November’s Group meeting was held at Tacoma Public Utilities. Thank you, Scott Hallenberg, for hosting this month. The meeting was called to order at 10:05am by Chair Jeff Kobylk, introductions were made and those in attendance were: Sabrina O’Donnell Tacoma Water, Scott Hallenberg Tacoma Water, Scott Hemingway WETRC, Vice Chair Brian Gumke Northshore Utility District, Webmaster Wednesday Smith Batgirl Backflow Testing, Debbie Crooks City of Kent, Carla Snyder Coal Creek Utility District, Past Chair Mick Holte City of Renton, Tony Peredo Rainier View Water, Treasurer Dennis McLaughlin, Bob Eastwood Retired, Russ Thompson WSA, Chair Jeff Kobylk City of Edmonds, and Secretary Katarina Hirai Silver Lake Water & Sewer District.

The Group Treasurer Dennis reported the Group’s account balance as of November 20, 2019 was $32,075.99 with the costs of this year’s seminar being $13,721.09 and income from the seminar being $16,837.10. Overall a gain of roughly $5,000. The meeting began with a recap of the seminar and discussion of how the seminar could be improved upon next year. Overall, the attendee evaluations were positive with people liking the new venue and location. With the moving of the seminar to a new venue, there were some hiccups and costs that were not foreseen by the Group that could be worked out and improved upon for the next seminar. Improvements suggested by attendees were to have an afternoon snack and more variety of topics. A possible solution may be to have more speakers that speak for a shorter period of time, but all speak on the same topic, like real life customer problems or incidents or BATs talking about installs or repairs that required more thought or innovation or even water purveyors talking about their CCC Programs, the pros and cons of running a combination program versus an isolation
program. This type of presentation could be problematic for CEU certification, but the Group could explore the criteria requirements with Washington Certification Services. A panel discussion may be another option where attendees could bring their questions or submit questions in advance on a predefined topic. The meeting moved onto Elections. A Nominating Committee was not created this year and though some of the officers talked with other members about volunteering for a position, there were no nominations put forward for the open positions of Vice Chair, Secretary, or Treasurer. Discussion followed on whether any member could be elected, and it was determined that the only restriction was that a water purveyor representative had to either hold the seat of Vice Chair or Chair. Currently, both the Chair and Vice Chair are water purveyor representatives. Since there were no nomination for Vice Chair, Treasurer Dennis McLaughlin asked Past Chair Mick Holte if he would be willing to serve again as Vice Chair this coming year. Chair Jeff Kobylk seconded the nomination and the Group voted unanimously for Mick Holte to serve as Vice Chair this next year. Next up was the position of Secretary. Katarina Hirai requested that another member take on the duties as Secretary as her current position will limit her ability to be Secretary for the Group. There were no nominations or volunteers for the position. Katarina Hirai will continue as Secretary for the Group as she is able. If for any reason, she is unable to attend a meeting, the Chair will record the meeting on her behalf. Last discussed was how to improve participation in the Annual Planning Meeting. It was decided that the Group Secretary would send out a survey to all members before the Annual Planning Meeting next month to request topic ideas, meeting locations, field trip ideas, and to RSVP for next month’s meeting. Hopefully, the survey will produce some new topic ideas and locations to provide the Group with a wider range of participation from its current members. The meeting was adjourned at 11:40am. The Group’s next meeting will be our Annual Planning Meeting where we will determine the dates, locations, and topics for the next year’s monthly meetings. The meeting will be hosted by City of Kirkland at City Hall in the Peter Kirk Room, 123 5th Ave in Kirkland on December 18th at 10am. The Peter Kirk Room is straight ahead when you come in the south entrance (back side of City Hall). You can walk right in. Visitor parking is scattered around City Hall and on the street, plus there is another public parking lot south of this entrance off 3rd Ave (you will need to walk up stairs). https://goo.gl/maps/HKhUPomMxwk4utND8

PIZZA WILL BE PROVIDED TO ALL ATTENDEES.

Please join us and let your ideas be heard!

Katarina Hirai
2019 Group Secretary