Watt's Up-Summer 2019

WATT’S UP SUWANNEE VALLEY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EMPLOYEE AND RETIREE NEWSLETTER | SUMMER 2019

from the ceo Thank you for your commitment to safety These are the dog days of summer, and while I’m always grateful for what all of you do to serve our members, I’d like to give a special shoutout to those of you who do your jobs day in and day out under the scorching sun.

I realize it’s not easy to stay energized and focused while spending every day in Florida’s heat and humidity, but you have managed to do so while keeping safe, and I applaud you for that.

Speaking of safety, everyone should feel proud of how well we did during this spring’s RESAP Review.

The inspection team was highly complimentary. We were given no key attention areas for improvement.

These results are important because they reflect how well we all know and carry out our responsibilities to keep ourselves and our co-workers safe.

Our commitment to safety also extends beyond the organization and to others in our community. In this edition of Watt’s Up, you can read about the many electrical safety demonstrations Craig Ragan and Mark Mosely have given to first responders and the reflective LED flashers we See CEO, Page 5

SMORE

Safety Member Experience Outreach to Community Reliability Economic Viability

BONUS POINTS AVAILABLE: 10 | VALUE PER POINT: $64 | POINTS ACHIEVED: 8.32

SAFETY

• DART – Represents accidents where someone is injured • Error Ratio – Measure of liability claims where SVEC is at fault • Vehicle Incident Rate – Vehicle incidents relative to miles driven

CONGRATULATIONS FOR 450 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITHOUT A LOST-TIME INJURY! RESAP Review SVEC had an unannounced inspection for the Rural Electric Safety Achievement Program (RESAP) in late May. The RESAP inspection team, comprised of safety professionals from Florida cooperatives, rigorously interviewed SVEC employees and did a complete and thorough inspection of our crews and facility. Out of 17 categories, SVEC was given ZERO key attention areas for improvement. The inspection team was very complimentary of our employee culture, or attitude, and your willingness to practice, pay attention

to detail and take pride in SVEC made the difference.

Safety Demonstrations Summer is a busy time of year in safety.

During hurricane season and while schools are out, it is important for the public to be aware of the dangers of electricity and how they can work and play safely this season.

Since May, Mark Mosely and Craig Ragan have conducted numerous safety demonstrations within the community. The presentations have been held at a wide variety of venues ranging from church summer school Continued on next page

MEMBER EXPERIENCE

programs to the Live Oak Police Department and Florida Department of Health. These safety demonstrations feature our “Electrical City,” which models real-life electrical safety scenarios and facilitates discussion on topics such as tree and line safety, generator safety and what to do in the event of a collision with a power pole.

• Average ratings on member service surveys. Scale: 1 (lowest) — 5 (highest)

Enhancing the Member Experience with Continued Education In June, Ronda Ellison, Paige Peacock, Brenda Price and Kelli McKinley attended a Customer Care and Billing Conference hosted by NISC at Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative. The conference provided in-depth information on various bill calculation methods, including different rate implementations, net metering setups and the calculation of prepaid accounts. Several other techniques were presented at the conference including User Defined Options (UDOs) that will create more efficient billing processes for member accounts.

Why are Your Customers Upset with You?

by John Formica

Customers get upset. They get upset for a lot of reasons. There will be situations where the customer is angry and totally wrong.

There will be many more times when they are upset for a good reason. The one thing you can count on is that when they get upset, there is a good chance they will call or contact you and it won’t be pleasant.

Many of my clients ask me to deliver training to their teams and staff on “How to Deal with Difficult Customers and Make the Experience Magical.” One of the questions we tackle during the training session is, regardless of whether the customer is right or wrong, what are you possibly doing to make them upset in the first place? What policies, employee actions or lack of actions, systems or turn of events have caused your customer to be pushed over the edge? We usually come up with a few causes.

The goal is to eliminate those issues.

Here are a few of the top causes. Which ones of these sound familiar to you?

Northwest Lineman College

1. Can’t get through to you or someone else when they need help.

2. No call back or return email.

3. Failure to respond to issues quickly.

4. Broken promises.

5. Failure to keep deadlines.

6. Same issue keeps happening again and again.

7. Instead of listening, you or your staff go on the defensive and try to prove the customer wrong.

Mike McWaters, Mark Mosley and Andy Lawrence toured the Northwest Lineman College (NLC) in Edgewater, Florida. NLC is an industry-leading institution that offers career programs and apprentice and journey-level training for the electric utility industry.

