Board of Directors

Next GSOC Board Meeting, Wednesday, April 5th, 2023, 9:00 AM.
You can attend in-person or via video conference

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

Highlights: Jan 11, 2023

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.

Chair’s Report: Approval of Minutes, legislative report – MN Senate has minor democratic lead. There is speculation that this, along with a democratic Governor’s office could result in a larger infrastructure bonding bill next year, thereby effecting the amount of excavation in the state next year.
COO Report: Review of the core values developed in the GSOC strategic plan. Y-T-D ticket volume is down roughly 5.4% even though volumes in May-August were higher than last year. Continuing efforts for the Meet Ticket Initiative include development of an educational program, addition of expiration dates on meet tickets, discussions of a voluntary meet ticket calendar for the metro area, excavator damage prevention videos expected in the spring, and design engineer education. GSOC is reviewing facility operator feedback questioning why all field contact information is the same for certain excavators. The utilities mapping project has received positive feedback from the CGA next practices committee and will now be entering a second phase. In attempt to further the meet initiative goals, a board subcommittee has been formed to follow up with Barb and review documentation for meets. Delayed field marking and projected increases in excavation volume are considered the critical issues for 2023.
PR/Awareness Report: 811 Run and State Fair had record turnout this year. New relationships are being developed with KARE 11 TV and the Minnesota Gophers. GSOC will be increasing it’s presence at the Home and Garden Show.
MnOPS Update: Third quarter damages have held relatively consistently at approx. 1.43 per 1000 locates. Top 5 enforcement issues remained the same in 2022, the top being failure to mark or mark on time. MnOPS would like to shift to holding regional pipeline safety meetings that are shorter and more locally held to try and increase participation by operations personnel.
OCC Report: No additional hiring expected until March. 5.4% decrease in Y-T-D ticket volume, though online submission using ITIC is at an all-time high of 83.7%. Total homeowner ticket submissions and use of ITIC lite are both down from this time last year. There was brief discussion of potential new efforts to reverse this trend. Online ticket submission review is averaging a little over 7 minutes. Efforts to lower this time include education during the callback, email alerts and training for direct release, and continued work on automatically generated marking instructions. Emergency and meet tickets quantities have remained mostly unchanged. Non-excavation ticket numbers have increased significantly, but this is likely due to a policy change allowing only one update before requiring creation of a new ticket. Numerous security improvements are in the works from OCC’s new Senior Manager of Infrastructure. Damage reports to the call center have gone down slightly, however reports of utilities not marked has risen substantially. Tableau phase two developments continue. The board received a demonstration and board members were asked to volunteer for additional beta testing.
Finance Committee: Third quarter audit appears to be in order and financial projection will be covered at the next meeting.

Chair’s Report: Approval of April minutes. Thank you to Barb and Olivia for Saints Game social event and encouragement for board members to attend OCC Users' Group.
COO Report: Overall ticket volume still down 9.3% from last year, but the last 3 months have been busier than they were in 2021. Meet ticket initiative continues. Feedback from stakeholders has been very helpful and an education program is beginning in October. Public awareness efforts continue with excavator damage prevention videos, landscaper education amd design engineer education. Next Gen interface will be retired in October. GSOC will be assisting OCC in longer term user visioning and Barb would like a small group of board members to discuss what future capabilities they would like to see the notification center provide. Development of a map sharing sytem continues with participation from several Facility Operators and is garnering some national attention. Barb has proposed to present at OCC's User Group as well as the 2023 CGA Conference.
Automated Marketing Instructions Project: Extensive discussion on the continued development of automated marking instructions to minimize necessary callbacks and locator confusion from manually entered user instructions.
PR/Awareness Report: Upcoming events - 811 run and MN State Fair. Continued PR efforts with Star Tribune, iHeart Radio, and All Over Media. Potential advertising with MN Vikings. Review of 2022 in-person DP meetings and blog article about Meet Initiatives.
Board Discussion: Delayed Locates: Anecdotal evidence from both GSOC and MnOps would suggest an increase in delayed locates this year. Comments were solicited regarding board member experiences and suggestions to help reduce delays in the future.
MNOPS Report: Damage reporting, while still only on a voluntary basis, shows a slight reduction in the rate of damages. Top violations for this year are delayed locates, no ticket, failure to pothole, and failure to maintain clearance.
OCC Report: Phase II of the Data Analytics projects is underway. The consultant from Tableau, Philippe Barzin, explained the goals of phase two, and gave a demonstration of the pilot that is being released to 4 testers for feedback. Total tickets are down for the year, but CSRs are still performing critical functions even though most tickets are filed online. The work from home model continues and while the average speed of speed of answer and review times are higher than last year, it is due mostly to two specific days where a large number of CSRs were unexpectedly absent. An aditional 10 CSRs have been hired and is helping with response times.

