President’s Message

It is exciting to start my presidential year following the Annual Convention in Vancouver. What a great meeting! Thank you to all of you who participated and made it such a positive meeting.

And thank you for everyone who participated in the Annual Membership Meeting and bylaws vote. The vote on the two proposed bylaw measures passed, meaning AWT has added an Individual member category and has changed the definition of a water treatment company to 500 employees in a water treatment division.

AWT Technical Training

Every year, the AWT Training Seminars improve based on the communications and feedback we gather from attendees. The programs are revised each year to ensure that the material is current and relevant. It can be difficult to justify the increasingly high cost of travel when budgets are tight, but the ROI you’ll receive from these meetings is phenomenal. In just three short days, you’ll learn or refresh on all aspects of water treatment. Attendees will be able to better communicate and highlight their skills to customers. AWT also offers a three-day Service Technician Training program. This seminar is designed for those new to the field. The program begins with the basics—an overview of the role of a service technician and why we use water. It continues with sessions on safety issues, feed equipment training, time and relationship management, filtration and pretreatment, boiler types and treatment programs, testing, cooling tower design and treatment programs, and writing service reports. This is a great introduction for those new to the water treatment industry as well as a way to further expand the knowledge and skills of those already employed as service and account management representatives.

In addition, AWT will also offer RO training and sales training and an ASSE training to prepare attendees to become ASSE certified.

I encourage all of you to become active in AWT. Attend the training seminars, work toward getting your CWT if you haven’t already, join a committee, and use the tools on the AWT website to get the most of your membership. Taking advantage of all AWT has to offer will provide you with a sizeable return in knowledge, success, and, ultimately, reward. I welcome your feedback and can be reached at president@awt.org.