April Meeting
Recap of the Bloomfield Scientific Club Meeting, Canandaigua Water Treatment Plant. April 8, 2025:
Our evening began April 13, 2025 with a field trip to the City of Canandaigua Water Treatment Plant (CCWTP) located on West Lake Road in the Town of Canandaigua where we met Andrew Simmons, Chief Operator and BSC Member, Fran Knoerl (retired from CCWTP) who conducted us on a tour of the facility.
“The City of Canandaigua Water Treatment Plant withdraws water from Canandaigua Lake, treats an average of 4 million gallons of water a day and produces water for 40,000 residents plus restaurants, hotels, Hospitals, the VA, manufacturing, and recreation. Our water serves the communities of the City of Canandaigua, Town of Canandaigua, Hopewell, Farmington, Village of East Bloomfield, Town of Manchester, Village of Manchester, all the way up to Hill Cumorah by way of the Wayne County Water Authority (WCWA). We treated 1.5 billion gallons of Canandaigua Lake water in 2024.”
Andrew and Fran walked us through the facility where we witnessed the operation of the SCADA system that monitors all vital systems and water quality parameters that keep the treatment plant operational and our water safe. We viewed the operation of the pumps that withdraw the water from the lake and we toured the gravity fed filtration and additive (ie chlorine, fluoride) systems.
After the tour we traveled to Cheap Charlies where Andrew and Fran joined us for dinner followed by a question-and-answer session on the treatment plant. We covered a lot of ground including some of the concerns the operators face such as algal blooms and zebra mussels.
All in attendance gained an increased confidence in our drinking water quality.
Thank you, Andrew and Fran for an entertaining and enlightening evening!
A little more about Andrew:
I started working at the City of Canandaigua Water Treatment Plant in May of 2014 as an operator trainee. I graduated from SUNY Brockport in 2011 with a bachelor degree in water resources. I then proceeded to get my associate degree in engineering from FLCC and Graduated in 2013. At that point I had enough of school and started to look for a fulfilling job while I worked as a manager/ server at Simply Crepes and front staff at Macri’s Deli.
I am in my eleventh year working for the city. I spent eight years as an operator, was promoted to Assistant Chief Operator in year 8 and then promoted to Chief Operator in year 11. I currently sit on the Finger Lakes Water Work Conference board (FLWWC). FLWWC is a local group that puts together training for water plants of the Finger Lakes Communities. We are required to receive 30 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) every three years to maintain our license. I currently have a 1A operator license. The highest license you can achieve in NYS. I compete in Tops Ops. This is a competition of water knowledge with Jeopardy style questions. We have made it to Nationals 3 years in a row and hope to win our State competition in April to have another shot at nationals. I am on a team with the Chief Operator from the Penn Yan Water Treatment plant, Matt Fritz, and the Assistant Chief for the City of Albany Water Treatment Plant.
March Meeting
Our speaker for the evening was Dierdre Stafford Stevenson, who spoke on: “The Art of Spoonmaking”. Diedre’s talk involved a mixture of history, how they make their spoons, and how it changed over time, yet stayed the same.
As a way of recapping our presentation by Diedre, I borrowed from a Facebook post by John Kucko and his description of Sutton spoons he posted on March 31st:
“Sutton Spoon—A Finger Lakes Icon: Trout fishing season begins tomorrow here in New York State. In Naples, NY is a Finger Lakes Region treasure whose reach (and legacy) goes far beyond Ontario County. The Sutton Company was founded in 1867 by Scott Sutton—a shop that sold fishing gear, specializing in these hand pressed metal lures known as the “Sutton Spoon”. The pressing tool used here dates back to the late 1800’s. Fast forward to today and it’s as if time has stood still in this quaint, jam-packed shop on Main Street in Naples, a throwback to days gone by. For generations, the “Sutton Spoon” has stood the test of time, a silver-plated lure considered among the finest for fishing. Naples native Jim Stafford owned the shop and ran it for years, his father bought it from Sutton decades ago with the understanding that the tradition of making this popular lure would continue. Jim passed away a few years ago and now his daughter, Deirdre Stevenson, continues the legacy. The lures are made in this remarkable wood floored shop and shipped all over America and Canada. Beyond the lures, they have a wide array of fishing gear and a popular tee shirt that is proudly worn by loyal customers all over the world…” With the arrival of trout season, “…The Sutton Company will be doing what they have done for well over a century—selling their famous “Sutton Spoons”, outfitting many of the region’s anglers as opening day arrives—continuing one of the finest traditions in the entire Finger Lakes Region. The Sutton Company. “
With her presentation to our group, Diedre went into fascinating detail about the nuts and bolts of their hand made spoons. A process that has remained largely unchanged over the years and has remained a family business.
