If your electric or natural gas utility is unsure of what to provide for energy-efficiency rebates and/or your resources are limited to help customers with energy efficiency, IAMU has you covered. With our new MunEE Buck$ program, we can simplify the process and reduce the time it takes to manage energy efficiency.
 
Our easy-to-implement, customizable, prescriptive rebate program is now live. The best part: There is no cost to sign-up and start using it today!
 
About the Program:
MunEE Buck$ is a web-based prescriptive rebate program where members have the flexibility to choose which incentives to provide your customers. The rebate and amounts and estimated savings have already been established by IAMU for 2019.
 
We’ve taken the hard work out of processing customer rebates with the MunEE Buck$ online portal. Whether you choose to process the online application for your customer, or want to let your customers do it themselves, the forms can be completed from virtually any web-enabled device.
 
We’ve also taken the guesswork out of telling your customers about the program. With customized marketing and outreach material, template web content, and even video-based training tools, your staff and customers will find this program simple to manage and user friendly.
 
With MunEE Buck$, you’ll also get quarterly and annual reports so you can easily track how many customers are participating, how much energy is being saved in your community, and more.
 
How to Participate:
Once your municipal utility has signed up, our team of program administrators will work with you to select your rebates, create your marketing and outreach content, and launch this program to your customers. If you have customers who would like to submit for rebates on equipment that they’ve already purchased this year, the program will also be retroactive to January 1st. All they need is proof of purchase.
 
With MunEE Buck$, you can start energizing your customers to save today!
 
For more information or to sign up, contact Jeremy Caron at 515.289.1999 or jcaron@iamu.org. If you have already reached out, Jeremy will be in touch shortly to assist you with enrollment.

IAMU has scheduled dates for Mobile Crane Certification and Examination Classes. All classes will be held at the IAMU complex (unless otherwise noted).

• April 29 – May 3 (Registration opens March 4)
• June 10 – 14 (Registration opens April 15)
• June 24 – 28 (NW Iowa Region) (Registration opens April 29)
• August 19 – 23 (Registration opens June 24)
• October 7 – 11 (Registration opens August 12)
• December 9 – 13 (Registration opens October 14)

 
Please click HERE or visit the IAMU website for available dates.

Hach will hold workshops for water and wastewater professionals on March 19 through 21 at the IAMU Training and Office Complex.
 
The workshops cover theories behind analytical routines and various laboratory techniques.

• Laboratory Skills for Water and Wastewater Operators
  March 19, 8 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
  Cost: $150
  Operators are challenged to perform critical water quality testing accurately and timely. This course is designed for attendees interested in gaining experience in laboratory skills such as pipetting, titration, pH, units of measure, dilutions, and standard preparations.
  
  
• Process Control Instrumentation for Chlorine Analysis
  March 20, 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  Cost: $125
  Controlling chlorine residuals by laboratory measurements can be a time-consuming and technique-sensitive activity. Using online instrumentation for chlorine analysis takes the uncertainty out of the equation. This course is open to anyone wishing to further their knowledge of online chlorine analyzers. Lab tests for chlorine will also performed to provide results to verify and/or calibrate the online analyzers.
  
  
• Nutrients & Nutrient Analysis in Wastewater Treatment
  March 20, 1 – 5 p.m.
  Cost: $125
  An estimated 65 percent of U.S. rivers and coastal water bodies are affected by excessive nutrient inputs. Nitrogen and phosphorous are the two main nutrients contributing to the increase, resulting in algal blooms, reduced oxygen levels and fish kills. This course is open to attendees monitoring nitrogen and phosphorous compounds in wastewater – for both process control and NPDES requirements. Nitrogen compounds (ammonia, nitrate, total nitrogen), phosphate and total phosphorous will be analyzed via laboratory analysis. 
  
  
• Chlorine Analysis for DW and WW
  March 21, 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  Cost: $425
  Are you suffering from questionable chlorine results? Chlorine is the most popular disinfectant used in drinking water and wastewater applications but measuring it comes with a unique set of challenges. This course reviews the best practices for collecting grab samples for analysis, proper techniques for measuring free and total chlorine, troubleshooting common issues, and verifying instrument accuracy using standards.

Course approval is pending.

Register

Questions about the workshops should be directed to Hach, not IAMU. Email HachTraining@hach.com or call 800-227-4224 x2344

The 8th Annual IAMU Municipal Broadband Conference is scheduled for March 13 and 14 at the Holiday Inn & Suites – Des Moines-Northwest, 4800 Merle Hay Road. The annual event is filled with educational workshop sessions and networking opportunities.

NEW FOR 2019: The Customer Service Boot Camp – Pivot Group will conduct a day-long Customer Service Boot Camp for all customer contact personnel on March 13.

For more information about the event or to register, click here.

The latest edition of IAMU's Toolbox Talks - Cold Weather Care for Heavy Equipment is now available.  Click here to download it.

Other Toolbox Talk articles are available here.

If you have a Toolbox Talk idea, please send it to Margret Meade.

Water members, make plans to attend the Advanced Water Workshops on March 6 and 7. Come for one or both days.

• Day 1: water treatment
• Day 2: water distribution

Each day qualifies for 0.5 CEUs.

Remember, to be eligible for certificate renewal, operators must have earned the required number of CEUs during two-year periods ending March 31 of odd-numbered years (that means this year).
To learn more about the topics covered or to register, click here.

Randy Tilk of Alta Municipal Utilities. Thank you to all of our gas and electric members who recently completed our survey seeking input on current and future demands for hiring utility professionals. We are in the process of compiling the data. We will send out an email summarizing the data to everyone who completed a survey. We will also include an article with the survey results in the next issue of the IAMU Connection magazine, due out in March.

The 2019 IAMU Broadband Conference is March 13 & 14 at the Holiday Inn and Suites on Merle Hay Road in Des Moines. Registration for exhibiting vendors is now open.  Attendee registration is coming soon. To register as a sponsor, click here.

Vendors are encouraged to register soon in order to secure a space on the exhibit hall. In addition to tabletop exhibits, vendors can also reserve a Gold or Silver Sponsorship for increased exposure. Details on the various sponsorships are included in the Vendor Brochure.

The 2019 Iowa Children’s Water Festival is May 9, 2019, at the Des Moines Area Community College Campus in Ankeny. 

The festival is a free educational event that provides fifth-grade classes from across Iowa with the opportunity to learn about the importance of water in their daily lives through presentations, hands-on activities, exhibits, games, and entertainment.

The festival committee is looking for individuals who would be willing to volunteer, including classroom presenters and exhibitors. The event is a great community outreach activity.

For Classroom Presenters: Presenters will be scheduled for 4-6 sessions, each session is 30 minutes with a 15-minute break in between sessions for presentation reset and student travel. This 15-minute break is new this year in the hopes to reduce the number of late or no-show classes. Presenters will be scheduled a lunch break and lunch will be provided. Please register by April 15, 2019. Registration forms can be found at: https://goo.gl/forms/elF4aoEqmAtdIW8x2.
 
For Exhibit Hall Displays: There will be students scheduled in the exhibit hall each session from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Exhibitors are encouraged to have at least two people available to staff their booth. Please make exhibits as interactive for the students as possible. Please register by April 15, 2019. Registration forms can be found at: https://goo.gl/forms/M1RlAYuLVnY35Dxf1.