Central States Water Environment Association

CSWEA WEF Delegates Report

From Goals to Action: WEF Delegates Advance Water Leadership

by Anna Munson and Autumn Fisher
Updated 01/15/26

The WEF House of Delegates (HOD) business year begins at WEFTEC. Delegates arrive at the conference city early, with meetings and activities that begin on Saturday morning and extend into Sunday before WEFTEC officially begins. We use this time to reflect on the previous year’s accomplishments and challenges, to connect with other delegates in person, transfer knowledge from professionals who are exiting the delegate roll, and to welcome new delegates into the HOD. This year, we welcomed Autumn Fisher as a new CSWEA Delegate while Liz Heise rolled off the HOD. Anna will continue to serve as the other CSWEA delegate for one more year.

During our pre-WEFTEC meetings, the HOD celebrated accomplishing several of its goals, which were developed by the HOD Speaker of the House and the selected workgroup chairs. Each year, the goals are set to help the HOD move toward accomplishing WEF’s mission of inspiring the water community in pursuit of human and environmental well-being. HOD Workgroups and Committees are formed to complete the work. Highlights of the work accomplished by the work groups and HOD committees since conclusion of the previous WEFTEC include:

  • Improved delegate-at-large engagement and brought the diverse group together regularly to amplify their impact.
  • Supported WEF member associations (MAs) as they adjusted their approach to improving or maintaining equity and inclusion
  • Refreshed the new Delegate welcome materials.
  • Hosted three in-person and one virtual WEFMAX event to promote cross-MA collaboration and learning.
  • Awarded grants to MAs to support activities that benefit their community or MA.
  • Produced six Water Advocacy letters that can be used by Water Advocates to communicate to their political representatives the importance of clean water.


New work groups were formed to maintain forward momentum to continuously improve the service of the HOD to the MAs and WEF.
The 2025/2026 workgroups are:

  • Developing Strategies for using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Water – will assist WEF in education and outreach to promote sustainable water use for AI infrastructure while encouraging water utilities to remain open to deploying AI tools to enhance utility performance and resilience. Autumn will serve as a member of this workgroup.
  • International MA Development – workgroup will collaborate with the WEF Board of Trustees and WEF Staff to support development of international MAs and improve incorporation of the international MAs into WEF activities.
  • HOD, MA, and Community Leadership Council (CLC) Advocacy and Engagement – tasked with improving communication and collaboration between the Delegates, the leaders of the technical communities (CLC), and MA Committee Leaders to ultimately connect the MAs to the extensive knowledge and resources available through WEF.
  • MA to MA Engagement – workgroup will build simple platforms to promote coordination and communication between MAs to supplement the engagement currently available through WEFMAX, monthly MA spotlights, and the YP Summit. Anna will serve as a member of this workgroup.


Looking ahead to 2026, there are several WEF conferences that promise to deliver learning and networking opportunities in venues across the US and Canada.
The WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference (UMC) will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, from March 24 – 27, 2026. This conference brings together utility leaders in both the water and wastewater sectors.
The WEF/AWWA Young Professionals Summit will be held in Charlotte for the two days preceding the UMC, March 22 – 24, 2026. This Summit is well-attended each year and offers new professionals skill development and leadership training alongside their industry peers.
From May 10 – 14, 2026, WEF will host the Residuals and Biosolids and Innovations in Treatment Technology (RB/ITT) Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Finally, the WEFMAX locations and some preliminary dates have been announced. In 2026, Montréal, Canada, will host a WEFMAX in April; a WEFMAX will be held in May somewhere exciting in the Pacific Northwest; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will host the third WEFMAX, and a virtual WEFMAX will be offered in the summer.


As WEF Delegates, we are here to support you and represent the interests of the CSWEA to the House of Delegates and WEF. If something is on your mind, please feel free to call or email Anna at amunson@hazenandsawyer.com or Autumn at afisher@donohue-associates.com We are here to serve you/CSWEA and be a liaison to WEF leadership.