Thank you, Diedre, for your wonderful presentation!
A little more about Dierdre:
Dierdre left Naples in 1979 to attend Roberts Wesleyan College, graduated in 1983, married her husband Dave in 1985, and remained in the Rochester area where she raised, and home educated her five children.
In 2014, Dierdre returned to working at The Sutton Company with her father Jim and inherited the business from him after his death in 2019.
February Meeting
We had another terrific meeting and presentation on February 11, 2025. We discussed a few issues important to the club, introduced guests and our speaker for the night was Mr. Glenn Johnson. Mr. Glenn Johnson is a meteorologist at WHEC News 10 First Alert Weather in Rochester and graced us with his presentation, “Weather or Not: A comprehensive look at the unique weather of WNY from behind the camera”.
Glenn discussed his 40 year career as a television weather forecaster in the Rochester area and the unique challenges to being a meteorologist in our area. Glenn discussed the many tools he uses for his job including Doppler radar, satellite imagery, National Weather Service data and computer modeling. Glenn described feeling like a symphony conductor putting together all the pieces of the puzzle to produce an accurate forecast. He likened weather forecasting to predicting the future and like anyone predicting the future he sometimes gets it wrong. However, his years of experience has served him and the viewing public well with his timely and accurate forecasts. This, despite many daily subtle and sometimes drastic weather differences across the Channel 10 viewing area.
When Glenn is on the air, he is constantly reminded by his producer (in his ear) of the time he has to deliver his forecast. Such are some of the challenges of a live broadcast. At the conclusion of his talk, Glenn fielded many questions from the audience that enhanced his outstanding presentation.
Thank you Mr. Johnson for a very informative night!
In case you missed it, a little about our speaker, Mr.Glenn Johnson:
As a college student in 1985 at SUNY in Brockport, I turned a college internship into a career with television. Now, after 36 years, I have worked at two television stations and have been challenged with some of the most difficult and unique weather in the country. Joining the News10NBC First Alert Weather Team has been a great experience, and I am happy to say this latest adventure keeps me in Rochester.
I am a member of the American Meteorological Society and have been awarded their Seal of Approval for television weathercasting. I have also written weather columns for the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper and have been an adjunct instructor teaching Weather and Climate at Monroe Community College. In 2005, I was fortunate to be awarded the SUNY Brockport Award for Community Service.
My wife, Eileen, and I have two grown sons and live in Fairport. I am also very fortunate to have three grandchildren whom I hope to see as much as possible. In my spare time, I enjoy all sports and I’m a huge New York Yankee baseball fan.
E-mail him at GJohnson@whec.com.
January Meeting
We started off the year with another interesting and timely topic, Artificial Intelligence (AI), with our speaker, The Director of Content Strategy and Assessment at the University of Rochester, Brian Piper.
After socializing with drinks and conversation, President Sam Olney called the meeting to order with the introduction of our many guests and new club members (Cat Jensen, Robert Niger, Ted Kinsman, Daren Forrest). President Sam also covered some old business (please RSVP on time!) and Hugh French took a moment to acknowledge the excellence of last month’s climate talk by Francis Coleman. Following a moment of silence for the California fire victims and our late President Jimmy Carter, grace was offered by Jeff Steele.
We then all enjoyed a sumptuous dinner followed by the introduction of Brian Piper and his presentation “AI Demystified: Your Personal and Professional Superpower”
Brian discussed in his presentation the many AI tools (including ChatGPT*) that are in development and many that are now available. Brian showed how he and the University of Rochester use these tools to develop information to attract prospective students.
Brian’s presentation emphasized how AI can be leveraged to improve efficiency in content creation, data analysis, customer interaction, and innovation across industries. It also explores emerging AI technologies that are shaping the future, including robotics, AR/VR, and AGI. Brian Piper encouraged the audience to adopt AI as a “superpower” to enhance personal and professional productivity.
