6.1a ERMUSR 10-10-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The office staff invested much time into analyzing customer data to determine services and rates that the customer would be set up with in ERMU's system. Many multi- department meetings were held to coordinate efforts and improve upon past practice to make the transfer of customers more efficient.Notably,the office and technical services groups developed a plan to have office employees accompany field employees during the meter change out. This change improved the accuracy of data associated with the new customer setup.Following the meter change-outs, office staff worked to manually add all the new customers into our billing system in a small window of time before the next billing cycle. Our managers Jennie Nelson and Mike Tietz did an outstanding job overseeing this coordination of departments. And more importantly,they facilitated these multi-department efforts encouraging and allowing their staff to develop ideas for improving the process. The operational efforts relating to this service territory acquisition date back almost as far back as the agreement approval. The addition of this Waco 2 substation is directly related to this transfer and the transfers yet to come. Also,the electric department has been working on the interconnection and system reintegration to facilitate this transfer for over one year. The actually transfer took little time compared to all of the prep work. Mark Fuchs worked to develop an overall plan for the service territory transfers related to this March 2015 transfer agreement. And this transfer of Areas 3 &4 was another step in the overall plan. Mark and his staff have done an outstanding job planning and implementing these transfers operationally. I am very proud to see the dedication of the ERMU employees towards this major initiative. It's wonderful to see employees that care so much to make sure everything works smoothly and we improve in our processes. It's also wonderful to see ERMU's leadership team plan and implement such a complex project so successfully. And it is rewarding to see the ERMU leadership help develop their employees who have all stepped up to contribute to the great cause. • I held a quarterly meeting with Greg Ridderbusch, Connexus CEO/President, on September 25. We had discussed the service territory transfer, mutual aid, CIP, new technologies, legislative advocacy, and industry trends. As always, our quarterly meetings produce great discussion and bring to light opportunities. • On October 4, I met with Jim Horan, Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA) Director of Government Affairs and Counsel. This meeting was the result of and follow up to a conversation we'd had at the GRE Annual Meeting in June. We talked CIP and coordination of legislative advocacy for the upcoming legislative session. • Gary Connett, Great River Energy's Director of Member Service,had scheduled a meeting with me for October 9 to discuss wholesale power provider transition, technology and industry trends, and future opportunities. This was also a meeting which was the result of conversations during the GRE Annual Meeting and the Connexus Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, Gary had to cancel. We have not rescheduled at this time. Page 2 of 3 91