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Stakeholder Liaison
Programs Reach a Milestone
Achievement
Paradigm
Liaison Services' safety awareness training programs have reached a
milestone of 20,000 attendees year-to-date in over 316 programs across the United States. With
approximately 150 programs in 25 states still scheduled for
the remainder of the year an expected 30,000 attendees will witness
the messages required in RP 1162 and interact with local pipeline operators
as part of the programs.
Paradigm's programs are turn-key in nature and
include the following:
- Multiple media methods for
inviting stakeholders
- Peer-to-peer
instruction
-
Integration of NASFM Pipeline
Emergency Training and incident
scenario videos
- Meals for the
attendees
- Interactive effectiveness
measurement
- Emergency Response capabilities
reporting
- Industry leading documentation
package
By
utilizing lessons learned Paradigm is able to create a consistent and
effective communication package to the stakeholders and still allow the
customization that operators desire. Each program is made available to customers for
RP 1162 compliance purposes through PDQweb™,
Paradigm's
proprietary web-based public awareness
management and documentation system, as well as hard copy documentation.
Texas Liaison Programs
Completed
2009 marks the second
year of Paradigm's implementation of Emergency Official and
Excavator/Public Official safety awareness training
programs in Texas. The purpose
of these programs is to meet
the requirements of CFRs 192, 195 and RP
1162 compliance. By tripling the customer base of 2008 we reached
a greater area of the state, implementing 47 lunches and dinners covering
148 counties. Over 3,200 stakeholders attended the programs
across the state. Emergency Response agencies whom did not attend were distributed the Pipeline
Emergency Response Planning Information Guide via certified mail. Each Emergency Response agency not
attending
a program also has been solicited to attend one of Paradigm's conference call training
sessions in July.
By strategically scheduling the programs we were
able to complete the
programs in the months of March through June in order
to avoid stretching our customer's schedules out for the entire year. This
allows Paradigm adequate time to analyze the data and lessons learned
from the 2009 programs. We are then able to share the
results of our 2009 programs with the industry in preparation for
2010.
During the course of the program, evaluations and capabilities
reports are completed by the stakeholders. Following are a few comments directly
from the stakeholders:
-
Beaumont Fire and Rescue Services: "Great program. This is the best presentation of
this information that I've seen to date."
-
Atascocita Volunteer Fire Dept:"Very good class, very informative and effective,
and you make the information easy to retain."
-
CC Construction Inc.: "Good program. Would like to
be notified for future programs for the rest of my
employees."
Paradigm is currently accepting sponsorships for the
2010 Texas Liaison Programs and is scheduling roundtable discussion groups
for later in 2009. All pipeline operators need to participate
in the programs is submit their respective counties of operation by
completing the on-line form found at http://www.pdigm.com/PLS_Sponsorship.htm
. Operators are charged a flat fee for their counties only,
rather than the entire group of counties covered in a
program.
PHMSA Significant Incident Data
Analysis
Some Background:
Paradigm is often asked to explain our processes and
philosophy regarding mailings to rural areas. To understand the
process, we first need to explain our definition of rural areas.
Rural areas, for direct mail purposes, are areas having little or no
published street address information making it difficult to ascertain
actual physical locations. To overcome this limitation, we advise
operators mail to every PO Box of record in these rural areas. As an
example, we may mail to 500 addresses in one of these areas so that we can
ensure the 75 properties actually near your system receive a public
awareness communication.
Our justification for this process is
that the lack of data in these areas does not allow us to definitively
identify stakeholder locations in rural areas. Our philosophy for
mailing these rural areas has always been that it is better to cast a wide
net and send public awareness information to everyone in these areas as
opposed to not casting the net at all. Because of our understanding
of Carrier Route and PO Box ZIP code geography, we believe it is the right
thing to do, as does much of the industry.
