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The Summit: Creating the environment for working together in Texas
Water, gas, electricity, and telecommunications are vital to our everyday lives. Protecting the underground facilities that ensure we have these resources is our shared responsibility.
This past August more than 30 stakeholders from all corners of Texas convened in the Texas811 multipurpose room to talk about how best to bring utilities owner/operators, contractors, locators, and other stakeholders together in an environment that would be recognized as fair and impartial to all parties.
It was determined that this important and necessary responsibility could be promoted through the Texas Damage Prevention Summit. Setting aside differences long enough to share perspectives is not for the faint of heart, but was deemed important enough to undertake by the Texas811 board of directors. Creating an opportunity for networking with other industry professionals was desirable to the group. They recognized the significance of finding solutions to difficult and sometimes volatile issues that routinely created division, lack of cooperation, and finger pointing.
The first annual Texas Damage Prevention Summit will be held February 22 – 24, 2010 in Mesquite, Texas, and is designed to provide certification training, promote partnership, and the opportunity to look at the latest technology and services for safer underground excavation.
Among the scheduled highlights of this year’s conference are:
1. Certification class for “Competent Person” Training. OSHA requires that a “Competent Person” be on your construction or maintenance site whenever workers are exposed in an excavation. Applied to trenching or excavation operations, the Competent Person (CP) must have specific training and be knowledgeable of the requirements of the standard, soils analysis, and use of protective systems. In addition, the CP must have authority to take immediate corrective measures to eliminate unsafe conditions. National Trench Safety’s training program is designed to help you meet OSHA’s training requirements.
Each student receives an instructional workbook (which serves as a valuable reference later) and a wallet card, and certificate from NUCA indicating successful completion of the class. The all day certification class is $95 and includes the workbooks and certificates.
2. Training classes benefiting first responders, contractors, and underground facility owners (gas, electric, water, wastewater and telecommunications lines), and utility locators. These training sessions will be expert led. The sessions are designed to help us search for workable solutions, rather than just accept the status quo.
Our search for answers may lead us to conclude that we need more training, more effective messages, or changes in the workforce. Sometimes we determine that we cannot get to where we want to be by ourselves. We need effective partnerships to achieve our goals.
This is certainly true for those of us involved in protecting underground utilities, whether it be the excavator or the average citizen of Texas. Damage prevention is not the sole responsibility of one organization, nor can it be achieved by a single entity. We are learning that it can only be achieved through cooperation, communication, and coordination among all of us involved in the industry.
How do we build an effective damage prevention program? There is no simple answer. When it comes to damage prevention, we all know where we would like to be, but we have different ideas on how to get there and it’s easy for us to see what everyone else should be doing.
Registration for these sessions is $200 ($250 after Jan. 22). This includes all meals, entry to exhibit hall and training classes (excludes the CP training).
3. An exhibit hall filled with exhibitors offering a look at the latest equipment and tools of the trade. We have scheduled several events in the exhibit hall to allow time to get to know those who are supporting your efforts in the state.
Where are we and how do we get to where we want to be? For most organizations or businesses, those are important questions. Finding the right answers is equally important, but often it is a difficult and, at times, a seemingly impossible process. While most of us understand where we are, it is the “getting to where we want to be” that often frustrates us. In order for any of us to get where we want to be, we will have to learn to work together.
Lee Marrs, President of Texas811, responds to this critical issue by saying, “In an environment of necessary regulation, enforcement, and competition, it is even more important that we can agree to work together to keep Texas a safer place to live and work. In order to accomplish this, we must first recognize the benefits of cooperation and exhibit the willingness to work for the common good of all our people.”
He concluded, “I don’t know if it is possible, but I do know that it is necessary.” We wholeheartedly agree with his perspective.
We hope to see you at the Summit. Then you tell us whether or not we are moving in the right direction. We trust your judgment.
Register for the Summit at http://summit.digtess.com
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