The 2000 conference was sponsored by ACHMM, and hosted by the Willamette-Columbia Chapter of the ACHMM in cooperation with the University of Kansas. It included board, business, and committee meetings; technical sessions including student papers (awarded $14,000 in three scholarships); awards luncheon and reception; keynote speaker; luncheon speaker; CHMM overview course and CHMM certification exam; and emergency response drill. The technical sessions were divided as General Safety & Science, Transportation/Laboratories, Environmental Management Systems, Hazardous Materials Management, and Emergency Response. In addition, there were an exhibition hall with 35 booths; hospitality suites; and golf tournament. There were also several local activities – Willamette Valley Winery Tour, Mt. St. Helens Tour, Oregon Coast Tour, Columbia River Gorge Waterfall Tour, Edgefield Microbrewery Dinner, and facility tours of the Port of Vancouver and the Metro South Solid Waste and Recycling Facility.

The conference was held at the Doubletree Jantzen Beach Hotel, on the south bank of the Columbia River in Portland, "the City of Rivers, Roses, Fountains, and Bridges." Portland as you know is in Oregon, but perhaps you didn’t know you can’t pump your own gas and there is no sales tax in Oregon.

Your 2000 NCC-ACHMM Vice President attended all days, gave a talk on international consulting, and won an old wooden duck raffle. John Wondolleck/CDM and Judy Cooper/Du-All Safety-Fremont also attended, out of about 400 CHMMs in California (or 0.75%). About 450 people (out of 8,500 or 5.3 %) attended the conference.

ACHMM committees and committee meetings include National Conference Planning, Government Affairs, Awards, Marketing, Education and Training, Management Systems, Emergency Response, and Chapter Development. The market of environmental professionals is getting smaller, so ACHMM needs to have a bigger share of the market to grow. ACHMM needs to get federal, state, and corporate recognition of the CHMM credential and its CHMM overview course and certification exam.

• Proposed by-laws revisions
• Voluntary organization
• Board sets organizational objectives, passes on to three committee groups to set and implement through eight committees
• Need to charter new chapters
• 2001 Objectives
• Review 2000 Budget
• Strategic Plan
• Leadership training seminar
• New business/future quarterly board meetings

• Non-cancer health endpoints
• Different exposure media
• EPA ecological emphasis
• Sustainability
• Urbanization and land use planning
• Global climate change
• Environmental information exchange
• Waste as a 3R’s resource – reduce, reuse, recycle

• Lessons learned: Luck, communication, preparation, execution, and cooperation

• ACHMM run by a board directing three groups:

Administration Group: Finance, Organization, Operations

Outreach Group: Promotion, Member Services, Chapter Support

Education Group: Training Programs, National Conference, Career Development

• SEEKING FEEDBACK ON DRAFT BY-LAWS
• Upcoming newsletter publication in progress
• $400 stipend to use CHMM booth at professional conferences

• How to get states and agencies to recognize the CHMM credential – now done now by Tennessee’s TEDEC, and U.S. Department of Transportation employee incentives, U.S. Department of Energy’s National Environmental Training Office (NETO), City of Corpus Christi's, Texas/Office of Environmental Programs (OEP), and corporate entities like GM (has over 300 CHMMs)

• RegScreen, a program to provide service on being up-to-date on federal and state regulations
• Legislative notebook, how to approach agencies
• Chapter manual revisions
• Champion of Excellence awards and criteria

• The Academy now has a standard, stand-alone overview course for use by the Chapters

• Can get $400 to help cover CHMM booth
• Started in 1984 with 300 CHMMs, now the ACHMM has about 8,500 CHMMs in good standing. There are about 65 CHMM chapters.
• ACHMM chartered five chapters last year, and four the previous year.
• Two new chapters this year – Greater Ozark Chapter and (re-charter) Hawaii Chapter
• NEED VOLUNTEERS TO WORK ON CHAPTER DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
• The way for ACHMM to grow is to charter new chapters and to grow and sustain current chapters.
• Looking for affiliation and joint-organizational meetings
• Each board member is required to make at least one personal visit to a chapter (on their own) meeting per year
• Some chapters are mentoring other and new chapters
• One chapter telecommunicates through three stations
• There’s a chapter guidance manual being revised
• Desk reference book authors are available as speakers. A regional speaker database is being setup.
• If you diversify your meeting topics, attendance to chapter meetings might double or triple.
• Chapters are setting up web pages – need to make them searchable, add common key words, add point-of-contacts and meeting information, can replace mailing lists.
• What are the member benefits of the chapters? Enhance and promote benefits.
• Need membership directory on members-only web page.
• The Academy posts only snippets of their activities on the free-access web page.
• Discussion of things the institute does, the academy does, and the local chapters do.
• Jeannie Steward/ACHMM Administrator keeps a comprehensive ACHMM membership database and can do searches, make lists with mailing labels – by zip code.
• Combined Academy/local chapter dues in pilot study for Michigan
• There may be a Cyber Chapter for CHMMs in remote areas without otherwise chapter
• Purchasing personal liability insurance for director and officers at $500/year, through the academy – the major non-profit organizations, like United Way, have such insurance.
• The Academy is developing a standard template for chapters to use in chapter web pages
• Re-certification requirements – disparity with number of chapter meetings attended per year

• 2001 Chicago, Illinois
• 2002 Louisville, Kentucky

• Opportunities to volunteer to work with ACHMM chapters, all committees, and board
• Check out the Academy on-line forums on http://www.achmm.org/.
• Feedback on proposed by-law revisions
• Need to charter new chapters
• Can get $400 stipend to help cover CHMM booth