Results:
We recently
tasked our GIS Department with analyzing PHMSA's Significant Incident Data
Reports to compare rural area pipeline incidents to urban area pipeline
incidents. The object of this research was to determine if we should
reconsider our rural mailing methodology and philosophy.
The information housed by PHMSA
regarding significant incident data is comprehensive. In fact, there are
well over one hundred fields described in the data. Some of the data
fields include, but are not limited to, coordinates, leak types, presence
of ignition sources, property damage and cause. The data we used for
this analysis is located on PHMSA's website and can be found here:
http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov
Our first review of the data was to
determine the number of incidents. Offshore significant incidents and
significant incidents for which we could not decipher the coordinates were
eliminated from this analysis. That left us with nearly 600
incidents to study. Of the 600 incidents we analyzed, we found that
17% were in areas we determined to be rural.
No pun intended
here, but 17% is too significant of a number to ignore. We will
continue recommending operators saturate rural areas in their public
awareness programs. In some circles this process is referred to as
'over-mailing'. With the results of our significant incident data
analysis, we feel this process necessary.
2009 RP 1162
Collaborative Programs
2009 marks the sixth year in a row
Paradigm has implemented the nation's largest RP 1162 Collaborative
Program. Collaborative programs have always been a matter of company philosophy as
there are pros and cons to any collaborative. Loss
of corporate identity, specific messaging, and schedule are a
few of the cons,
and budgetary reasons and
consistent messaging continue to lead the pros.
Natural Gas Distribution
Paradigm will
distribute over 750,000 RP 1162 communications for local distribution
companies targeted to non-customers, customers, excavators, contractors,
farmers, emergency and public officials. This program is completely
tailored to the natural gas distribution messaging and is meant to provide
municipalities and investor owned utilities a means of communicating RP
1162 messages in a concise and effective manner. 51 companies have
committed to the program this year in 5 states. The program comes
complete with a focus group tested communication vehicle, program
implementation, and an effectiveness measurement package.
Approximately 10,000 surveys are expected to be completed by stakeholders
and compiled for effectiveness review and making decisions for continuous
improvement.
Hazardous Liquid and Natural Gas
Transmission
The program
has grown from Paradigm's implementation of the first Texas program
in 2003 with 8 pipeline companies to this year's 72 companies, including
154 pipeline systems covering 44 states. Over 3.5 million
stakeholders were identified and notified in the complete program including; 1.8 million affected public, 1.6 million excavators (including contractors and farmers), 65,000
public officials, and 35,000 emergency response agencies. A school
administrative packet including 5 posters and a letter with
company representation was distributed to approximately 3,500 schools. Furthermore, we are in
process of wrapping up the post-survey results and phone
surveys for effectiveness measurement and continuous improvement. In all,
approximately 9,000 surveys will
be completed, which will
aid in our development of the 2010 program.
Paradigm Happenings
Several of our employees recently
participated in the 2009 Wichita River Run which consisted of 10K and 2
mile races. The winner of the Paradigm River Run Challenge, running
the 10K, was Sarah Sutton who 'smoked' yours truly by 21 seconds.
Congratulations to Sarah!
In other news, Rob
Falconio, our Operations VP, was recently elected to the board of our
local Postal Customer Council. We regularly attend these meetings,
but Rob is our first employee to be named to the board. The Council
meets monthly with Post Office personnel to discuss local and national
postal news including acting as a liaison between the USPS and the mailing
community.
To discuss any of the
topics provided in this edition, please contact any of the
following:
Lisa Rogers (Sales Representative): lisar@pdigm.com |
316.928.4749
Tim Marrs (Sales Representative): timm@pdigm.com |
316.928.4758
David Wilkerson (Vice President of Liaison Services):
davidw@pdigm.com |
316.928.4728
John Funderburk (Vice President of Sales & Marketing:
johnf@pdigm.com |
316.928.4730
Paradigm specializes in CFRs 192,
195, and RP 1162 compliance for pipeline operators.
877.477.1162
www.pdigm.com
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