[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Hello Asset Health Analytics Community Members, 

This is a final call for your input! If you have NOT taken our survey, we want to hear form you! The survey should only take you 7 minutes to complete. Your answers to this survey will help the Community leadership team formulate the charter and plan valuable, timely, and relevant content for future Community Conversations. 

Survey Response Rate as of 9/29/20:
– 19 Responses
– 47 Asset Health Analytics Community Members
– 40% Response Rate

Please take the survey by this Friday, October 2! After this date, the Community leadership team will jump in and start analyzing the responses.

Thank you all so much!

Cheers,

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

I’m so happy to see this post! Thanks for infusing some smiles and laughter into my day, Jeff. I pledge to not invite you to a meeting on Friday afternoon! 😊

 

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 09-30-2020 12:45
From: Jeff Yankley
Subject: A little humor to brighten up your day

Hello UAI Network,

Thought I’d share a short music video I recently created.  I felt our team at Consumers Energy needed a bit of a humorous boost while describing a topic that I’m guessing is on top of mind for all of us.

Let this be a reminder that…

1. Even though we are all doing important work, we can still have fun while we’re doing it.
2. If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can laugh at?
3. What crazy things can you think of to engage your teams in new and different ways?

Enjoy–>

https://vimeo.com/462639951/7eb6cb0343

Jeff

——————————
Jeff Yankley
Director of Customer Intelligence & Analytics
Consumers Energy
jeffrey.yankley@cmsenergy.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Don’t forget to cast your VOTE! This poll will be closed at the end of the business day on Wednesday, September 30.

Please select your favorite Outage Management data visualization for the September 2020 UAI “Best Visualization of the Month” contest at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/37T8Y8X! 

 We will announce the member favorite at the beginning of next month. The member favorite will receive pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card! Thanks so much to the members that submitted your Outage Management data visualizations!

In addition to voting, I would love to hear your theme ideas for future data visualizations of the month! Reply to this post to share your ideas. 

Thanks!
Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 09-23-2020 12:10
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: VOTE For Your Favorite Outage Management Data Visualization – September 2020 “Best Visualization of the Month” Contest

It’s time to VOTE for your favorite data visualization for the September 2020 UAI “Best Visualization of the Month” contest!

Please select your favorite outage management data visualization for the UAI “Best Visualization of the Month” contest at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/37T8Y8X!

When selecting your favorite, consider criteria like, how automated is the visualization, from where is the visualization pulling the data, how easy is the visualization to understand, etc. (of course this criteria is not required, but we wanted to pass along some example criteria to consider while selecting your favorite visualization).

We will close this poll at the end of the day on the last business day of the month, which is Wednesday, September 30, 2020.
We will announce the member favorite at the beginning of next month.

Thanks so much to the members that submitted your data visualizations in September!

The member favorite will receive pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card!

Enjoy selecting your favorite!

Thanks!

     Leslie 

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

Several members have reached out to me to request an opportunity to collaborate with @Silas and any other members interested in discussing this topic, i.e. “Developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy and Dashboard“, in an informal environment where you can share ideas and exchange information. I would like to help coordinate this Microsoft Teams meeting. Silas and his team are available on the dates/times listed below. Please take this Doodle survey to let me know which date/time option works best for you. The Doodle requires you to submit your email, so I know who to include on the meeting invite. 

Dates included in the Doodle survey (time zones in the Doodle automatically adjust to your own time zone):

• Thursday, October 22 at 2:00-3:00 pm CT (12-1pm PT/ 1-2pm MT/ 3-4pmET)
• Wednesday, October 20 at 12:00-1:00 pm CT (10-11am PT/ 11am-12p MT/ 1-2pm ET)
• Thursday, November 5 at 12:00-1:00 pm CT (10-11am PT/ 11am-12p MT/ 1-2pm ET)

Take the Doodle at https://www.doodle.com/poll/zn8h6rvdue4bs7qv. The sooner you take the Doodle survey, the sooner I can schedule this on your calendar to save the date/time. 
​
Thanks!

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 09-24-2020 14:26
From: Travis Metcalfe
Subject: Developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy and Dashboard

I tend to think HR/People analytics is a topic under the umbrella of UAI.

Sam, I would be curious to know what some of the different areas are that you are including in your HR Scorecard. We just completed a brainstorming exercise to try and identify a few of the different areas we want to begin parsing together but we are a ways out from actually having a dashboard right now.

