Regions Go Out With a Bang at the ACWA Fall Conference
ACWA's regions closed out a busy 2010-2011 term at the ACWA Fall Conference with the last nine membership meetings and two Region Issue Forums in Anaheim.
Region 1 kicked off the region activities Wednesday morning with their Issue Forum, “Emerging Trends in Desalination.” Ron Davis, executive director of CalDesal, led the discussion on how local agencies along California’s northern coastline have garnered support for desalination as a sustainable solution for water supply. In addition to our local discussion, it was great to hear about desalination from the Australian point-of-view, given by Gary Crisp, a Global Business Leader at Desalination GHD, Inc.
Later that afternoon, I stopped by the Regions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 membership meetings. With the region chairs and board members presiding, all of the region reporters shared information about their committees with their memberships, and began discussions on 2012 business. Region 4 had a guest speaker, Monique E. Day, assistant program manager at Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency, to discuss the Davis-Woodland Water Supply Project.
On Thursday morning, I made it to the Region 8 Issue Forum, “Highs & Lows of Water Rate Changes: A Deeper Look at Prop. 218.” Conference attendees filled the room to learn about Palmdale Water District’s water rate experience with Proposition 218. It was really interesting to hear the Prop. 218 process explained and the struggles local districts have endured with rate changes. This is a huge challenge for our members.
The joint Regions 6 & 7, and the Regions 8, 9 and 10 membership meetings were later Thursday afternoon. The region memberships carried on lively discussions about what’s happening at ACWA and were eager to get a jump start on planning for 2012. Cindy Tuck, legislative director at ACWA, stopped by the joint Regions 6 & 7 meeting to talk about what legislation is ahead in 2012.
Check out all the great region presentations from conference here.
With over 250 region meetings, tours, programs and celebrations throughout the term, we all said goodbye to a successful 2010-2011 run and welcomed the incoming boards as they began to plan for the next two years. Best of luck to all the incoming region boards – see you in 2012.
