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Greetings
from the President... by Teresa Herrera The year is drawing to its end. The darkness of night descends early, the coldness of the season is setting in, the drops of rain are becoming an ever increasing occurrence. Much has transpired over this year; it never ceases to amaze me how much, in so little time. And, yet, there is still more to come… I am only going to speak to events that have transpired within our world of the San Francisco Bay Section. I know I have had a tendency to speak of our Section in the larger context of things. Not so this month. This month, I am sticking close to home. There is much activity at this time of year for the Bay Section. We have our awards program well underway, nominations for a new Board member, planning for our annual awards and installation banquet, along with the ‘normal’ business at hand. I want to speak briefly to each of these activities… Awards Program By the time you receive this newsletter, the deadline will have passed to submit a nomination for an award. I would like to remind you, however, of the importance of recognizing ourselves, our peers, our projects, plants, collections systems. Whether you submitted a nomination or not (and, if not, make sure you do next year!), I would like to encourage all of us to sit back and ponder all those successes that you’ve achieved over the past year. Nominations for New Board Member This is the time to get nominations in for a new member of your Board of Directors. The position is Second Year Director and we’ve made the job easier this year for the new person. Whereas prior to this year, this person was responsible for setting up the monthly dinner programs, this is no longer so. This person now can have a year to get acquainted with the processes by which we run this Bay Section before we throw s/he to the wolves. So, if you’ve ever considered running for the Board, I’m here to tell you that it can be the most satisfying and rewarding endeavor you can take. We will call for nominations from the floor at the December dinner meeting, then mail out the ballots shortly thereafter. You can also call or email our Nominations Chair, Dave Williams at 510-287-1496 or dwilliams@ebmud.com if you are interested in running. Annual Awards and Installation Banquet Remember, our Banquet date has changed! It will now be held the second Friday of JANUARY, NOT February, as was the tradition. Therefore, mark your calendars for Friday, January 11!!! It will be held at Scott’s in Jack London Square, Oakland, a classy venue. I will be sad when this date arrives, as it will mark the end of my tenure as your President, alas, all things must end. Our Normal Business There are several other changes that I want to get instituted prior to leaving my office of President. I’ll speak to them next month in detail, but just mention here briefly that they relate to the Section’s finances. We will be setting up a multi-year budget for the Section, looking to find a permanent method of sending out this newsletter, and reviewing the dues which you pay for Section membership. As I said, more next month. For now, that’s about it. Until next month… take care and be safe. From
the PWO......James Rockafellow Operations
Challenge 2001 - Clean sweep for California! Not a
bad headline, if I say so myself!
And that’s just the headline that I was honored to bring
back from the WEF 2001 Operations Challenge in Atlanta. Three teams from California competed in the
2001 Operations Challenge. The
L.A. Wrecking Crew based in Carson, the Wastewater Warriors from
Sacramento, both competing in Division I and the MUD Slingers from
East Bay MUD, who competed in Division II. The
events were fairly consistent with last year and the field of
competition was formidable. 13 teams competed in Division I, made up
of returning teams who had competed and placed in the top ten in
their Division or in the top three in any single event the previous
year. All other teams, 24 of them, competed in Division II. The
L.A. Wrecking Crew, a team familiar to the winner’s circle, saw
the return of Bill Shuck
to competition. Bill’s
Team was filled out by Steve
Johnson, Clarence Scherich, and Paul Johnson. Rumors
on the convention floor were that Bill was content to serve as Coach
since his “retirement” from competition, however a last minute
injury to one of the team members forced him to resume an active
role at the last minute. Observers
on the scene will attest that Bill’s skills were still sharp and
the Wrecking Crew was as smooth as ever in one of their best
performances in memory. They
placed in the top three in every event, taking first place in the
Safety event, second place in the Collection System event, and third
place in Laboratory, Process and Maintenance.
To put the consistency of their performance in perspective,
you need to note that the point spread for the 13 teams in Division
I was over 230 points. The point spread for the top three teams was less than 8
points. The
Team from Sacramento coached by Bob
Sembach included Gary
Bailey, John Hough, Brent Cabarajal and Carl Scanlon.
They competed hard and finished 9th overall. In
Division II, the competition was just as intense, with nearly twice
as many teams clawing their way through the field to try to take
home a trophy. The MUD
Slingers from EBMUD, Carol
Weir (not Chuck’s wife) Dave
Freitas, Brian Bellefeuille and Pat Virgin, also put in
consistent performances in all events, placing second in the Process
Control event and no lower than fifth place in the remaining events,
creating a 10-point+ lead over the second place team.
This
Challenge also included the first two-person teams to compete and
they were impressive as they fought to match times with the
experienced four-person teams.
Look for more of these smaller teams to move up in the ranks
net year. Anyone who
would like a copy of the Rules for Operations Challenge II can
contact me at jrockafe@ebmud.com
or Steve Harrison at sharrison@wef.org
. Prospective new teams should keep in mind that CWEA will be able to send 5 Operations Challenge Teams to the next WEF Convention, the 2 returning championship teams plus one team for each of the three WEF Directors.
News
from the SFBS Collection System Committee We
apologize to West County Wastewater District for last months
article, which gave credit to West Valley Sanitary District for
hosting the Rodding Operation Class.
In fact West County Wastewater District was the host of this
class. West County
Wastewater District &
its representatives did a great job hosting this class.
The committee would like to encourage West Valley &
agencies alike to host similar events. Thank you very much. If
you have any questions please
contact Sergio Ramirez at 510-537-0757.
See you at the TCP training on Dec 12th in Daly
City. |
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