Welcome to Julie's Toolbox Talks
0:03
podcast, your go-to resource for safe
0:06
digging and protecting Illinois's
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underground infrastructure. Each
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episode, we'll share practical tips,
0:13
real stories, and expert insights to
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help you dig smart, stay safe, and keep
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your projects on solid ground. Brought
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to you by Julie Illinois Facility
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Notification Center.
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Hello and welcome to Julie's Toolbox
0:28
Talks podcast. I'm your host Jill
0:30
Sailor. In this episode, we're going to
0:33
dig into something really valuable.
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Julie's Essentials online courses. These
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courses are designed to make it easy to
0:40
understand the ins and outs of
0:42
everything Julie. Offering great
0:44
support, practical knowledge, and clear
0:46
guidance for anyone involved in safe
0:48
digging and underground infrastructure.
0:51
But before we dig in, let me introduce
0:53
my co-host, Brian McKenzie. Brian has
0:56
worked in the damage prevention industry
0:58
for over 25 years. He started his career
1:01
locating and marking underground
1:02
infrastructure for facility owners
1:04
across Illinois. And since joining Julie
1:07
in 2012, he has shared his deep
1:09
knowledge of passion for damage
1:10
prevention with stakeholders throughout
1:12
central Illinois. And a fun fact, he's
1:15
not only a certified storm spotter, but
1:18
he's also a professional photographer
1:20
and a very good one at that. Welcome,
1:22
Brian.
1:23
Thank you. Thank you for having me
1:24
today.
1:25
Great. And Brian, let's welcome our
1:27
special guest, Amy Chamara. Amy is
1:30
Julie's director of education and
1:32
strategic projects. She's a not
1:34
for-profit professional with over 25
1:36
years of experience leading strategic
1:38
initiatives, including more than 18
1:40
years in Illinois's underground safety
1:43
industry. She's also a certified project
1:45
management professional and has a
1:47
passion for adult learning, program
1:49
development, and stakeholder
1:51
collaboration. Amy, thank you so much
1:53
for joining us today.
1:55
Thanks, Jill.
1:56
We're excited to get started. So, I'm
1:58
going to hand it off to my co-host,
2:00
Brian, and we'll kind of dig in here.
2:03
Good morning everybody. Welcome. Thank
2:04
you for coming. Thank you for that
2:05
fantastic interview, Joel. It's great to
2:07
be here with you today. I'm excited
2:09
because I don't know how many of you on
2:11
the other end listening today get to
2:12
interview their boss, but I get to
2:14
today. So, I am super super excited
2:16
about that. So, welcome everybody.
2:19
So, Amy, let's jump right in here. I'm
2:20
going to ask you the first question
2:22
here. What inspired the creation of the
2:24
Julie Essential Courses and why were
2:25
they seen as important for our
2:27
audiences?
2:29
It's a great question, Brian. So, as
2:31
many of you may know, Julie was founded
2:33
just over 50 years ago. Last year, we
2:35
celebrated our 50th anniversary. And one
2:38
of the mission at Julie is that we will
2:41
educate people about safe digging and
2:43
damage prevention. And we've been doing
2:45
that through in-person training since,
2:48
you know, we started, but we learned
2:50
that people learn differently. Sometimes
2:53
people can't attend an in-person
2:54
training. Sometimes they want to learn
2:56
when they have downtime on the job site.
2:59
So our board of directors gave us the
3:01
ability to purchase a learning
3:03
management system. We have our own
3:04
proprietary learning management system
3:06
and to develop courses that people could
3:08
take that they could do on their own
3:11
time whenever they wanted to do them. It
3:13
also looked at how we can look at
3:14
diverse audiences. So you have some
3:16
people who learn by doing. So we have
3:18
some interactive activities in our
3:20
courses, some people learn by reading.
3:22
So there's words embedded within our
3:24
courses. Some people learn just simply
3:26
by listening to people talk. and then
3:28
others learn visually. So we have lots
3:30
of graphics and inter interactive
3:32
elements and images within our courses.
3:35
So that's kind of how all our courses
3:36
got started is that we wanted to meet
3:38
the demand that was out there for our
3:40
different stakeholders.
3:42
That's great.
3:43
I'm the I'm the learn by everything
3:45
Brian. I need all of those things to be
3:47
able to do it.
3:49
Absolutely. Yeah. I'm a visual learner,
3:51
too. So I I completely uh I appreciate
3:54
that 100%. You got something in there
3:56
for everybody. Regardless of how you
3:58
learn, you will be able to take these
4:00
courses. And the good part is you can go
4:01
back and forth as many times as you
4:03
want.
4:03
I love that.
