As Board President, I’d like to share that recently your Board of Directors held their annual retreat at the Cooperative headquarters in which we did a deep dive to get a better understanding about the State of the Cooperative as we move forward to yet another new year.
It was rewarding to oversee the great exchange of ideas in the discussions we had. The Directors have found the annual day-long retreat is beneficial to making sure the direction of the cooperative is working well.
Management and staff do an excellent job of managing the Cooperative’s day-to-day operations and Susannah Jensen, our Chief Financial Officer, is very knowledgeable about the finances of the Cooperative. We have a lot of confidence in our employees.
Reflecting on our past with an eye toward the future, we spent a great amount of time reviewing budget needs for 2024 and beyond. The past few years have challenged all of us with tremendous increased costs of goods and services. Your Cooperative has felt the pressure.
Our most recent November/December newsletter has a CEO report from Bruce revealing how the cost of necessary power equipment like transformers has doubled in just three years’ time. Across the board, expenses have increased for the Cooperative including equipment and vehicles, labor and benefits, insurance, and professional services, so we’re experiencing a shortfall in revenues to match these increased costs.
At the November board meeting, we approved the budget proposal we had carefully reviewed at the retreat.
I commend staff for seeing the writing on the wall having been asked to do their part in preparing a pared-down bare-bones budget that would provide the basic equipment and tools needed to maintain the quality of service we’ve all come to expect.
While we are still doing our due diligence, we know that some kind of rate increase will be necessary next year. We approved the 2024 operating budget with the understanding that there will be associated rate adjustments necessary sometime next year to meet those needs.
We understand that these are economically challenging times for our members, therefore, we will do everything we can to minimize the rate adjustment and spread the cost fairly among all those we serve. Staff is currently working together as a team to creatively come up with a plan that will be equitable.
We will be sure to provide you with additional information as it is available. In the meantime, I want to thank all our members for their support.
Sincerely,
Mark Ronnei,
Board President