Central States Water Environment Association

CSWEA WEF Delegates Report

Shaping the Future: WEF House of Delegates and CSWEA Strategic Updates

by Anna Munson
Updated 11/05/25

By the time this issue is released, we will be through the chaos of WEFTEC. This year, WEFTEC will be held in Chicago from 9/26 – 10/1. CSWEA will be partnering with IWEA to host a mixer that is always a great time so I hope to see (or to have seen, since this will be published after it is over) many of you there!


The WEF House of Delegates will hold our annual meeting on 9/27 and our joint activity with the Community Leadership Council on 9/28. Typically, these days are filled with strategizing and networking to build a plan for the following year.
This fall has been mostly planning for WEFTEC, and working through strategic plan implementation. There was a quarterly HOD meeting held on 7/16 where updates were provided from all of the different committees. The nominating committee announced that two new WEF Trustees were selected, as well as the new WEF Vice President. All three nominations passed and will be implemented as of WEFTEC This year.

The Water Advocacy committee announced that there are now more than 2,000 people signed up to be Water Advocates. This is an initiative through WEF to help people reach out to and connect with elected officials on important water quality issues. If you are not already signed up, I highly recommend you join to make your voice heard! To sign up go to https://prod.wef.org/topics/practice-areas/government-and-regulatory-affairs/water-advocates-program/. The Water Advocacy group also explained that the WEF Scholarship that was provided to 25 young professionals was instrumental in getting a record number of YP’s to the Water Fly-In in April. This program will continue in future years. It was improved this year by providing scholarship recipients with a more structured program to meet each other and develop a cohort.
This group is working on a new initiative to engage elected officials in sharing their Water Stories. They hope that working with key elected officials to share these stories will help raise public awareness about the importance of our industry.

The HOD Strategy and Implementation committee is working on elevating the visibility and stature of the Delegate’s at Large. These are delegates who apply to the HOD to represent underrepresented constituents. A list of the Delegates at Large is included. The HOD accepts Delegates at Large by application each year. The application for this year has closed, but if this is something you find interesting, please don’t hesitate to reach out for more information and consider applying in the future.




The Workforce Development committee sent out a survey to WEF utility members and received feedback from over 200 utilities, which was twice as many as they were expecting! This goes to show the importance of continuing the workforce develop discussion! They are working on putting a toolkit together for utilities to use in hiring/maintaining members and plan to have it ready by WEFTEC. WEF hosted three in person and one virtual WEFMAX over the summer. WEFMAX feedback is being used to develop goals and action items; Four goals are:

  • Build a stronger and robust network of member associations (increase MA-MA communications)
  • Support communication of WEF’s priorities to members
  • Support and grow WEF Communities
  • Participate in WEFTEC to advocate for MAs and grow their membership.

WEF also gave a presentation on the WEF approach to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. They explained that they are working with a lawyer who is a specialist in the matters of non-profits from the DEI lens. He explained the state of non-profits with respect to navigating the Federal Administration’s recent stance on DEI related activities. He explained that nothing in diversity, equity, and inclusion is unlawful but that there are areas of concern that using the term DEI may make us a target. He explained that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prevents making or enforcing contracts based on race. There is concern that federal agencies will not send their employees to conferences with a DEI focus/track. He also explained that WEF does not appear to be a target at this time, but since it is an environmental based program, it may be in the future. At this time, there will not be any major changes to how WEF approaches DEI, but they will continue to monitor the situation and work with their lawyers to adjust when it is necessary.

Finally, at the Virtual WEFMAX, the Nebraska Member Association presented on their successes in development of student chapters, and student and YP mentoring programs. They also shared that they have a toolkit available for others who are interested in these goals as well. These are goals that CSWEA has been discussing related to our new strategic plan. The CSWEA team who is leading this effort will be working with the NWEA leaders to adapt their toolkit to fit the CSWEA needs and implement in the coming year or so.


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.