one calls of america (ocoa) long range plan 2016 …...vision: to keep an open forum to brainstorm...

ONE CALLS OF AMERICA (OCOA)

LONG RANGE PLAN 2016 – 2018

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LONG RANGE PLAN 2016 – 2018

1) MISSION

2) OCOA STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

3) MARK-IT! MADNESS

4) INSURANCE

5) TECHNOLOGY

6) HUMAN RESOURCES

7) 401 K

8) DIRECTOR FORUM

9) PATENT OPPOSITION

10) WEBSITE

11) OCOA ADMINISTRATION

12) EXECUTIVE BOARD

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MISSION

OCOA’s Bylaws define the Purposes of the Organization under 2.01 as:

Purposes. The purposes of the corporation are to establish, maintain and promote cooperative type savings for the membership (approved 1/21/16)

Mark-It! Madness: To act as a resource for those in the one-call industry by promoting the exchange of ideas and information to implement effective marketing, promotional and educational programs.

Insurance: To focus on cost containment issues and overseeing the VEBA Trust while always making sure we have the best possible insurance and benefits to offer OCOA members.

Technology: To administer the OCOA/AT&T business agreement to the benefit of all members, regarding, Account Team support, billing, ordering services, expanding to new technologies and contract preparation.

Human Resources: Pending 401 K: Pending

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OCOA STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Several items have been identified as overall strategic initiatives that impact all committees within

OCOA. These include:

1) All committees with observe a rotation through three positions: Secretary, Vice Chair and

Chair. Positions will be held for one year.

2) All committees will have a designated contact identified to provide feedback and materials

to the web committee.

3) All committees will be provided with a schedule that identifies key times for action.

4) These actions include provision of minutes, agenda items, presentations and any materials

to the web committee for posting.

5) All members committed to the promotion of OCOA when appropriate at industry functions.

6) A cycle or frequency is established for periodic review and/or solicitation from service

providers.

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MARK-IT! M ADNESS

Mission Statement: To act as a resource for those in the one-call industry by promoting the exchange of ideas and information to implement effective marketing, promotional and educational programs.

Strategic Strengths: Mark-It! Madness has been highly effective in meeting both the overall OCOA mission in the way of cooperative cost savings and as a resource for identifying and implementing effective programs.

Cost Sharing has primarily been achieved with remnant advertising,

banners and through larger initiatives .

The existing model for cost sharing has been through volunteer participation by states in programs that the states determined to be effective marketing, promotional and educational programs.

All of these programs involve the promotion of the 811 logo and message.

Strategic Plan for 2016-2018

Mark-it! Madness

2015 - 2018 Strategic Plan

Summary: The purpose of this strategic plan is to provide focus and direction to the Mark-it!

Madness (MiM) group (a One Calls of America Committee). Goals and objectives to meet those

goals have been created based on a collaborative effort from the strategic planning task team

within MiM. Each goal reflects the groups’ desired future for the committee, with the MiM

mission and vision statement in mind.

Brief History: Founded in 2007 with the roll out of the nationwide 811 Call Before You Dig

number, Mark-It! Madness is group of marketing and educational professionals from not-for-

profit call centers across the United States. Pooling our knowledge, talents and creativity, we look

to deliver safe digging information to our stakeholders. We also collaborate and work collectively

to stay educated on the latest marketing trends and implement new ideas into our individual

states’ communication plans.

Mission: To act as a resource for those in the one-call industry by promoting the exchange of ideas

and information to implement effective marketing, promotional, and educational programs.

Vision: To keep an open forum to brainstorm and share successful campaigns and ideas, network

with others in the industry, and add cost sharing opportunities.

Goals

• Goal 1: Maintain Attendance and Participation for MiM Meetings. o Objective 1: Develop and distribute a survey to all

OCOA members

o Objective 2: Concentrate an effort on reaching out to members and prospective members that do not attend

o Objective 3: Complete the Strategic Plan and MiM History infographic o Objective 4: Make sure agendas are valuable and sent out to members

at least 4 weeks before each meeting

• Goal 2: Establish a History/Preserving Accomplishments document o Objective 1: Gather all existing information on past cost

sharing items, group campaigns, and presentations

• Goal 3: Define each meeting, structure, and topics

Objective 1: Review objectives of the meeting and come up with a topic for

each meeting.

i. Summer Meetings (July) –

Education ii. Fall Meetings (October) –

Planning

iii. Spring Meetings (May) – Spotlights, Group Discussions and

Educational components

Objective 2: have at least three shared ideas presented at each meeting relating to the

meeting topic (should be diverse, including low-budget ideas, out-of-the-box ideas,

new ideas that are “going viral”, etc.)