Thanks, 

Travis

——————————
Travis Metcalfe
Strategy, Innovation, and Engagement Manager
Tacoma Power
Tacoma WA
2535028149
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 09-24-2020 13:13
From: Sam Held
Subject: Developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy and Dashboard

Hi Silas,

We already include some diversity metrics on our dashboard and HR Scorecard and have been pulling more in depth data outside of the dashboard for D&I updates to our Executive Steering Committee and Employee Resource Groups.  We are still working on adding more data for insights.  Not too much discussion here because people or HR analytics is not a topic covered by UAI.  We had that discussion last week among advisory group members of EHRG (group of those involved with HR Metrics & Reporting)  and previously among members of the CEWD Workforce Planning Council that I am a member of.

Reach out to me if you want to discuss more offline.

Sam Held
Analyst, Workforce Planning & Analytics
TVA
saheld@tva.gov

——————————
Sam Held
Analyst, Workforce Planning & Analytics
TVA
423-751-2220

Original Message:
Sent: 09-15-2020 12:55
From: Silas Dulan
Subject: Developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy and Dashboard

Hello UAI Members,

We are currently working on a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) strategy that is firmly based in data analytics. As a company, we want to reflect the communities we have the pleasure of serving. With that, our communities are evolving and we must do the same. Moreover, we understand that representation matters. To fundamentally understand our internal demographics in contrast to the communities we serve will allow us to benchmark, goal set and move strategically.

Along with developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy, we are in the process of developing a DE&I dashboard. Issues we are currently discussing in regard to our strategy and dashboard include: how transparent do we want to be with the reporting (e.g. all ee access), data security, what specific metrics to track, etc.

We would ultimately like to connect with other UAI members that are working on or who have a DE&I strategy and/or DE&I dashboards. We would like to connect with others dealing with the same issues, so we can learn from you to help develop our strategy and dashboards.

Please feel free to reply to this post or reply directly to me to connect. Thanks in advance for your help!

Respectfully,

     Silas

 

——————————
Silas Dulan
Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Evergy
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Please remember you have until the end of the day tomorrow, Tuesday, September 22 to post your outage management data visualizations for the September 2020 “Best Visualization of the Month” contest.

Pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card are at stake! :-)

September 2020 Theme: Outage Management Data Visualizations – Some areas of North America have already been effected by storms and for other areas, storm season is closing in. During storm season, every utility deals with outages. Let’s take the month of September to share your outage management data visualizations. How are you working to improve your visualizations this storm season? Maybe you want to beef up your visualizations this storm season. By sharing your data visualizations for outage management, you could be helping your peers with ideas on how to improve their visualizations. Examples of things to share: distribution outage management data visualizations or mapping distribution heat maps, etc.

@Travis asked a great question last week… “Besides external customer facing maps, does anyone have any internal dashboards that they use related to customer outages? We have discussed putting something together that reflects SAIDI/SAIFI stats, etr accuracy, circuit resiliency, ect. However, we haven’t quite gotten far enough down the road to have anything to share yet and it is just a concept right now.”

If you have any questions, please reach out by replying to this post or contacting me directly at lcook@utilityanalytics.com or 646-693-5965.

Thanks!

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I want to send out a friendly reminder to not miss out on a chance to receive pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card! I don’t know about you, but I love free coffee! :-) 

Don’t forget to reply to this post with your outage management data visualizations for September’s “Best Visualization of the Month” contest. Please make sure you post your data visualizations by the end of day Tuesday, September 22, 2020. On Wednesday, September 23, I will reply to this post with a survey, so members of UAI can vote for their favorite data visualization. 

Please find more information below about the September 2020 theme…

September 2020 Theme: Outage Management Data Visualizations – Some areas of North America have already been effected by storms and for other areas, storm season is closing in. During storm season, every utility deals with outages. Let’s take the month of September to share your outage management data visualizations. How are you working to improve your visualizations this storm season? Maybe you want to beef up your visualizations this storm season. By sharing your data visualizations for outage management, you could be helping your peers with ideas on how to improve their visualizations. Examples of things to share: distribution outage management data visualizations or mapping distribution heat maps, etc.

If you have any questions, please reach out by replying to this post or contacting me directly at lcook@utilityanalytics.com or 646-693-5965.

Thanks!

