Scott Brown (Washington Gas): “I think the key to collaboration is being able to listen to what people say, to work with the other stakeholders, get their perspective, and then try to get to where we can meet in the middle ground. It’s what collaboration is the foundation of the best practices for CGA, and that’s we leverage it every chance we get.”
Ryan Egan (Metronet): “Communication is key, but not just communication. Thoughtful, meaningful communication. Making sure that you’re communicating effectively, not just words and emails, but collaboration.”
Josie Scholten (New Mexico Pipeline Safety Bureau): “In my current role, it’s just about enforcing the New Mexico excavation laws. So, I do a lot of site visits. I’ll just pull up on contractors, check their locates, make sure they’re potholing, make sure they’re not blind boring. I have really good communication with the locators and the contractors in the area that I work due to my line locating profession before, so I’ve made a really good name for myself in the industry over the years. So, for me, I’ll pull up and I’ll issue a $5,000 fine on the spot, and I’ll shut them down if they’re digging unsafe.”
Jim Schauer (EWN): “Well, really, the way we collaborate is that we communicate. And I think we’ve really done a good job lately, especially over the last probably five to ten years of getting better and better at that. The more we communicate, we tear down the walls that are between us and actually start to talk about best practices, what has worked, what have we learned, what would we not do the next time, and share that, the better we are.”
James Cross (EWN): “So, we’re a training company at our core. EWN has been you know a vital part of training and in the natural gas side, but in utilities as a whole. So, you know, our commitment obviously is around training making sure folks have what they need. They’re qualified, they’re ready to be on the job doing things. That’s an obvious play, right? But the second part has been a neat part of having the [Coffee with Jim & James] podcast has been able to share the messages with everyone else right our industry is about awareness and you know public awareness and just in general and so for us, Jim and I, we’ve been able to use this platform to really you know make echoes from the events that so many people don’t get to attend.”
