NEWEA's February Update

NEWEA's busiest month of the year is now behind us, and another successful Annual Conference is in the books.

We are so appreciative of all the attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, and volunteers who participated in and supported this event. A full recap of the Conference, including links to photos, videos, and proceedings, can be found below.

With the Annual Conference behind us, we are now shifting focus to the 2023 Spring Meeting, which is being jointly hosted with NYWEA in Saratoga Springs, NY June 6-9. The Call for Abstracts just closed last week, and the hotel room block at the Saratoga Hilton is now open. A link to reserve a room can be found below. The sponsorship package, exhibit registration, and program will be available in the coming months. We look forward to connecting with our water industry colleagues from throughout the Northeast at this event.

In addition to our Spring Meeting, we have some online events on the calendar. In particular, the Young Professionals Committee is hosting a series of free webinars to help young professionals develop abstracts and presentations to submit to and present at technical conferences. The next session in this series is being held this Wednesday, February 8. A link to register can be found below.

Check out the rest of the newsletter for more on committee news and details on upcoming events. Until next newsletter, we hope everyone has a great month and stays healthy.

As always, we invite you to contact Jordan Gosselin at jgosselin@newea.org with committee news and updates you would like to share in future editions.

Reserve a Room for the Spring Meeting

The 2023 Spring Meeting hotel room block at the Saratoga Hilton is now open! The Saratoga Hilton is located in downtown Saratoga Springs, a short walk from shops, restaurants, the Saratoga Race Course, and Saratoga Spa State Park, a National Historic Landmark. Rooms start at $188++ per night and are subject to availability.

Reserve your room.

Join the YP Committee for a Webinar on Abstract Writing

NEWEA's Young Professionals Committee is hosting a series of workshops to help young professionals develop abstracts and presentations to submit to and present at technical conferences, including the upcoming NEWEA/NYWEA Joint Spring Meeting. The second of these workshops will be held on Wednesday, February 8th from 12:00 to 1:00 PM and will be focused on how to write an abstract for a technical conference. It will be led by Dr. Nick Tooker, a seasoned abstract submitter and reviewer and professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UMass Amherst.

Reserve your spot.

Annual Conference Recap

Thank you for joining us at New England Water Environment Association's (NEWEA) 2023 Annual Conference & Exhibit! We were thrilled to gather with our water industry colleagues for our first all in person Annual Conference since January 2020.

The conference was attended by over 2,100 individuals and featured over 200 exhibit booths. We are so appreciative of all the participation in this event.

Thank you to our exhibitors and sponsors for their unwavering support over the last several years as we hosted virtual and hybrid events and continued support as we return to in person events.

Thank you to our attendees for their energy and enthusiastic participation in our technical sessions, exhibit hall, committee meetings, and networking receptions. Monday's Opening Session was standing room only for David Cash's keynote presentation and tickets to our Wednesday Awards Ceremony & Luncheon sold out.

Thank to our volunteers for manning the registration desk, moderating and presenting at sessions, and helping to develop the program. This conference could not exist in its current form without the support of our volunteers.

If you missed anything from the event or simply want to revisit a specific portion of the program, we are uploading recap online.

Photos from the event are available on our Flickr account.
Proceedings from the event will be uploaded to our site in the coming week.
Recordings of Monday's Opening Session keynote and Tuesday's keynote panel will be uploaded to our YouTube channel.

Training Contact Hours (TCH) certificates will be sent out in the coming week.

We look forward to seeing everyone next year and hope to see you at some of our specialty conferences throughout this year and our 2023 Spring Meeting.

Thank you all again for a wonderful 2023 Annual Conference.

RIDEM Salary Survey

From Monday, January 23rd through Friday, February 10th, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Water Resources will be gathering current salary/wage and benefit data for employees in specific occupations in the wastewater sector. These positions are standardized by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and are used by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. The survey also asks a series of general questions, most especially about wastewater staff recruitment and any associated difficulties with hiring new employees—whether at the entry level or for management.

Learn more and complete the survey.

Work for Water - New England

As one third of the water workforce becomes eligible to retire in the next ten years, the water industry faces a shortage of professionals qualified to perform mission-critical jobs of operating and maintaining our Drinking Water and Clean Water (wastewater treatment) facilities and infrastructure.

In response to this imminent crisis, all 14 New England and State professional Drinking Water and Clean Water associations have teamed up to fund New England Work for Water, an initiative focused on creating a sustainable workforce development organization for all New England water utilities. To accomplish this worthy goal, we need your help.

We are looking for every Drinking Water and Clean Water utility in New England to complete a survey that will provide the Steering Committee with data to develop the initiative plan and actions.

Data gathered in this survey will be analyzed by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) at the regional level; data provided from individual water organizations will not be shared. We appreciate every effort to submit the survey by February 15, 2023.

Preview a PDF of the survey questions and complete the survey online..

Ways to give

Make a donation online.
When you shop online, use Amazon Smile and choose New England Water Environment Assoc as your charitable organization.
Take a moment to share how NEWEA has impacted your career, education, and/or community.
Establish a legacy gift or memorial fund, or include NEWEA in your will.
Designate NEWEA for a Qualified Charitable Distribution. (If you have to take a Required Minimum Distribution from your retirement funds in 2023, you may be able to offset the tax impacts. Contact your financial advisor/IRA custodian for more information.)

New England Water Environment Association newea.org