Key Topics Covered:
1. AI Use Cases for Content Creation:
Outlining and brainstorming ideas.
Writing and editing email drafts, social media posts, blogs, newsletters, and web content.
Paraphrasing, simplifying, or explaining technical content and research.
Generating titles, meta descriptions, job descriptions, and interview questions.
Reusing content across platforms and conducting keyword research.
2. AI Applications in Professional Tasks:
Building custom GPTs for specific needs.
Analyzing data and making SEO recommendations.
Assisting in coding, including writing, debugging, and commenting code.
Simulating conversations and preparing for interviews or pitches.
Aggregating data for customer responses or reviews.
3. Innovative AI Implementations:
Agents and personal assistants for task automation.
Sentiment analysis for customer feedback.
Predictive crisis management systems.
Hyper-personalized communications and enhanced content discoverability.
4. Future of AI:
Integration in medical innovations, genetic mapping, robotics, AR/VR, and the metaverse.
Advanced AI systems like AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and its impact on marketing and communications.
5. Content Performance Optimization:
Using AI tools to review and optimize performance metrics.
Recommendations for better audience targeting and improved discoverability.
December Meeting
Merry Christmas!
We closed out 2024 with a super interesting and apropos topic, Climate Change. The evening began with drinks and conversation with friends at Cheap Charlies in Bloomfield, NY. After we settled down to dinner at about 6:30PM, Vice President Marty Peck had the members introduce their guests of which there were many, including former speakers Dr. Robert Ryan and Jack Kowiak as well as several friends and family members of our speaker Francis Coleman.
After dinner Marty Introduced our speaker, Francis Coleman. During the introduction, Marty summarized Francis’ many accomplishments and introduced his topic:
“…THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES…” * EARTH’S FEVERS AND CHILLS, A LAYMAN’S THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE “
Francis began the talk by discussing where our climate is today and how our climate got to where it is. He concluded with a discussion on what we should do about it. Francis discussed how it is far more normal to be outside an ice age, when there is no polar ice at all, and therefore no rising and falling of sea levels. He also discussed how abnormal and dangerous it is to be in an ice age such as the one we are now in, and how narrow the zone of survivability is during an ice age. He went on to show how sensitive the earth’s climate is to small amounts of climate cooling. A temperature of as little as one degree Fahrenheit can have significant impacts. For example, when an Asian volcano erupted in 1815, it caused freezing temperatures a year later in Bloomfield, NY for all twelve months of 1816, and snow fell in Albany, NY in June.
Francis described the 100,000-year natural warming and cooling cycles that occur during an ice age. These cycles were discovered by the Serbian Mathematician, Milutin Milankovitch and published in 1941. His famous “Milankovitch Cycles” (MC) describe 20,000-year warming (“Interglacial”) periods and 80,000-year cooling (“glacial”) periods during our current ice age. These MC climate cycles are caused by the earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun, as the earth rotates on a slanted axis that wobbles.
Francis displayed NOAA and other graphs showing that in our current ice age, we are now at the end of our 20,000-year MC warming (“Interglacial”) period and about to begin our 80,000-year MC cooling (“glacial”) period. At the end of our last glacial period, there were two miles of ice above New York State. It is important to note that some MC glacial cooling periods begin quite abruptly, making it difficult or impossible to grow food at all, let alone for eight billion people.
In summary, Francis discussed the current perceived state of our climate and the possible impact of humans upon it through greenhouse climate warming. Based on the MC graphs, the earth is currently cooler than normal as we reach the beginning of our next glacial cooling period. He let us draw our own conclusion as to whether human climate change is good or bad.
November Meeting
We all enjoyed another night of camaraderie and stimulating conversation at the November 14th BSC Meeting. After a few opening remarks and introduction of guests by President Sam, we were treated to a very informative and interesting speaker by our own Travis Piper, with his talk “From the Mainframe to the Phone – or – How I Survived 40 Years of the Evolution of the Computer.”