Chair’s Report: Approval of January minutes.
COO Report: Review of 2019 strategic plan that is driving current initiatives. Slow start to the summer but activity increasing with April 11th as the first 4,000+ ticket day. Meet ticket initiative is receiving positive feedback and suggestions for future improvements. Education and public awareness efforts will be targeting landscapers this year with a goal of increasing use of and compliance with MN216D requirements. A timeline of improvements made since 2016 is now available to board members and OCC staff. The data visualization project is ongoing and in Phase II of development. Continued progress is being made on the UUMPT project and it has become apparent that data sharing agreements will be an important issue in the future. Barb and Adam participated in a CGA Next Practices panel about electronic whitelining and will be looking for input from board subject matter experts.
PR/Awareness Report: Olivia is at Spring DP meetings, but will give a full report at the next meeting.
MNOPS Report: Review of 2021 damage information. Damage rates seem to be plateauing so now what can we do to reduce damages? Discussion of continued need for education regarding the requirements for meet tickets and whitemarking and MnOps would like to be invoolved in the electronic whitelining discussions. Discussion of HF 3138 transportation omnibus bill as well as civil penalties for violations to 49 CFR.
OCC Report: Work from home model will continue. Change to direct hiring by OCC has been successful and there are now 99 total employees as of March 31, 2022. Ticket volumes are down 30% for the first quarer as compared to 2021 with weather probably playing a major role. Online ticket submission remains at a high 86.6.%. Review of technological immprovements since 2016. Continued updates to maps with over 4,000 updates made so far this year. Phase I of the data visualization project indicates that there have been more tha 1400 seperate users interacting with the system and the notification center is looking forward to stakeholder feedback.
Finance Committee Update: Not concerned about the reduction in tickets. Lower ticket volumes means lower contract expenses. The first quarter committee meeting has been deferred, but the annual meeting with a financial advisor is still planned to discuss potential changes to the invesment strategy due to capital market changes. Chris Fry announced his resignation from the board effective with the april meeting.

Chair’s Report: Special guests Ron Peterson, Executive Director of NULCA, and Sarah Psick, Government Relations Representative for Minnesota AGC.
Infrastructure Protection Coalition (IPC) 811 Industry Study: Coalition is made up of contractor trade associations and the report is extensive covering all 50 states. This document was intended to be organic, but Barb Cederberg's understanding was that there would be no further revision of the report without additional funding.
COO Report: 2.4% decrease in overall tickets from last year though onlline ticketing increased to 83.8%. Continued efforts in the design engineering industry are planned for 2022 as well as new initiatives with the landscaping industry. Underground Utilities Mapping Project Team (UUMPT) willl continue and they will present next at the CGA conference in March. Overall, the majority of performance metrics are high and there was very little down time in 2021.
MNOPS Report: 2022 Pipelline Safety Conference is tentativelly scheduled for April 5-7. In person or online has not been decided at this time. MnOps has received several complaints about the appllicability of meet tickets. MnOps plans to provide further education and develop an alert notice.
PR/Awareness Report: None.
OCC Report: Website Data Visualization Tool presentation by Kyle Sowder of OCC. Input is encouraged from the board and stakeholders at large once the feature is live.
Board Governance: Read full minutes for a complete listing of board elections.

Approval of Financial Projection Pat Warden then reviewed the remainder of the financial projection with the Board with assistance from Kevin Moore. After discussion, upon separate motions, duly made and seconded, the Board approved the 2022 Financial Projection.

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.

Chair’s Report: Meeting minutes for September 1st were approved.
Legislative Report: None.
COO Report: September ticket volumes are lower than in previous years. A new product called iVerify was introduced at the OCC Users' group. GSOC is looking into whether or not this product can minimize the amount of manual ticket review. The underground mapping project is garnering interest. Olicia is back from maternity leave and working on enhancing outreach to landscapers. There has been a significant decrease in the number of homeowners tickets this year. There was discussion of the many things that could be contributing to this drop.
MNOPS Report: The new complaint process is still in process and MnOPS plans to hire more field personnel. Plans continue for the 2022 Safety Conference to take place in person. MS216D stakeholder review meetings are expected for the end of this year in regards to performance reporting, damage reporting, and the viability of GPS locating. Third quarter damage data is still being reviewed. Changes are coming in 2022 to the pipeline damage reporting requirement for intrastate pipeline companies. There has been resistance by a few contract locators and facility operators to meet ticket protocols.
PR/Awareness Report: Awareness will be ramping up with Olivia's return and as the pandemic continues to subside.
OCC Report: A new training class began in September. Homeowner tickets have decreased since last year, but overall percentage of online tickets is actually slightly ahead of last year. Map updates continue with over 9,000 implemented so far this year. Winter projects include converting all users to the latest ITIC software, a number of short videos showing how to optimize the online ticketing system, and updating all users contact info. The website analytics project is moving along with hopes to be live around the first of the year.
Election of new Director: Brian Connolly

All Board of Directors Open Session Meeting Minutes