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Small Systems Water
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Training Update

I
Jennifer Koenig, MRWA NTNC Technical Advisor

I hope that you and your families are doing well! I wanted to provide an update on our small systems
training. Our in-person training has been on hold since the spring of 2020. Prior to that time, we provided
half-day and full-day training sessions throughout Minnesota geared for small public water systems.
When I say “small public water systems” I am referring to nontransient noncommunity systems (schools,
businesses, daycare facilities, etc.) and nonmunicipal community systems (housing developments, mobile
home parks, nursing homes, prisons, etc.). These systems are very unique in the sense that many of them
wear about 30 different hats every day and were “volunteered” to be the water operations specialist. For
most of them, taking care of the water system is only a part of their job. With that being said, they know
that as a certified water operations specialist, they need to complete their training every three years. So,
in talking with the Minnesota Department of Health, we decided to give online training a try while our in-
person training is on hold.
I will admit, I was really nervous about doing online training! I have been doing in-person training sessions
for over 19 years so to shift from that to online training was a brand new experience for me! One of my
biggest fears was that my internet connection would drop during the session! However, a wise person
once told me not to worry about the things that are out of my control. So, I decided to not worry (at least
not as much) about that and to start researching webinar platforms. I jumped into researching Zoom and
MN Rural Water
taking notes about how other organizations were handling webinars. One of the things that was important
to me about doing online training was to try to make it fun and somewhat interactive! That can be a little
difficult with online training. But, I thought that having some poll questions might be a good start. So,
our sessions have some poll questions throughout the hour that I like to think break up the slides a bit and
make it enjoyable. They aren’t hard questions at all!!! The questions vary but I like to use them to get
people to think about their own water systems during the training.

Our first session was in August of 2020 and it went really well! We are now offering one-hour online
sessions approximately every 3-4 weeks. The topics are geared for small systems and we will try to expand
these sessions to include some more in-depth topics. We have used a couple speakers and that has worked
well too!

I would also like to add that the feedback we have
received from the attendees has been very helpful
to us. Thank you! I think we learn something
new with each session including what works and Patent No. 10,794,514
what doesn’t work with online training. We like ®
the ideas that are provided to us regarding future F˘rd Meter Box
topics…we are working on trying to incorporate Locking Ball Valves
those ideas into our training sessions. We also
try to have a laugh or two during the sessions as
well! We could all use a laugh these days!

If you haven’t tried attending online training
sessions yet, I encourage you to give it a try! Take
care everyone!

Lock Open • Lock Closed • Lock Operational

12 MRWA TODAY S SPRING 2021 www.fordmeterbox.com • 260-563-3171