by Bonnie Biocchi, Executive Director

As I drove to work on Tuesday after Labor Day, it was truly odd not to see a single child walking to school nor a single bus in sight anywhere along my route. The traditional harbinger of fall, back to school will be void of all the normal routines and schedules since buses will remain empty and many schools will remain closed (or at least partially closed) for the foreseeable future. We’ve certainly had a weird spring and strange summer and the fall season is shaping up to be equally unusual.

But we do have some things to celebrate! We have worked steadily over these last months to accomplish the goals we had laid out, despite the pandemic. Because NEPPA’s legislative and regulatory advocacy is an important member value, we developed a formal Resolutions Process and Timeline to adopt future official advocacy positions. The NEPPA Board voted to approve a four-step process which includes member input on issues, review and discussion of the issues, refinement and sponsorship of proposals, and Board consideration and vote with a two-thirds vote of the Board required to adopt a resolution. In July, The NEPPA Board adopted four resolutions for the 2020-2021 legislative cycle: Reforming the Capacity Market, Streamlining the Hydropower Relicensing Process, Supporting Local Control over Utility Infrastructure and Limiting Transmission Incentives and ROE. 

And continued our good news, this week, Scott Larsen, former General Foreman for Littleton Electric Light and Water, will join our training team. We are excited that our students will benefit from his considerable industry knowledge and more than 30 years of field experience. We also welcome to the NEPPA family Jackson Connell, born to NEPPA Board President Justin Connell and his wife Cara in mid-August. Little Jackson is growing bigger every day and we can’t wait to meet him at a future event. And we can hardly contain our excitement that in the beginning of October, Sarah Braese, Director of Education and Programs will be returning from leave after the birth of her daughter Isabel in June. We can’t wait to have her organizational skills and enthusiastic leadership back in the office!

Speaking of celebrations, our biggest yearly celebration is the Annual Awards Banquet held during our Annual Conference. Since we couldn’t hold our Conference in person this year, we are working on a creative way to honor the “best of the best” for their service and commitment to public power. We are planning to unveil the winners during our Membership meeting scheduled for December and are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to do so in person.

To that end, we have opened the nomination process for our Annual Awards which include the Carol A. Tracey Customer Service Award, The Century Award, The Commissioner Service Award, the Distinguished Service Award, The Francis “Skip” Willey Individual Achievement Award, the NEPPA Service Award, The Outstanding Affiliate Member Award, The Special Recognition Award and of course the coveted Person of the Year Award.

If you would like to nominate an individual for any of our awards, please fill out the nomination form and return it to Wendy at WEsche@neppa.org by October 23rd. In a year where there has been little to celebrate, let’s create a spark of excitement as we honor those who have dedicated so much energy and effort to making public power the best it can be.