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 09-01-2020 14:54
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: September 2020 Theme – Best Visualization of the Month Contest

Hello again, UAI Members,

It is an exciting day at UAI! The August 2020 member favorite for the “Best Visualization of the Month” contest was announced and now I present to you the theme for the September 2020 “Best Visualization of the Month” contest…

September 2020 Theme: Outage Management Data Visualizations – Some areas of North America have already been effected by storms and for other areas, storm season is closing in. During storm season, every utility deals with outages. Let’s take the month of September to share your outage management data visualizations. How are you working to improve your visualizations this storm season? Maybe you want to beef up your visualizations this storm season. By sharing your data visualizations for outage management, you could be helping your peers with ideas on how to improve their visualizations. Examples of things to share: distribution outage management data visualizations or mapping distribution heat maps, etc.

In case you missed it last month… What is the UAI Best Visualization of the Month contest? 

In collaboration with the UAI Connect Ambassadors — a team of member volunteers that help drive engagement and encourage member collaboration on UAI Connect — UAI will be implementing a new monthly contest on the Ask Your Network forum on UAI Connect. Each month, we will post a themed “Best Visualization of the Month” contest. The monthly theme will be selected by our UAI Connect Ambassadors. We also encourage you to submit your ideas for monthly themes on an ongoing basis. You can submit those to me at lcook@utilityanalytics.com or just post your ideas on the Ask Your Network discuss forum.

This monthly contest is set-up to encourage you to post your data visualizations in regard to the given month’s theme. All during the month, we hope you will reply to that month’s contest post to share your data visualizations (no matter how simple, functional, elaborate, or complicated) and include a short description as it relates to your visualization. You can attached your visualization to your reply or embed it within the reply.

One week prior to the end of the month, we will reply to the post with a survey link that will poll members to select their favorite visualization. When selecting your favorite each month, consider criteria like, how automated is the visualization, where is the visualization pulling the data, how easy is the visualization to understand, etc. (of course this criteria is not required, but we wanted to pass along some example criteria to consider while selecting your favorite visualization).

We will close the poll at the end of the day on the last business day of the month. We will announce the member favorite at the beginning of the next month. The member favorite will receive pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card! Our hope is this will be a valuable monthly exercise that is an opportunity to share and learn from one another, help encourage a little spirit of competition, and that you will have some fun!
 
Let the games for September begin!

Have fun,

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Thanks for introducing yourself, @Chris!  I love seeing the WAPA crew jump right in and take advantage of this thread on Ask Your Network, as well as the UAI Analytics Communities!  Also, great shot of the rocky mountains! Thanks for sharing! 

I preach this often during monthly Community Conversations, but it applies to the Ask Your Network forum on UAI Connect as well…  UAI events, UAI Communities, the Ask Your Network forum, etc. should not only be a place to connect, collaborate, and ask other members professional/work questions, but it should be a place where everyone gets to know each other better by sharing tidbits of life and your personal experiences. The more we know each other, the easier it becomes to share the professional stuff!

UAI is a place where smart people get together. I think it is even more important now than ever before, because of what the pandemic has caused socially. Since we are missing out on the in-person socialization that events provide, we are not connecting on a personal level as much. I encourage it! Please use this platform to connect on a personal level. Once people know each other on a personal level they can talk about common interests, such as family, hobbies, sports, etc. Like I’ve said, this provides a level of comfort to then discuss business challenges. The more this happens, it will eventually lead to even more valuable interactions and collaborations. You can really start to challenge each other, dig in deep, and help each person and company within this community grow. Remember, you get back 10-fold what you give within a community like UAI. 

I’ll follow Chris’ lead and share some photos of a few of my favorite things: Traveling (oh, how I miss it this year! Photos here are from Bruges, Belgium and Playa Nosara, Costa Rica), taking advantage of Colorado hiking, and snuggling with our cute Mini Aussies.

Thanks so much to all and I hope you enjoy your weekend! ​

Your member advocate, 

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 09-11-2020 15:26
From: Chris Lyles
Subject: Introduce Yourself

​Good afternoon friends.  I’m Chris Lyles and I have the pleasure of working at WAPA, which is a federal utility that markets and delivers cost based hydropower.  I’ve been with them since 2007, but wish I would have joined the industry right out of college.  I missed out the first 13 years of my working career on all this fun!  I’ve spent 13 years hopping around WAPA in different positions until I found my permanent home in Asset Management.  I love AM as it allows me to venture into the business aspects of our industry as well as the field maintenance component.  Super fun!

