Administrative

ORGANIZATION

This association is organized and shall be administrated and operated exclusively to receive, administer, and expend funds to promote and represent the common business interests and improve business conditions among, members of the utility industry, within the meaning of Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

No part of the net income of the association shall inure to the benefit of or be distributable to its officers or other private persons.

Upon dissolution of the association or the winding up of its affairs, the assets of the association shall be distributed exclusively for the common business interests of its members or to organizations which are exempt from Federal income tax under Section (c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

MISSION

The Western Underground Committee’s Mission is:

  • To promote, on an industry wide basis, the exchange of information, ideas and experiences of all electric and communication utility members in the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of transmission and distribution systems to meet our customer’s need for electric service in a safe, reliable, cost effective and environmentally acceptable manner consistent with sound utility practices.
  • To develop guidelines for members’ voluntary use in their specification and application of materials, designs, work methods, polices and procedures that will minimize the life-cycle costs and improve the performance of the system to best meet customer’s needs.
  • To maintain a liaison with domestic and international organizations such as IEEE, EEI, ANSI, and other regional underground committees.

This will be accomplished through the individual participation of every attending member in the general sessions and in the various subcommittees, presently consisting of Operations, Engineering/Substructures, System Planning and active AD HOC Committees.

The Subcommittees will aggressively seek presentations at its meeting from members and manufacturers on new products, methods, and innovative uses of established products.

In all Subcommittee activities, it shall be the objective of the members to learn together so that members will increase their productivity within their organizations.

To help its members in extending the benefits of Western Underground Committee activity into their organizations, the Subcommittees will actively pursue the production of packaged presentations, the exchange of presentations prepared by member organizations and the use of other appropriate educational and communication tools.

SUBCOMMITEE – OPERATIONS

The objective of the Safety Subcommittee is to exchange the latest informatin in the industry regarding safety regulations and how to prepare your workforce for them.

  • AD HOC Committee
  • AD HOC Committees will be formed on an as needed basis.
  • Active Committee

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

It shall be the objective of the Western Underground Committee’s Safety Ad Hoc Committee to promote items and issues related to the safe operation of electric and telecommunication systems. Presentations on materials, equipment and methods by vendors or member that are related to safety issues may be made to the group. Incidents and accidents that are safety related may also be presented; however, these will be presented under the “Closed Door Sessions” as described in Section E of the WUC Committee and Membership Guidelines.

MAJOR GOALS

Each subcommittee will address a minimum of one topic on an annual basis that will result in the development of a useful guideline. The guidelines will address materials/equipment, designs, work methods, polices or procedures; these guides are intended to reduce life-cycle costs, increase public and/or line worker safety, improve reliability or quality of service, or otherwise enhance the planning, design, construction, operation or maintenance of (underground) distribution systems. The Chairperson of each subcommittee shall keep the Executive Committee and the membership informed of progress at each meeting. The bulk of the work to draft and review guidelines will be conducted as part of each member’s normal duties for their employer prior to the formal Western Underground Committee meetings.

The topics for the main committee meeting will consist of two utility presentations and two presentations from the manufacturers/vendors/technical organizations. These topics will focus on new equipment and construction procedure, modification concerns regarding safety and the environment, utility customer modification needs and expectations and areas resulting from the annual membership survey. The Vice-Chairperson will be responsible for developing a list of topics and including them as part of the Executive Committee Report.

A Year End Summary Report will be prepared by the outgoing Chairperson relative to the Committee’s activities and accomplishments. It will be submitted to the Treasurer/Secretary for publication in the September Meeting Minutes.

An annual survey will be conducted to obtain the general membership’s feedback related to the activities of the Western Underground Committee and their usefulness as it applies towards achieving their utilities missions and goals. The outgoing Chairperson will be responsible for summarizing the survey results and including them as part of the Year-End Summary Report. These results will be reviewed by the Execute Committee to guide the Committee’s activities for the following year.

