CGA Expo in Orlando this week

[DavidDodd]

A show of hands....Who will be there?

[GWJ_CAS]

GWJ_CAS, with 3 staff members

[beyond help]

I'll be locating.

[yahoo]

i'll be locating too

[OVUS1]

I'll be there raising h*ll about why this industry allows everybody else to determine who we are and what our future is.

[yahoo]

let me guess..........you'll be talking about the union's taking over.....?????

[headcipher]

2 years ago one of my sups probably would've been able to come, but with the economy our budget is tight. No more conferences. No more locating rodeos.

Too bad. I would like to hear what was said there.

Any chance anyone will post notes and talking points?

[GWJ_CAS]

Not only is there a good conference, but nice Florida Gobblers too...



And a flock of hens leaving the watering hole

[noOT4me]

Any chance anyone will post notes and talking points?

That would be great if someone could do this for us here at the Vine. I personally would love to know what all is discussed at these meetings.

[OVUS1]

Okay, I'll take a shot at it.

Didn't come in Monday - first day is generally a slap on the back howdy doody session anyway (kind of like a family reunion if you know what I mean) and I came here on a mission. I came in today (Tuesday). Attended two afternoon break out sessions - one about "what is going on in your neck of the woods" and another about Verizon discussing their FTTP project management in Virginia. No real substance to either of these sessions from my perspective although I think Verizon is managing their Virginia project pretty well. There was some discussion about marking facilities at some point becomes grafitti, so I suggested working with the municipalities and the Operators to generate a "de-locate ticket" when a ticket expires. It would notify the locate company to return to the site and black out the marks and remove the flags. There was a guy across from me trying to kick me under the table but I was able to get this suggestion out without too much damage to my shins - discussion was brief and as usual the contract locate rep was demonized as a complete idiot...... THEN CAME THE 5:00 MIXER ON THE SHOW FLOOR! All the vendors set up and welcomed all attendees from 5-8pm tonight. Lots of drinks, nasty finger food, and again the family reunion atmosphere. I did see a lot of people that I knew and that was unexpected (I don't go to many of these and this is my first CGA conference). Sorry but that's about all that happened around my day today.

Tomorrow the meat of the conference - the CGA Board meets, there is a roundtable on locator certification, and a couple more break-out sessions that I will attend and report back on. Thursday the NULCA issue comes up from 7-9:30am. I thought I was going to be allowed to attend but was told by a Board Member today they needed that time "to get their house in order" so I will attend the open meeting right after.

More from Ace Reporter JC tomorrow. Please send me any comments or statements you would like me to present to the NULCA folks (keep it clean). I will read them word for word to the entire group if you want.

[OVUS1]

let me guess..........you'll be talking about the union's taking over.....?????

My 20+ years in the industry and never met anyone from a union wanting to organize locators. If they do organize, does that mean the union pays the damages of their members? Does that mean someone that has 20 damages keeps their job because they are union?

Not a big fan of any union - I don't need to pay someone to make sure I get the best deal I can get. I can do that myself and pocket the dues.......

What do they pay you if they call a strike? My Dad worked for a company that was union. Most of their people had to work stocking shelves at Wal Mart for minimum wage when they called a strike just to put food on the table.

[TheCableVine]

Sounds like a typical conference.

I am interested in tomorrows (Feb 18th) events. Especially the locator Certification.

Find out, if you would, please, what NULCA intends to do as far as their presence in the locate world. As you may have read, recent discussion on the board points out how NULCA seems to have dropped from the face of the earth.

I'd also be very interested to hear what the community thinks about TheCableVine.com and it's impact, if any, on the locate community.

I know it is mentioned at company meetings and is watched almost daily by management. Getting the inside scoop from them face-to-face would be interesting to me.

[phoenix827]

so I suggested working with the municipalities and the Operators to generate a "de-locate ticket" when a ticket expires. It would notify the locate company to return to the site and black out the marks and remove the flags.

Iirc, In Ct, it's "required" that the contractor who called in the ticket is responsible for removing any remaing mark, same as they are "required" to maintain the marks. No comment on how often it happens.

[TheCableVine]

Iirc, In Ct, it's "required" that the contractor who called in the ticket is responsible for removing any remaing mark, same as they are "required" to maintain the marks. No comment on how often it happens.

If that were mandatory I suspect ALL contractors would call in tickets for what they need and ONLY what they need.

[RD_Wrangler]

If that were mandatory I suspect ALL contractors would call in tickets for what they need and ONLY what they need.

Need to add, "If it were ENFORCED" to that

It's kinda like the engineering companies here using the One-Call for their utility marking when they aren't doing any digging. It isn't supposed to be allowed, but they do it. The One-Call allows it, (mostly because the engineers are working for the utility companies usually), and locators get screwed locating HUGE tickets nobody is digging in, and the engineering/survey firms get what they should be paying for, for free.

One of the primary reasons there are no SUE or Private Locators around these here parts, I guess. lol!