Public Utility Management Program Held at Water’s Edge

The Water’s Edge Resort was the site of the latest edition of PUMP and by all accounts was a success. Thirteen students participated in our oldest and most unique program. This fall NEPPA featured the following topics in two and a half days:

Avoiding Common Legal PitFalls as a New Manager – Deidre Lawrence, Burke & Foskett

Developing Your Legislative and Regulatory Processes – Sharon Staz, Ret., Kennebunk Light & Power

Emerging Power Supply Issues and Concerns – Brian Forshaw, CMEEC

Smart Grid Implementation and Operations – Hamid Jaffari, Reading Municipal Light

Outage Communication from the Customer Service Desk – Jackie Pratt, Shrewsbury Electric Light & Cable

Cost of Service Studies and Rate Setting for Municipal Electric Utilities – Vin Cameron, Ret., Reading Municipal Light

Contemporary Human Resource Challenges – Professor Bob Awkward, Framingham State University

Quick Tips for Managing Your Staff – Rockie Blunt, Blunt Consulting

The PUMP program attempts to capture elements from eight core areas of management that would concern leaders in public power. The concentrations can be specific but also try to address a wide range of topics such as HR, technology, board relations and legislative issues.

This session, students were actively engaged in the learning process by way of exchanging ideas and networking. The relationships developed over the course of the sessions carry with them back to their utilities and are a valuable resource going forward.

There was a general consensus among the group that they were surprised and pleased how much they learned from one another, especially coming from so many different backgrounds and situations. Kevin Newton, of the Village of Morrisville Water & Light Department, remarked, "Being new to the industry and working for a small rural municipality, the PUMP program offered me great insight into the much larger world of public power but showed me that size doesn’t matter when it comes to tackling a lot of the day-to-day issues all utilities face."

The participants were unanimous in their anticipation of our April program, which will mean graduations for all; this session wrapped up with Bill Jackson of Peabody being the only graduate, as he had attended the first half the prior year.

Please watch your mail and our website for information on the spring program, April 27-29th at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, N.H.!

National Information Solutions Cooperative