water and Drink Water State Revolving Funds by more than half in the FY24 budget. It’s critical that your Senators and Representative hears from you about the need to maintain federal funding for critical local water infrastructure investments. Use WEF Water Advocates call-to-action to send a message today!

Oregon:

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Leadership Book Club Coming

The Leadership Development Committee is excited to announce a book club discussion series coming in January 2023. We’re starting with Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The book introduces design thinking to living, learning, and succeeding in our work lives. The concept is thinking like a designer. What exactly does that mean?

Design thinking includes:

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Wastewater Treatment Site Visit in Chehalis Washington

The Student and Young Professional will be hosting a site visit to the Chehalis wastewater treatment facility. Date of visit: October 19th  (Thursday) Location: 420 NW Louisiana Avenue, Chehalis, WA 98532 Start time of site visit: 12 pm  I hope to see you there. There will be a sign-up list going out, but if you don't see one by 10/13, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected] to let me know you are able to attend.

Proposed Updates to WEF Bylaws

There are several proposed updates to the WEF Bylaws which have been reviewed and approved by the Bylaws Subcommittee, the Governance Committee, and the WEF Board of Trustees. These changes are related to the Board Committees, including formalizing the Ethics Committee, removing the WEFTEC Advisory Committee, and shifting existing Subcommittees to Committees; as well as adjustments to the text related to the Member Engagement Transformation (MET). As is stated in the House of Delegates (HOD) Policies and Procedures, these changes are to be shared with Member Associations prior to the vote and approval of these changes by the HOD. The HOD will officially vote to confirm these changes at a virtual meeting later this Fall. See attached to review a markup and clean copy of the WEF Bylaws.

Questions? Please contact WEF Staff Kelsey Hurst.

Workplace Well-Being Survey Results: Leadership Development Committee

Who doesn’t want a good sense of well-being? In life, most everyone does, which necessarily means feeling good at work too. Yet, according to a recent national survey, most employees say their workplace well-being has worsened in the last year. Therefore, when the Leadership Development Committee saw this, they wanted to find out if it was true for us in PNCWA as well.

A survey probing this question was sent out in July to all PNCWA members. Unfortunately, the responses indicate we are not too different than the national trend. Answers to the questions asked are summarized below, followed by some insights on how to improve workplace well-being, gained from reviewing narrative comments that were included in the survey responses.

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Introducing the New PNCWA Communities of Practice

This fall PNCWA is launching Communities of Practice (CoP). CoPs are affiliated groups of committees, formed to spark collaboration and engagement among our committees and members. Each CoPs will be led by an association board member liaison that will coordinate quarterly meetings and facilitate CoP activities. Formation of the CoPs was a strategic priority of 2022-2023 Association President Lara Kammereck. Development of the CoP concept and structure is a result of committee collaboration during the joint Board and Committee Chair meeting in January 2023. Based on this work, PNCWA has formed the following CoPs:

  • Engagement CoP
  • Professional Development CoP
  • Management and Operations CoP
  • Science and Regulation CoP
Use the following link to review the CoP charter, CoP committee groupings, and board liaisons. PNCWA is excited to introduce this new program and support the passionate work of the association’s committees!

Spokane Area Quarterly Social

Liberty Lake WRF Tour & Social

Join us for a tour and social on October 5th at the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District WRF! Starting at 3 pm, we’ll tour the facility then we’ll head over to Snow Eater Brewing Company at about 5 pm for a social gathering. If you’re interested, please register here – it’s free for everyone! This event is hosted by the Students and Young Professionals Committee, but everyone is welcome to attend.

Register Today

Government Affairs Update - September 2023

Federal:

The House Appropriations Committee is proposing to eliminate funding for the Clean Water and Drink Water State Revolving Funds by more than half in the FY24 budget. It’s critical that your Senators and Representative hears from you about the need to maintain federal funding for critical local water infrastructure investments. Use WEF Water Advocates call-to-action to send a message today!

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Registration Open 2023 PNCWA Fall Communications Camp!

Engaging Your Community in Your Agency’s Water Story

Registration Open for 2023 PNCWA Fall Communications Camp Engaging Your Community in Your Agency’s Water Story

Location: City of Bend’s Kerri Training Facility, 22395 McGrath Rd

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