SCUCC/NCUCC Joint Seminar Report
Sheraton
North Charleston, SC
May 16 – 18, 2001
 
The South Carolina Utility Coordinating Committee outdid themselves this year with the Joint Seminar and Damage Prevention Expo.  On Wednesday there was fishing, golfing, historic tours and a reception for those coming early to Charleston.  Thursday brought the Sheraton hotel lobby hallways covered with exhibitors displaying their wares.  The seminar began at 9:00 a.m.  Marion Leaphart with SCDOT opened the meeting and introduced and thanked his committee for all their hard work and the great job they did putting the seminar together. Aydren Flowers with NCDOT introduced Paul Scott, a special guest from the Federal Highway Administration.  Mr. Scott made comments regarding subsurface engineering and design build projects.
 
Thursday’s meeting included panel discussions regarding joint trenching, waste water treatment and working with other utilities.  Thursday afternoon brought John Evans, a motivational speaker who entertained us and later talked about stress management.  Thursday evening we went on a fantastic dinner cruise in the Charleston Harbor.  This cruise included dining, entertainment and door prize drawings.  Friday’s meeting brought committee reports from SC PUPS and NC One Call and also the local coordinating committee reports.  We enjoyed presentations on Sub-surface Utility Engineering and New DOT Federal Signage Requirements.  The door prizes at the meeting were unbelievable…there were cookers, baskets, DVD players, TV’s, shirts, a framed print of Charleston’s Rainbow Row, etc. (I won some cheap CP&L gadget and a BellSouth camouflage cap). Also, many of you in North Carolina will be able to spot Aydren  Flowers easier now.  He’ll be wearing a SCDOT shirt (it was too big for Dan Mann).
The meeting adjourned around noon with the folks from North Carolina asking themselves “how are we ever going to do anything that can compare to South Carolina’s “Affair to Remember”?
 
Thank you South Carolina.  The meeting was second to none and truly was “An Affair to Remember”.
 
NCUCC Business
 
Treasurer’s Report – The checking account balance for the NCUCC through April 30, 2001 is $1,522.25.  There are no outstanding expenses or checks.
 
NC One Call Center – During the year there has been 9 Contractor Awareness and Damage Prevention Breakfasts held across the state.  The breakfasts were sponsored by Union County UCC, Wilmington UCC, Iredell UCC, Mecklenburg UCC, Foothills UCC, Harnett County UCC, Carteret County UCC and Duplin/Sampson UCC.
 
The next NC One Call Center Board meeting will beheld July 20 at Etowah Valley Country Club in Hendersonville.
 
Currently, the NC One Call Center, Inc. has a membership total of 245 members and is seeing results from the membership campaign that is currently underway.
 
Through April, the NC One Call Center, Inc. has taken 373,333 location requests.  This is a 10% decrease over the same period last year. This decrease can be attributed to the policy change of the term of a locate as well as better planning of work by contractors and utilities.
 
The decrease in transmissions by the center has been greatly affected by the new mapping system that not only uses quarter minutes grids, but gridlets as well.  Each quarter minutes grid contains 25 gridlets.  Each gridlet is 264 feet by 264 feet in size.  This allows a customer service representative to reduce the area of notification significantly.  The use of latitude and longitude by the callers also helps pinpoint the area of excavation more accurately.
 
An automated program allows members of the NC One Call Center, Inc. to provide their database electronically to the center.  Their database can be updated by line segments tied to lat/long, or by use of the program provided by simply clicking on a map and sending the information to the center by email or by disk.  We are also able to provide each member with a copy of their current database that can be shown on a map and any additions or deletions can be made from that information.
 
The Web Ticket Entry program has generated 143,583 location requests thus far this year.  That number equals 38.46% of our total volume.  The WTE program allows contractors and members to enter their location requests 7/24 through a Web page.  This is an interactive site that immediately returns a ticket number and list of
members notified to the users. All WTE users also have the ability to use our mapping program and can grid their tickets on the same map that the Customer Service Representatives use in the center.
 
Members have a number of options in receiving their notifications. Web Delivery on Demand allows a member to access their notifications from a web page. This would give them the option of picking up their tickets from any computer that has Internet access. Members that receive by email are provided with a link on the ticket to a map that is associated with that request. By clicking on that link, they are connected to the centers map server and also have the ability to move around in the map as well as to zoom in and out for more information if necessary.
 
Our dual system that was designed for Disaster Recovery has worked well. The center has had no down time since it’s implementation. To further enhance the North Carolina One Call Center’s ability to continue to take location requests under any situation, the Greensboro and Conover offices will begin operating off of separate servers within the next week. The combination of ‘work-at-home’ forces and dual centers has proven to be an exceptional arrangement.
 
The program initiated by AT&T that allows for cell phone users to dial #DIG to reach the center is working out well. The users are not charged for the call and the number of users has increased steadily.
 
The North Carolina One Call Center has published the Excavators Guide in Spanish and has been distributing the guide for several months. Since the guide has gone out, and the Center has employed a Spanish-speaking Customer Service Representative, we have been able to service a growing need in North Carolina.
 
Next Meeting – The next meeting is scheduled for July 10th at 10:00 a.m. and will be sponsored by TELICS at the CP&L Western Region office in Asheville. 
 
Directions - From I40 West, take Exit 47, Farmer’s Market Brevard Rd.   Turn left onto Brevard Rd, go over the bridge and take the 1st right at the CP&L office.