Objective 3: Establish processes to ensure outside presentations are worth the group’s

time and have their interest, and to make the meetings move along with the agenda

Objective 4: Schedule continuing education sessions at least 6 months to a year in

advance, giving all MiM members the speaker information and session description

well in advance.

i.

• Goal 4: Establish permanent task teams

Retention/Membership

This task team will be responsible for reviewing OCOA membership, MiM membership

and meeting attendance, as well as participation. This group should establish a process

and strategy of what to review, how and when to reach out to people or groups that

are not participating or attending. This task team will also be responsible for

coordinating efforts to accomplish the OCOA presence at events like the annual CGA

Expo. The data collection analysis will also be incorporated into this task team. Team

members: Dave, Megan, Kathy, Charleigh.

Website

This task team will be responsible for determining what should go onto a web page

for MiM, where to obtain that information or creating that content, working with

OCOA web developer to add or create this new page to OCOA website, and then

keeping this page up-to-date constantly. Team members include: Barb, Whitney, Eric,

Spence.

Educational Opportunities

This task team will be responsible for researching, narrowing down, and bringing

educational speaker opportunities to the MiM group for each summer’s meeting.

This group will also reach out to the speakers and negotiate contracts and work out

arrangements for that selected speaker to be at the summer meetings. This task

team will also be responsible to discuss and bring forward ideas for the annual CGA

Expo session topics. Team members include: Marty, Kevin, Lee, Aimee.

National Campaigns

This task team is responsible for evaluating cost-sharing opportunities for the MiM

Group to evaluate and possibly invest in. This group will also review and determine

which speakers would be best to present to the group during meetings. These would

be opportunities that would be worth the investment for the majority of the group, if

not the whole, meaning that the outreach would benefit the majority or the whole.

This group will also be responsible for developing and maintaining a

history/infographic sheet to summarize the MiM group accomplishments. Ann, Colin,

Cheryl.

• Goal 5: Representing OCOA from a marketing perspective to attract new members

To be coordinated by the Retention/Membership permanent task team.

• Includes materials for CGA conference

• Goal 6: Formalize the process for election of chair, co-chair and secretary positions.

INSUR ANCE

Mission Statement: To focus on cost containment issues and overseeing the VEBA Trust while always making sure we have the best possible insurance and benefits to offer OCOA members.

Strategic Strengths: Through National Healthcare Access, Inc. one call members have been provided competitive rates for medical, dental and vision plans. Additional liability, E&O and Commercial products have been made available to members through the Bowers Agency.

An area of focus for this committee has been to determine whether to continue following a fully funded insurance plan or to switch to a partially self-funded plan.


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OHIO Utilities Protection

SERVICE Call Before You Dig

July 22, 2015

4740 Belmont Avenue • Youngstown, Ohio 44505

800-362-2764

John Lansford

Chairman, OCOA Health and Benefits Committee

Dear John,

Since the last OCOA Health and Benefits Committee conference call, Ohio, Georgia and USA (Indiana 811 and

Kentucky 811) have been discussing the proposed idea of a partially self-funded insurance program. Ohio met with

Frank and Maria to express some of the concerns that each of our centers had. After our meeting, Ohio updated the

other three centers. Subsequently, they have asked Ohio to convey our collective thoughts to you and the Health

and Benefits Committee. We all now have a better understanding of how the partially self-funded plan works,

however based on Frank's feedback that he has been unable to obtain detailed quotes from the provider, it is our

collective feeling that voting to implement a partially self-funded option for 2016 is premature.

