Telling the People Fund’s Stories

by Denise Weeks, Administrative Assistant

Every Tri-County Electric People Fund grant application has a story behind it – a story of need, hope, or anticipation. Our People Fund board reads between the lines of every application to listen to those stories, and help some of them come true.

Board chairman Richard Palermo enjoys the interaction he sees among the board members.

“Looking back, our directors come from different areas of the HomeWorks service network, have varied work experiences, and have diverse life experiences. This gives us a unique pool of thought when we review grant applications.

“We are always able to rely upon our fellow directors to give us insight when we’re making the difficult grant request determinations,” Palermo says.

MaryEllen Heffron tells me she looks forward to supporting requests for dental work – dental health is important, she says, to both overall health and self-confidence. She also likes to vote yes on grants that help libraries or children.

After a career of helping families through local school systems, Lake Isabella’s Dick Donley says he really doesn’t have a favorite kind of grant.

“I do tend to support the group applications that will benefit more individual families through assistance with utility bills, clothing needs and food supplies. Most of the groups we fund do co-ordinate their benefits with other agencies in the same geographic area,” he explains.

Good examples of what Dick’s talking about: God’s Helping Hands in Remus reaches out to families all over Mecosta County, and St. Mary’s Society of St. Vincent dePaul in Charlotte serves many families in Eaton County.

Saving lives, as well as providing help

Jerry Supina, a retired Ionia County Probate Court judge, and Clinton County’s Peggy Pirhonen both note the People Fund’s support of bone marrow testing programs (in fact, a total of seven different grants have been made to such programs.) As Peggy points out, we know of one match being found, which ultimately saved a life, and Jerry says these grants could result in more lives being changed.

And Patti Ferris, from Mecosta County, still gets a little emotional 19 years after one of the earliest grants made by the People Fund.

“This one still stands out in my mind from when we first started the People Fund, back in 1993,” she says. “There was a young, hard-working family – father, mother, and children – and the father had just been diagnosed with cancer. They could have asked for anything and we would have tried to help because it was such a tragedy they were facing.

“But the only thing they asked for was help with paying for day-care, so the mother could work and take her husband to his appointments. We did give them that help, even though their story eventually had a sad ending.”

Patti adds, “When I came on the Board, this is the kind of help I expected to be able to give. Stories like these are what the People Fund should be about.”

A New Use for Technology

by Missy Robson, Manager of Customer Service

Technology can be a great thing. Washing machines, for instance, save us from (most of) the drudgery of washdays that our grandmothers dealt with.

And smart phones let us keep track of our teenagers, even if we can’t understand all their abbreviations and smiley faces.

Technology also brings some changes to familiar routines. Over the 20-some years I’ve been part of the HomeWorks team, we’ve gone from typewriters to computers at every desk, and soon we’ll have tablets in every line truck. Instead of tons of paper files, we have instant electronic access to each member’s paperwork.

We’ve added some self-serve elements so you have access to your own energy use and payment history, and you can make payments whenever it’s convenient through our eBill system. Or you can sign up for our autopay program, and let your bank take care of the details for you.

So here’s one more change: As of March 1, to comply with payment card industry (PCI) standards, our customer service representatives will no longer be able to handle your debit or credit cards to take your payment.

You can still use your card to pay online through eBill, and we will have a payment station at both of our offices for you to use. Or you can sign up for automatic payments from your checking or savings account (not a debit card), and let your bank take care of the details for you. Our customer service team will be happy to help you work through the details of whichever payment method you use.

Some members have asked why we’re holding to the highest PCI security standards, when so many other businesses don’t.

The difference is that YOU own this cooperative, and you pay the costs of operating the business. If we do not meet these standards and get penalized with a large fine, that cost will be paid by you and your neighbors.

By protecting your credit card security, we’re also looking out for your financial interests. It’s the right thing to do.

To pay by phone:

1. Call 1-877-999-3395; have your account number handy.

2. Follow the prompts you’ll hear.

3. If you choose to pay from your checking or savings account, you’ll be prompted to create a four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) which you’ll need for future payments.

4. Wait until you receive a confirmation number, which tells you that your payment is complete.

Partners in Power

When you cook dinner, or watch the news, or post family photos on Facebook, you don’t really think about what’s behind the power that makes it happen.

You’re not supposed to. If we’re doing our jobs right, your ON switches always work when you want them to.

But that power has to be generated, and then carried across miles of transmission line, before it gets to the substations where we take over with the power lines that stretch to each of your homes.

