ST RONGER TO GETHER ST RONGER TO GE TH ER

Sara Otte Coleman Director, Tourism Division

North Dakota

Department of Commerce

Bismarck, N.D.

DRN ReadiTech is a telecommunications cooperative that takes great pride in how we take care of all our members and customers. The COVID-19 pandemic provides challenges relative to DRN ReadiTech business strategies but more in the way we are interacting with members/customers.

Our broadband and landline phone service has been deemed an essential service, so we are committed to keeping our 100% fiber network up and running. The strategy of helping all members/customers remains the same with a few added precautionary measures. Our leadership team has established a pandemic response plan and it evolves daily and relates to CDC recommendations. We have closed all our offices to the public, all employees except for a few identified essential employees are working from home and solving any customer issues remotely, service and install technicians are home garaging and only dispatched to a location in emergency outage situations.

Typically, cooperatives are the “workhorses” of any given industry and DRN ReadiTech is no exception, our employees are built to adapt and overcome situations such as COVID-19 and they are all working through the challenges exceptionally.

DRN ReadiTech’s members have expressed their gratitude over the past few weeks daily for the work being done to keep the critical communications infrastructure up and working without a hitch or a glitch.

Kent Schimke General Manager and CEO

DRN ReadiTech Ellendale, N.D.

We’re all experiencing disruptions to the typical way we’ve conducted business. Our approach to working with clients has remained unchanged–listen first, empathize, and provide innovative solutions.

However, how we engage our clients has evolved beyond the “usual suspects” like video conferencing. We’re taking tools that were primarily internal resources and are now training clients to use them to facilitate better collaboration with our project teams, knowing we’re all dealing with fluid schedules and limited to no in-person interaction. One example is Bluebeam Revu, a PDF markup and editing software that was specifically designed for the architecture/engineering industry, but can have broader applications.

Our firm recently conducted a Bluebeam training for our clients and partners. We believe this tool will not only help them be more productive in their own workplaces (as it has proven for ISG), but can also increase collaboration and realize new efficiencies when interacting with our firm remotely on specific projects.

It’s a win-win that was borne out of understanding the fact that we’re all in this together and the more we empathize and share, the more likely we will emerge from all of this stronger than before.

Among the numbers for March include total nonfarm payroll employment, which fell by 701,000 during the month. The unemployment rate rose to 4.4%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of COVID-19 and efforts to contain it. Employment in leisure and hospitality fell by 459,000, mainly in food services and drinking places. Notable declines also occurred in health care and social assistance, professional and business services, retail trade, and construction. The other graphs on this page depicts the ebb, flows and declines in inflation and commodities. Drastic declines depict the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

7

8

6 Percent

9 4

MARCH EMPLOYMENT

Inflation 2020

Source:

125.0

123.0 Index

10 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 20202021 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics COMMODITIES 121.0

124.0

123.5

122.5

124.5 122.0

121.5

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

125.5 Oct 2019 Nov 2019 Mar 2020 Dec 2019 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Source:

45,640

JOBSAND DEPENDON BUSINESSES NOR TH 3

DAK OTA 5