It seems that, over the years, organizations get into the habit of "letting someone else" do stuff. Eventually, that can result in a few individuals handling almost everything. In our organization, this situation has reached a point where something has to be done.
This is currently how our system runs and who runs it.
The Board of Management:
Ideally, there should be 5 members on the Board whose job it is to oversee the management of the entire system. Recently there have been only 4 Board members. With recent resignations and new additions, there appear to be 4 again.
The Water Teams:
A dozen or so members are assigned to (normally) 2-person teams that are responsible for four things during a 2-week period on a rotational schedule with other teams: 1) monitor the reservoir level, 2) adjust the lake pump timer accordingly, 3) keep bleach tank topped up and 4) clean the filters at an appropriate interval. Once the automated level and pump control system is operational, the reservoir level should not require much monitoring but there will be the facility to do that monitoring online. Note that not all teams actively carry out all 4 of the tasks mentioned above.
Water Sampling:
Takes water samples from the reservoir and one other location and delivers them to IHA's facility in town so they can be tested for the presence of bacteria.
Traditionally, this has been handled by one person but could be shared by a small team carrying out the job in some kind of rotation.
This is a critical task that must be carried out properly and with care.
Maintenance:
At this point, January 2021, one person is now responsible for looking after all of the following, with exceptions noted where appropriate.
Financial:
receiving meter readings and updating the billing spreadsheet. Note: quarterly meter readings have been handled by another community member for a good number of years and there are now two people can share this job.
integrating that spreadsheet into the quarterly statements
emailing statements to water users (snail mail for two residents)
logging on and recording all online payments for about a month after each quarterly billing period.
recording all e-transfers. Note: payments by cheque are received and deposited by a board member, unfortunately one who has recently decided to resign from the board.
paying all bills
keeping all financial records, reconciling statements, annual volunteer credits, etc
investing society funds in appropriate deposits
Preparing and presenting financial statements to the Board and to each AGM
Purchasing - see details in next section.
Maintenance:
looking after ALL maintenance items which can include electrical wiring changes, magnetic pump switches, pump hookups, pipe fitting, replacing leaky valves, leaky pipe fittings, etc.
installing ALL new equipment, planning for that installation, welding, pipe cutting, pipe layouts, wiring, etc.
Planning and carrying out the water meter project starting in 2008, installing many of the meters, some with the help of a plumber, others with another volunteer or two, building the boxes for the meters that are installed by the street, inspecting those meters and boxes on a regular basis each year and repairing meters when defective.
Chlorine tests, chlorine injector adjustments, injector repairs, new diaphragms, cleaning, etc. Note: water samples for weekly bacteriological tests have been carried out by another volunteer which has contributed greatly to keeping our system in compliance with the province's water quality requirements.
Turbidity measurements at certain times of the year.
Scheduling reservoir cleaning and the occasional high-chlorine sterilization of the entire distribution system.
Inspection of filters, replacing those that seem worn out.
Monitoring and adding bleach to the tank when it gets too low. Note: some, but not all, water teams include this in their duties.
Monitoring reservoir levels and adjusting the lake pump timer when necessary. Note: some water teams do this as part of their duties.
Regular inspection of our three buildings, making sure heat is on in the winter, off in the summer, that there are no leaks. Checking for potential building repairs.
Checking and adjusting the air charge of the pressure tanks at the reservoir.
Planning for ALL future repairs, modifications: researching, ordering parts, arranging for contractors, etc. Currently, for the 2021 season, the maintenance lineup includes a major main line valve replacement, a remote reservoir level monitoring program with remote pump control capabilities, the addition of one new property to our system, a planned overhaul of our fire hydrants (the first in 40 years) and researching the possibility of adding UV treatment to our processes.
Flushing the hydrants, standpipes and distribution lines usually twice each summer. This is now planned to include scheduled hydrant maintenance: disassembly, lubrication, gasket replacement when necessary.
Disposing of all garbage and recyclable containers from the treatment building.
Purchasing - Once every month or two: Bleach - buying from Walmart or the RCWC in Nelson and delivering to treatment building; Occasionally: O-rings for filter canisters, diaphragms for injectors, any other parts (valves, water meters, repair parts for water meters, pumps, magnetic switches, etc).
Secretarial:
completing annual reports to two different government departments in support of our water license.
writing an annual report for our EHO at IHA.
Recording data from the treatment building and reservoir, collecting financial information, etc., to use in those annual reports.
Responding to requests to update the “property table” with contact information for residents.
Filing annual online reports to BC Societies following each AGM. This also included a one time rewriting our Constitution and Bylaws so they could be transitioned to the new online system now used by BC Societies.
Maintaining the Society's filing system.
Managing the volunteer list, arranging for volunteer credits and keeping track of volunteer hours and maintenance activities.
Training:
training and/or orientation for every new recruit in recent years – water team members, for example. This also included training for a member who very helpfully took over the bookkeeping system for a number of years, a job that has now reverted to the maintenance person again. Training for another member when they started taking meter readings a number of years ago. Note: In more recent months, our meter reader person has helped by training a new volunteer to collect meter readings on a quarterly basis. Additionally, another member has recently taken on the training of a new person to take water samples for bacteriological testing.
Miscellaneous:
meeting with operators of other water systems (RDCK at Ymir, Lardeau, Schroeder Creek, Woodbury, Fletcher, Mirror Lake), viewing their systems and hosting a number of visits for those interested in seeing our own system.
meeting with IHA's EHO and handling questions and requests from her many times over the years. It's worth noting that this area of communication has become more difficult in recent years to the point that we only communicate in writing, keeping a permanent record of all communication.
Setting up and managing the Society's email address and writing ALL of the content for our website which includes operations instructions and a mandatory emergency plan required by IHA and our regulatory departments in Victoria.
Preparing rate increase submissions to Victoria
FireSmart, while not specifically a Society function, takes more time. Two members have been involved in planning and reviewing suggestions about those plans, another has worked with the maintenance person on several occasions and some other community members helped in the initial year, 2019, and some have done good work around their own properties. This past COVID year it's been mostly the maintenance person with help from two other dedicated members. Some of our plans also involve making the Society's buildings more fire resistant, so the Society (ie: the Board) needs to be involved.
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