Water Quality Association elects eight new board members at annual meeting

March 18, 2004 -- The Water Quality Association (WQA) has elected eight members to its Board of Directors for a three-year term at its recent Annual Business Meeting in Baltimore.

The 30th Annual Water Quality Association Exhibition opened March 16 and is scheduled to continue through March 20.

March 18 highlights included the Opening General Session and Annual Business Meeting for members. At the Opening General Session, the WQA awarded the Hall of Fame Award to Patrick Dalee, Good Water Warehouse, Inc., for his dedication and service to the water quality improvement industry and participation in and unfailing support for the betterment of the association.

New board members elected

Manufacturer/Supplier class of membership

Richard R. Elliott, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Vice President/General Manager of the Household Water Group, GE Water Technologies. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors. He is also a member of the Government Relations Committee and California Salinity Task Force.

Jorge A. Fernandez, Brookfield, Wisconsin
President of Pentair Water Business, part of the Pentair group of companies that market water-related products. He is cur-rently serving as Secretary on the WQA Board of Governors and the chairman of the Manufacturer/Supplier Section.

Robert A. Hague, CWS-VI, Groveport, Ohio
President of Hague Quality Water International. He is currently a member of the International Standards & Regs and California Salinity Task Forces.

Dealer class of membership

Robert W. Boerner, CWS-V, San Antonio, Texas
President of Culligan Water Conditioning of San Antonio. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors and Government Relations Committee. He previously served on the Water Quality Society and CWS Exams Revision Task Forces and received a WQA Award of Merit in 2003.

Dennis Rupert, CWS-II, CI, Hillsdale, Michigan
President of Rupert's Culligan Water Conditioning. He is currently serving as a Governors At-Large on the WQA Board of Governors and Vice President on the Board of Michigan WQA. He is the Chairperson of WQA's Dealer Section and previously served as Chairman of the Culligan Water Technologies Dealer Advisory Council. He is the immediate Past President of the Culligan Dealers Association of North America.

Jeffrey Wilson, CWS-VI, Canal Winchester, Ohio
General Manager of the corporate retail store in Columbus, Ohio for the past six years for Kinetico Quality Water Sytems. He has been with Kinetico for 14 years as manager in the manufacturing and customer service areas.

International class of membership

Daniel Taragan, Haela, Israel
CEO of Tana Industries. He is currently serving as Chairperson of the International Section Steering Task Force and a Membership Marketing Recruiter. He has previously served as Chairperson of the World Assembly Advisory Board and as a member of the Science Advisory Task Force.

Retail Channel class of membership

James Mitchell, Pleasanton, California
Director of Research & Development for The Brita Products Company. He is currently serving as a Governor-At-Large on the WQA Board of Governors and is the Chairperson of the Retail Channel Section. He has previously served as a member of several task forces most recently on the Science Advisory Task Force.

WQA has day-by-day updates on its web site at http://www.wqa.org/sitelogic.cfm?ID=1406.