Board of Directors

Special Board Meeting, Wednesday, December 13th, 2023, 10:00 AM.
You can attend in-person or via video conference

Proposed changes to MS 216D will be discussed. If you would like to virtually attend this meeting, please contact Barb Cederberg, GSOC COO at 651-681-7303 or at Barbara.cederberg@gopherstateonecall.org.

BOARD ELECTION POLICY

Gopher State One Call seeks to review applications for Board membership and/or users’ group participation. In particular, GSOC seeks subject matter expertise from Greater Minnesota municipal water and sewer systems, the agricultural industry (particularly expertise concerning drain tiles and excavations), the pipeline industry, engineering and other industry sectors not currently represented on GSOC’s Board. View the Call for Applications providing more detail below. Thank you for your interest in serving the underground safety stakeholders in Minnesota.

View Board Election Policy
View Call for Applications for Board or User's Group

Gopher State One Call is a non-member Minnesota nonprofit corporation with oversight provided by its Board of Directors, consisting of Directors from a wide spectrum of damage prevention industry stakeholders. For further information, history and background, see the Board Election Policy.

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

Nov 8, 2023 - DRAFT
Aug 9, 2023 - DRAFT
Apr 5, 2023 - Minutes
Jan 11, 2023 - Minutes
Dec 14, 2022 - Minutes

Highlights: November 8, 2023

Chairs Report: Introduction to Dan Krier, the new State Marshall and Director of the Office of Pipeline Safety. Introduction to Brad Seber, Shane Alexander, and Crystal Gorres all with CenterPoint Energy. Introduction of Richard Klein from the City of Redwing. August minutes approved. Explanation and approval of government relations proposal by GSOC's lobbying firm. Barb Cederberg proposed another strategic planning session. The last was 5 years ago and extremely helpful in guiding GSOC management. This was approved.
Guest Discussion - White Lining: Richard Klein from the City of Red Wing addressed the board regarding a substantial lack of whitelining. GM of GSOC, Tammy Gardner pointed out that there are required questions whether filing online or by phone about whether or not the area has been whitelined. Ultimately it was decided this is an enforcement issue, not a call center issue, and that MnOps should be engaged for compliance.
COO Report: GSOC visioning team previously looked into software for field communication between locators, excavators, and facility operators. All were deficient in some way. OCC has decided to develop software in-house and is planning to have that up and running by the 2024 busy season. Concerns over record keeping standards and security of information being stored was discussed. Non-excavation review committee has met and is in the process of gathering useful suggestions from facility operators. PHMSA grant to SahredGeo to assist with the development of software to share mapping data between organizations. The first will be MnDOT and WSB Engineering. Michigan notification center has received funding from the state to assist in funding innovations and is interested in the mapping project.
PR/Awareness Report: New program called Twin Cities Road Crew which brings damage prevention messaging to schools. Also working on a new billboard program with the Green and Blue metro lines. 13,000 yard sticks were given out at 2023 State Fair. TV coverage was received by WCCO and KARE11. 811 Run had significant increase in participants and sponsors from previous years. Olivia is seeking new information to keep the DP meetings fresh and interesting. Discussion of a learning management system that ends with a certificate of completion.
OCC Presentation: 2024 staffing plan is to retain more personnel over the winter and train closer to busy season than in previous years. KPI compliance is high for the year and ticket volume has evened out to within 1% of 2022. Review of the dynamic start time innitiative. Proposed statutory change to have all ticket start times at 12:01am to help with scheduling. My Ticket Analytics is being offerred to all of the largest volume stakeholders. Efforts to enhance employee engagement have been more difficult as the work from home model continues, but is an important strategy to retain employees. Notification center has processed more than 20,000 map updates so far this year.
Presentation - GPS Locating Technologies: Travis Beran, Preident of Subsurface Solutions, shared new developments in GPS locating technology including some that may be used where cell service is not available.
MnOps Update: Damage rates reported to MnOPS are down slightly for Q3. Working with the MN Department of Management more than 8,000 surveys have been sent out to the industry for feedback regarding current industry issues and possible legislation changes. GSOC members are encouraged to participate and pass the survey along to other stakeholders. A special meeting was proposed to continue discussion of adjustments to the statute.
Finance Committee Update: Ticket volumes are slightly down, but so are expenses so overall financial performance remains near expectations. Development of the 2024 financial projection will be later this month.

Chairs Report: Introduction to guest Crystal Gorres who's been with CenterPoint Energy for over 10 years. April minutes approved. Rundown of meeting between Dean Parker and State Rep. Larry Kraft who vice chiars the Climate and Energy Committee.
COO Report: Overall ticket volume is down approx. 2.3% from 2022 although May was the second busiest month in GSOC history. After review of electronic positive response numbers, board members suggest further analysis of normal and update tickets only. Missunderstandings of how meet tickets is prompting further education for excavators. Future developments will involve an online communication platform for easy posting and viewing of project scheduling and documentation. City of Roseau is working towards using GPS enabled locators to develop improved utility maps. Utility mapping project continues adn the CGA is interested in helping to establish guidelines for data formatting and transmission.
PR/Awareness Report: Upcoming awareness efforts - Farm Fest, 811 Run, State Fair, and OCC Users' Group. New CGA logo and "50 in 5" challenge from CGA. Suggestion from board member for GSOC to build a training curriculum for excavators. Kim Boyd is is looking into what can be used as a basis from other OCC states.
MnOps Update: MN damage rates reported to MnOps are slightly lower than those reported to CGA DIRT Report, but reporting continues to decline. Most cases initiated in 2023 have not been finalized with 200 pending cases. Board discussed initial alternatives to MnOps involvement in enforcement for delayed ticket disputes. Advisory committee formation for the MN Management Analysis Division project continues. 17 interviews have happened already. No changes to Chapter 216D. Civil damages for pipelines have been aligned with Federal standards. MnOps request for 3,000 annually from the DP general fund has been approved. Complaint resolutino needs a better escalation process and there will be more investigation into what is causing all the delays.
OCC Report: Work from home model has increased retention. Cross training has led to greater efficiencies and higher KPI compliance. Phase II of the My Ticket Analytics project went live at the end of March. Facility Operators and excavators are all invited to sign up now. Notificaiton center is also working obtain accurate design contact information on non-excavation type tickets. Change to ITIC callbacks from call to early morning email prompting more timely responses from homeowners. A record number of map updates have been made in 2023 with over 11,000 in July alone.
Finance Committee Update: Financial statement audit is complete. Performance is satisfactory and management expenses continue to be within expected norms.

