NACWA’s Board of Directors and standing committee leaders gathered this week in Charleston, SC for the Association’s annual Fall Leadership Meeting. This was the first NACWA in-person event since February 2020, and attendees were thrilled to see one another and gather together.

The Leadership Meeting focused on what key utility operation and leadership lessons have been learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and how they will impact utilities moving forward. There was also significant discussion about NACWA’s current advocacy priorities, especially around federal infrastructure funding, PFAS regulation, and affordability, and what the Association needs to do to continue focusing on these issues moving forward.  Central to the conversation was the importance of NACWA ensuring that recent funds allocated for water in the bipartisan infrastructure bill are spent efficiently.

There was strong agreement among NACWA’s leadership that while it is wonderful to re-engage at in-person events, it is also critical that the Association continue to offer a strong slate of virtual events to engage additional segments of the membership.  NACWA will remain committed to a wide range of virtual offerings moving forward so that as many members as possible can participate in the Association’s activities.  

The NACWA Board of Directors also met in-person in Charleston for the first time since the pandemic to engage in a number of business items, including allocating excess funds from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget to support the Association's Targeted Action Fund (TAF) and TAF Resilience Fund.  The Board also approved additional funding to support NACWA’s ongoing project to develop a model federal low-income water assistance program.  NACWA is being joined in funding this project by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the Water Environment Federation, the American Water Works Association, the US Water Alliance, and the National Association of Water Companies. 

The next meeting of the Board of Directors will be on January 31, 2022 as part of NACWA’s 2022 Winter Conference.  If members have questions about the Leadership Meeting or the Board meeting, they can contact Nathan Gardner-Andrews, NACWA’s General Counsel & Chief Advocacy Officer.