January 2018

REPORT

WORKING OUR ISSUES IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL

At MREA we stay in touch with Minnesota’s Federal legislators and regulators throughout the year. Collaborating with the NRECA,

and being guided by our MREA Resolutions, we work to influence policy in Washington, D.C. to the benefit of our membership. Like at the state level, our effectiveness at working on these policies is heavily influenced by our grassroots coordination with you all – our membership. Facilitating three trips each year of our members to the nation’s capital is a highlight of this grassroots work. Our delegation has been responsive in our work with them through the year. One of the key reasons for that is seeing an engaged group of cooperative leaders take the time to come to their offices to visit with them about our important issues.

During our Grassroots Summit last August, we encouraged our members to develop a Political Action Plan, defining the work the cooperative commits to, as we work together to influence policy in our noisy modern world. While the value of building relationships with political leaders within our state cannot be overemphasized, one should also give consideration to federal level activities when developing these plans.

Our first trip in 2018 is approaching fast, and will find us meeting with members of our delegation and their staff on February 6 and 7. Shari Wormwood, MREA Communications Specialist, has been working on getting us ready - she does a lot of work prior to these trips getting everything lined up. Jim Horan, Director of Government Affairs and Counsel, and I will be hosting this trip, and leading a planning meeting with those available at 6:00 p.m. on February 5 at our hotel. Details and registration information is available under “Events” on our website.

Another important tool in our grassroots work with our Federal delegation is ACRE. Thank you for your ACRE contributions. We’ll be doing something new this trip to help put your contributions to work. We’re teaming up with ACRE to host an event. Representative Emmer plans to join us for an evening of informal conversation on

February 6, for an ACRE event at NRECA’s Hill house, just east of the Capitol.

Representatives Peterson, Emmer, and Walz recently signed onto HR 3596, the “Rightsizing Pension Premiums Act.” This bill reduces expenses associated with providing pension benefits by directing the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) to cease radically overcharging cooperatives for pension insurance premiums. We currently pay the same premiums as all other plans, despite our radically lower risk profile. This issue and others related to pension plans will likely be on our list of issues in February. We will be prioritizing our list of issues and developing talking points in January.

We will also be working on getting a meeting with our state’s new Senator, Tina Smith. It promises to be a fun-filled week!

By Darrick Moe, President and CEO

Senator Tina Smith

2018 Legislative DatesFebruary 5-7 Winter D.C. Legislative VisitApril 8-11 NRECA Legislative ConferenceMay 2 Grassroots Day, St. Paul September 24-26 Fall D.C. Legislative Visit

With the passage of the local democracy initiative in 2017, Minnesota co-ops can now assume the authority of the

Minnesota Public Utilities Commission over implementing Distributed Generation (DG) laws, as found in Minnesota Statute 216B.164. To date 43 Minnesota co-ops have adopted this authority and have implemented rules applying this section of statute to their cooperatives. Within the statute and the rules is the requirement for a dispute resolution process to resolve DG-related issues between member-owners and the cooperative. The rules outline the dispute resolution process and the statutorily required mediation process that will follow if resolution cannot be reached. In addition, MREA sent out a detailed sample dispute resolution policy to the membership last month.

The dispute resolution process and policy will be used at your cooperative as wind/solar developers test the new local democracy

authority. It is important that directors and staff understand the co-op’s role in the dispute resolution process. As a part of the dispute resolution process you have an obligation to ensure that dispute resolution policies are applied consistently with statute and rules.

Please join Dan Carlisle and Paul Johnson of Pemberton Law Firm and myself on March 14 from 9am-11am to dive deep into cooperative dispute resolution process. We will focus on staff process to bring a dispute to the board and the board’s role in fairly resolving any dispute under this section. The sample dispute resolution policy will also be addressed along with the statutorily required mediation process. This deep dive session will be focused more on the expectations of the board of directors in this quasi-judicial role, but is appropriate for staff that will deal directly with these disputes.

DEEP DIVE ON DISPUTE RESOLUTIONAT MREA ANNUAL MEETING by Jim Horan, Director of Government Affairs and Counsel

M REA members have requested education surrounding pension plan design in order to facilitate their own cooperative’s

discussions and decision making. MREA’s approach is to facilitate the sharing of information from experts with multiple viewpoints, with the ultimate objective of helping our membership be more informed as they make these important decisions regarding complex pension benefits.