ADOPTION

The officers listed below hereby formally adopt this Charter of the Western Underground Committee on May 2, 2001

  • Chairperson: Dewey Reay-Arizona Public Service Company
  • Vice-Chairperson: Louis Romero-Idaho Power Company
  • Secretary/Treasurer: Mark Cardoza-Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

ADDITIONS

  1. May 18, 2006 – TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT to page 29, Committee was approved at September 2005 meeting in Long Beach. Wording was never added to the Charter.
  2. May 30, 2006 Via E-mail to all “E”-board members it was agreed, the “Term” Chairman was deleted and Chairperson was inserted into all WUC Documents.
  3. October 3, 2013 – New Bylaws adopted at the Fall 2013 meetng in Boise, Idaho.

BYLAWS

Article 1 – Name

This organization shall be named the Western Underground Committee

Article II – Purpose

A. It shall be the purpose of this Committee to carry out on an industry wide basis:

  1. The exchange of information, ideas and experience of all members relating to the various phases of underground and overhead electric utility design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
  2. To develop and standardize material, methods, and designs to improve safety, reliability and reduce costs in underground and overhead construction, operation, and maintenance.

B. All actions undertaken by the Committee are advisory and not binding to any utility member.

Article III – Membership

A. Membership of this Committee shall be composed of electrical utility employees actively committed to participate in the work of the Committee as outlined in Article II.

B. An associate membership shall be granted to authorize delegates of communication utilities and industry representatives having a member sponsor.

C. Any member, excluding associate members shall be eligible to hold an office, Subcommittee or Ad-Hoc Chair, provided they have attended at least three meetings in the past two years and have a written commitment from their management.

Article IV- Offices and Duties

A. Each office has a one year Term, progressing to the next office at the end of the term. The initially elected office is that of Secretary, which has a four year commitment requiring completion of the full progression. The office progression cycle is as follows: Secretary, Treasurer-Vice Chairperson, Chairperson, and Immediate Past Chairperson. The offices of Event Coordinator, Technology Administrator, Subcommittee and Ad-Hoc Chairpersons are not part of the office progression cycle. A four year term limit will be set for all members of Executive Board whose positions are not progressive in nature. In the event that no replacement for that position is found, the person holding that position can continue in that role, if they are willing, until that position is filled.

B. The offices, indicated progression, and duties of the Western Underground Committee are as follows:

  • Secretary
  1. Record and compile meeting minutes.
  2. Publish meeting records and post to website within two weeks of meeting adjournment.
  3. Prepare and distribute General Session, Subcommittee, and Ad-Hoc meeting packets.(Minutes form, sign-in sheets and session survey form.)
  • Treasurer-Vice Chairperson
  1. Assist the Chairperson and preside at meetings in the absence of the Chairperson.
  2. Preside at the Executive Board meetings.
  3. Notify members of date and time of all regular and special meetings.
  4. Maintain budget records and present Treasurer Report at meetings.
  5. Receive and disburse funds as required and maintain records of each transaction.
  • Chairperson
  1. Call meetings as set forth in the Constitution and By-laws or as recommended by the Executive Board.
  2. Preside at meetings, lead discussions.
  3. Appoint nominating committee for the office of Secretary.
  4. Form Executive Subcommittee as required to address specific topics for study.
  5. Recommend to the Executive Board appointments or removals from positions as needed.
  • Immediate Past Chairperson
  1. Assist the newly progressed Chairperson in an advisory capacity.
  2. Summarize review and future topics forms.
  3. Provide feedback and evaluation of the Officers, Subcommittee, Ad-Hoc Chairs and Technology Administrator.
  • Non-progressionary Event Coordinator
  1. Contact member utilities to arrange future meeting locations
  2. Arrange and prepare programs, rooms and Fellowship Dinner for meetings.
  3. Logistics
  4. Hotel
  • Non-progressionary Technology Administrator
  1. Responsible for maintaining the Western Underground Committee website.
  2. Committee liaison to the web hosting agency.
  3. Report all website activities at the General Session and Executive Board meetings.
  4. Make recommendations for changes and improvements to the website.

