Board development to include online learning, conferences

December 23, 2011

Bob Baker served communities as a public school teacher, principal, and superintendent before he joined the board of Tipmont REMC. Six years ago, the retired educator took a seat on Wabash Valley’s board as Tipmont’s representative, and recalls being stunned at the amount of new information he needed to process.
 
“The learning curve on the distribution co-op board took about a year before I felt functional and comfortable,” Bob said. “But when I hit the G&T board, I was overwhelmed. I think it involved a learning curve of more like three years. It’s the language, all the vocabulary, all the acronyms … I was constantly wondering what everyone was talking about.”
 
So when Bob was asked to serve on Wabash Valley’s board development committee, he jumped at the chance. “We had some feedback from the directors that there was a need for board training,” he recalled. “Given the complexity of our business, they didn’t feel that there were enough training opportunities.”
 
Vice President Administration Kathy Joyce echoed Bob’s comments. “Directors told us, through an online survey process and small group board discussions, that an enhanced and more flexible education program would enable each Director to make more personalized training decisions -- to target areas of the business where they felt they needed additional education.
 
The committee responded to the need by focusing on three areas. The first was orientation training for new directors.  Kathy, along with Manager of Human Resources Denne’ Smith and Communications Manager Sabrina Kapp took the committee’s direction and worked to develop an online course called “A Day in the Life of a Wabash Valley Director.” Through a series of modules, the program explains how the G&T is organized, clarifies the roles of the directors, and spells out policies and procedures for board operations.  “I would have loved to have had that program when I was a new director,” Bob noted.
 
Kathy added that the program will also become part of new employee orientation for Wabash Valley. “I think many of our staff members need to develop a stronger understanding of the board structure and how the board operates.”
 
The second facet of training will focus on enhancing current directors’ knowledge about key topics within the electric power industry. “Denne’ identified a company called EnerDynamics that develops online training, and we’ve partnered with them,” Bob said. “They have a broad catalog of courses that cover everything from basic governance to the physics of electricity. We’re planning to offer one course per quarter to the directors.”
 
Kathy said that the staff and committee, whenever possible, plan to match course offerings to issues they see coming on the WVPA board agenda forecasts and to topics that arise in the fall strategic planning session.  For example, additional online courses are already planned for topics such as:  

• WVPA Power Supply
• locational marginal pricing
• risk management
• EPA impacts on WVPA

Offering the courses online provides many benefits, including giving the directors an opportunity to take the courses when and where it’s convenient.  “Financially, it’s smarter because we don’t have to bring everyone to one location,” Kathy noted.
 
The third element of the committee’s recommendations was a more flexible policy regarding director attendance at industry conferences. “In the past, we only reimbursed attendance at the annual Director's conference and the ACES conference,” Bob explained. “Now, if those conferences don’t work for you, or if there’s a topic you want to learn more about, you can attend another conference that meets your needs. There’s quite a portfolio of approved conferences, and a director can request that other conferences be considered. We’ve kept the annual budget the same as it has been in past years, but we've expanded the choices.  In addition, each Director attending a conference will now have to complete an online conference evaluation to receive their reimbursement.
 
Kathy added that Wabash Valley has been invited to participate in a panel discussion about the development program at the upcoming Winter G&T Communicators meeting.

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