Changing an Annual Meeting to Energize the Attendees

What You’ll Learn

Are you ready to reimagine your annual meeting? In Montana, Flathead Electric’s team was challenged by the board to reach more members. Hear how incorporating an energy expo, interactive videos and staff experts adds value to your event.

Guest Speaker

Flathead Electric

Show Notes

Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns: How did one Montana co-op change up their annual meeting to energize the attendees? That’s what we’ll be talking about on this episode of The StoryConnect Podcast. My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, and I’m joined with a panel this time, three folks from Flathead Electric Cooperative in Montana – Will Tutvedt, Courtney Stone and Sharilyn Fairweather. Thank you all for joining me.

Courtney Stone: Thanks for having us.

Andy Johns: You guys may remember Sharilyn from being on the episode about fonts that we did maybe two years ago, but she’s brought some friends back with her this time to talk about the 2024 Annual Meeting and Energy Expo they did up at Flathead. So I’m excited to get into that. I always like to see folks trying something different. Sharilyn, let’s start with you. Tell us a little bit about, you know, it had been 84 years, 86 years, 85 years, 80 something years that the annual meeting had been happening. And, y’all decided this was the year to kind of mix things up.

Sharilyn Fairweather: Yes. I mean, I was not there for those full 84 years, obviously.

Andy Johns: Fair enough.

Sharilyn Fairweather: But, yeah, the annual meeting had been pretty much, pretty similar year after year. And we didn’t just make this decision, you know, on a whim. There was lots of thought that went into it and data gathering that went into making this change. And it was, frankly, probably at least five years in the making of changing our annual meeting. But we were noticing was that the members who were attending our annual meeting were aging to say it – aging, you could just tell. And also we gathered data about how our quorum was diminishing, our attendance was diminishing because the meeting really appealed to that demographic. And that’s who is engaged with us is the members who potentially remember when we first came, and the lights turned on for the first time. They’re very bought in, and we love those members. But part of this strategic plan of the board of trustees is to engage a different, newer demographic as well. So this event was really aimed at that.

Andy Johns: Quorum being, of course, a percentage that you guys need to be able to vote to make everything legit, whatever you guys have to, you know,to make it an official meeting. Well Will, I know that you were kind of the point person for a lot of making it happen. So tell us what it looked like this year. How was it different than it had been had been before? And just kind of set the scene for us. What did it look like, not only the annual meeting being a little different, but introducing the Energy Expo as well?

Will Tutvedt: Yeah, definitely. I will say in previous years, or compared to previous years, definitely a lot more moving parts this year. We kind of lucked out. We got a really great local spot. Our local community college just built this brand new venue. We’re really fortunate to be able to use it. So with that, we had a bunch of different areas with our expo, with our business meeting, where our caterer set up so people can have their dinners. But yeah, definitely a lot more moving parts to keep track of.

Andy Johns: All right. What’s the big question? What was served? What’s the food?

Will Tutvedt: We had a local barbecue business.

Andy Johns: Nice.

Will Tutvedt: They’re super great. We just had burgers. Or, excuse me. No, it was pulled chicken. Yeah. Do you want to restate that one?

Andy Johns: I’s always important.

Will Tutvedt: It was burgers. It’s changed like, six times, if we’re being honest.

Andy Johns: Right. Well, so I think folks know, and that’s awesome to have that venue. I think folks know kind of what a co-op annual meeting looks like. But an energy expo is something kind of new for folks. So what all, I mean, are we talking a trade show, demos? Is it all y’all? Is it other folks from – sorry, you’re talking to somebody from Tennessee. Is it all “you all,” or did you have folks coming in from other, from outside? What does an energy expo look like?

Will Tutvedt: For us at least this year, the idea is that our trade show expo style is just purely us. So with different booths set up with power outage information, energy efficiency information. It’s kind of the idea just to keep it ourselves, kind of with our main goal of becoming our members’ trusted energy advisors. With the idea of maybe expanding in later years, inviting outside vendors, such as our solar panels and other companies who deal in the energy industry. But yeah, as of right now, it was just us, purely our staff.

Andy Johns: Okay. And so they walk in and they, you know, folks who are attending, they’re seeing you guys have booths set up and where you’re like you said, you’re demoing probably some efficiency stuff? Or what were some of the more popular booths and you know, the things that you think folks really connected with?

