Vol 36, No. 1 - NAWC

Executive Director's Report
by James B. Groff
Let me recall the ways-we've served our
membership lately!
There is little question that since my last
article in this esteemed magazine, a significant
amount of my time, and that of
staff, was devoted to the first event commemorating
the 100th anniversary of your
Association. Complicating the effort to
insure that the evening of February 28
would be a success, was the Association's
annual "Fly-In" and meetings of the
NARUC and the NAWC's Nominating
Committee, Executive Committee and
Board of Directors, all of which demanded
a certain amount of preparation.
Regardless, by all accounts, all events,
to the great relief of yours truly, were
widely acclaimed successes. In all, over
200 attended the black-tie optional reception
and dinner, including 24 Members of
Congress, 47 Commissioners' and 67 of
our members, as well as spollses and other
guests. Forty of the Association's member
companies sent 52 of their finest on over
160 appointments with Senators and
members of the House of Representatives
to not only improve their representatives'
general knowledge of the investor-owned
industry, but to also make them aware of
a few of the industry's specific concerns.
The NAWC's Third Vice President,
Floyd Wicks, in his capacity as the Chair
of the Association's Committee on Chapters,
hosted a breakfast fo r Chairpersons
and members of the Executive Committee
on the morning of February 28. All agreed
that the quality of the exchange of information
suggested that such meetings
should occur on a regular basis. First Vice
President Dungan strongly concurs and is
setting aside time for additional dialogue
of this nature to take place during the
Association's Annual Conference in New
Orleans, O ctober 29 to November 2,
1995.
During a somewhat abbreviated Executive
Committee meeting, President Jack
McGregor led the deliberations on a host
of subjects, not the least of which focused
e NAWCWATER
on the Nominating Committee's suggested
candidates for General Vice President
and the Member-at-Large vacancy on
the Board of Directors. As well as becoming
apprised of the current status of such
items as the Association's finances, membership,
regulatory relations efforts and
government affairs initiatives, the Executive
Committee approved pursuit of language
that would provide exclusion from
tort claims for utilities that comply with
federal and state water quality regulations.
At Jim Morris' invitation, Rep. David
Mclntosh (R-IN), Chairman, House Subcommittee
on National Growth, Natural
Resour~es and Regulato ry Affairs, addressed
the Board of Directors during
their luncheon meeting the fo llowing day,
and discussed his plans for h is committee
and some of the initiatives of the 104th
Congress, touching upon the Republican's
ClCont ract for America." During its business
meeting, the Board heard representatives
from the U.S. Chamber and Morgan,
Lewis and Bockius speak on such
issues as unfu nded mandates, regulatory
reform, product liability and privatization.
Subsequently, they heard Tom Curtis of
the National Governors' Association
present an overview of the SDWA reau·
thorization efforts to d ate and Diane
VanDe Hei and Tom Schaeffer of the Association
of Metropolitan Water Agencies,
d iscuss the "Partnership for Safe Water"
proposal. Concern regarding the latter
prompted the establishment of an Ad-Hoc
committee, chaired by Past President Rich
Tompkins, to investigate potential utility
liability associated with such a partnership.
As is apparent, activities such as those
described above don't just happen_ There
is a great deal of staff and member time
devoted to arranging for facilities, preparing
reference material, obtaining and coordinating
speakers, etc., etc. In this regard,
there are many to be congratulated,
for it was their hard work and commitment
that ensured the success of each of the
above events. In this regard, I want to
publicly acknowledge the contributions of
each member of the staff to the success of
the aforementioned and thank them for
all that they accomplished.
The success of the Centennial reception
and dinner was in part due to the setting
in which it was held, the historic and exquisite
Library of Congress, which is particularly
beautiful at night_ For the use of
this facility, the Association is deeply indebted
to Wilkes Coleman, who prevailed
upon the former Minority Leader in the
House of Representatives, Congressman
Bob Michel, to sponsor our commemoration.
We not o nly appreciate the
Congressman's spo nsorship, we also
thank him for taking time from a very
busy schedule to join us and speak to
those in attendance_ In addition, we are
deeply indebted to the Librarian of the
Library of Congress, Dr. James Billington,
and his superb staff, who granted us use
of the building and guided our work, and
to the firm of Hayes, Domenici and Nunn,
who so ably assisted all of our efforts.
While another event of the magnitude
and nature of the Centennial reception
and dinner is hopefully another one hundred
years away, the impressive attendance
by Members of Congress, NARUC', lead·
ership and Commissioners from around
the country, attests to the growing recogn
ition of the Association and its members.
Certainly, we all share in the responsibil·
ity to ensure that this very positive trend
continues into the future.