North Dakota Rural Water Systems

“The executive board shall be composed of the officers of the corporation, the north dakota director on the national rural water association board, together with the immediate past president of the corporation or in the event of their inability or unwillingness to serve, then any past president chosen by the officers, and a manager of rural water system member, selected by the managers groups to be their representative, and a director at large from the rural water system members. If the position of any officer or member of the executive board becomes vacant by reason of death, resignation, retirement, disqualification, or otherwise, a new officer or member shall be appointed by the executive board from among the rural water system members, except for a vacancy of managers.”

“Voting members - rural water system members shall be the only membership class entitled to vote at a meeting. Every rural water provider organized under the laws of th state of north dakota as a public water system may become a member of the corporation. Each rural water system member shall designate one voting delegate who must be a board member in good standing of that rural water system. Said delegate shall serve as a voting member. Non voting members - a small city member shall be a city or village that has a population of less than 750. A large city member shall be a city that has population of 750 or more. An associate member shall be any person or business that supports the purposes of north dakota rural water systems association. A non-community system member shall be any water or wastewater system that does not fall into any of the other categories of membership. An indiviual member shall be any person who is employed by or serves as a director of a member system, governmental agency, or of the association and supports the purposes of the association.”

“Membership voting rights: a rural water member of north dakota rural water systems association shall designate one voting delegate who must be a member in good standing of that rural water system. Said delegate shall serve as a voting member at the annual meeting or at any duly called special meeting of the corporation.”

“Voting members approve the audit, the national director, officers and minutes at the full board meeting. Voting members may also alter, amend, or repeal the bylaws by the affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds of the members in attendance at any regular or speacial meeting.”

“Form 990 will be presented to the executive board for review and approval prior to filing.”

“The board approves the budget, which include the salaries for the executive director. To ensure the reasonableness of the salary, the board considers executive diretors' salaries from rural water organizations in other states. The budget is approved based on prior year's numbers and expected annual costs.”

“Documents are available upon written, telephone, or e-mail request at the office or copies will be provided for a nominal fee.”

“Other programs funded by state revolving fund and bureau of reclamation. Technical assistance with operation and maintenance, management of the garrison diversion unit tribal mr&i water systems and provide training to tribal program staff in relation to system operations and management. Wellhead protection program provides technical assistance to small systems serving 10,000 or fewer persons that have drinking water sources that are considered to be in areas vulnerable to contamination. Operator certification program - provides technical assistance to small systems serving 10,000 or fewer persons by aiding them to obtain properly certified operators. National apprenticeship - provides assistance to carry out pre- apprenticeship and youth outreach initiatives.”

“Source water fund - the source water protection program is designed to protect the quality of drinking water in the rural ares of north dakota. By working with farm service's county executive directors, the source water specialist will identify land use activities above an aquifer not previously studied in a community well head protection plan for potential contamination sources, and then recommend actions to reduce or eliminate contamination threats to the safe drinking water that rural communities depend on.”