Highlights: November 10, 2021
- Chair’s Report: Introduction to new Board member Brian Connolly. Additional closed meeting planned for December 8th to review 2022 financial projection. Next regularly scheduled meeting willll be January 12, 2022 via Zoom. In-person meetings still on hold.
- Legislative Report: None.
- COO Report: Tickets are down approximately 2.2% as of the end of October. Review of tickets with extended start times showd that very few have delays of more than 60 minutes. The center conducted an analysis of help desk calls related to locators. Most were for unmarked facilities and a handful were for incorrect markings. Help desk employees are trained to encourage excavators to contact utilities directly so they can take action to correct their locators. Awareness program requesting excavators to allow for extra time for locators to mark as they are able has proven successful. Extra time was given on 44% of tickets as compared to 36% in 2022. GSOC is supporting the development of a case study regarding meet tickets to encourage locators that do not support the program. The Underground Utility Mapping Project team presented at CGA in October and was well recieved. There are also plans to present at the Gllobal Excavation Safety Conference inn March 2022. OCC has acquired additional GIS technology resources and is planning a pilot project that would allow for the export of excavation polygons with a link to positive response so that info can be displayedon a companies excavation project GIS maps. The data analytics project is on track to launch in early 2022.
- MNOPS Report: Chapter 216D Stakeholder meetings are moving forward and the MnOPS annual Safety Conference is planned for April 4, 2022.
- PR/Awareness Report: Specific effort being targeted to professional landscapers as a result of industry feedback. iHeart radio campaign expanding to include K102. Damage Prevention meetings are planned to be in-person in March and April 2022 and GSOC will be participating in sever expositions through winter and spring.
- OCC Report: Overall decrease in tickets is due entirely to decreases in hommeowner tickets, though they are still above 2019 numbers. Changes to GSOC policy in May will only allow for 1 update to refresh marks after which a new ticket will need to be submitted. Maps continue to be improved by governement GIS data. 14,000 updates have been made this year with over 5,000 made in October alone.
- Board Governance: 40% of the Board is new within the last five years, but officers have remained the same throughout COVID. Board members are encouranged to consider what type of rotation is desireable and what additional roles they might be willing to participate in.