4:05
So, let me ask you, who's going to
4:06
benefit most from these courses? Who do
4:08
you think like the the different groups
4:10
that we have? We have homeowners, we
4:11
have uh Julie members, we have
4:14
professional excavators out there. Who
4:15
do you think it's going to help the
4:16
most?
4:17
Sure. So, these courses are for
4:18
everyone. Um, mostly aimed at the
4:21
professionals. the professional
4:22
excavator, our professional member
4:25
utility owners and operators, locators
4:28
who work for our member utilities, uh
4:30
members of various associations, but a
4:32
homeowner also could take this course if
4:34
they're just wanting to learn a little
4:35
bit more about safe digging practices.
4:38
And they're not for just the person
4:39
starting out in the industry. So, it
4:41
could be someone who's been there for
4:44
six months. It could be someone who has
4:46
been there for 20 years. It could be the
4:48
CEO of the company. These courses are
4:50
really meant to help everybody
4:51
understand what it's like to dig in
4:53
Illinois and what the best practices
4:55
are.
4:56
That's awesome. I mean, it's uh as you
4:59
well know, we like to reach out to the
5:02
excavator who's not in the state. So,
5:06
some of the um I'm hearing you talk
5:08
about the busy excavator out there. What
5:11
are the features that really make this
5:13
easy to use or accessible for people
5:15
that are on they're busy people like
5:17
that that just don't have the time?
5:18
Sure. So the good thing about these
5:20
courses are they can be used on your
5:23
mobile phone, on a tablet, on your
5:26
computer, on the go. Basically, if you
5:28
have an internet connection, you can
5:30
take these courses and you don't have to
5:31
take them all at once. So our excavator
5:34
course might be 45 minutes, but you
5:37
don't have to sit there for 45 minutes.
5:39
You can take a segment here, stop, it
5:41
remembers where you're at, comes right
5:43
back to it. Um, it could be a course
5:46
that you do on your phone. One of our
5:48
courses is for out ofstate excavators.
5:50
So if you work in another state like
5:53
Iowa, Indiana, one of our neighboring
5:55
states, and you know about safe digging,
5:57
but you don't really know how the laws
5:58
apply here in Illinois, we have a quick
6:00
30inut course. It's easy to take on your
6:03
phone. You can learn what's different
6:05
here versus the state that you're
6:06
working in. So it really is adaptable.
6:09
Uh we see a lot of people using it to
6:11
onboard some of their new employees to
6:13
give them kind of a taste of what's out
6:14
there. We also see that um it's being
6:19
used in downtime. So in Illinois, it's
6:22
not always the greatest weather,
6:23
especially in those off months in the
6:25
winter. So when it's snow on the ground
6:27
and you can't send a crew out, have them
6:30
take this course. It just gets them
6:31
ready for when dig season does start.
6:34
Absolutely. It's uh can't stress that
6:36
enough. Looking forward, how do you see
6:40
the essentials evolving or expanding to
6:42
continue support of safe excavation?
6:44
Sure. So, we started out we started out
6:47
we were going to do a course for
6:49
excavators, a course for members or
6:51
member utility companies, and then a
6:53
course for the locators who locate for
6:55
them. Not teaching them how to locate,
6:57
but some of the basic terminology that
6:59
may be used, some of the basic
7:01
information and how locators can work
7:03
with the Julie system. So, we had kind
7:05
of three various courses and then we
7:07
added in the out ofstate excavator.
7:10
Since then, it's kind of just blown up
7:11
and blossomed. Uh we've seen um courses
7:15
now we have courses on the new law. We
7:17
have courses on the positive response
7:19
system that's coming. We have a course
7:21
we're working on for joint meets. And
7:22
what we found is instead of having long
7:24
courses that we're dividing things up
7:26
into these micro modules. So they could
7:28
be anywhere from 4 minutes to 10
7:30
minutes. Um people's attention spans
7:32
aren't very long. We're used to the
7:34
world with Tik Tok videos and reals and
7:37
we want quick and easy and easy to
7:39
understand. So we're breaking things up
7:40
into that. Uh, we're also developing
7:43
these things called quick digs that are
7:45
going to be these refresher courses
7:46
where you can take those and maybe
7:49
you've taken the longer course and it's
7:51
been a while and you're like, "What did
7:52
what did they say about pre-marking? How
7:54
do I pre-mark my job site?" You can take
7:57
them on your phone. They're meant to be
7:58
done on your phone. You tap your screen.
8:00
It gives you some basic knowledge.
8:02
You're like, "Ah, that's what they were
8:03
talking about." So, we're looking at
8:05
that. Um, we're also looking that we
8:07
have uh Spanish speaking crews that work
8:09
within Illinois. So, we're looking at
8:11
converting our courses into uh Spanish
8:14
courses for next year. So, kind of
8:16
looking at what's out there. We do a
8:18
needs assessment every year to see what
8:20
are the needs for the topics, what are
8:22
the needs within our industry, what are
8:24
people saying, what do they like about
8:26
our courses, what's missing, and we kind
8:28
of evaluate where we need to go from
8:29
there.