Travis presented his journey in the computer business, or more specifically computer-based training business. Starting in the early 1970’s with Xerox in Santa Ana and then Anaheim, CA, Travis was transferred to Rochester in 1973 and joined a task force with the job of automating all their field offices. Travis outlined his presentation describing his 40+ years in the industry as: The Martian Phase, Creativity and Good Luck phase, Stretching the Technology phase, Using the Tools in Different Ways phase, and The Technology Comes of Age phase (including GUI Interface and increase in Storage Size). Throughout the presentation it was apparent that Travis’s creativity and innovation was elemental throughout his long and successful career.
While Kodak was inventing the digital camera, Xerox was innovating Computer Based Training (CBT) on equipment never intended for that purpose. Starting with a pilot project in New York City, just 8 years later the company logged over 80,000 annual connect hours of training for administrative personnel on how to use their new computer terminals and how to do their jobs such as Order Entry, Billing, and Credit and Collections – no more trips to Leesburg for classroom training.
Our own Travis Piper was a key player in that evolution for not only Xerox, but he left Xerox in 1982 to start the world’s first custom Computer-based Training development company right here in Bloomfield.
As the computer industry evolved from the mainframe, so too did the company. The name was “Creative Approaches” and that’s what it took to keep up with the major changes from mainframe to PC, to DOS, IBM’s OS/2, Apple’s Windows, and running training programs from CDs and DVDs as storage technologies developed rapidly as well. Then there was the Internet and many, many changes again.
The firm’s early courses only ran on IBM mainframes and magnetic tapes were the vehicle for distributing the courses to new clients.
The last course being developed when Travis sold the firm in 2014 was designed to run on the cell phones of sales reps for a pharmaceutical firm.
A little more about Travis:
Travis Piper was born in Los Angeles. The family moved to Ventura, California when he was five.
After graduating from UCLA as a Speech major and a stint in Vietnam in the Marine Corps, Travis was hired by Xerox in 1970 as an Equipment Control Manager at Western Region Headquarters in Santa Ana, California. He oversaw 12 administrators who received documents mailed in from the 16 Western Region Branches and prepared them for input into two IBM mainframe computers. There were keypunch cards and error registers everywhere. After a year and a half, he was transferred to the Anaheim branch to supervise the people who prepared the documents that were being sent to the Region. Then, another year and a half later he was transferred to Rochester as part of a Branch Data Entry task force for automating all field offices with computers.
Travis Piper was a key player in helping Xerox and other Fortune 500 companies cross the giant hurdle of putting a computer on the desk of every administrative employee using CBT as the onsite, on demand trainer. In 1982, in Bloomfield, New York, he formed the world’s first custom CBT development company which is still in business today.
October Meeting
We had a very interesting meeting and timely speakers for our first meeting of the 2024-2025 season.
Vice President, Marty Peck, began the meeting about 6:30PM with the introduction of the guests and our speakers. We discussed old business including the reading of thank you letters by Andy Matthews from our student honorees from last season: Sofie Kachmaryk and Justin Spellman. The letters were very gracious and well received.
We also had a discussion of new business including: Dinner price now at $30 (previously $25). We also now have a dedicated waitress. Sam Samanta received a 2024 Finger Lakes Community College – Exceptional Service Award. Congratulations Sam!
Club business concluded with a remembrance of the three members we lost last year: Jack Clarq, Marty Neenan and Jack Herrington.
Following an excellent dinner, we were honored to have two speakers, Michael Northrup, the Ontario County Republican Commissioner of Elections and Albert Magnan, the Ontario County Democratic Commissioner of Elections who provided us with a lively non-partisan discussion about how elections in New York and particularly in Ontario County are run and the safeguards that are used to protect the vote. Our presenters also talked about the mechanics of elections. The discussions were not political but were about all the steps required before and after the election to safeguard the accuracy of the vote.
The discussion items included:
Ontario County has approximately 84,000 registered voters. There has been some effort nationally to sow doubt in the election process. Non-citizens cannot register to vote in national elections. Ontario County closely follows election law, a prescriptive document of over 800 pages. All voting machine information is certified by both Republican and Democrat technicians. Audits are performed after each election. Each and every ballet is reconciled including mail-in and absentee ballots. Voting machines are not connected to the internet, each machine just counts the ballots and tallies the results. The election laws are designed to allow the vote to be: fair, accurate, transparent, accessible (and be private) and without duress to the voter.
The discussion was well received by all in attendance. Thank you Michael and Albert!