First time for everything
It’s not every day you get three districts together to work collectively and collaborate.
After a previous foreman meeting held in the fall of 2019 between districts 5 and 6, the group collect
ively decided that after having such a successful meeting, they wanted to expand operational strategy to all Eastern districts that work closely together. That included districts 4, 5 and 6, which encompassed the operations engineers, shop managers, fleet managers, business operations managers, facilities managers and maintenance foremen.
On January 9, the Operations departments from the three districts met at the District 5 Pocatello office since it was a good central meeting place. Alex DeSmet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pocatello, presented new updates to their reporting program to the group of about 35 employees, and received feedback from the foremen. After a great discussion with Alex, the groups then split off into breakout sessions, where the Ops Engineers and Business Ops Managers met to plan upcoming events for the year.
Operations teams met as a group to brainstorm. Foremen coordinated to help each other on future projects and plowing operations. They talked about sharing equipment and personnel when necessary.
For certain issues, the groups also planned smaller meetings outside of this joint meeting to further discuss. Because of the successful collaboration across neighboring districts, the group decided to make this meeting annual or semi-annual.
Besides statewide meetings, this was a first-of-its-kind collaboration. Not only was it very productive, but highly successful. Great relationships were built, walls were torn down, and innovative solutions (and coffee) flowed with this group of professionals.
Published 01-31-20