• Chairman Steve AmRhein called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and Michael Brelage kept minutes of the meeting.
• All members of the board were present. Also present were DCREMC CEO Brett Abplanalp and DCREMC staff members Jennie Meyer, Chris Gallaway and Crystal Greathouse.
• Upon motion by Dale Wernke, seconded by Michael Brelage, and carried, the agenda of the meeting was approved by unanimous vote.
• Larry Feltner, via conference call, presented a new method for calculating our power tracker (Appendix A of our tariffs). This method would smooth out the charges over the course of a year and true-up power costs as a pass through to members. This method reduces the chance of collecting margin on a power cost to our members.
• Jeff Lawrence made a motion to suspend and refund all power factor penalty for all small Commercial members who were moved to the MC or LC rate effective April 1, 2019. Carl Riedeman seconded the motion. Lawrence and Riedeman then amended the motion to read: ”Move to suspend and refund all power factor penalty for all Small Commercial members who were moved to MC or LC and have a power factor under 70% who are willing to spend money to improve their power factor effective April 1 2019.” After discussion on subsidies this would create and the number of members affected, Lawrence motioned to gather data for the five accounts affected. Suzanne Parmer seconded. This motion failed 3-4. The amended motion then also failed on a 3-4 vote.
• Chris Gallaway then gave a presentation on power factor. Gallaway explained the engineering theory behind power factor and why the price signal is used in the electric industry.
• The financial report was given by Meyer and reviewed as presented on Call to Order. Margins are positive despite lower use. Jennie reported that 230 work orders have been closed. The financials were accepted by the board as presented and filed for audit.
• A motion was made by Jason Barnhorst, seconded by Dale Wernke, and carried, approving the consent agenda by unanimous vote.
• Brett Abplanalp gave his CEO report indicating that most of the month was spent on the 2020 budget. He also reported on a cyber-attack that the REMC experienced last month. The attack was quickly neutralized, and a new incident response procedure was created. In the strategic execution report Abplanalp reported that some projects have been reprioritized including the pole contact project. In project updates, Abplanalp talked about the possible front lobby security upgrades and the pole catch up project.
• Hoosier Energy Board update was given by Jason Barnhorst. Barnhorst reported they completed CEO Evaluations and they continue to look at long range resource planning.
• IEC update was given by Steve AmRhein.
• Upon a motion by Carl Riedeman and seconded by Jeff Lawrence and passed, Policy 2-8: Member Access to Corporate Records, was amended as red lined. This allows for landlords to get access to past renters’ aggregate usage data.

Old Business:

• On a motion by Suzanne Parmer seconded by Jeff Lawrence and passed, Monroe Shine’s audit bid was accepted.
• On a motion by Michael Brelage seconded by Dale Wernke and passed, the annual meeting resolution was accepted.

New Business:

• A resolution for 2020 capital credit retirement was presented. The resolution will be reworked and presented to the board.
• The 2020 merit matrix was presented to the board.
• A commercial tariff change was presented to the board. After discussion the board requested that the red line be rewritten to indicate members would not move up to a new rate class until hitting the benchmarks for that class for two consecutive years, however they are able to move down after only one year.
• A motion made by Jason Barnhorst seconded by Suzanne Parmer and passed, changed the retirement adoption agreement to exclude interns.
• A motion made by Jason Barnhorst seconded by Brian Scheidler and passed approved the redlines and removed the following language “or, in the case of lands contracted for or legally controlled by the member, a license” from the bylaws for ROW.
• Director training
  • Suzanne Parmer, Carl Riedeman, Jeff Lawrence, and Brian Scheidler attended a course on Understanding the Electric Business. Jason Barnhorst attended a course on equity management.
• Upon a motion made by Michael Brelage and seconded by Carl Riedeman the meeting was adjourned to Executive Session at 9:30.
• In executive session the following was discussed:
  • Risk Management Quarterly Review
  • The Operations Building
  • EV/Broadband