by Troy DeJoode, IAMU Executive Director
It has been a busy couple months here at IAMU. We recently completed our annual Water Workshop here in Des Moines. Nearly 250 people attended the three day conference, which provided opportunities to get needed continuing education classes, meet potential vendors in the water business, and network with other professionals in the water field. It continues to be one our most successful programs. If you work in water and have never been to it, I encourage you to take a close look at attending next year.
It has been a busy couple months here at IAMU. We recently completed our annual Water Workshop here in Des Moines. Nearly 250 people attended the three day conference, which provided opportunities to get needed continuing education classes, meet potential vendors in the water business, and network with other professionals in the water field. It continues to be one our most successful programs. If you work in water and have never been to it, I encourage you to take a close look at attending next year.
That same week we also hosted the executive directors from the municipal utility trade associations (like IAMU) from throughout the Midwest. This is an annual event that we host IAMU. Over the course of two days we talk about state, regional and national issues facing municipal utilities including everything from Federal limits on carbon dioxide to efforts in individual states to ban municipalities providing broadband services. It was a great opportunity to better understand the various issues that our members face or will face, as well as for IAMU staff to understand how other similar organizations are addressing such issues to help their members. It’s a chance to learn from others so that we can replicate what was successful, and avoid mistakes others have already made. More importantly we spent time discussing what products, services, conferences, and workshops those organizations have been providing to their members so that we can evaluate how such things might benefit our members. We came away with some interesting and exciting ideas for programs and services to consider.
We received 328 responses to our member survey, about 44% of the total that were sent out. That is a very high level of participation for such a survey, and to me shows how interested and engaged our members are in the Association. For those that did I thank you for taking the time to complete what I know was not a short survey. You feedback is an important tool for us to consider when making our plans for next year and beyond. I am happy to say that there were no earth shattering revelations in the results. It was clear that members continue to value legislative and regulatory assistance and monitoring, as well as timely and cost effective training services. There was some feedback asking for more remote training preferably through live meetings throughout the state. We are working hard to figure out how to cost effectively implement those ideas.
Human resources issues appear to be of concern to many members including potential knowledge loss due to potential retirements, and the attraction and retention of skilled employees. So we are looking closely at how we can help members address those issues. As an aside, those are two issues that the other state associations and the national trade groups have also clearly indicated are concerns. We are not alone. Having spent most of my career in human resources I can appreciate those issues, and we will be working hard on helping our members address them. If you have ideas or particular needs in those areas (or any others for that matter) please feel free to email me at [email protected].
It was also clear that IAMU needs to do a better job communicating the various services we provide some of which are available free under your annual dues and others of which we provide on a reasonable fee for service pricing structure. Some of those services are provided directly by IAMU employees, and others are provided through third party private partners. Many of you know of our group training programs. These safety clusters provide great opportunity for cost effective periodic live safety training done in your backyard. If you are interested let us know. We also can do group training for your employees as well. Additionally we have certified gas pipeline welders available for training, consulting or construction services.
The last thing I learned was that people have strong opinions about the prairie here at our office complex. We continue to get nearly a $20,000 property tax break due to the prairie so it is not going any place any time soon. We do understand that some people had concerns about both the safety of the prairie around the parking lot, and the appearance of it near our entrance. We are working to improve both of those going forward.
Thanks for your time. Please let me know if there’s anything we as an association can do for you.
We received 328 responses to our member survey, about 44% of the total that were sent out. That is a very high level of participation for such a survey, and to me shows how interested and engaged our members are in the Association. For those that did I thank you for taking the time to complete what I know was not a short survey. You feedback is an important tool for us to consider when making our plans for next year and beyond. I am happy to say that there were no earth shattering revelations in the results. It was clear that members continue to value legislative and regulatory assistance and monitoring, as well as timely and cost effective training services. There was some feedback asking for more remote training preferably through live meetings throughout the state. We are working hard to figure out how to cost effectively implement those ideas.
Human resources issues appear to be of concern to many members including potential knowledge loss due to potential retirements, and the attraction and retention of skilled employees. So we are looking closely at how we can help members address those issues. As an aside, those are two issues that the other state associations and the national trade groups have also clearly indicated are concerns. We are not alone. Having spent most of my career in human resources I can appreciate those issues, and we will be working hard on helping our members address them. If you have ideas or particular needs in those areas (or any others for that matter) please feel free to email me at [email protected].
It was also clear that IAMU needs to do a better job communicating the various services we provide some of which are available free under your annual dues and others of which we provide on a reasonable fee for service pricing structure. Some of those services are provided directly by IAMU employees, and others are provided through third party private partners. Many of you know of our group training programs. These safety clusters provide great opportunity for cost effective periodic live safety training done in your backyard. If you are interested let us know. We also can do group training for your employees as well. Additionally we have certified gas pipeline welders available for training, consulting or construction services.
The last thing I learned was that people have strong opinions about the prairie here at our office complex. We continue to get nearly a $20,000 property tax break due to the prairie so it is not going any place any time soon. We do understand that some people had concerns about both the safety of the prairie around the parking lot, and the appearance of it near our entrance. We are working to improve both of those going forward.
Thanks for your time. Please let me know if there’s anything we as an association can do for you.
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