Wolverine Power Cooperative is our most important partner, taking care of the generation and transmission details for us on your behalf. In fact, their efforts are responsible for about two-thirds of your monthly energy bill.

Power generation and transmission facilities both take a lot of money to build, operate, maintain, and upgrade.

For example, in 2009 Wolverine purchased what’s known as the Sumpter Plant, with four natural gas-fired turbines near Detroit.

Last year, they purchased a share in the Ohio Valley Electric Cooperative’s power plant network located along the Illinois and Ohio rivers.

Both of these investments were made when the economy made the transactions financially beneficial to Wolverine. Still, there are increased costs associated with owning power plants, such as property taxes and depreciation.

Wolverine’s leadership, which includes two HomeWorks board members, felt paying a little more now, when these prime investments were available, would be a good trade-off for locking in a long-term power supply – and long-term price stability.

In addition, a long-term contract with Detroit Edison expired at the end of 2011. If a new contract had been available, it would certainly have included higher rates, reflecting DTE’s own increasing costs.

Michigan’s renewable power portfolio requirements also mean passing along the higher costs of purchasing energy generated by wind, hydro, and other renewable sources.

The bottom line is that your energy costs will go up as of January 1, an increase authorized by your board of directors at the special member meeting on September 26.

If you use 1,000 kilowatthours in a month, you will pay $2.53 more for your electricity (plus about 11 cents more sales tax, at 4%).

For a little over $4.00 a day, you get the value electricity provides, from hot water to TVs and video games, outdoor lights, power tools, and so many other comforts and conveniences.

For us, there is a comfort in knowing Wolverine Power is working on our behalf to make sure that electricity is there 24 hours a day.

Take Time To Be Thankful

Before the year rushes to an end and it’s time to make resolutions for 2012, let’s just stop for a moment. Take a relaxing breath, and think about that planning process.
Here at HomeWorks, we enjoy an attitude of gratitude. A key part of our planning is always to take a look back and realize what we have already accomplished, then take a few moments to be grateful for the many gifts we’ve been given.
Some people have already put the idea of gratitude into words for us. If one of these sayings helps you remember to count your blessings, share it to help someone else do the same:

If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple.
Know what you are doing.
Love what you are doing.
And believe in what you are doing.
Will Rogers

I learned to appreciate and treasure each day,
because you don’t know how many you’re going to be given.
US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
Willie Nelson

If you haven’t all the things you want,
be grateful for the things you don’t have that you wouldn’t want.
Unknown

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.
Unknown

These last two quotes may be the most useful for any of us:

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.
G. B. Stern

So take a moment to share your feelings with those close to you, and make sure they know they are appreciated. A few words can make someone’s day, and won’t cost you anything.
And finally, some words of wisdom from an incredibly successful college basketball coach:

Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
John Wooden

From all of us at HomeWorks Tri-County, best wishes for a happy and safe holiday season!

Co-ops Build a Better World

2012 is the International Year of Cooperatives

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off. — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd U.S. President

There are two big celebrations coming up in 2012. One is our cooperative’s 75th birthday, which we’ve been talking about at district membership meetings.
The other is the International Year of Cooperatives, or IYC, as proclaimed by the United Nations.
It celebrates a different way of doing business, focused on human need, where the members (who own and govern the business) collectively enjoy the benefits instead of all profits going just to shareholders.
IYC has an official slogan, ‘Cooperative enterprises build a better world’, and an official logo, which features seven persons working together to lift and support a cube.
The cube represents the various projects and goals of cooperatives. The figures represent the ‘people factor’ central to the cooperative model. They also represent the seven cooperative principles: voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training, and information, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for community.
As illustrated by the logo, these seven principles work together to allow cooperative members to achieve the goals and desires that they would not have been able to attain through individual efforts.
Cooperatives are a major economic force in developed countries and a powerful business model in developing ones. Worldwide, over 800 million people are members of cooperatives. The economic activity of the largest 300 cooperatives in the world equals the 10th largest national economy.
Here in the U.S., more than 29,000 cooperatives operate in every sector of the economy; Americans hold over 350 million co-op memberships. U.S. cooperatives generate 2 million jobs and make a substantial contribution to the U.S. economy with annual sales of $652 billion, possessing assets of $3 trillion.
Cooperatives operate across all sectors of the US economy and include agriculture, food distribution and retailing, childcare, credit unions, purchasing, worker-owned, housing, health care, energy and telecommunications cooperatives.
Of course, not everyone pays attention to the cooperative nature of their electric service, but we sure appreciate those who do. Hundreds of members come out every year to the district membership meetings to learn more about their cooperative, to vote in elections and take part in the democratic process that keeps us strong.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating both of these big events in 2012.

