by Sally Abella, Board President
With this issue of Waterline, we will begin a regular column describing current Board activities and issues under consideration. It’s our hope that these reports will stimulate our general membership and lead to a free exchange of ideas that will grow a more robust organization dedicated to protecting our local and regional lakes.
There were several topics of discussion at the first two Board meetings of the year, including our financial stability and the organization’s long-term trajectory, which committees would be needed for our work in 2020, and the location and theme of the 2020 annual conference slated for October.
Another discussion centered around opening up some committees to WALPA members who are not on the Board, but are interested in helping with specific topics. The Board decided that this could be a great help in getting some of the WALPA work done, and would also be useful to educate members about how the Board works, especially those who might be interested in joining the Board. Because the Board and its committees meet by phone/internet connections, any member in Washington or Idaho can easily attend committee meetings, and we welcome your inquiries.
We decided to form a new committee to investigate our long-term financial health, headed by Treasurer Jennifer Oden. The committee will look into patterns of past spending and income, reliability of funding for our annual conference and student scholarships, and possibilities for funding new initiatives, such as a Western Regional Conference aimed at interested citizens or a program to set up small grants for lake homeowner associations (HOAs).
Special committees were also set up for more detailed planning and to project costs for both the Western Regional Conference and the HOA grant.
Both the Scholarship and Annual Conference committees were retained, and after a discussion, it was decided to try merging the activities of several of the standing committees this year as an experiment. By-laws and Legislative Action committees were merged into one unit, while Membership and Nominations were merged into another. All Board members were asked to sign up for at least two committees in order to get enough representation.
Discussion about the annual conference centered on setting the location for 2020 as soon as possible, because desirable venues fill quickly, especially those near lakes and large water bodies. With the approval of the Board, a contract was signed for meeting in the Tri-Cities at a location along the Columbia River. The hotel is currently undergoing a major renovation and will open as a Holiday Inn in spring, with direct access to the water along a pedestrian walkway and many restaurants nearby. We are very excited about meeting this fall in a beautiful space located near Wine Country!
The theme for the conference will be Diversity of lakes: from pond to reservoir, in recognition of the many differences in environment and ecology among our lakes. Please plan to present something at the conference about the lakes you love, manage, and study. We are hoping to accommodate many speakers and posters!
One final item of business involved the resignations of two of our Board members, due to their moving out of state. We are very sad to say goodbye to Robin Matthews and Aris Efting, but truly appreciate all they have done for WALPA and wish them the best in their new adventures.
We welcome your questions and comments about Board activities! Please send them via email to info@walpa.org.
