Chairs Report: Congratulations to Barb Cederberg on her impending retirement. Board elections upcoming. Contact Dave Hunstad for interest in officer roles. December 11th is scheduled date of 2025 financial projections. August meeting notes approved. Discussion of new training and certification standards for telecommunication installers using horizonatl directional drilling as required by 32B.198 and 16B.357 which requires the creation of the Minnesota Advisory Council on Infrastructure.
COO Report: Kelly Connolly plans for the January session to focus on strategic planning, specifically the communications and marketing plan. GSOC will begin paid social media marketing beginning in February. Discussion of rejecting tickets that appear to trying to skirt the meet documentation requirements. Kelly and Olivia will be revising media messaging and define metrics for evaluating media use.
MnOps Update: Reports of damages appear to be slightly down for 2024, but are only required for for intrastate pipelines until 2025 when damage reporting becomes mandatory. Changes to telecommunication installer requirements with come from Department of Labor, not MnOps.
PR/Awareness Report: Review of 2025 ongoing and new media partnerships.
OCC Report: Only 3 training classes were held in 2024, the lowest in several years, due to direct hiring. First time ever that October has more than 100,000 notifications. One area of concern is a decrease in homeowner ITIC usage. Call durations are lower and over 15,000 map updates have been made in 2024. Upcoming projects include the ITIC call back project and reaching out to the top 200 highest volume submitters by phone to try getting them to use ITIC.
Governance: Jason Pnciano will be the new Chair of the Vetting Committee, which will periodically review board composition.
Chairs Report: Welcome to new Chief Operations Officer Kelly Connolly. Board asked to consider attending OCC Users' Group in September. Previous minutes approved.
COO Report: Kelly Connolly background and experience. Will begin with familiarizing herself with call center operations, then plans to meet with board members individually to work on stakeholder engagement and the recent law changes.
MS216D Law Changes: Review of public communication regarding these changes.
OCC Report: Ticket volumes are up 10.6% for 2024. ITIC usage is up to 85%. Discussions of continued confusion and ambiguity surrounding meet tickets.
PR/Awareness Report: 811 run had high participation in 2024 raising over $16,000 for Operation Warm. Olivia asked for input and ideas for more Learn From the Unexpected videos. GSOC will be experimenting with bus ads in 2024 and collaborated with Twin Cities Road Crew to deliver safety messages at elementary schools.
Best Practices Discussion: MNCGA should be responsible for an advisory group that will examine best practices and supply MnOps with conclusions.
MnOps Update: Increasing numbers of late ticket complaints over the last two seasons, which is using up much of MnOps' resources.
Finance Committee Report: Increased ticket numbers have allowed for building rennovations including a new roof and several air conditioning units. Contract renewal discussions to be reviewed in Spetember. Plans to work with Olivia and Kelly on communications budget.
Selection of Chief Operations Officer: After Board discussion, upon motion made and duly seconded, the Board approved the Executive Committee’s recommendation of Kelly Connolly as the next Chief Operations Officer of GSOC.
Approval of Business Rule: Barbara Cederberg provided an overview of the desire to establish a GSOC business rule which would provide that all normal and update tickets have a start time of 12:01 a.m. If an excavator choses to provide additional time in the original notification to perform a locate, the excavator would need to do so in full day increments.