MREA has invited NRECA’s Peter Baxter and Stephen Sanker, along with benefits consultant NFP Corporate Benefits, Tony Cardinal, for a two-hour panel-style session on March 14 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

We believe a panel approach and discussion will bring educational value and work to help co-op leaders ask good questions regarding co-op employee benefit packages. A moderator will start by having each panelist present some key points. It will be followed by a moderator posing questions to both parties, and encouraging the exploration of questions from attendees. Directors, CEOs, and senior staff involved in pension planning should all find benefit from this session.

DEEP DIVE ON PENSION PLANNINGAT MREA ANNUAL MEETING

2018 MREA ANNUAL MEETING March 14-16, 2018 InterContinental Hotel, St. Paul

Wednesday, March 14 – Co-op Education Options• NRECA BLC 964.1 Communicating the New Energy Landscape• 2-Hour Deep Dive & Director-Focused Sessions: - Deep Dive 1: Dispute Resolution Under Local Democracy 9:30-11:30am - Deep Dive 2: Pension Unpacked 1:00-3:00pm NOTE: If you register for both sessions, lunch is included.

Thursday, March 15 - Annual Meeting Day 2• Gubernatorial Panel moderated by TPT's Mary Lahammer 9-10:30am• Grassroots Visits to Capitol. Schedule in the afternoon,

Buses will run ONLY from 11am-5pm.• MREA is inviting your state legislators to our reception from 5-6:30pm.

Friday, March 16 - Annual Meeting Day 3: • Official Business Meeting 8:30-noon

Click here for detailed agenda and online registration.

As we roll into January (literally, since we probably ate too much over the holiday), we have this sense of rejuvenation. We set

goals for the new year and we look forward to the great things we hope to accomplish. It’s a new day, a new beginning.

Yet, we are surrounded by “beginnings” every day; they are our rules. To many, though, a rule seems like the ending. Some believe that a rule stops them from doing a job they way they would like to do it. It takes them longer when they have to follow the rules. But unfortunately, these believers must have skipped a class or two on safety culture.

A rule is not the end; it is really the beginning. It’s taking the words on paper and applying those words to our job through sound conversations. It’s understanding why the rule exists in the first place. It’s asking how we can follow the rule with the conditions of the job we are trying to do. And then after all of this effort, we land on clear rules we understand, we embrace and we believe.

A rule is not an ending; it is the beginning. For when you believe this statement, you gain the biggest reward – you live for another day, another month, another year . . . and then we start all over again. Happy New [Safe] Year!

IT'S THE BEGINNINGBy Lidia Dilley Jacobson, Director, Safety and Loss Control

Foundation #1A Rule is Not the End;

It is the Beginning.

MREA has long had a communication philosophy to “meet members where they are.” As an association, we are in

the business of relationships. A key aspect of that is keeping Minnesota’s electric co-ops connected, whether that is face-to-face, on-line or on paper.

We are pleased to announce that the Minnesota Rural Electric Association will be taking further steps to enhance the online connectedness across our membership this year. This will fulfill initiatives related to our strategic plan of providing education, expertise, and offerings that uniquely focus on members’ needs, that include objectives to analyze and adapt to changing demographics.

These enhancements will be taking place in two stages:

Stage 1 - Desktop

First, the online member community is being upgraded on January 29. Essentially, the area where you log-in to MREA, is getting a new modern look. You can expect a brand-new community feed where you can message MREA, share your own information across the Minnesota Rural Electric Association network and manage your membership preferences. Connecting with other co-op and vendor members, accessing meeting presentations and updates will be more intuitive than before, thanks to this exciting new enhancement.

Stage 2 - A Mobile App

Coming later in 2018, we will be adding a mobile app, where co-op and vendor members can access all of these social features even more easily on mobile devices.

Of course, many of our members already connect with MREA on traditional forms of social media, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You still can!

The new MREA Member Community and subsequent MREA Mobile App will be specifically for MREA co-ops and vendor members to not only connect with MREA, but to communicate with each other. Think of it as our Mobile Millennial Membership Directory! Stay tuned…

MREA IS "GOING SOCIAL" IN 2018

Phone: 763.424.1020 Fax: 763.424.5820 Website: www.mrea.org

Jim DavisNorth Central Sales Representative

Cell: 715-418-3792Emergency: 952-930-6840

jim.davis@blpole.com | www.blpole.com

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