8:31
That's fantastic. That's
8:32
I had a question on that, too. How so?
8:34
How can like how can people give
8:36
feedback if there's is there a way for
8:38
them to give feedback?
8:40
Sure. So, all of our courses, which I
8:41
didn't mention, you can find at julie
8:43
essentials.com, or you can go to our
8:45
website, juliebeforyoudig.com, and click
8:48
on the julie essentials logo to get to
8:50
our courses. At the end of each course,
8:53
uh there is a survey that asks some
8:55
basic questions and there's where you
8:56
can give some feedback. Um or if there's
8:59
something you're looking for and you're
9:00
not finding, we encourage you to reach
9:02
out to either me, find my information on
9:04
the Julie website, or one of our damage
9:06
prevention managers. Brian's one of four
9:08
in the state. and they're always happy
9:10
to answer questions.
9:12
Oh, that's perfect. Yeah, because I love
9:13
that you guys are starting to break them
9:15
down into those micro type of learnings
9:18
because it is, you're right, like
9:19
sometimes you have done a piece of
9:21
learning and then you're like, I just
9:22
can't remember. Like I use it a lot when
9:25
I'm like trying to fix something in my
9:26
house, right? Like I I watch the whole
9:28
video and then like how do I get back to
9:29
that quick spot where I need something
9:31
to be able to get that answer? So, I
9:33
love that you're doing that and getting
9:34
the feedback. That's awesome.
9:36
Thanks.
9:36
100%. You know, and I'm reminded of a
9:39
question I'd love to be able to ask you
9:41
now that we have a captive audience and
9:42
I have you in front of me here because
9:45
we get there are a lot of
9:46
misunderstandings about Julie. Are there
9:48
anything in here in this course that
9:51
could potentially help clear up those
9:53
type of misconceptions about Julie?
9:55
Sure. There's a couple things. One of
9:57
the things we we hear a lot is, "Oh,
9:59
Julie Julie was late getting out to to
10:01
mark my utilities." Um, Julie's not a
10:04
locating service. We do not own,
10:06
operate, or mark any utilities. Um, we
10:09
are actually a communication hub. So,
10:11
anyone who's excavating, whether it's a
10:13
professional or a homeowner who contacts
10:15
Julie either online or calls into our
10:18
call center, we take that information
10:20
and we relay it to the utilities that
10:22
are within their dig area. Then it's up
10:24
to those utilities to either send
10:26
someone from their staff or one of their
10:27
contract locators out to Mark. So, we
10:30
try to clear up that misconception as
10:33
often as we can. Julie does not locate,
10:35
we let others know that you're locating.
10:38
Rather than you having to call the gas
10:39
company, the electric company, the phone
10:41
company to let them know about your
10:42
plans, you contact us and then we
10:44
contact them on your behalf. Um, one of
10:47
the other things I think that's
10:48
important to know is that if you don't
10:50
follow safe digging practices and follow
10:52
the law here in Illinois, um, you could
10:54
be penalized. But Julie is not in the
10:57
enforcement business. We're here to
10:58
educate. We're here to to be the
11:00
communication hub. We're here to help
11:02
bridge that gap between the excavator
11:04
and our utilities, but we're not the
11:06
enforcement body. That is through the
11:08
Illinois Commerce Commission who
11:10
actually, you know, takes complaints of
11:12
people who are not, you know, doing best
11:14
practices or following the law and they
11:16
are the ones who would enforce the law.
11:18
Sure. Yep.
11:19
You know, you always tell the best
11:21
stories and I know we're getting real
11:22
close to time here and the last question
11:24
I I say for you because you again you
11:26
tell the most fantastic stories, but do
11:29
you have a favorite story or a moment uh
11:31
from developer teaching these courses
11:33
that show the impact that you're making?
