March 5, 2026
Welcome – President Jason Robinson called the meeting to order and welcomed all attendees.
Self-Introductions – 23 people were present.
Meeting Minutes – February minutes were amended to change OUCC to OUNC under Publicity & Education. Modified minutes were approved at the opening of the meeting.
Treasurers Report – Naomi Shirtcliff: Invoices are being sent out for membership dues. Moved savings funds around to avoid fee on account. Budget summary review.
Publicity & Education– Byron Williams: The annual contractor’s breakfast will be held on May 7th at 0630. There is a strong desire to increase the swag on offer for the event and additional funding will be requested. The topic of the event is not settled but ideas were floated including giving the contractors a platform to vent their frustrations, followed by a strong presentation of what the LUCC is actively working on, with the motive to bring them back into the fold as participating members.
Web Page – Daniel Soto: Not present.
Damage Report– Jason Williams: Four damages to report this month. There has been some concern about locator performance recently, with a lack of documentation being cited as a major contributing factor. Highlight one incident involving Wildish and a “mark by measurement” locate. Jason notes that mark by measurement is never accurate, and NWN will always do an on-site standby to help when this is the case.
OUCC Standards Review – Rocky Stewart: Reading of the OUCC mission statement. The idea was also proposed to re-evaluate LUCC bylaws and possibly emulate some aspects of other councils that are desirable.
Old Business: Sentiment was expressed by an attending contractor that other contractors do not participate because there is a lack of power to change things. Another contractor pushed back, articulating the idea that you get out of it what you put into it. There was a general agreement that there should be more emphasis on the coordinating aspect of the council’s namesake.
It’s noted that the current environment for contractors is especially difficult, with one recounting locators in the cities of Sublimity and Lebanon showing up to a job site with witching sticks. Rocky offered to provide training resources for these cities.
Another point of emphasis during this discussion was contractors recouping expenses caused by bad locates. Rocky points out that the aggrieved party should be able to bill the locating company for these expenses. However, the effort to do so can be discouraging, especially in consideration of real damages vs. incurred damages, which would include the additional time and labor spent on the job after a bad locate.
New Business: The new TPAR manual is on the website and Byron notes this will become a big point of emphasis soon. Especially concerning are the audibles, which are expensive and frequently stolen.
Program: None.
Meeting Adjourned- 1:00 pm