My family and I live in Lakewood CO, just west of Denver.  We spend most of our time four wheel driving and camping in the rocky mountains.  Like some others on this thread, I too am from TX.  But after experiencing the high country of Colorado, I moved here as fast as I could.  (:  I’m married to Andrea.  We’ve got three young kids.  8, 3, and 2.

I’m really excited about recently joining UAI and look forward to meeting you all in the near future.  Fun times ahead. Chris

——————————
Chris Lyles
VP of Asset Planning & Management
Western Area Power Administration (WAPA)
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 03-18-2020 10:38
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Introduce Yourself

Hello UAI Members,

I’m excited to try something new on UAI’s Member-Only Community. I want to not only make this forum a place for work and professional connections to take place on a daily basis, a place to ask each other questions, find answers and exchange knowledge and share information, I want to make it a fun environment to help us all de-stress, get to know each other a little better, and build bonds and friendships of a lifetime.

One of the coolest things about the UAI community is seeing members make connections with one another-it’s incredible to watch personal and professional relationship and friendships begin, grow, evolve, and last. The more relationships that are built between us and the more we get to know each other, the more valuable our work exchanges will become. We open up, we share more, we learn more and we all become so much better together!

Our community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. I feel like it’s time that we (both new members and established ones) take a little time to introduce ourselves.

• Share your name
• Where you’re from
• How long you’ve worked in utility analytics
• I also encourage you to share non-invasive personal tidbits about yourself, i.e. what you like to do for fun, your hobbies, your pet peeves, or even your favorite memes, of course keeping it in good taste. Share things that will help us all get to know you better

I think it is important to have a little fun while we work and enjoy each other’s company. Please, use the UAI Member-Only Community as a place to work hard and play hard, enjoy, laugh, and have some fun.

I’ll kick us off, and please know you can include as much or little detail in your introduction. I’m wordy, so I went all out:

I’m Leslie, UAI’s membership & digital engagement manager. I’ve been with UAI for almost five months and I’m passionate about connecting members who share similar interests and challenges, and providing them with benefits, experiences, and tools they need to solve their problems and improve their organizations. I enthusiastically joined UAI to help improve and evolve the UAI membership value, as well as manage UAI’s collection of Communities. I am a strategic program director, dynamic business leader, and expert facilitator with over 20 years of experience. To learn even more about my professional work or to connect with me, visit my profile on UAI’s member-only site or LinkedIn. Please reach out to me directly at any time if you have questions or need anything from UAI. I can be reached at lcook@endeavorb2b.com or 646-693-5965.

I’m a Texas girl at heart, born and raised in a small town in north Texas, and then I headed out west to graduate from Texas Tech University (Go Red Raiders!). After school I moved to Colorado and I’ve lived all along the front range for the last 22 years, settling in Denver for the last six years, and I still have a Texas accent (You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas accent out of the girl!). I’ve been married to my best friend from high school for 17 years, and we have two amazingly intelligent miniature Australian Shepherds, Indio and Charley, who keep us busy.

When I’m not working, I can be found traveling the world. We have been to 11 countries so far and we hope to continue to expand our adventures. I also like to leverage my high attention to detail and project management skills when dabbling in home remodeling and interior design. I come up with crazy design schemes and my patient husband implements my ideas, doing all the skilled and hard labor work. We are now close to the end of a complete remodel of our 1952 house. I cannot wait to be done with this project that has taken us about three years to complete…I can almost see the light!

I am truly excited to get to know ALL UAI’s members, so please reply to this discussion post to introduce yourself. Give a little of yourself and you will be surprised at how much you get in return through your valuable, purpose-built relationships via UAI.

Like I said, I have only been with UAI for about five months, but I’m already having so much fun and learning a lot from all of you! We have a lot of positive updates coming soon and we are evolving, with your input, to better meet your needs and goals, and I can’t wait to share these things with you. You must stay tuned into UAI’s Member-Only Community to learn more within the next few months. We will also be announcing some new things and some updates during the unique and exciting event we have coming in June 2020, UA Summit Reimagined!

Introduce yourself, learn more about others, and connect through UAI!

Stay safe and healthy,

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
646-693-5965, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Thanks so much for introducing yourself on this thread, @Barry! We are so glad that you and the WAPA team have joined UAI. The UAI team lives across the U.S. and there are several of us here in Colorado​​. After it is safer to socialize, we need to connect for a happy hour with the WAPA team members that live in Colorado, as well as any other members that live in Colorado. It will be nice to connect face-to-face again some day. 

