BAMI-I Board of Directors Meets in Orlando

TheBuried Asset Management Institute-International (BAMI-I) held a board ofdirectors meeting April 25 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center inOrlando, Fla., in conjunction with the NASTT No-Dig Show. A total of 55attendees, including board and non-board members were present.

After opening comments by board chairman Tom Iseley and a review of theminutes from the previous meeting by board secretary John Griffin, SandyRobinson, chairperson of the Business Plan Committee, reported on thecommittee’s activities.

Robinson said that the key business components for BAMI-I would be education,technology and providing a clearinghouse for management tools. Membership andfunding were also discussed with ideas of an annual tiered membership plan and afunding concept based on the NEESinc model. Robinson estimated that BAMI-I wouldneed approximately $1 million to get fully started.

Iseley then presented BAMI-I’s role in developing a National Center ofExcellence in conjunction with the EPA that focuses on research, development andtraining for the underground utility industry. He also discussed BAMI-Iactivities in Atlanta, including hosting an EPA-sponsored training session thatis being documented by Penn State.

Other presentations included: Troy Norris, who reported on the progress ofthe Education Committee; Dennis Doherty, who discussed the formation of aTechnical Committee; Tom Keiter, Melanie Doebler and Grant Whittle, whopresented the progress in development of a television documentary that wouldraise public awareness of underground assets; and Mark Knight, who spoke on thestatus of a Center for the Advancement of Trenchless Technologies (CATT)research project involving the development of a North American BenchmarkingProgram.