Dear Minnesota Underground Safety Stockholders,

It is hard to believe that we have turned the corner and moved into another new year. 2017 brings opportunities for Damage Prevention meetings, trainings, seminars, events, locate requests, locate requests, and more locate requests. For 2016, GSOC ended with a total of 787,593 tickets, a 2.9% increase over 2015. The bumpy beginning in 2016, due to the transition to a new call center and a new electronic ticket system, settled down thanks to the assistance of many MNCGA members. GSOC supported underground safety public awareness and training by participating in over 35 Damage Prevention meetings, training over 2,500 individuals on the new electronic ticket system at the end of 2015 and into 2016, and participating in numerous events. GSOC public awareness efforts included trade shows such as the Northern Green Expo, the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show, Farm Fest, MN State Fair, Big Iron Farm Show, MN 811 Run/Walk, and Day of the Dozers. GSOC also launched a state wide digital media public awareness campaign.

For 2017, GSOC will continue to focus public awareness efforts on the agriculture, excavator, landscaper, and homeowner communities. Broader and more general underground safety public awareness efforts such as digital media campaigns will be implented. GSOC will add outreach to Spanish speakers with literature in spanish, and the Hmong community with a planting season presence at Hmongtown Marketplace.

In addition to the one call noti cation center, GSOC can assist you in your damage prevention and awareness efforts. We welcome the opportunity to provide electronic locate request and ticket management training, GSOC one call presentations, a GSOC booth at your event and/or GSOC promotional materials. As underground safety is a shared responsibility, a big thank you from GSOC to excavators, homeowners, facility operators, and locators for helping keep the citizens and underground utilities of Minnesota safe. I look forward to a safe 2017.

Please contact me if you have questions regarding information included in this GSOC 2016 Annual Report or would like to discuss opportunities to improve underground safety in Minnesota. I look forward to our conversations.

Chief Operations Officer
Barbara Cederberg
652-682-7307
barbara.cederberg@gopherstateonecall.org