System Board Member Training 2016 - Make Your Plans Now

As TMEPA staff are making preparations for next year’s big 50th Annual Meeting at the Omni Hotel in Downtown Nashville, plans are also being to hold another annual TMEPA event along with it. Board member training will be held in conjunction with next year’s Annual Meeting to increase the value and attendance of system board members at the meeting.

Usually TMEPA’s board training is held as a one-day stand-alone session, bringing TMEPA managers and system board members to Nashville for the training. This requires many system board members to take an additional trip or day off off in service of their utility. Next year presents a unique opportunity for board members to attend the Annual Meeting while getting the information they need to run a municipal electric system.

TMEPA on a regular, yearly basis offers to its systems a one-day course to educate system board members about electric utilities, the role of a power board, and the issues they are likely to face. This year’s Board Training was held October 5, and it was so popular this year it outgrew the TMEPA training room and had to be held at the Hilton Brentwood/Nashville Suites. Board members along with their managers from systems across Tennessee attended the training. Presenters were lined up to give what Union City’s Jerry Bailey said was "very pertinent information my new Board Member needed to hear and better understand from someone other than me."  

TMEPA’s board training presenters are an all-star group from the electric utility industry and utility governance in Tennessee: Murfreesboro Electric Department manager Steve Sax, attorney Nathan Ridley from the Nashville law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, Walter Haynes of Power Consultant Associates, longtime former member of the Comptroller Office’s Dennis Dycus, Mark Smith of Miller Martin, and Ann Butterworth of the Comptroller’s Office of Open Records Counsel.

The board training covers a wide range of topics your board members must be familiar with so they can better run your utility: an overview of the infrastructure of an electric system, board governance, the Municipal Plant Act, TVA’s role with an LPC, financial and auditing dos and don’ts, telecommunications and broadband, and open records. For newer board members, the training quickly brings a them up to speed and takes advantage of their enthusiasm to help their municipal electric system. For board members that have been on a board a while, the training can be a refresher that can refocus and reenergize their service. 

One of the biggest advantages of the board training is setting the expectations for what is expected of a board member and showing them best practices of a utility board. Several presenters regularly advocate for board members to set policy for a utility and then allow the manager to run the day-to-day of the utility. This helps to focus board members, and it defines the roles of board members and managers so everyone can work together to better their utility.

As we put together next year’s Annual Meeting and board training, TMEPA would like to hear from possible attendees on what they’d like to see at the board training. Next year’s board training will likely be held as breakout sessions during the annual meeting. We’d like to hear from you what you’d like to see. If you or your board members have attended before, or even if you haven’t, contact us if you know of topics or issues that you would like to see covered or emphasized. Send us an email at mvinson@tmepa.org or jelrod@tmepa.org.

Several managers attended this year’s training to see what their board members were presented and gave the training positive reviews:

 "The TMEPA board training is a valuable resource for new board members and a great refresher for exiting board members. This year's program touched on all the relative topics that are important to a board member. It was a day well spent. If you haven't sent any board members to the training in the past, I would encourage you to take advantage of the great program TMEPA has put together." - Brian Taylor, manager at Clarksville Department of Electricity

"Our Board thoroughly enjoyed the day of training!  We had one newer Board member that was hungry to learn more of the ends & outs of being a Power Board member and the training was perfect! The day was cram-packed with vital information that directly applied to Power Board members! Great speakers & great topics for any public utility board." – Mark Kimbell, Gallatin Electric Department