Do you see a pattern here? These are all issues you can control and have little to do with your product or service. The fact is, almost all of these can be removed if you just provide a quick response and be dependable. Think about it. Aren’t these the 2

same situations that would cause you to be upset too?

It is important to understand that when customers consistently experience you or your business as inaccessible, slow to respond or not dependable, it erodes any trust you have established. Trust is the foundation on which all relationships are built and one of the keys to creating customer loyalty for life. Without trust, your customers feel like you don’t care. If you don’t care, why should the customer care to continue to do business with you?

Customers are people. They are not companies, objects, things or a line in your company’s financial statement. They are real people who have feelings and emotions. The most important thing to remember is that customers primarily justify their loyalty with how you deal with their feelings and emotions. Remind your team every day to be mindful of how we are making our customers feel. Create positive feelings and you will build a business that is magical!

a supply shed was reorganized. Once the work was done, the volunteers were allowed up-close encounters with their hawks, falcons and owls. The group’s work earned 34 SMORE points for community participation.

OUTREACH TO COMMUNITY United Way: Your Community Impact When you give to United Way’s Community Investment Fund, your donations make a difference in our community. For a few dollars a week, you can change the course of someone’s life right here in our community. If you would like to start or increase a payroll deduction, contact De Smith.

• ACRE — % of employees who are ACRE contributors • Community Participation Points — Hours spent in SVEC-sanctioned group volunteer projects • United Way — % of employees who contribute to UW through payroll deductions

Vivid Visions De Smith, Vicky Talmadge, Christy Tuckey, Mike McWaters, Kristy McWaters, Ashley Johnson, Thomas Johnson and Jon Little volunteered a Saturday morning in August to complete outdoor work for Vivid Visions’ home for abused women. The group was able to clear weeds from the children’s playground and stain a wheelchair ramp to better protect it from the elements.

Birds of Prey In July, several of our employees braved the heat to help Accipiter Enterprises Educational Birds of Prey get some muchneeded work done at their facility. Many thanks to Daniel Warren, Jon Little, Christy Tuckey, Ronda Ellison and her son, Kim Plummer and her two sons, Jessy Preston, Kathy Hals and Paige Peacock. Together, all resident bird enclosures were pressure washed and repainted, repairs were made to an eagle shed, a shade cloth was placed over the bird’s weathering yard and

Blood Drive About one in seven people entering a hospital need blood.

Healthy adults who are at least 17 years old and at least 110 pounds may donate about a pint of blood — the most common form of donation — every 56 days. Our last blood drive garnered 3

10 SMORE points through employee donations. Thank you to our donors: Maria Suarez, Kirk Head, Mark Mosley, Joe Barclay, Daniel Warren, Randy Snipes, Jon Little, Braxton Hicks, Trevor Touchton and John Robinson. Your donations will help save up to 30 lives!

members. This new, tougher type of electric wire was installed in areas where tree-related outages are prevalent and where other possible solutions are not viable. Unlike traditional electric wire, an especially tough coating insulates tree wire to reduce outages caused by tree or wildlife contacts. Since the tree wire was installed, consumers on these lines have yet to experience an outage. The Engineering Department will continue to monitor the lines over the coming months to determine how effective tree wire is at improving reliability.

ECONOMIC VIABILITY

• FMP Points — Measure of how well we’re meeting various goals of the Financial Management Plan • OT Hours — Overtime hours as a percent of total hours worked • Controllable Cost — All expenses ($) except for purchase power, depreciation and interest expenses

Keychain Flashers for Students 1,200 flashers were delivered to Hamilton County bus drivers in July. These reflective flashers may be attached to children’s backpacks to help them remain visible while waiting for the morning school bus. The Cooperative also delivered additional flashers to the Lafayette County School District in August.

Preparing Financially for College

By Richard Schooley

RELIABILITY

My daughter is heading off to college in two weeks. We are now a family of Volunteers, Go Big Orange! My wife and I are excited, a bit sad, and amazed at the expense. We wanted her to attend the school of her choice and not need to worry about student loans. Thankfully, we have contributed to a 529 college savings plan for 15 years.

A 529 College Savings Plan is a tax-deferred account, and earnings will be tax free if the child goes to an accredited school.

The investments are self-directed into mutual funds. They are simple to set up and fund monthly from a checking account. A small automated contribution can make a significant difference over time. It probably won’t pay the entire tuition, but it will help reduce the burden.

Call Rich Schooley at 912-200-5232 if you have any questions.

