NEWS FROM YOUR COOPERATI www.dmremc.com CONTACT US
Daviess-Martin County REMC TOLL FREE
800-762-7362
GENERAL MANAGER
Dave Sutter
OFFICE HOURS
7:30 a.m.– 4 p.m., Monday-Friday STREET ADDRESS
12628 E 75 N, Loogootee, IN 47553 MAILING ADDRESS
P.O. Box 430, Loogootee, IN 47553 SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS
To report an outage or emergency, call 812-295-4200 or 800-7627362 day or night. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dean Harrawood, PRESIDENT John Edwards, VICE PRESIDENT August Bauer, SECRETARY Michael E. Arvin, TREASURER Terry Chapman Dale Marchino Steve Streepy MONTHLY MEETING
Tuesday, Sept. 22 7 p.m., Daviess-Martin REMC office BILL PAYMENT OPTIONS
Online bill payment Budget billing Auto bank draft Drive-through window Night depository Credit card payment (VISA, Discover and MasterCard accepted) Pay-by-phone MISSION STATEMENT
“Our mission is to provide dependable electricity and quality services for our members at reasonable cost.” Like us on Facebook www.Facebook.com/Daviess MartinCountyREMC
Unless a member notifies Daviess-Martin County REMC, each member will receive a subscription to Electric Consumer magazine at an approximate annual cost of $5.36.
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The art of staying in touch After being with DaviessMartin County REMC for a few months now, I have had the opportunity to get acquainted with many of our members, staff and board of directors. As with any new DAVE SUTTER relationship, it takes time to get comfortable with how people think and what works well. This is especially true in the area of communication. My overall impression is that everyone works hard in their daily activities with a common bond to be successful in providing and using safe, reliable electricity at a reasonable cost. So, as goes the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, what is “too much, too little or, just right” when it comes to communicating with you? As your electric provider, it is important for us to stay focused on our job, and we tend to quietly go about our business without much fanfare or discussion. Knowing what, when and how to communicate is more of an art than a science, and this is one area where there always seems to be room for improvement. Understanding and prioritizing our customer’s needs, wants and wishes coupled with our diverse backgrounds, culture and philosophy takes devotion, time and energy. But it is inherently important for us to really know how best to proceed in developing, maintaining and communicating our programs. An example of where we hear of some misconceptions is in the area of managing our costs, as some folks seem to think that our costs don’t matter much to us. Please understand that the truth is there is always someone here with a concern for what is the true cost vs. benefit in everything we do. For instance, it may not be common knowledge that we are approaching a $36 million annual revenue/cost level.
ELECTRIC CONSUMER • SEPTEMBER 2015 • ElectricConsumer.org
Approximately 81 percent or $29 million is the cost of purchasing energy from our power provider. The remaining 19 percent or just under $7 million per year represents the portion of our costs that we have some control over and is what your co-op needs to administer and distribute the purchased energy to you. In the upcoming months, we will be working on our 2016 budget, and this exercise will provide a great opportunity for us to think about what we want to accomplish next year. While the technical issues of system maintenance, new lines, poles, meters, etc. are usually fairly easy for us to nail down, the other programs that we support will challenge us to analyze and evaluate what is the best fit and benefit to you — our customer. Recent news topics, such as the proposed changes to the national clean power plan, which is being portrayed as being an environmental solution to combat climate change and adverse human health issues, creates one area of great concern. This (and other) legislation may have little or no positive effects on improving the environment or health issues but will have great potential to create significant increases to our cost of power. It is for these and other reasons that folks like Gov. Mike Pence are challenging these proposals. In the end, it is our hope that you will have the confidence and trust that we are all working very hard on the “right stuff” while staying aware of the cost implications. We keep your interests in mind to continue providing the safe, reliable and reasonably priced electricity that you deserve, and we will strive to adequately communicate this information to you. DAVE SUTTER is general manager of Daviess-Martin County REMC.