The establishment of the Buried Asset Management Institute-International, Inc. (BAMI-I) was inspired by Atlanta’s Mayor Shirley Franklin, "The Sewer Mayor."
- During her first year in office (2002), she made it clear that her vision was to move the City’s water program beyond consent decree compliance to being "first-in-class." With tremendous courage, she took innovative actions to execute this vision. Over the years, she has not relaxed year commitment.
- In 2002, she formed the Department of Watershed Management (DWM); appointed Jack Ravan as commissioner; transferred the drinking water program from a privatization program into the DWM; and began implementing a program to address huge challenges.
- During the latter part of 2002, Commissioner Ravan appointed Dr. Troy Norris as a senior advisor. In January 2003, Dr. Norris and I met with Commissioner Ravan to discuss ideas to accomplish the Mayor’s vision.
This discussion gave birth to what is known today as BAMI-I.
For the first 1½ years, BAMI-I existed as an entity within the DWM with primary objective to assist the senior management team with investigating innovative approaches to overcoming the challenges in accomplishing the vision.
One of the first initiatives was to seek a resolution between the City of Atlanta’s BAMI-I and the National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM). Dr. Norris and Dr. Tom Iseley met with NCBM’s Energy and Environment Committee at their annual meeting in Houston in 2003.
This resolution was approved by the Committee and the NCBM Board of Directors and signed by Mayor Franklin. This initiative has turned out to be a major milestone and accomplishment for BAMI-I. Another major milestone was the reception conducted at Atlanta’s City Hall to honor Mayor Franklin, Commissioner Ravan and the City Council for providing heroic leadership for the water industry.
In June 2003, BAMI-I was formed as non-profit organization. An interim Board of Directors (BOD) was elected with the first official BOD being inaugurated in December 2004 at the UIM Conference in Washington, DC. At this first official BAMI-I meeting, a business plan development committee was formed with Sandy Robinson, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., as Chair.
It was decided to delay developing a membership campaign until the official business plan was developed. Nick Zembillas, TBE Group, Inc., served as chair of a subcommittee of the business plan development to address membership and revenue generation. The final report emphasized that in addition to a membership base BAMI-I should seek research and development revenues from state, federal, other associations programs.
During the first quarter of 2005, BAMI-I received notice that EPA had issued an RFP for research proposal for a wide range of topics. Several topics related to asset management. BAMI-I leadership met with NAMS (National Asset Management Steering) Committee to discuss working together to submit a joint proposal for an EPA Cooperative Agreement. The BAMI-I/NAMS proposal was developed, submitted, selected, negotiated, and finalized. BAMI-I will serve as the contracting organization; and Paul Causey, NAMS, will serve as the project manager. The purpose of the EPA Cooperative Agreement will be to conduct an assessment of the water utilities across the US to determine what structure should be established to assist utilities to progress on the pathway toward better utility management. This will involve establishing a water asset management clearing house and providing overall recommendations on required educational and training programs to support asset management principles and practices.
The BAMI-I leadership met with NAMS BOD in January 2006 to present ideas on how BAMI-I could support NCBM. BAMI-I proposed to:
- assist NCBM annual conference program by getting a stronger delegation from the trenchless technology industry to participate as exhibitors;
- provide a series of workshops and seminars on trenchless technology and asset management; and
- serve as an external advisory board to NCBM members to assist with underground infrastructure issues. The NCBM BOD approved BAMI-I’s proposal.
The first opportunity for BAMI-I to execute our plan will be on April 26-30, 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee at the 32nd Annual Convention of the National Conference of Black Mayors, Inc. (NCBM). Jack Ravan is the executive director of BAMI-I as well as the president of WASIR (Water and Sewer Innovative Resources, Inc.). Fred Blankenberg serves as the chief operating officer of WASIR and senior advisor to Jack for BAMI-I. WASIR and BAMI-I will provide a hospitality suite on Wednesday (4/26/06) from 5:00 – 7:00 pm at the Marriott Memphis Downtown. This event will be co-sponsored by about seven firms which are recognized leaders in the trenchless technology and asset management industry. This represents 3 initiatives which provide a unique opportunity for BAMI-I to reach top political decision makers.
BAMI-I is in the process of launching its first membership campaign. Even though BAMI-I was initiated in February 2003, it has existed strictly as an all voluntary non-profit organization. It was decided to remain all voluntary until its program and deliverables were established. It is exciting to see how this unique organization has matured. For example, BAMI-I got it’s start under the leadership of Jack Ravan while he served as the DWM commissioner for Mayor Franklin. Today, Jack serves as BAMI-I’s executive director. The BAMI-I executive committee consists of John Griffin, City of Atlanta; Leonard Ingram, Mid Atlantic, Midwest and Southeast Society for Trenchless Technology; Richard Thomasson, PB-Water; and Tom Iseley, Sekisui SPR Americas, LLC. Leonard Ingram has agreed to serve as Jack’s administrative assistant. BAMI-I has evolved into a strong organization. BAMI-I’s leadership is proud to be offering a full range of membership program. Annual membership options are Individual at $100; Municipal at $300; Corporate at $500; and Charter at $1,000.
BAMI-I has had organization and membership meetings with more than two hundred different people attending. BAMI-I currently has a membership of three hundred and thirteen industry leaders.