Thanks again for introducing yourself and welcome to the community!

Cheers,

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 09-10-2020 14:58
From: Barry Palakodety
Subject: Introduce Yourself

Hello UAI Members,

I’m Barry, a new UAI member from Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). I’ve been with WAPA for over 5 years now. I’ve been in Asset and Work Management world for over 25 years primarily working with IT systems that connect with Maximo Asset Management software. I’ve a IT education background. I manage IT projects, review business processes, functional and technical needs of businesses and help organizations achieve their strategic and tactical goals using tools and process changes. I’m getting familiar with Data analytics and tools out there in the last year. My top 5 strengths are: Command, Learner, Focus, Achiever and Restorative.

I’ve been in Colorado since 1995. I love it out here. I spend my free time socializing, hiking, biking, camping, skiing, travelling world, taking nature and wild life photographs, teach, cook, make masks, you name it! I listen to 80s Rock through latest pop music. I’ve visited almost all States in the USA! My wife and I love to travel the world for fun and adventure. Some day, we might own a tiny place in a few continents of the world so we could retire and travel! Countries I visited so far are: Canada, Mexico, Peru, Germany, England, France, Austria, Singapore, Malaysia, India and we’re on our way to Tahiti in Oct 2020! I’ve a ton of fun travel stories to share. :)

I’m excited to be a member of this organization. I’m looking forward to contributing and listening to experts share their ideas of the future of utility industry.

Cheers!
Barry

——————————
Barry Palakodety
Maximo Architect
WAPA
720-967-7177
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 03-18-2020 10:38
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Introduce Yourself

Hello UAI Members,

I’m excited to try something new on UAI’s Member-Only Community. I want to not only make this forum a place for work and professional connections to take place on a daily basis, a place to ask each other questions, find answers and exchange knowledge and share information, I want to make it a fun environment to help us all de-stress, get to know each other a little better, and build bonds and friendships of a lifetime.

One of the coolest things about the UAI community is seeing members make connections with one another-it’s incredible to watch personal and professional relationship and friendships begin, grow, evolve, and last. The more relationships that are built between us and the more we get to know each other, the more valuable our work exchanges will become. We open up, we share more, we learn more and we all become so much better together!

Our community gets bigger every day. Many of you already know one another, while others are brand-new faces. I feel like it’s time that we (both new members and established ones) take a little time to introduce ourselves.

• Share your name
• Where you’re from
• How long you’ve worked in utility analytics
• I also encourage you to share non-invasive personal tidbits about yourself, i.e. what you like to do for fun, your hobbies, your pet peeves, or even your favorite memes, of course keeping it in good taste. Share things that will help us all get to know you better

I think it is important to have a little fun while we work and enjoy each other’s company. Please, use the UAI Member-Only Community as a place to work hard and play hard, enjoy, laugh, and have some fun.

I’ll kick us off, and please know you can include as much or little detail in your introduction. I’m wordy, so I went all out:

I’m Leslie, UAI’s membership & digital engagement manager. I’ve been with UAI for almost five months and I’m passionate about connecting members who share similar interests and challenges, and providing them with benefits, experiences, and tools they need to solve their problems and improve their organizations. I enthusiastically joined UAI to help improve and evolve the UAI membership value, as well as manage UAI’s collection of Communities. I am a strategic program director, dynamic business leader, and expert facilitator with over 20 years of experience. To learn even more about my professional work or to connect with me, visit my profile on UAI’s member-only site or LinkedIn. Please reach out to me directly at any time if you have questions or need anything from UAI. I can be reached at lcook@endeavorb2b.com or 646-693-5965.

I’m a Texas girl at heart, born and raised in a small town in north Texas, and then I headed out west to graduate from Texas Tech University (Go Red Raiders!). After school I moved to Colorado and I’ve lived all along the front range for the last 22 years, settling in Denver for the last six years, and I still have a Texas accent (You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas accent out of the girl!). I’ve been married to my best friend from high school for 17 years, and we have two amazingly intelligent miniature Australian Shepherds, Indio and Charley, who keep us busy.