Let us know what you’re thinking... We're listening to you

Listening is important in any relationship you value. At HomeWorks Tri-County, since we value each of the cooperative’s member-owners, we find many different ways to listen to what you are saying.
Whether it’s a member of the board of directors at the local coffee shop, a customer service representative taking your call, or a lineman meeting you to discuss building a new electric service, we take in your opinions and suggestions. When it’s possible – and when it benefits the co-op’s membership as a whole – we take action on the ideas we gather.
Sometimes people think we’re not listening if we don’t change our policy or procedure as soon as they let us know about their disagreement. But listening is more than just reacting to one person. It’s taking the information and considering it carefully, with the needs of the entire cooperative in mind.
Here’s a partial list of ways we actively listen to you, our membership. Remember, though, listening starts with you speaking up in some way.
• Daily contacts via telephone, front counters, email, or field visits.
• Email addresses and phone numbers for each board member are posted to the left of this column, and on our website at homeworks.org
• There’s a “Contact Us” link on homeworks.org that lists all of our phone numbers and addresses, with maps to our offices, and a direct email link.
• We’re also posting on Facebook regularly (Facebook.com/homeworks.org)
• We send hundreds of “How Did We Do?” survey cards each month to follow up on a contact we had with you. Any comments you write, whether compliments or complaints, are reviewed by the board each month, with a report on any additional action taken.
• Open member meetings are held, usually quarterly, before a regular board meeting. Notice of these meetings is published in Country Lines (see page 8) and on our website, as are any actions taken at the meetings.
• We host two geothermal seminars a year, one at each office. These are open to all members, at no charge, and are publicized in Country Lines. In fact, we have one coming up on October 11 at Blanchard.
• Our annual district membership meetings come out to your area in May. Not only are the dates listed in Country Lines, we mail every member a personal invitation to attend and talk to us.
• We have several other projects that affect smaller numbers, from our youth programs to groups of members asked to review a specific process. The most recent example is a group of members who helped us revise our bill format, then reviewed it again once we’d used it a few months.
• We work with our national association to perform a statistically valid member satisfaction every two years. This data is shared with the board, all employees, and with members via Country Lines, and is used in our strategic and tactical planning.
However you choose to communicate with us, your participation in the conversation is important to keep your cooperative strong. We appreciate your comments and your support.

The price of power supply ...

... making sure it is both reliable AND affordable

We just concluded our annual district meetings, at which 682 members registered. We estimate over 1,300 people took time to be part of this annual tradition that is so very important to your cooperative.
Thank you! Your support, your comments whether they’re compliments or not, and your votes help keep HomeWorks Tri-County strong as we work to bring you reliable, affordable electric power.
One of our key messages this year was about the work our power supplier, Wolverine Power Cooperative, has done to make sure you have a reliable source of energy flowing over our reliable system of electric wires.
Wolverine’s plan is to not have all of its power supply eggs in one basket – they want power from a variety of fuels, from more than one generating company, from more than one location. Without that diversity, Wolverine could get caught in a bad position if one fuel’s price goes way up, or one generating plant goes out of service for upgrades.
In 2010, Wolverine purchased two power plant assets. One was a natural-gas fired peaking plant near Detroit’s airport. This will be used during times of high demand, like on hot summer afternoons when everyone has air conditioners cranked up.
The other was an ownership share in two coal-fired plants along the Ohio River in southern Ohio and Indiana – both plants have already been upgraded to meet all current environmental regulations, so they are very clean-burning coal plants. This purchase provides about 150 MW of baseload generation, the kind we need 24 hours a day.
With both plants, Wolverine was able to take advantage of a double economic whammy – a buyer’s market and low financing costs, which will keep your energy costs down long-term.
But there were up-front costs to these purchases that will mean a rate increase on July 1 - $3.65 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours - and another increase on January 1, when we start taking power from the Ohio River plants.
We already knew there would be an increase on January 1 as the current long-term power contract ended December 31. Wolverine chose to make the move to owning versus renting a little sooner, or as they put, “a little short-term pain in exchange for a long-term gain.”
We are fortunate to have partners like Wolverine. They are committed to our same goal of bringing you reliable, affordable electric power, and they show that commitment through their long-term work plans and management of power supply options.