C. The election of the Secretary and progression of the other officers shall take place each year at the last regular meeting of that year. The new officers shall begin their term at the first regular meeting of the following year.

D. The Executive Board shall consist of the officers as defined in Article IV-B, the Subcommittee and Ad-Hoc Chairpersons.

  • The Executive Board duties are as follows:
  1. Advise and assist the Chairperson in planning meetings.
  2. Assured compliance with the Constitution and Bylaws.
  3. Approve yearly meetings and dates.
  4. Approve appointments, removals or elections from positions as determined as needed by the officers or recommended by a subcommittee vote.

Article V – Meetings

A. The Committee will meet bi-annually. Normally the meeting will be held in the Spring and Fall trimesters (March, April, May) (August, September, October).

B. Meeting locations shall be announced by the Chairperson at the prior meeting. However, if it is later necessary to change a meeting location, eht Executive Board may select a new location.

C. The Executive Board has the option to recommend the Chairperson call a special meeting.

D. Meetings shall be conducted under the rules of standard parliamentary procedure (Roberts Rules of Order), or as specially required in the By-Laws enacted by the Committee.

E. The Chairperson shall call meetings of the Executive Board as needed in order to plan and discuss the business of the regular or special meetings.

F. Host utility duties:

  1. Work with event coordinator to identify potential hotel facilities, tour opportunities, and Fellowship Dinner locations.
  2. Provide program presentations for the General Session on topics active at the host utility.
  3. Provide a tour including transportation, when possible.
  4. Provide registration table assistance and, when possible, attendee “swag”.

Article VI – Executive Subcommittees

A. The Chairperson shall assign specific topics for study and report to one or more members of the Committee.

B. These members shall be deemed an Executive Subcommittee.

C. Any Executive Subcommittee shall be governed by the Articles of this Constitution and the By-Laws enacted by the Committee.

Article VII-Finances

A. The Executive Board may propose a system of dues or contribution if necessary to carry on its work, subject to a simple majority approval by the membership.

B. The Western Underground Committee is a tax exempt educational organization per IRS Section 501 (c)(3).

Article VIII-Voting

A. All voting shall be restricted to one delegate from each electric utility except where joint electric-communication technical matters are concerned. In this event, voting shall be restricted to one delegate from each electric utility and one delegate from each communication utility. Associate members are ineligible to vote.

Article IX-Amendments

A. The Executive Board may recommend changes to the Constitution or By-Laws as are necessary for the proper functioning of the Committee.

B. Proposed changes shall be published for the members’ consideration.

C. A two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the members at the next regular meeting following publication of the proposed changes is required to enact such changes.

Article X Subcommittees and Duties

A. Subcommittees

  1. Operations
  2. Engineering and Substructures
  3. Training Ad-Hoc
  4. Planning
  5. Safety
  6. Transmission

B. Duties

  1. Subcommittee Chairpersons shall be elected for a minimum of two years provided they have attended at least three meetings in the past two years and have a written commitment from their management. After which the position shall be opened for nominations from the Subcommittee membership.
  2. Arrange for quest speakers and topics of the assigned Subcommittee.
  3. Provide meeting topics to the Event Coordinator four months prior to the upcoming meeting.
  4. Solicit input from members for future topics.
  5. Provide a copy of presentations to the Secretary one month prior to the meeting. If this is not possible the Subcommittee Chairperson will provide as required in 6.
  6. Provide Secretary written minutes of the Subcommittee meeting including attendance roster and feedback forms within one week of the meeting adjournment.
  7. Voting member of the Executive Board.
  8. Required to attend the Executive Board meetings.

To print a copy of the 2013 by laws click, Here.