Although we have a better understanding of the merits of the partially self-funded plan it is our collective belief that

we need to take the necessary time to research and understand the potential costs, legal requirements and long term

benefits and or impacts. It is our understanding from Frank that prior to obtaining any quotes from carriers; OCOA

would need to modify the organizations trust documentation... Your recent email indicated that this process is

underway. However, once the quotes are received, each of the centers affected should have ample opportunity to

review the proposals, ask questions, and seek the appropriate authorizations to render a voting position.

There are a couple of significant pieces of information that will need to be clarified by the OCOA CPA. It is our

understanding based on discussions with the OCOA CPA that because the partially self-funded plan would contain

100 plus participants, then a plan audit would be required. You may recall that in 2007 there were several OCOA

participating states under one 40 I K plan; it had more than 100 participants which required a similar audit. The

process was extremely difficult and required a substantial amount of administration time for each center. In

addition, the fee for the auditor at the time was $30,000.

Further it is our understanding that multiple centers are in favor of the ability to have excess premium payments

held by the trust and applied to future premiums ... Doing so would require additional revisions to the trust

documentation .

In conclusion, we appreciate the opportunity to present you and the committee with our collective thoughts prior to

the next conference call. Although we are not opposed to considering a partially self-funded plan, there is still a lot

of information to research, understand and questions to be answered. UHC has indicated a zero increase for the

2016 fully insured plan; therefore we have adequate time to fully research and consider a partially self-funded plan

for 2017.

Respectfully submitted,

Jami Novak

VP of Finance/Human Resources

Ohio Utilities Protection Service

CC: Savina M. Hooper, CPA PHR, Assistant VP Finance/HR, Georgia 811

Karen S. Braun, Director of Finance, Indiana 811

Connie Geiger, Director of Operations, USA (Indiana 811 and Kentucky 811)

The O.U.P.S. mission is to serve the customers' needs by providing a quality one call process to:

protect the public; protect the underground infrastructure; protect the environment.

www.oups.org

http://www.oups.org/

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TECHNOLOGY

Mission Statement: To administer, maintain and promote technology services that benefit members of OCOA.

Strategic Strengths: This committee has been primarily focused on the telecommunications technology but has recently embraced expanding to include other technologies such as computers, servers, etc.

An additional interest has been expressed to look into establishing working groups to discuss phone switches, cloud based computing and business continuity.


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HUM AN RESOURCES

Mission Statement: Pending

Strategic Strengths: This committee has been highly effective at providing training opportunities and sharing wellness programs between centers.

This committee has most recently presented an opportunity for a shared competitive wellness program in which multiple states could participate.


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401 K

Mission Statement: pending Strategic Strengths: This committee has been providing a shared retirement plan to the organization for many years. It is currently used by 11 states.


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DIRECTOR FORUM

Mission Statement: To provide a forum for open dialogue for Notification System Executive Directors and CEO’s to discuss issues from the Executive Office level.

The Director Forum was created in 2014 to serve as an informal opportunity for Directors to discuss issues specific to the job. Subjects include but are not limited to legislative efforts, compensation, Board relations, business practices, and national industry initiatives.

Currently two hours have been provided for discussion prior to the general meetings in the spring and fall. In addition a forum has been established online to continue discussions between face to face meetings.


The forum will benefit from a more structured meeting and topic approach. Bruce Campbell was designated as first Chair and will be responsible for identifying and distributing topics for discussion. The topics will be posted to the forum.

Surveys will be deployed to assist with discussions.

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PATENT OPPOSITION

Mission Statement: To contract with Henry Smith to provide Legal Counsel

and act as the Treasury for the Patent Opposition Group. The Patent Opposition Group was formed in 2010 to provide a consolidated response to patents that potentially threaten the one call organizations. The original financial contributors were Alabama 1 Call, Arizona Blue Stake, Colorado 811, Dig Safely NY, Georgia 811, JULIE Inc., MISS DIG System Inc., Miss Utility of Virginia, Mississippi 811, Norfield Data Products Inc., Ohio Utility Protection Service, Tennessee One Call, Texas 811, USA/Dig Alert, One Call Concepts Inc., Pelican Corp, Safe Site (Kansas and North Carolina paid initial funds to UNCC but not participating in group).

Strategic Plan for 2016-2018:

OCOA board will need to review if they wish to continue to act as the

Treasury for the group. At current expense rate funds will be depleted in the

next 12-18 months (7/16-2/1

WEBSITE

Mission Statement: None

The website has been managed by Ohio Utilities Protection Service since its creation.