When I’m not working, I can be found traveling the world. We have been to 11 countries so far and we hope to continue to expand our adventures. I also like to leverage my high attention to detail and project management skills when dabbling in home remodeling and interior design. I come up with crazy design schemes and my patient husband implements my ideas, doing all the skilled and hard labor work. We are now close to the end of a complete remodel of our 1952 house. I cannot wait to be done with this project that has taken us about three years to complete…I can almost see the light!

I am truly excited to get to know ALL UAI’s members, so please reply to this discussion post to introduce yourself. Give a little of yourself and you will be surprised at how much you get in return through your valuable, purpose-built relationships via UAI.

Like I said, I have only been with UAI for about five months, but I’m already having so much fun and learning a lot from all of you! We have a lot of positive updates coming soon and we are evolving, with your input, to better meet your needs and goals, and I can’t wait to share these things with you. You must stay tuned into UAI’s Member-Only Community to learn more within the next few months. We will also be announcing some new things and some updates during the unique and exciting event we have coming in June 2020, UA Summit Reimagined!

Introduce yourself, learn more about others, and connect through UAI!

Stay safe and healthy,

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
646-693-5965, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Don’t forget to cast your VOTE! This poll will be closed at the end of the business day on Monday, August 31.

Please select your favorite COVID-19 data visualization for the August 2020 UAI “Best Visualization of the Month” contest at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7GXHR7G!

 We will announce the member favorite at the beginning of next month.
The member favorite will receive pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card!

Thanks so much to the members that submitted your COVID-19 data visualizations! It was not only an incredibly fun exercise to share your visualizations for the monthly contest, but extremely valuable to share this type of information with your fellow UAI members to continue learning from each other. Please remember, you can ask your members questions on anything that was submitted to continue the conversation. 

Enjoy selecting your favorite!

Thanks!

     Leslie 

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

This is a good time to mention that UAI has officially switched to Teams Meeting for our monthly Community Conversations and any meetings with members. :-)

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 08-24-2020 16:10
From: Martin Richardson
Subject: Zoom goes Boom

From ZD Net

https://www.zdnet.com/article/zoom-outage-fix-deployed-videoconferencing-services-being-restored-now/

 

 

Update, 1:10pm ET Zoom says the fix is complete: “We have resolved the issue causing some users to be unable to start and join Zoom Meetings and Webinars or manage aspects of their account on the Zoom website.”

 

Original Message:
Sent: 8/24/2020 2:58:00 PM
From: Ben Ettlinger
Subject: Zoom goes Boom

I know that this may not be the correct forum, but it is where all the smart people hang out. Anyone have any insight into the Zoom goes Boom today?

——————————
Ben Ettlinger
Emerging Technologies
Enterprise Architecture & Engineering Group
New York Power Authority
White Plains, NY
914 681 6496
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

First, I want to bring your attention to two valuable shares that have been posted this week regarding the COVID-19 data visualizations…

1. Snohomish PUD COVID-19 data visualization (scroll down past original post)
2. WEC Energy Group COVID-19 data visualization 

Second, If you have COVID-19 data visualizations to share and want to participate in the “best visualization of the month contest” in August, please make sure to reply to this post by end of day Monday, August 24! On Tuesday morning, I will reply to this post with a survey, so members of UAI can vote for their favorite data visualization (see original post for example criteria to help select your fav). The member favorite will receive pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card!

Our hope is this will be a valuable monthly exercise that is an opportunity to share and learn from one another, help encourage a little spirit of competition, and that you will have some fun!

If you have any questions, please reach out by replying to this post or contacting me directly at lcook@utilityanalytics.com or 646-693-5965. 

Thanks!

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 08-17-2020 19:13
From: Laura McCrae
Subject: Introducing… Best Visualization of the Month Contest – August 2020

Snohomish PUD has a well established Analytics team and performance management dashboard practice. When COVID-19 hit WA state and we stood up our Incident Management Team (IMT) in mid-March we knew that we wanted to be able to monitor both what was happening with COVID on the ground and the impact of business practice changes we were making as part of our mobilization and response efforts.

The first version of the dashboard went live on March 23 and has been iterated since then. There are several audiences for various parts of the dashboard beyond just the IMT – our Executive Leadership Team, our elected Commission, and our employees.

The dashboard updates daily and all of the data (with one exception) is fully automated. The data comes from a mix of internal systems that include SAP, SQL, Avaya, and SharePoint plus a few CSV and Text files. External data is coming from WA State posted files and GitHub. We use Python in various places to transfer, clean, aggregate, and post the data. The dashboard is hosted in the PowerBI cloud service which enables dynamic cross filtering.

