Operating as a volunteer-run, non-profit organization, committed to pollution prevention, product stewardship, and the safe and effective handling of hazardous materials from households and small businesses, NAHMMA supports its members with exclusive training opportunities, relevant industry news, and access to a diverse and experienced multi-national network of people involved in the hazardous waste management industry.
By Kenneth Miller

 

Welcome to the NAHMMA Corner! You may be wondering, “Who is NAHMMA?” Well, officially, NAHMMA stands for North American Hazardous Materials Management Association, which is a non-profit, membership-based association of individuals, businesses, government officials, academia, and non-profit organizations dedicated to pollution prevention and reducing the hazardous waste components entering municipal waste streams from households, small businesses, and other entities. Unofficially, NAHMMA gives those professionals a place to let their guard down and enjoy the company (networking!) of others who understand the challenges that go with being in the industry, while crowdsourcing solutions to industry issues and local issues that everyone faces from time-to-time. Before we talk more about the unofficial “fun stuff”, just like that timeshare you may have signed up for, first we have to give a nice little rundown of what we are “officially” all about.

What is NAHMMA?
NAHMMA was established in 1993 and operates as a volunteer-run, non-profit organization, committed to pollution prevention, product stewardship, and the safe and effective handling of hazardous materials from households and small businesses. Collectively, NAHMMA includes the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands. NAHMMA supports its members with exclusive training opportunities, relevant industry news, and access to a diverse and experienced multi-national network of people involved in the hazardous waste management industry. So, how do our volunteers go about accomplishing all this? Well, first off, we have a 15-member Association Board of Directors, which currently includes representatives from the U.S. and Canada. The association currently maintains nine active committees to crowdsource the workload. These committees include:

Awards Committee
o This committee designs, distributes call for nominations of persons, programs, and policies for awards presented at the annual association conference.

Communications Committee
o This committee is responsible for the preparation of a bi-monthly electronic newsletter, maintenance of the NAHMMA website, social media channels, press releases, and maintains a list of media contacts.

Conference Steering Committee
o This committee meets to design conference program, location, and theme. The committee also assists with fundraising and obtaining sponsorships for the annual conference. To effectively manage the workload for the conference, this committee forms subcommittees to work on the technical programs and review presentation abstracts and notify speakers of their acceptance.

Executive Committee
o This committee is staffed only with association Board Officers. This committee oversees contractual employees and other personnel matters. This committee also sets policies for the association, reviews the associations financial data, and recommends financial allocations.

Chapters and Membership Committee
o This committee fosters the development of new chapters and supports existing chapters. Chapters exist where there are at least eight association members in a geographic area that work cooperatively together for their mutual benefit. Chapters also work with sister Chapters and the association Board through the monthly Chapters Committee conference calls. The Chapters Committee also maintains a representative to the Policy Committee.
o In addition to the chapter assistance, this committee works to retain and recruit new association members. The committee sets membership rates, develops, and distributes the membership brochure, organizes the Membership Mixer at the National Conference, hosts a monthly virtual “Happy Hour”, and oversees the Member-get-a-Member Campaign.

Policy Committee
o This committee is actively engaged in external policy issues related to NAHMMA’s mission statement. Committee members work on such projects such as the Consumer Labeling Initiative, Mercury containing products, and extended producer responsibility.

Sponsorship Committee
o This committee actively seeks out potential sponsorships for the association, the newsletter, or the Annual Conference.

Training Committee
o This committee designs training opportunities specific to the needs of NAHMMA members. Trainers conduct NAHMMA developed trainings in conjunction with regional conferences, the national conference, or at the request of states/regional governments, and municipalities.

Affiliations Committee
o This committee develops affiliations with selected, progressive organizations, like Waste Advantage Magazine, which benefit HHW/VSQG professionals and support and advance our profession.

In addition to the multi-National association, there are currently 10 regional chapters, each with their own chapter leadership boards. The Chapter structure provides local direction and control over decisions and resources to provide networking, professional development, and focused member services for the benefit of members within the Chapter boundary.

Without our members, NAHMMA would not be here, and our volunteers strive to support the members with exclusive training opportunities, relevant industry news, and access to a diverse and experienced multi-national network of people involved in the hazardous waste management industry. The hazardous waste management industry is constantly evolving, and for all our members, safety is crucial. NAHMMA provides professionals and organizations with the latest industry information, training, and solutions to help keep members and communities safe, and their collection programs running effectively.

2022 Board of Directors Workshop in Troutdale, OR. Photo courtesy of NAHMMA.

Welcoming New Members
So, how can you sign up or dig a little deeper into what NAHMMA is all about? Well, our website has information on membership fees, upcoming events like such as the association’s annual conference, which runs this year from July 17 – 22 at the Luminary Hotel in Fort Myers, FL, links to join NAHMMA, and plenty of other resources. Members and non-members are always welcome to attend all NAHMMA events (fees may apply) to learn and share their knowledge and experience. Oh, and about all the “fun stuff”, the membership mixers (both in person and virtual), networking and association/chapter events are the place to go to find out about all of that, because our members do an amazing job welcoming in new members and other professionals. With that, let me just say that we look forward to seeing you at one of our next events.

The first part of our NAHMMA Corner series, which is designed to tell you, the reader, more about who we are will include articles that spotlight one of our members and a recap of the conference. Future articles will cover Mobile Collection, Materials Management and Collection Facilities. | WA

Kenneth Miller began his duties as a scale operator with Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency (DMASWA) in May 2011. Prior to that, he served as a Logistics Team Leader with the Target Corporation. In his role as the Solid Waste Agency Administrator, Ken is a member or multiple professional organizations, including SWANA, the Iowa Society of Solid Waste Operator (ISOSWO), the Iowa Recycling Association (IRA), the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association (NAHMMA) – National Board Member, NAHMMA Heartland Chapter President, the United States Composting Council, and the Iowa Composting Council – Board Member. He can be reached at (563) 581-2874, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.NAHMMA.org,

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