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.
Board Meeting Key Points
- 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
Keynote Speaker – Fred Hansen, former U.S. EPA Deputy Administrator and former Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality Director
- 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
Luncheon Speaker – Al Haynes, Captain of United Airlines Flight 232 crash and survival
- Lessons learned: Luck, communication, preparation, execution, and cooperation
National Business Meeting
- 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
Government Affairs Committee Meeting
- 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
Education and Training Committee Meeting
- The Academy now has a standard, stand-alone overview course for use by the Chapters
Chapter Development and Marketing Committees Meetings
- 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
Future national conferences
- 2001 Chicago, Illinois
- 2002 Louisville, Kentucky
Action items
- 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