Common Ground of Nebraska
September 5, 2012
Divots Conference Center
West Norfolk Avenue
Norfolk, NE 68701
Lunch Provided by Val Snyder, Kinder Morgan
Attendees:
Dan Maschka, Northern Natural Gas
Clark Conklin, State Fire Marshal
Susan Lynch, One Call Concepts
Nathan Dyson, Digger's Hotline of Nebraska
Rob Latimer, Transcanada Keystone
Joe Mueller, Transcanada Keystone
Jill Geyer, Digger's Hotline of Nebraska
Val Snyder, Kinder Morgan
Scott Barny, Kinder Morgan
Randy Leiser, Grand Island Utilities
Troy Spencer, Grand Island Utilities
Bruce Myers, NuStar Energy LP
Ryan Kinning, Penro Construction
Jerry Jacobsen, Kinder Morgan Platt Pipeline
Travis Beran, Subsurface Solutions
Lanna Machmuller, SourceGas
Phil Bentz, Glenwood Telephone
Dan Maschka calls meeting to order at 10:15 am
Industry Highlight: New member, Rob Lattimer and Joe Mueller from TransCanada were welcomed as new members and provided the industry highlight during lunch. Routing of the TransCanada and Keystone pipelines were demonstrated on a poster and discussed.
Old Business:
o Dan Maschka gave re-cap of the evolution of the Common Ground Nebraska.
§ Notes from agenda:
- Support of the nation Common Ground Alliance (CGA) asking for regional (state) level partnerships. First meeting to gauge interest level in Nebraska occurred on October 18, 2006, at the Regency Lodge in Omaha.
- Garnered enough support to move forward. Modeled Nebraska By-Laws be reviewing North Carolina’s (and others) on November 30, 2006, at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln.
- December 13, 2006 submitted a petition application to the national CGA to become a regional partner – NEBCGARP.
- On February 7, 2007, at the next meeting hosted by Kinder/Morgan in Kearney, Nebraska, the group learned that the CGA would likely approve the petition later in the month. Plans moved forward to continue developing the fledgling group’s structure, officers, meeting schedule, etc.
- On February 28, 2007, the national CGA formally approved the petition and would announce the addition of the next regional partner at the annual CGA meeting in early March.
§ All but 12 states have Common Ground at the state level; some states have several groups.
§ CGN meets 4-6 times per year; usually following the meeting of the One Call Board of Directors
§ No cost to join. Donations are welcome. Some activities funded by grant money awarded by PHMSA.
§ No announcement yet on the awarding of the CGN grant requested in 2011. Expectation is that it will be very soon. Grant application included request for Underground Safety Summit, Locator Training, Public Education and white flag distribution. Noted that Missouri Common Ground held large safety conference offering free credit which was very well attended.
§ By-laws were created following a model from another Common Ground in another state; may need to be updated within the next year.
§ Best Practices Manuals and 3 part videos were given to the CGN by the CGA for distribution; 100 of each. Attendees were encouraged to take as many as they wanted. Jill Geyer will store any extras. The 3 part video contains educational information for homeowners, professionals, and kids. The children’s portion was changed slightly from what it was in the past to a more effective scenario.
§ The One Call Board has a video available for distribution as well. It contains 11 chapters that can be shown separately as needed. Lanna Machmuller has 75-80 on hand. Video was created with grant money from the CGA and NPPD donations.
§ Discussion about making the videos available on the CGN website by giving a link to a way to order it or a showing of the actual video(s).
§ Flyers are available also; created with CGN grant money. Two separated flyers can be requested from Lanna Machmuller – one geared toward homeowners, one toward farmers. In the past they were made into posters and distributed to grain elevators and large farmers.
o Membership/Website/Logo:
§ Discussion about creating a new officer position or committee chair to create and administer the website.
§ Website history: Celeritas currently hosts website. Has given permission for CGN to take over the domain and administer it independently.
§ Travis Beran pointed out the possibility of using a “virtual drop box” or “cloud” to update members rather than using email updates. Information such as PHMSA information, minutes and videos could be made available to members via this route vs. mass distribution on email.
o 1:00 PM Val Snyder talks about being assigned to the Casper-Douglas Area for Tallgrass Energy Dept. effective Oct. 15th.
o Susan Lynch back as trainer for one call concepts.
o Jill Geyer in charge of marketing, and rep. to Common Ground of Nebraska and One Call Board.
o Lanna offered to help with the membership website and new logo for common ground. So Jill, Susan, and Lanna to work on updating contact list.
o Nathan is working on an E-mail solution for membership list. Also creating domain of NE-CGA.com and setting account w/Squared Space.
o Task force groups at next meeting including Membership, and Scholarship Proposals by Dan and Susan.
o Lanna; Treasurer’s Report $6,681.79
o Jill; 811 Day Promotion: sent e-mail blast to locate callers about 811 awareness. Sent to 9,200 locations
o Open Discussion; Grass fires and how they affect Gas lines, telephone lines, power lines, vent pipes, and etc.
o State Geographic Information System
o Heated discussion on money and joining CGN at what level or sponsor of an event or meeting location. Possible task group decision.
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o Next Meeting at Transcanada office, Omaha Oct. 23rd 10:00 to 2:00 Susan to give Industry Highlight.