Strengths: The website is login and password protected. It includes a forum to allow for committees to dialog between meetings. It also is the location for all corporate, financial and meeting documents.

Currently there has been minimal use of the forum as a means to continue dialog among committees between meetings. There has also been a lag between the conclusion of meetings and posting of minutes and presentations.


One Calls of America Web Page Committee 3 Year Strategic Plan

The Strategic plan aims to further the following Mission Statement.

Mission Statement

The mission of the web page committee is to create and maintain a well-designed web site for One Calls of America. Working with the membership the committee will strive to create an attractive, informative, and reasonably priced web site that meets or exceeds the membership’s expectations and needs. The committee will also ensure support services, including obtaining and co-ordination web hosting in order to provide the best possible internet experience for our membership as well as visitors to the site. Additionally the committee will protect the privacy and integrity of non- public OCOA information and strive to ensure maximum reliability of the One Calls of America’s web presence. The committee will respond in a prompt manner to requests from members to add or omit information from the page as well as to member request’s for board approved enhancements to the site with a focus on membership satisfaction.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS designed to support the Web Page mission and OCOA’s vision:

• It’s about starting with the “What if?” and then working relentlessly to see if

we can find the answer. Committee will remain open to needs as provided by other committees and members.

• A minimum number of committee members will be established. • Committee to investigate feasibility of turning over web site to a 3rd party • Generate new members primarily by delivering both performance

advertising and brand advertising. Highlight these through the website. • Committee to investigate performance advertising for the creation and delivery of relevant ads that users will click, leading to direct engagement with our providers. • Committee to investigate performance advertising to let our providers

connect with users while driving them to OCOA to achieve the price points they are looking for.

• Publish the advantages of being a member of OCOA on the website. • Publish a survey that would question visitors of the site about what OCOA

could do to attract them. • Publish the OCOA business strategies.

OCOA needs to try new things and the web site should be ready to support the idea of trying new things. Ambitious projects might not fit into a neat little box but it is exactly how to stay relevant.

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OCOA Event Planning


Currently majority of all efforts are managed by Dan and Patti Canter and Diana Beatty.

Strengths: The Canters understand our business and have been a strong consistent backbone to the event planning for the organization.

There has been some discussion about whether OCOA should consider a different model for handling event planning functions.


• Lock in a three to five year commitment with the hotels.

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EXECUTIVE BOARD


The Board is charged with oversight to the organization, both financially and operationally.

Strengths: The Board is populated with strong individuals and the bylaws call for a four year commitment as a Board member. There is a formal transition among officers from Secretary to TreasurertoVicePresidentto President.

Strategic Plan for 2016-2018 Oversee and manage the Organization’s Strategic Plan. Clarify the roles of members and time frames for actions.

When should minutes be submitted back for review to the Board?

Within 1 week after meeting. Everyone has very busy schedules outside of

OCOA so this provides some time but still soon enough to keep things fresh

in everyone's mind prior to approval.

When should they be distributed to the general membership or website committee to make available?

Minutes should be posted within 1 week after board approval. This allows for

teams, persons to begin fulfilling action items in a timely manner.

How much “financial structure” education should the treasurer have about One Calls of America to be sure members are getting an appropriate financial view of expenses for the current year and a budgetary view for the following year’s needs.

All board members should have experience in managing departmental or

organizational budgets. An individual review of financials with the current

OCOA accounting firm will need to be performed by Treasurer prior to bi-

annual meetings.

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The Treasurer is responsible for presenting the financial report with Dan Canter there for support if more detailed questions are asked

Vice Chair roles: o Serve as a backup if the chair is unable to attend. o Liaison to committees o Acquirement of committee reports o Confirmation of website postings

Should we have board liaisons to each committee or is the chairperson enough of a connection to the board?

Chairs should be the liaison to the board (or vice chair as noted above). It is

not recommended that Executive Board Members serve as committee chairs.

This rule creates space and allows for more objective decisions and removes

possibility of conflict of interest issues.

one calls of america (ocoa) long range plan 2016 …...vision: to keep an open forum to brainstorm...

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