Putting It All Out There

Throughout my career in this industry I have heard many theories from consumers about unscrupulous things utilities might be doing with any margin they may make from the sale of energy. Unfortunately, for the honest organizations, some of these have proven true. The troubles at Enron a few years back cast a long shadow over the entire energy industry that I still hear consumers discuss today. Enron was not a distribution company but anything associated with energy took lumps over what that organization did.
 
So, with this in mind, let’s talk about transparency. Transparency in the business world generally means to put information that can be legally shared out to the public about the organization in an honest and open fashion. In our case, in a fashion that allows our members to see what is happening with their cooperative.
 
Over the past couple of months I have had to deliver some less than popular news in this article. I knew while I was writing on the topics that no one was going to call me up and thank me. However, I feel it is my obligation to the members / owners of this cooperative to make sure you know what is going on with the organization and how it will impact you. I will always refuse to pick and choose messages that only paint the rosy picture. The fact is the world, and this industry, isn’t always rosy. When I eventually leave Tipmont someday I understand people will critique my performance. Some will say I did well, others won’t agree. But the one thing I want everyone to be able to say is that information, good or bad, that could be shared was shared in an organized, honest, and open fashion.
 
To this end, you may have noticed we have a new web site format (www.tipmont.org). This was a change we made recently and I have tasked our Manager of Marketing and Communications to fill this page with information about the organization. As we move forward look for more content to be added. Along with this, the entire staff has been working to develop “organizational health metrics.” These are measures that a person could glance at and get a high level snapshot of how healthy an organization is. They include measurements of performance in the areas of financial strength, member satisfaction, service reliability, safety, and at some point in the future, employee satisfaction. We are getting close to having these hashed out and I hope they will show up on the web site in the first quarter of 2010.
 
In the area of billing, you will notice a bill format change beginning with the billing statements going out on January 22. In the portion of your bill that shows your monthly charges you have seen them as a lumped sum for many years. Those charges will now be broken out in a “full disclosure” format so you can see all the individual charges that make up your total bill. Not only is this a matter of transparency, it is also a good educational tool that will help our members begin to understand the various components of an electric bill. You will be able to see where you are incurring costs each month as it pertains to the type of service you have.
 
Tipmont had been blessed for many years to have the leadership of a man with great integrity in Ken Ritchey. I want to continue to build on what Ken promoted. These are first steps. As an organization, we are working to make it a priority to educate and inform our members. Personally, I try to make it a point to always listen very carefully to the pulse of our members. I have heard many thoughts and ideas from members in my first few months in this seat. Some have been good and will certainly be considered and factored into future plans. Some others….well, even Larry Bird didn’t make every shot he took!
 
I will continue to hold member meetings and try to reply directly to as many emails as I can. If you have concerns feel free to drop me, or any member of our staff, a line. We may not always have an immediate answer but we do want to know what is on your mind!