The meeting was call to order by Chairman Steve AmRhein and Brian Scheidler kept the minutes of the meeting. All board members were present. Also present was CEO Brett Abplanalp and employees Matt Raver, Crystal Greathouse, Jeanne Loechle, and Sam Ruf.
Dale Wernke moved to approve the agenda. Steve Nobbe seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
SAFETY MINUTE AND COOL MOMENT
Abplanalp presented the safety minute. He covered the guidelines around planting trees away from power lines. For the cool moment, Brett Abplanalp congratulated three of our linemen (Collin Crabtree, Larry Downey and Joe Vanderbur) who participated in the lineman rodeo. The rodeo event showcases the skills and safety training of electric cooperative line workers in a competitive environment.
APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES
Jason Barnhorst moved to approve the minutes from the July 26 board meeting. Suzanne Parmer seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
CEO UPDATE
Brett Abplanalp updated the board on strategic projects:
- Broadband feasibility team update
- Safety rewards and recognition program
- Capital credits of deceased members’ project
- Updated solar information on our website
Abplanalp then covered July’s company metrics as prepared on CTO. July’s median temperature was 2.6% cooler than our five-year average. Wholesale purchased energy was down 2.1% compared to our five-year average with demand 1.5% lower than our five-year average. Year to date energy sales are -3.20% under budget.
There was no major storm for the month of July. Lost consumer hours were 3,972 compared to our five-year average of 4,237. The number of outages was 142 compared to our five-year average of 73.
QUARTERLY RISK MANAGEMENT REPORT OUT Q2
Brett Abplanalp reported the updates to the risk register as prepared on Call to Order. Leadership met and reevaluated current identified risks. They then identified and evaluated new risk by probability and impact of risk. They evaluated the risk tolerance, creating mitigation and/or avoidance plans and evaluating a residual risk after implementing a mitigation. Management believes we have mitigations in place to operate at an acceptable risk level.
FINANCIAL UPDATE
Matt Raver reported on July financials as prepared on CTO. Net utility plant increased $589,646 and our current equity is 61.26%. Revenues are over YTD budget and power costs are over resulting in a gross margin under budget of $664,118 YTD. Controllable expenses are under budget by $200,600. The cash flow statement shows a beginning balance of $496,873 and we ended the current month with a net increase in cash of $177,920 resulting in an ending cash balance of $674,793.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PLAN
Matt Raver presented to the board recommendations for the plan that included capital credit retirement, yearly capital spend, borrowing philosophy and equity targets. Management will create policy recommendations for the board’s consideration in September.
CAPITAL CREDIT PROJECT GUIDANCE
Matt Raver reviewed different options to retire capital credits for deceased members. The board discussed and asked to see scenarios at high discount rate (lower payout) vs. low discount rate (higher payout).
POLICY/BYLAWS REVIEW AND REPORT OUT
Changes to the bylaws and Policy 3-03: Statement of Functions of Nominating Committee was discussed. These changes include when petitions are due because of timing to get information on the ballot and published to membership, and nominating committee duties. The board decided to table changes until September’s meeting.
Changes to Policy 10-08: Employee Education was discussed.
Dale Wernke moved to approve proposed changes to Policy 10-08. Suzanne Parmer seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Policy 1-14: Conflict of Interest was reviewed, and no changes were made.
BOARD MEMBERS DISTRICTS REQUIRED
Bylaw changes were discussed to drop the number of board members and districts from eight to seven. This was recommended by a director based on the following: cost savings, allow for an odd number so a tie does not exist and to be more in line with industry standards for the number of members vs. districts/directors. Jason Barnhorst moved to adopt the changes to the bylaws that would reduce the number of directors/districts from eight (8) to seven (7) once a director position vacated as redlined by legal. Dale Wernke seconded the motion. The motion passed, 6-2 vote.
UPDATE TO MISSION STATEMENT
Brett Abplanalp recommended to the board that the mission statement be updated to include the word “safe.”
Suzanne Parmer moved to approve the proposed change to the mission statement. Carl Riedeman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS
Jason Barnhorst gave an update on work going on at Hoosier Energy. He reviewed the output of the board forum event with Hoosier Energy members.
Steve AmRhein gave an update on IEC’s board. This included the director’s retreat being offered in 2024 for weekend training.
DIRECTOR TRAINING/CONFERENCE REPORT OUT
The board discussed takeaways from courses specific directors took over the past month.
The chairman, Steve AmRhein, discussed the resolution from the January 2022 board meeting that included board culture and governance. The decision was to table the topic until next month.
Suzanne Parmer moved to adjourn the meeting. Carl Riedeman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
The board then went into executive session.
The board came out of executive session and into general session at 8:40 p.m.
Jason Barnhorst moved to approve the additional budget dollars of $30,000 for tree-trimming in 2023. Dale Wernke seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
The board went back into executive session at 8:41 p.m.
