The East Bay Municipal Utility District was entered into the very first Operations Challenge in 1988 by the Department Manager, who knew the competitive spirit of his employees so well that he committed a team without even discussing it with the Operations staff.  An internal competition resulted in the team of James Rockafellow, Michael Heaton, Rodney Temples and
Dave McMullen.  With little time to practice, and no real details about the events or judging criteria, the team went to work practicing pump maintenance tasks on a pump assembled by the Maintenance crew, safety maneuvers on a 150 lb chlorine cylinder mockup, lab procedures, clay pipe repairs, and a variety of process control topics. We didn't think our chances of winning were very good, but we were confident we would have a great time.  As I recall, there were 22 teams competing in '88 at the Dallas Convention Center.  The Federation was the Water Pollution Control Federation then, and WPCF President Beth Turner was on hand to pass out the trophies.  The EBMUD team was elated to come in ahead of the rest of the field and take home the huge, first place trophy.

The Challenge has been refined over the years, but still involves an element of fun in a spirited competition among professional operators from around the world.  I strongly encourage participation.  Coming up with the neccesary training resources is more difficult in these days of "doing more with less", and it's very easy to convince yourself that you can't be competitive with the semi-pro teams and the heavily sponsored teams, but as long as you have the personal pride and competitive spirit, you can achieve accomplishments beyond your expectations.

GO FOR IT!                     -  James Rockafellow, EBMUD