Conference Papers | 2000 Conference Papers

AWWOA President's Message

Welcome to Warrnambool and the 63rd Annual Victorian Water Industry Engineers and Operators Conference. There are many people who assist in organising an event such as this and I wish to take this opportunity to thank them all for their efforts. As usual, it is appropriate to make some special mentions. Firstly, thank you to South West Water for the support provided as conference host this year. This support has been invaluable in ensuring the smooth organisation of this event and is important for the ongoing success of this conference.

We again received a wonderful response to the call for papers with 40 abstracts submitted. The selection committee had a tough job in deciding on the final papers to accept and trust they have provided delegates with a balanced selection of papers dealing with a diverse range of topics. To the successful presenters and their employers, and also to those who submitted abstracts but unfortunately missed out, thank you for your continued support of the Conference.

The 'Poster Paper' section for Operators is being staged yet again thanks to the generous support and sponsorship of the Water Training Centre (WTC). The posters submitted in past years have set a high standard and we are sure that this year's entries will be no different. Hopefully those operators who participate in this section will take the next step and present a platform paper at some time in the future.

Our conference has continued to grow over recent years and the demand for a trade site has expanded on an annual basis. In deciding the venue for the next conference, the decision is now very much driven by the availability of a suitable venue. There are only a few venues in provincial Victoria that are big enough to hold the conference and, in the future, we may have to consider staging the conference at these locations on a rotational basis. We have recently received offers to host the conference from individual Water Authorities, but unfortunately a suitable venue could not be located in their area, and their offer could not be considered. The Association extends its thanks and gratitude to these Authorities and we can assure them that we will look favourably to staging a future conference in these areas if a venue becomes available. After all that, I am pleased to report that Coliban Water will be the host for the year 2001 Conference, to be staged in Bendigo.

'Actizyme' is once again sponsoring the Prizes for Best Papers by an AWWOA member and have offered this generous support to operators continuously since 1992. Like Actizyme, the Water Sector Services branch of NRE has supported the printing of this conference manuscript for many years and we thank you also for your support. This year we have a number of other major sponsors including Australian Pollution Engineering, Grundfos Pumps, Mono Pumps Australia and G-Tech. The support of these organisations allows us to present such a special event on an annual basis.

Ron and Cheryl Bergmeier from Australian Pollution Engineering make an outstanding contribution to the conference each year by organising the trade exhibition. This is the twelfth consecutive year that they have organised the exhibition and each year they seem to bring a new degree of professionalism to the way they go about the job. Your time, effort and contribution to the conference is greatly appreciated. The trade exhibitors also need a special mention for the continued support of this event. Many companies have exhibited for a number of years and for some this may be the first. We want to let you know that your contribution and support is valued and we issue a challenge to all delegates to inspect the sites.

As usual, thank you to all the people from the industry who have come along as delegates. We thank you for your support and request that you pass on our gratitude to your employer for allowing your participation.

The Association has been very busy in the past year in areas other than just the conference.

In March of this year the Association conducted another successful weekend seminar for members at Daylesford. These weekends enable members to network with colleagues from the industry and gain hands-on knowledge of products and services available from various trade organisations. Thank you to Richard Greenhough for organising the seminars and arranging the exhibitors each year. Planning for the next seminar to be held in March 2001 at Mount Buffalo Chalet is well advanced.

In November 1999 the inaugural Water Industry Charity Golf Day was staged at the Broadford Golf Club. This golf day will become an annual event and all proceeds raised will be donated to charity at the next conference. A great day was had by all those in attendance, despite the lousy weather. Numbers were a little lower than anticipated and the event will be run earlier this year to avoid clashes with Christmas parties etc. Our thanks go to the sponsors and participants, and in particular to Allan McIntyre from Prominent for his help in setting up the day.

As at 1st July 2000, the dreaded GST was thrust upon us and the rest of the country. We have reviewed our membership prices and advise that our fee for ordinary and associate members will be raised by 10% to $11 for the 2000-2001 year onwards. The Corporate membership fee has also been raised by 10% to cover the GST and is now $110. We have registered the AWWOA as a GST business and have received our ABN from the tax office.

The AWWOA website is now up and running and we are getting feedback from all around the world - you can check it out at www.wioa.org.au. We are continually updating the content of this site to improve its usefulness, and we are well advanced in the task of archiving and entering past conference papers. If you get the opportunity, please have a browse around the site and we would appreciate your comments about the site and how we can improve it.

This year we increased our efforts in attracting Corporate Members to the Association and formulated a benefits package to distribute to organisations. We are pleased to report that our Corporate Members have increased from 6 in 1999 to 32 in 2000. It is hoped that this number will continue to rise in the future. If you know of a company who may be interested in this type of membership, please forward their details to George and he will see that they receive a package.

The other main area of involvement of the Association has been with the development of the modules and curriculum for the new water industry training packages. Committee members have attended numerous workshops and have provided feedback to various groups on proposals relating to the Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) system. We see our involvement as important as we have been able to have a direct influence over the development of training packages FOR operators. John Harris has been very active in this regard and is now a member of the National Industry Training Advisory Board (ITAB) as an operator and union based representative. This is an extension of the work commenced a number of years ago by our former secretary in Colin Sandeman and we are proud to be represented on such an important committee.

Finally, recognition and appreciation of the work done by our small but energetic Committee is warranted. The members of the AWWOA Committee have once again given the Association much of their time for the benefit of all in the Industry. Thank you also to the employers of our Committee members for giving them time to attend meetings and functions. My personal thanks go to you all.

To George our Secretary/Treasurer, thank you for the endless hours that you dedicate to your position.

To all delegates - please enjoy the conference and make the most of your time among your peers in the industry.

Barry Waddell
AWWOA President