Distribution Best Practices Program

Responsibilities of the Benchmarking Program Contact

THE DATA COLLECTION PROCESS

KICK-OFF MEETING, DATA PACKETS, QUESTIONNAIRES

DATA REPORTS, GRAPHS, SCATTER PLOTS, QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSE SUMMARIES

  • Complete online Participation Agreement.
  • Meet with appropriate operating personnel prior to Kick-off Meeting to review preliminary Data Packets and Questionnaires and obtain comments and suggestions.
  • Attend Kick-off Meeting and follow discussion to understand scope of Data Packets and definition of terms and information requested in Questionnaires.
  • After Kick-off Meeting, review and distribute Data Packets and Questionnaires to operating departments who will complete the data. Ensure that they completely understand the information.
  • Establish due dates for the completion of the data packets and questionnaires. We recommend using the data submittal and roundtable schedule provided by AGA to track the progress of the data submittal.
  • Review and scrub submitted data in BESS for accuracy before finalizing data submittal.
  • Review, with operating departments’ assistance, preliminary data reports for accuracy. Submit any necessary revisions.[1]
  • Review completed preliminary questionnaire response summaries for accuracy and submit any revisions.1
  • Distribute final data reports and questionnaire response summaries to appropriate operations departments.
  • If your company is identified as a potential top-performing company, immediately provide feedback to AGA as to whether you believe the numbers are accurate and you are comfortable with your company being selected as a top-performing company.

FOLLOW-UP CONFERENCE, FINALIZED LIST OF TOP-PERFORMING COMPANIES, ROUNDTABLE PRESENTERS

  • If identified as a potential top-performing company and you will be attending the Follow-up Conference to give a brief presentation on your company practices specific to the topic, refer to the Sample Presentation when preparing your presentation. All top-performing company presentations are REQUIRED to follow this format.
  • Attend Follow-up Conference and participate in the discussion for the selection of top-performing companies that will present at the roundtables.
  • Be prepared to substantiate your company’s data if questioned.
  • If selected to present at roundtable, as soon as practical after the Follow-up Conference:
  • Upon return to your office, discuss with your operations department staff preparation for the presentation and select company’s personnel that will be attending roundtable to give presentation.
  • Confirm with AGA that your company will be giving the presentation at the roundtable and forward contact information (name, title, email, phone number) of company personnel that will be giving presentation.
  • Forward to AGA a brief description (3-4 sentences) of the presentation.

ROUNDTABLES:

  • Select company representatives to attend each roundtable. These should be experienced employees who work in or directly supervise the operation being benchmarked.

Inexperienced company representatives should not be sent to roundtables.

  • Forward hotel and registration information to company representative(s) who will be attending.
  • Meet with company representative(s) attending roundtable to review the data reports, graphs and questionnaire response summaries. In addition, review the overall benchmarking program and what will happen at the roundtable.
  • Company representative(s) attending roundtables should prepare a list of issues or challenges that they would like to address during the roundtable and practices that are unique to their operations to share with participants.
  • Establish expectations – that is, determine goals for those attending the roundtable. They should bring back a number of ideas for the utility to implement and improve their operations.
  • Remind employees who are attending that active participation in the roundtable discussion is essential.
  • After the roundtable, meet with the employees who attended and determine what they learned.
  • Distribute the roundtable meeting notes and presentations to operations department when received.

[1]Have a good understanding of the data for possible questions at the Follow-up Conference. This is particularly important if your company is identified as a potential top-performing company and will be invited to give a brief 10-minute overview presentation at the Follow-up Conference.