The Lake Region Electric Cooperative Board of Directors met at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at the cooperative headquarters in Pelican Rapids, MN. The Board of Directors approved the minutes of the previous meeting, expense statements, disbursements, memberships, transfers, refunds, and capital credit retirements to estates. The Board accepted the financial report for the period ending March 31, 2012.
CEO Report: CEO Tim Thompson reported activity during the first quarter of 2012. He also reported on a new load for the cooperative that will provide growth.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with Great River Energy for Information Technology as part of business integration plans. Thompson also previewed the Smart Grid Roundtable event with the Department of Energy, scheduled for May 1, 2012 at Great River Energy.
A presentation was provided by Star Energy that featured the key services of technology leadership, electric engineering, geographic information systems and data integration.
Since the cooperative’s general liability insurance does not cover a network security breach, management recommended obtaining cyber security insurance as soon as practicable. This insurance product would cover the liabilities and costs associated with our obligation to protect personally identifiable information for LREC customers and employees.
2011 Margin Allocation: LREC’s margin allocation for 2011 is $1,642,241 and is comprised of the operating margin of $874,128 and the Cushion of Credit interest income of $768,113.
Audit Report: The audited financial statement for the period ending December 31, 2011 was presented by Dean Rohne of CliftonLarsonAllen. LREC received a clean audit, and he noted that the cooperative has sound internal accounting practices and is in good financial shape.
WAPA Reserve Contract: The board took action to affirm its published resource commitment by signing a Reserve Contract with Western Area Power Administration. Such contract will assist WAPA in resource planning for the next several years.
Stray Voltage Report: The annual recap of stray voltage investigations and isolator inspections was presented.
Bylaw Restatement: A Member Informational Meeting on Restated Bylaws will be held May 22, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. at LREC. The Board of Directors recommends that the proposed restated bylaws be adopted by the membership at the 2012 Annual Meeting. The LREC Annual Meeting will be held June 14, 2012, registration and dinner begins at 5:00 p.m., meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at Life Church, Fergus Falls.
Great River Energy Update: Director Lacey reported on the most recent GRE Board meeting. CEO Thompson reported on the most recent manager’s meeting. Director Ken Hendrickx will serve as LREC’s board member to GRE for a one-year term beginning in June 2012. The GRE Annual Meeting will be held June 6, 2012.
The next Board of Directors meeting will be held on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at Lake Region Electric Cooperative.
The board meeting summary is published prior to board approval, and therefore, is not the official minutes of the meeting.