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Discover how Tri-State and our members are embracing the opportunity to power the West in our new podcast, Western Watts!
We'll dive into the heart of energy issues, from reliability to wildfire mitigation, and share firsthand insights relevant to rural, agricultural and mountain communities across Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.
This podcast may contain certain forward looking statements concerning Tri-State's plans, performance, and strategies. Actual results may differ materially because of numerous factors, and Tri-State undertakes no obligation to update these forward looking statements. We urge you to review Tri-State's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of these.
Elizabeth Schilling:Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Ruth Marks. So, Ruth, as an introduction, can you tell us your name, cooperative role, and how many Tri-State annual meetings you've attended?
Ruth Marks:My name is Ruth Marks. I'm the CEO at Mountain View Electric. I think this is maybe my twenty fifth Tri-State annual meeting. So yeah. Over here a time or two.
Elizabeth Schilling:We're glad to have you here this year. You have experience on both the G&T side and then also with multiple distribution systems and now as CEO of Mountain View. Can you tell us about how that plays into how you make decisions, how you do your work?
Ruth Marks:Absolutely. It's definitely helpful having experience on both sides of the business. I started out on the distribution side and learned a lot about the members at the end of the line. When I went to Tri-State, particularly in transmission maintenance, I could keep that perspective of who really pays the bills, where the money comes from, and who we're really serving and the challenges that they're facing in mind as I make decisions at Tri-State. Also, knowing how Tri-State functions helps me every day at Mountain View Electric.
Ruth Marks:I understand the decision making processes, the roles at Tri-State, And more importantly, I understand the resources that are available and the level of expertise that the people at Tri-State really have in terms of supporting the distribution co-ops. That's huge, seeing how
Elizabeth Schilling:it all comes together. Yes. And then at a distribution system, you are really working to provide value to your end use consumers nor members. What does that look like for you? What are you focusing on?
Ruth Marks:It's actually the same as the mission that Tri-State's also accomplishing. So it's reliability, it's affordability, resiliency, and responsibility. And those are the very same values that we have at the distribution co-op, so it works nicely together. For sure, the most important thing to our members is reliability. Doesn't matter how affordable electricity is if it's not there when the member needs it.
Ruth Marks:So, that's kind of the point that we start on is reliability. But if at the end of the day they can't pay their bill, that doesn't help either. So those two are always working together. You have to balance reliability and affordability, but that truly is what the members care about. And it's nice to see that Tri-State has the same values as the distribution co-ops.
Elizabeth Schilling:Yeah. And you were talking too about how that sense of reliability and resilience, you're learning from your members about what's important to them. What does that look like?
Ruth Marks:Yes. So, every day you hear from members, particularly in the winter months when there's storms, and if you unfortunately have outages, very quickly you find out what your members value and what they yield from you. That is, particularly on those cold winter nights, you know, they want to be warm and they want to be cozy. That's what's important to them. So therefore, that's what's important to us as well.
Elizabeth Schilling:That's huge. So yesterday, you moderated the member panel during our membership meeting, and we got to hear from a diverse group of members. What's the value that you get or that everybody gets out of those kinds of discussions and hearing from different members?
Ruth Marks:I think I heard so much after that panel from so many people about how nice it was to hear how different we all are, particularly Molly from a very small co-op and the struggles and challenges she has. But really the entire panel has something different going on that makes it unique. And when there's so many of us, we have so many different pieces that we're all working on to bring together to serve our members. At the same time, there's so many things that are very, very similar between the distribution co-ops. I felt like it was really nice to talk about that and to bring that to light for other people.
Elizabeth Schilling:That's great. And that's not your first experience with one of those panels. Do you have historical experience that you wanna share, too?
Ruth Marks:I do. About four years or so ago, Chris Pink and I moderated, well, wasn't a panel, it was a presentation on, , rebuilding a line that had come down, gosh, maybe eight months earlier out by Brush, Colorado, where we lost 10 miles of line and how the transmission crews from all three regions came together to rebuild that line. And so, was fun to tell that story of really the folks from Tri-State working day and night, to get that line put back up to serve our members. So that was a fun panel.
Elizabeth Schilling:Awesome. It feels like meetings like this give you that chance to tell those stories in a more complete fashion Absolutely. Well, that is great.
Elizabeth Schilling:I think we will wrap it up here. Thank you so much for joining us.
Elizabeth Schilling:It's a pleasure talking to you today.
Ruth Marks:Thank you, Elizabeth. You too.
Elizabeth Schilling:Thanks for tuning in to Western Watts. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, YouTube, or on our website at tristate.coop/wwpod. We'll catch you next time.