• SAIFI — How many times the average consumer experiences a power interruption of more than five minutes • SAIDI — The amount of time that the average consumer is without power • Reliability Plan Points — Measure of how well we’re meeting various goals of the Reliability Plan

Tree Wire Project

ADMIN/CYBERSAFETY

• Phish Prone % — Percent of company-generated (knowbe4) phishing emails that have been clicked on • Weak Password — Number of passwords that do not comply with SVEC’s password policy

The Construction Department has installed its first trial use of tree wire with the goal of improving service reliability for SVEC 4

News from our EAP Stressed out? Stop suffering!

We all cope with stress at some point, and often it passes quickly.

But other times, life’s challenges can result in ongoing stress, which interferes with sleep, work and general enjoyment of life. When stress continues without relief, it can even trigger serious health problems.

If you are plagued with stress, don’t suffer any longer. Your Employee Assistance Program has introduced a new Stress Relief Program designed to identify the sources of stress in your life and to provide sound direction to

reduce your overall stress level. Best of all, as an EAP benefit, there is no charge to you.

To access the Stress Relief Program, follow these simple steps: • Call the EAP between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time on any weekday at 800-252-4555 or 1-800-2252527. (While most EAP services are available 24/7, trained stress counselors are only available during certain hours.)

• Ask to speak to a stress relief counselor.

• The stress relief counselor is a trained clinician who will conduct an assessment of the underlying stress factors in your life.

• After completing the assessment, the counselor will work with you to develop customized strategies designed to relieve your stress. The counselor will also direct you to information that will help you work on reducing stress over the long term.

It’s that simple. Call today to get relief.

Farewell …

Welcome …

Keith Womack We have some added assistance in the Engineering Department.

Keith Womack will be here working on some of our larger staking projects. Please give Mr. Womack a warm welcome when you see him.

Richard Varn Richard joined us in June as an intern in the Engineering Department.

Richard is graduating with his electrical engineering degree from UF in December. During his time with us, he helped engineering with some projects and got exposure to our industry.

Congratulations …

Danny Daniels has completed the Northwest Lineman College Meter Technician Certification Program.

Jodi Hughes has completed Infrared Training Center’s Level I Thermographer Certification Program.

CEO, continued from front

provide to children to help keep them safe while waiting for the school bus.

You can also read about how a few of our employees have used their own time and money to serve the less fortunate among us and about how our engineering and construction departments have worked together to test a new tool, known as tree wire, for system reliability.

Finally, in this newsletter, we do what we always do — celebrate some of the professional accomplishments and exciting events in the lives of our employees, retirees and families.

Please read on.

Mike

Family News …

Ashley Johnson, and her family enjoyed a trip to Manasota Key with her husband, parents and children. Her son, Clay, fractured his wrist a week before their trip, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying some fun in the sun.

Paige Peacock, is expecting her first grandchild. Her oldest son, Colton, is expecting a baby boy in December.

Brent Cothern, proposed to his girlfriend, Nicole, in June. She said yes!

Vicky Talmadge returned to her annual two weeks of friend and family time at New Smyrna Beach. They spent their days by the ocean and gathered in the evenings to enjoy dinner, puzzles and games at her parents’ beach-front condo. This year, they also celebrated her niece’s 21st and her best friend’s 60th birthdays.

From our retirees‌ Hawaii Vacation From Butch Lawrence Our recent trip to Hawaii with friends was a great experience. We lodged at Hale Hoa Hotel, which is located along the beach and has many restaurants and a Hotel Post Exchange. We had an awesome tour of the USS Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor, visited the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, relaxed on an island dinner cruise and shopped at Schofield Barracks Post Exchange. We were entertained at the Hale Hoa Luau with a pig roasting experience and coconut tree climbers. Our visit to the U.S. Army Museum included a great history about military presence on the island. We had many historical experiences on our 120-mile tour around the island, including a stop at the popular Dole Plantation. Of course, we included as much shopping as possible at the Ala Moana Center and Kaka’ako downtown district. We made many memories with friends!

Wedding Annoucement From June Kirby Our son, Casey, married his wife, Amy, in Coral Springs on June 3.

Recipe by Holly Nilsson, shared by Christy Tuckey

Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole Ingredients

Instructions

32 oz frozen shredded hash browns, defrosted

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

½ cup melted butter

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, reserving ½

(1) 10 oz can of cream of chicken soup (or cream of

cup of cheese for topping.

cheddar) 1 pint of sour cream

3. Place in a greased 9-by-13-inch casserole dish and

½ cup onion, finely chopped

top with reserved cheese.

2 cups grated colby cheese

4. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

¼ teaspoon pepper

7