I’ve included a selection of screenshots below.

The data below is aggregated by week. Call topics are derived from SAP interaction records associated to the call.

Customer Support – programs and efforts in response to COVID impacts on our community.

Payment and Collection Impacts

Load Impacts Against Budget Forecast and Weather Adjusted Budget Forecast

Unemployment in our service territory (we serve Snohomish County plus Camano Island)

COVID-19 in WA State

COVID-19 in the US

——————————
Laura Lemke
Data Strategy & Analytics
Snohomish Public Utility District
Everett, WA
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 08-03-2020 16:33
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Introducing… Best Visualization of the Month Contest – August 2020

Dear UAI Members,

In collaboration with the UAI Connect Ambassadors — a team of member volunteers that help drive engagement and encourage member collaboration on UAI Connect — UAI will be implementing a new monthly contest on the Ask Your Network forum on UAI Connect. Each month, we will post a themed “Best Visualization of the Month” contest. The monthly theme will be selected by our UAI Connect Ambassadors. We also encourage you to submit your ideas for monthly themes on an ongoing basis. You can submit those to me at lcook@utilityanalytics.com or just post your ideas on the Ask Your Network discuss forum.

This monthly contest is set-up to encourage you to post your data visualizations in regard to the given month’s theme. All during the month, we hope you will reply to that month’s contest post to share your data visualizations (no matter how simple, functional, elaborate, or complicated) and include a short description as it relates to your visualization. You can attached your visualization to your reply or embed it within the reply.

One week prior to the end of the month, we will reply to the post with a survey link that will poll members to select their favorite visualization. When selecting your favorite each month, consider criteria like, how automated is the visualization, where is the visualization pulling the data, how easy is the visualization to understand, etc. (of course this criteria is not required, but we wanted to pass along some example criteria to consider while selecting your favorite visualization).

We will close the poll at the end of the day on the last business day of the month. We will announce the member favorite at the beginning of the next month. The member favorite will receive pride and glory, bragging rights, and a $10 Starbucks gift card! Our hope is this will be a valuable monthly exercise that is an opportunity to share and learn from one another, help encourage a little spirit of competition, and that you will have some fun!

The first monthly “Best Visualization of the Month” theme for August is COVID 19 Dashboards! Please reply, starting now, to this post to share your internal visualizations that you use to track COVID 19. I will send out a survey link on Monday, August 24, 2020 to submit your votes for your favorite visualization for August. I will announce the member favorite visualization on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 and I will also post the next theme on this day.

Let the games begin!

Have fun,

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

LAST CALL to take the UAI short research study survey! Survey will close on Friday, July 31, 2020. 

Please remember, in an effort to better serve you, UAI is conducting a short research study designed to understand your information needs and how we can best meet those needs. As a token of our appreciation, each participant may enter a drawing to win one of four $100 Visa gift cards!

Please click here to take the survey!

The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time and consideration!

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 07-10-2020 09:37
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: In An Effort to Better Serve You, With Continuous Improvement in Mind

Dear UAI Members:

In an effort to better serve you, Utility Analytics Institute is conducting a short research study designed to understand your information needs and how we can best meet those needs. As a token of our appreciation, each participant may enter a drawing to win one of four $100 Visa gift cards!

Please click here to take the survey!

The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time and consideration!

Your member advocate,

     Leslie

 

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Hello @John, ​

Thanks for reaching out! I hope you had a wonderful vacation. You can find the link to the meeting PPT deck and the recording of the meeting in the first paragraph of the post below, i.e. in this sentence: “Get caught up on the meeting here in the Online Data Science Community and be sure to keep the discussion going on the group forum.”

The full URL is as follows: https://connect.utilityanalytics.com/viewdocument/july-21-meeting-customer-modelin?CommunityKey=68485d2d-d4d9-408f-bc7b-69b2074650c3 (scroll down passed the recording to find a PDF version of the PPT deck). 

Thanks again and please let us know if you need anything else.

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2020 09:17
From: John Kinateder
Subject: July Data Science Meeting Now on Demand + What’s Next

Hi Kevin. I was on vacation last week.  Is there a deck you can share from that meeting?