11:35
You know, I do. There's there's a couple
11:37
of them. One, when we first started out
11:40
uh having the courses, we really reached
11:42
out and recruited different or
11:44
excavation companies or associations to
11:46
take the course. We had a couple of
11:48
different uh companies who took the
11:50
courses and everyone in their company
11:53
took the course, the entire
11:55
organization. So Brian was with me and
11:58
our PR manager and we took sandwiches or
12:02
donuts and coffee and and lots of Julie
12:04
fun things like hats and
12:06
and water bottles and we went to their
12:08
to their offices and we celebrated them
12:11
and that was really a lot of fun. Um, we
12:13
haven't done that recently, but if
12:15
you're watching and listening to this
12:17
and you are interested in having your
12:19
entire company take that and let us
12:21
know, we'd love to come out and
12:22
celebrate you. One of the other stories
12:24
that was really interesting is we did
12:28
on-site video and and actual footage for
12:31
our Julie Essentials for Locators. Brian
12:34
was with us on that that video shoot. It
12:36
lasted three or four days. We had an
12:38
entire company out. We used GoPros, we
12:40
used drones, we used cameras, we used
12:43
360 cameras. It was a lot of fun and um
12:47
some really interesting stories. We were
12:49
on job sites with hard hats and steel
12:52
towed boots and and out there, you know,
12:54
all our safety gear filming. Um Brian
12:57
pretended to be a locator and he has
13:00
been one in real life, but also played
13:02
one on our course for TV um out doing
13:05
that with drones above him shooting
13:07
that. But one of the most exciting parts
13:09
or scary parts of that story is that we
13:12
had a locator from the uh city of Juliet
13:15
where our offices are based here and she
13:17
was going to show us how to hook up to a
13:19
fire hydrant and locate uh water.
13:22
Mhm.
13:22
On a street and so the crew decided to
13:26
put the GoPro inside the fire hydrant,
13:29
had it attached to it. She hooked up,
13:32
she did her thing. It was great footage.
13:34
just awesome showing her reaching in and
13:36
actually doing it. Great footage. They
13:38
went to grab the camera and it slipped
13:41
and we almost almost lost that camera.
13:44
So, the footage you're seeing and the
13:45
ways we get that are are quite
13:47
interesting when you see some of that
13:49
know that is real life. Lots of fun
13:52
things happen with that.
13:54
We definitely do our own stunts here,
13:55
don't we?
13:56
We do. We're we're our own stunt men,
13:58
our own cameramen. It's it's it's a lot
14:01
of fun.
14:02
It sure is.
14:03
Um, one of the things I'd like to just
14:05
throw in and add is, you know, come
14:07
check out the courses. Um, one of the
14:09
things we do offer is CEUs. So, if
14:12
you're a water or wastewater operator
14:14
here in Illinois, we are certified that
14:16
you can get credit towards your
14:17
reertification. Um, other certifications
14:21
can use those for, you know,
14:22
professional development hours. If
14:24
there's an organization or association
14:27
where you would like it to be certified
14:28
for hours and it's not, reach out. We'd
14:31
be happy to do that. Um, like I said, we
14:34
have seven CU courses currently, one in
14:37
production, which is the joint meet. Um,
14:40
we have two for positive response, which
14:42
is a a system that will be coming
14:44
mandatory and into law in 2026 here in
14:48
Illinois. Um, so members or excavators
14:50
can learn how to use that. and lots of
14:53
courses in the work and things we're
14:55
looking at doing um like planning and
14:58
design and some how to do pre-marking
15:01
and our quick dig courses will be coming
15:03
out shortly. If you are an excavator and
15:06
you do not receive our e newsletters
15:09
once a month by email, sign up so you
15:12
can find out when our new courses are
15:13
coming. If you are a member utility
15:16
company and you're not hearing about the
15:18
courses, let us know. we can put you in
15:20
touch with your member coordinator who
15:22
can make sure that you're getting that
15:23
information as well. Um, and if you are
15:26
like, hey, I really loved this course,
15:29
but I'd love to have somebody come out
15:31
and teach that to an entire group of 20
15:34
or 30 people at my organization.
15:37
We can do that, too. Brian or one of our
15:39
other three damage prevention managers
15:40
are happy to come out. We do all of this
15:43
for free. So, our courses are all free.
15:46
Um they're anywhere from you know 15 20
15:49
minute micro courses on the law to a 30
15:52
45 minute course for excavators. Um and
15:56
we keep updating them. So they're always
15:58
updated to the most current law. And if
16:01
things change or once the course we feel
16:03
has run its its course is no pun
16:06
intended there um then we will revise it
16:09
and and add things in.
16:12
Excellent.
16:13
Sounds exciting.
16:14
Yeah. Amy, thank you so much for joining
16:16
us. We really appreciate it.
16:18
And we also appreciate all of the
16:20
incredible work that you're doing to
16:21
expand education and awareness. Brian,
16:24
always great seeing you as the co-host.
16:26
Look forward to next time.
16:28
Absolutely.
16:29
And to our listeners, thank you for
16:30
tuning in to this episode of Julie's
16:32
Toolbox Talks podcast. If you'd like to
16:35
learn more about Julie's Essentials
16:37
courses, make sure you check them out at
16:39
their website, juliebeforyoudig.com.
16:42
And you can see how those resources can
16:44
support you, whether you're a homeowner,
16:46
a contractor, or a utility professional.
16:49
So, until next time, stay safe and
16:52
remember, safe digging is in your hands.
16:54
Contact Julie before you dig. Thanks
16:57
all.
