The Alliance of Hazardous Materials Managers (“AHMP”) held its Annual Conference at the Omni Shoreham in Washington DC. As Chapter Delegate from NEOCHMM, I can report that:

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  The AHMP is under new leadership Joe Jenkins, President and the new Board appeared to be well received at the Conference. The Conference included a robust Chapter Development Training Program, a reinvigorated Awards presentation and a realistic Emergency Response demonstration. The day-to-day management of the AHMP is under Management Solutions Plus (“MSP”), an association management firm. Leslie Edsall from MSP is the Executive Director for the AHMP. Angie Foreman is the day-to-day service contact. MSP appeared to be able to operate the National Conference smoothly.
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  About 450 persons attended the National Conference. This is down from about 750 persons that attended in the about 5 years earlier. With the new management firm, AHMP hopes to get conference attendance back up to the more recent averages.
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  For the first time in many years, the AHMP Treasurer, presented a detailed financial report. A. John McDonald is the current Treasurer. His report showed that AHMP has a profit about $ 20K on revenues of about $ 765K. This was supposedly the best profit in many years. However, the AHMP is still not in good financial position, because it is essentially “borrowing” from dues and conference fees anticipated later in the year, to pay the expenses in incurred earlier in year. The better model would be the dues and conference fees received in the current year would be banked to pay expenses in the following year. To reduce expenses, the AHMP cut its staff and went with MSP. Its lease on its office also expires at the end of the year and will not be renewed, as the operations are now run out of the offices of MSP.
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  Next year’s 2017 Annual Conference is at the OMNI in Fort Worth, Texas. This will be the 30th Anniversary of the AHMP. Special Events are planned to celebrate this Anniversary. The 2018 Annual Conference will be in Reno, Nevada. Attending the Conference every year is often a good way to accrue all the educational certification points necessary to renew your certification.
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  In a related matter, in support of the AHMP, The IHMM held their third quarter Board meeting at the Conference. To facilitate a closer working relationship between the organizations, many AHMP Officers also attended the IHMM Board Meeting and a joint reception after the meeting. IHMM also provided a status Report on the Institute at the Conference. The IHMM announced a “Reinstatement Policy,” where persons that have been decertified can be re-instated without retaking the certification test, assuming they meet the requirements of the policy. Some of key elements of the policy include that the person has not been decertified longer than 3 years and all back fees and late fees are paid.

Submitted by: Mark T. Baumgardner, CHMM Chapter Delegate