Doralee Piering Presented with WWOA Service Award
The Wisconsin Wastewater Operators’ Association (WWOA) Albers-Templeton Service Award is presented to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the WWOA in the areas of promotion, operation, management, program participation, or education. This year, Doralee Piering, office coordinator at Energenecs, was presented with the award. We asked her about WWOA and her volunteer work for producing the Clarifier magazine.
What happens at the WWOA Conference?
Every year, WWOA holds an annual conference for the operators to get continuing education credits, because they have to keep up their licenses. If you look at the past issues of the Clarifier, it highlights the presentations, workshops and technical sessions available to the attendees. There are also exhibitors, such as Energenecs, for two days of the conference. The Wastewater Operators Conference started out pretty small and has grown to become one of the states’ largest environmental conferences. There were approximately 1300 attendees this year.
Who is the service award named after?
They recently renamed the service award to the Albers-Templeton Service Award, in recognition of Leo Templeton and Pete Albers, who really did so much for WWOA in the beginning when they were just a tiny entity. These two gentlemen grew it from the ground up. They truly were the service people at WWOA for fifty years. In 2017 they attended their 50th conference! According to WWOA “In August 2019, the Board of Directors received a proposal to rename the Service award as a memorial to Leo Templeton, who passed at the age of 96 in July 2018, for his 55 years of service to WWOA. It is difficult to identify an individual (or individuals) whose contribution(s) to WWOA is so outstanding as to name an award after them, and the Board did not take this matter lightly.
Leo Templeton and Pete Albers
Leo Templeton and his long-time friend Pete Albers have both left their mark indelibly stamped on the evolution of WWOA. After much discussion, and in recognition that any discussion of Leo invariably has to include his long-time friend, traveling partner, and equally deserving member Pete Albers, the Board voted in May 2020 to rename the Service Award as the Albers-Templeton Service Award beginning in October 2020. Pete and Leo set examples and created a model of what service to an organization should be. They focused on providing opportunities for training and having a good time while doing so. It was always about service and friendship.”
Did you know you were going to receive the award?
No, I did not. Larry Henderson, technical sales at Energenecs, called me about two weeks before the conference and told me that Jon Butt (editor of the Clarifier) was getting an award for all of his service and I should probably be there for that. When Jon was up there receiving the award and talking about how much fun he’s had, he starts talking about a person who has helped him immensely. His last words before he said my name was “she’s gonna kill me”. But it’s very nice to be recognized. I’m sure they were so happy to show their appreciation. I really enjoy what I do, this industry is so fascinating.
It actually was all three of us (who produce the Clarifier) that received the award: Jon Butt, Ron Dickrell and myself. The Clarifier is the official publication of the WWOA and is intended to inform and educate the membership on issues related to the treatment and control of wastewater. The Clarifier is produced five times each year and contains news and training events, employment opportunities, district meeting minutes, and more. Jon is the editor and he does all the writing. Ron produces the main article which features a wastewater treatment plant. I lay out the ads and put in the articles on the pages. It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle. Basically, they give me all the ads and the stories and then I put it all together. It’s one of those jobs where you have to get it done.
How long have you been volunteering for the WWOA?
I think it’s been 10 or 15 years!
How did you get involved with the Clarifier?
Jon has been doing this for 20 years. The woman that was formatting the publication, was retiring. Jon asked Larry if he knew of anybody who could lay out the magazine, then Larry talked to me and I said, I’d love to, and that’s how I volunteered! Jon and Ron are so wonderful to work with. They are very easy going and when I need help, they’re like, sure, let’s try and figure this out. It really is a team effort from all three of us.
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