 

Original Message:
Sent: 7/23/2020 5:39:00 PM
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: July Data Science Meeting Now on Demand + What’s Next

Hello Data Science Community Members,

Thank you to everyone who took time to join us this past Tuesday for our discussion around Customer Modeling. For those unable to attend, Jeff Yankley (Director of Customer Intelligence and Analytics at Consumers Energy) led the discussion while focusing on two major Consumers Energy use cases; “Residential Demand Response (DR) Recommender Model” and “Predicting customer risks due to effects of COVID-19.” Throughout the meeting, Jeff honed in on these areas discussing key objectives, challenges, and lessons learned. Get caught up on the meeting here in the Online Data Science Community and be sure to keep the discussion going on the group forum.

I know I sent this link after the meeting but for those who have yet to complete, please take a minute and give us your feedback in our community evaluation form below. Your feedback is essential for the growth of the Data Science Community.

 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2020UAIComm

 

Next month, August 18^th, we will be having a discussion on “Establishing a Career Path for Analysts and Upskilling Your Team ” and have provided a brief description below. More info will be made available closer to the meeting.

 

Join the Data Science Community to hear success stories from UAI member utilities on how they established career paths for analysts/data scientists and how they have helped their teams improve and learn new skills. The session will include information on career development, people/talent development in analytics, and upskilling your team.

 

UAI Awards:

(Nomination deadline now extended through August, 17^th)

 

Honor the very best in the utility analytics profession, recognizing the individuals, teams, and organizations that have achieved and maintained the highest standards of excellence through innovation. For more information and nominations, visit our site here!

 

UAI Research Study:

 

In an effort to better serve you, UAI is conducting a short research study to understand your information needs. As a token of our appreciation, each participant may enter a drawing to win one of four $100 Visa gift cards. The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. Thank you in advance!

 

 

If you have any questions please let us know otherwise we thank you for your continued involvement and look forward to connecting next month.

 

Thanks!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

This is the best and most fun poll, yet! Could be an informative or funny outcome. I look forward to your responses.

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 07-16-2020 19:33
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: The UAI Ask Your Network Poll is Here!

Have you checked out the new BI poll on the homepage of the Ask your Network Community? Click here and get involved in our “Fun Poll” series!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

Original Message:
Sent: 06-26-2020 17:06
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: The UAI Ask Your Network Poll is Here!

Our final poll for June is up on the homepage of the Ask your Network Community. Take a minute and complete this fun exercise!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033

Original Message:
Sent: 06-17-2020 17:43
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: The UAI Ask Your Network Poll is Here!

This week’s “Ask Your Network” poll is here! Please visit the Ask Your Network homepage here to complete.

We look forward to your input.

Thanks!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033

Original Message:
Sent: 05-20-2020 18:30
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: The UAI Ask Your Network Poll is Here!

Hello UAI Members,

We have a brand new poll live on the “Ask your Network” homepage here. We look forward to your input!

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033

Original Message:
Sent: 05-13-2020 18:58
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: The UAI Ask Your Network Poll is Here!

Hello UAI members,

I hope all is well! It’s been a few weeks since the launch of our latest website update and we couldn’t be more pleased with the feedback. For everyone that’s taken time to reach out to us directly, we thank you and encourage others to continue giving us their feedback as well.

One new feature we’re launching in this community is the Ask Your Network Poll which, as you can see on the community homepage here, is a fun/friendly poll to help us stay connected and positive. We’ll be updating each week with a new question so we encourage you visit back periodically and get involved. If you have any questions or are having trouble seeing the poll please reach out to myself and I’ll be happy to help.

Also if you have a fun polling question idea, we’re all ears!

Thanks everyone and we look forward to your input.

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

I want to bring the following question to the top of the list, posted by @Ben 17 days ago… Does anyone have input?

“Has any one thought about Work From Home (WFH) analytics. What data to collect and what analytics to do? First thing that comes to my mind is how do WFH logged in hours compare with pre-Covid logged in time. Same thing for queries, Help Desk calls etc. There is probably a lot of interesting, if not valuable information out there.
​
Thanks again!

     Leslie

——————————
Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 06-26-2020 07:59
From: Ben Ettlinger
Subject: WFH Analytics

Has any one thought about WFH analytics. What data to collect and what analytics to do? First thing that comes tom mind is how do WFH logged in hours compare with pre-Covid logged in time. Same thing for queries, Help Desk calls etc. There is probably a lot of interesting, if not valuable information out there.

——————————
Ben Ettlinger
Emerging Technologies
Enterprise Architecture & Engineering Group
New York Power Authority
White Plains, NY
914 681 6496
——————————