President's Message

As Chapter President, my goal and your entire Board of Directors goal is to assure that your Chapter continues to meet your professional goals and promote the profession of public works service. In these challenging economic times, it is important that we broaden our education and training programs so that our members don't have to travel far to be able to take advantage to these programs. It is also important to continue to collaborate and partner with other associations to enhance member value. In addition, we need to promote outreach and public awareness and support to attract new members.

I have been and will continue to work with the Board of Directors to develop a strategy to enhance the quality and quantity of Chapter member education opportunities; establish a younger membership program; and continue to increase our Chapter membership. I encourage all of our members to get involved in APWA beyond the monthly lunch meeting and the conferences and join one of our many APWA committees, described below:

• Awards Committee - Chair, Peter Gulash
• Spring Conference Committee - Chair, Amy Gumm
• Fall Conference Committee - Chair, Garth Oksol
• Professional Development and Education Committee - Chair, Bruce Bowman. Lowell Patton has recently joined this committee to expand education in the North.
• Membership - Chair, Bruce Bowman
• Historical - Chair, Don Allison
• Scholarship -Chair, Peter Gulash
• Public Relations - Chair, Michele Dorris
• Newsletter - Chair, Michele Dorris

In addition, we have an audit committee that consists of 3 people that are appointed each year to examine the financial records and books of the Chapter. Based on Chapter Surveys completed earlier this year and our strategic planning meeting in January, we are introducing two new committees that will be added to the Chapter this year, as follows:

Public Outreach Committee - this committee shall be responsible for identifying and completing community service projects and outreach to universities, agencies and other organizations to increase awareness of APWA.

Younger Member Committee - this committee shall be responsible for programs designed to encourage young Public Works professionals (ages 35 and under) to become more active in the leadership of the Chapter.

If you would like to get involved with any of these committees, please contact the committee chair or any member of the Executive Board.