President Message

President’s Thoughts

by Mike Norris

Greetings,

I hope this finds everyone doing well. Continuing my theme of “You bring about what you think about.” We all face challenges and struggles in our everyday lives. We have family needs as well as work obligations that live in our subconscious. Is anyone feeling stressed right now by either of these?

If we allow gloom and doom into our thought process or automatically think of all the negatives of our circumstances, we may not realize it, but we are causing multiple stress levels and health-related drama to guide our lives. There is a supervisor position opening in your department. You might be a positive thinker and see this as an opportunity to better yourself and your family. Or you might be thinking, why bother applying? I probably would not even be considered. Either way, you are probably correct.

What if we simply look at all the challenges in our daily lives as opportunities? Instead of looking at a situation such as a child who woke up running a fever as just another obstacle not to complete work-related projects or tasks. Instead, look at the situation as a chance to spend time with your child and strengthen the family bond. You will need to get your mind right and switch on your nurturing and compassion. Children need to have positive memories of their younger years. There is a difference between sympathy and compassion. Sympathy looks at a problem and says, I’m sorry. Compassion looks at the same problem and says, I’m with you.

My hope for TWUA and the members is that we never get too busy in our daily lives that we fail to respond to the needs of others with compassion.

I am preparing to make the Amarillo Regional School as I write this. This school signals the beginning of a hectic regional schedule, but I am truly excited. Four live in-person training opportunities within six weeks. I am honored to represent TWUA and privileged to experience how large this state is. While serving as president, I will essentially go from Amarillo to McAllen (750 miles) and from Beaumont to Fort Stockton (600 miles), and several host locations in between.

I want to meet and shake hands with as many of you as possible, so stop by the TWUA booth and let’s get to know each other. TWUA is hearing from the operators that they are ready for live in-person training, and on behalf of the regional events, we are pleased to hear this. My question to you is this, are the decision-makers of your entity as eager as you to approve out-of-town live training events?

In other words, will you be able to support the TWUA regional events that are scheduled for 2022? As an organization, we are optimistic and ready to reestablish our regional training events, but so far, pre-registration at the April events is not inspiring. Then again, because of work obligations and staff shortages, water and wastewater people have never been able to plan and execute registrations more than two or three weeks in advance. In addition, we have current fuel prices and hotel rates to deal with; what do you say? These are questions that the management committee and I need your feedback on?

I will ask Central Office to prepare a very simple electronic survey and distribute this survey via email to all association members to obtain a better perspective related to out-of-town live in-person training. Again, your honest responses will be most appreciated and helpful.

I pray that 2022 brings you good health, blessings, prosperity, and purpose.

TWUA President Mike Norris