Chairs Report: Currently there are MnOps suggested changes to legislation in the House bill but not the Senate bill. There is industry opposition to several proposals and Representative Kraft wants to see industry discussion to see if concenses can be reached.
COO Report: Q1 ticket volumes are down 25% from 2022. Meet Ticket initiative continues by highlighting them at Spring damage prevention meetings. Attendance has rebounded now that they are back in person and engagement is up. Prototype for the underground utility mapping project was completed in fall 2022. First roung funding is in progress for production level open source software with API's connected to OCC's ITIC system. GSOC has also formed a visioning team to formulate priorities and development application of technologies. Barb, in reviewing non-excavation ticket processing suggested a review of practices and processes for non-excavation tickets. OCC will provide support for the technical side if needed.
PR/Awareness Report: "Click or Call" messaging is being distributed to GSOC's media partners to acknowlege that most tickets are now submitted online. Olivia is attending Damage Prevention meetings around the state. The content has been significantly revised since last year through coordination with MnOps and the 811 Jepoardy game is creating a lot of interest.
MnOps Update: Jon Wolfgram reviewed 4th quarter damage data from 2022. Voluntary damage reporting is down. MnOps is requesting a statutory change to mandate reporting for larger volume facilities so they can more accurately assess the extent of damages in Minnesota. They continue to seek legislative reinforcement through a pair of bills and are still pursuing funding for 3 additional personnel members to assist with investigations. Facility Operators have testified to their concerns at hearings on the bills.
OCC Report: Ticket volume is the lowest it's been in the last 5 years for homeowners, but online submission for all tickets is at an all time high. Dynamic start time has proven effective and the feature was turned back on again as of April 1. OCC continues to evolve its IT department with more experienced leadership and My Ticket Analytics will now be available to excavators and facility operators upon request.
Finance Committee Update: 2022 ended with a smaller than projected operating loss, but also lower than projected revenue. Ticket volumes are down for the start of 2023, but are expected to increase with upcoming broadband projects. Discussion of the cause of the decline pointed towards equipment and employee shortages.

Chairs Report: Nov. 9th, 2022 and Dec. 14, 2022 meeting minutes approved. Proposal for government relations services from the legislative firm Lockridge Grinal Naun P.L.L.P approved.
COO Report: Review of GSOC core values as listed in the Strategic Plan. Review of overall ticket volume for 2022 which was down 7.2%. Continuing major projects include video education for the meet ticket initiative and possible meet ticket calendar for the metro area, design engineer education, and the web analytics project. Details in full minutes. Barb has met with a small group of board members, MnOps, and GSOC representatives to establish directions for technology development. The UUMPT Mapping Improvement Project has gained significant industry interest and is working on next steps for a more widely usable platform.
PR/Awareness Report: 29 DP meetings are scheduled around the state in march and April. GSOC will also be making use of an outside marketing consultant to conduct a marketing audit and generate new ideas.
MnOps Update: Q3 numbers are up and Q4 will be up as soon all reports have been recieved. Very slight decrease in damage rate per thousand locates recieved by MnOps in 2022. MnOps is looking to host a pipeline safety conference in mid-April and developing a survey for stakeholders about current industry issues.
OCC Report: Public awareness messaging is being revised to emphasize "Click or Call." Improvements to generated marking instructions continues. Online ticket percentage remains strong at 83.9% even though the annual ticket volume decreased for the year. The next phase of the data analytics project allows companies to customize and analyze their specific data and has 8 companies participating. Over 10,700 map updates were made in 2022. More discussion of automated marking instructions concluded that until the wording of the instructions is vetted, approved, and consistent, they will not be used in Minnesota.
Board Elction Summary: See full minutes for officer and committee appointments.
Board Election Summary

Mark Sellin advised the board that he had attended a recent AGC legislative meeting and anticipates submission of proposed legislation in 2023. Dean Parker advised that MnOPS also intends to resubmit it's proposed legislation in 2023. GSOC will likely remain neutrak regarding statutory changes that do not directly affect GSOC.
Pat Warden introduced the 2023 financial projection.
Barb Cederberg reviewed the communications budget in detail. Several changes are anticipated in the coming year including discontinuing some awareness programs, though relationships with iHeart Media, Star Tribune, and Linder Farm Network will continue. There will potentially be special awareness initiatives with KARE 11, the Minnesota Vikings, and Gopher Sports.
The board approved the 2023 Financial Projection and delegated responsibility to the Executive Committee to finalize salary adjustments for the GSOC employees.

All Board of Directors Open Session Meeting Minutes