Financing & Management
AMSA Competitiveness Report and Workshops
Background: AMSA and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) have joined to produce a new publication, Thinking, Getting & Staying Competitive: A Public Sector Handbook. The Handbook serves as a companion piece to AMSA's previously released publications, "Evaluating Privatization: An AMSA Checklist," and "Managed Competition: Developing and Responding to RFQs & RFPs." The Handbook, released during AMSA's Winter Conference, illustrates a "how to" approach to becoming competitive by highlighting proven strategies for becoming competitive and profiling several utilities that have developed these strategies.
Status: AMSA and AMWA will sponsor several "how to" workshops based on the publication, which will feature panel and interactive sessions and will provide members and non-members with the opportunity to network with water and wastewater officials in their regions. The Thinking, Getting & Staying Competitive: Workshops for the Evolving Public Utility debuted last month in Providence, RI and Philadelphia, Penn. to rave reviews. The workshops feature a mix of lectures and breakout sessions to teach and then reinforce competitive concepts, including teamwork, labor/management relations and effective use of technology. Member agencies are encouraged to send multi-level staff teams to the Workshops to gain maximum benefit from the workshops. The day and a half workshops are scheduled for: Sept. 15-16, Chicago; Sept. 17-18, Kansas City, MO; Nov. 17-18, Atlanta, GA; Nov. 19-20, Houston, TX. Online registration is available on AMSA’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org. CONTACT: Christy Kettell, AMSA 202/833-3692.