Will Tutvedt: Yeah. So with the new venue, as members walk into the main foyer area, it’s kind of a larger foyer. So we had a series of booths set up. I think there’s between 7 to 10 different booths, all highlighting kind of key elements of what’s most asked of us at least. So again, going back to those power outages and energy efficiency, as well as opportunities to meet and mingle with our trustees. So with that, we had different banners that kind of made the span of the wall. So they were just kind of loud and proud, right as you walk in there with some interactive opportunities. We had staff at each booth, so there was a human to talk to, each with their own expertise. As well as kind of like a little interactive video that kind of went along with the booth and the pertinent information. We also had prizes at the individual booths. So it kind of was just a carrot to get people to go to each booth and talk to our employees, so they can sign up and put their ticket into the gift ticket box there and hopefully win a prize.

Andy Johns: Got to be prizes at an annual meeting. I think that’s in the bylaws somewhere, right?

Courtney Stone: Always.

Andy Johns: Well, I want to come back to you in a second, Will, to talk about getting the staff bought in. But let me jump back over to Sharilyn, and Courtney, feel free to jump in. But Sharilyn, just in terms of the identity of this energy expo, you know, it sounds like from talking to Will, positioning was a big part of it. You know, you guys want to position your staff as the energy experts like he said. So how closely in terms of the visual identity, because I know that’s kind of your wheelhouse, how closely were you all tying this to the brand? Was this something different, standalone? Did you treat it differently than you’ve treated the annual meetings before? Just in terms of the look and feel and kind of kind of identity of it, how did you all go about treating this and frankly, deciding on how to treat it?

Sharilyn Fairweather: Yeah. So, we definitely branded the event, as, you know, kind of a sub brand. It’s definitely our brand, our logo, our colors and our fonts. But we’re very consistent with our use of annual meeting and energy expo, and the way that that is portrayed and treated.

Andy Johns: And I knew fonts were going to come up somewhere. So, you know.

Sharilyn Fairweather: And I’m intending to for the event to kind of maintain the same branding moving forward. We definitely want people to know that it’s us. That it’s Flathead Electric. But this is our yearly event.

Andy Johns: Got it. Courtney, one of the things that I heard a lot during the pandemic is I would talk to people and they would say, “Yeah, we had to do something different in 2020 or 2021 with our annual meeting. We did, was it outdoor, or a drive thru or virtual or whatever. And and everybody loved it, and we had more people show up. You know, it was cheaper for us and everything.” And I would say, “Oh, so are you going to keep doing that?” And they say, “Oh, no, we’re going back to the way it’s always been.” So, you know, kudos for y’all for being willing to change it. But how do you kind of measure success on this one? What were the expectations going in, and do you think that you kind of achieved those goals, and what you were after by making these changes?

Courtney Stone: Yes. It’s always good to have some metrics to look at to decide, you know, are we on track with our goals here? We’re very, I think most cooperatives are this way, but as not-for-profit, member owned, we’re always thinking about every dollar we spend on this event. You know, how is it benefiting the membership, and what are those key measures of success? I’ll let Will get into the actual numbers, but I will say that it is really intimidating to plan essentially a large event for an unknown number of people, particularly when catering is involved. So our measure of success in the beginning, we were being fairly conservative in hoping for a slight increase in attendance and a few more representatives from various demographics, particularly those of younger, engaged families here in the valley and business owners who might help us in our advocacy efforts to protect our hydropower resources here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a big, big focus of our cooperative’s work. And so, we knew that if we got just to a slight increase above the previous attendance with a slightly larger demographic slice, that we would have achieved our goal. But in the end, really, we were blown away with how many people came. We had about a thousand people at our meeting when the year before we had had, I think it was 450. Will, you want to jump in here with those numbers? Give us some numbers for comparison here.

Will Tutvedt: Yeah. So we saw essentially like a 70+ percent increase in attendance. And so we jumped from around under 600 to over 1000, which was really great to see because as Sharilyn touched on earlier, is that declining attendance was something that we were pretty concerned about. Cost was also another factor. I mean, it was a bigger venue, planning for more people. But we were essentially trying to better spend our members’ dollars by reaching more of our membership. So, I mean, in years past, at its most expensive, it was around $200 per member that attended. And we got that actually under $100 this year. So that’s something we’re pretty proud of as well.

Andy Johns: Nice. Yeah, and that’s a huge increase. Good for you all. And of that thousand, the mix fell – and I don’t know if this is a Courtney question or a Will question – but that the demographic mix was there more what y’all were after? And we’ll start with Will.

Will Tutvedt: Yeah, definitely. I mean, we had “Dan the Magic Man,” we like to call him. He was kind of geared towards the younger kids, and our “touch a truck” booth. So we had some elements that were more geared towards kids and with the hopes of attracting more younger families. At the end of the day, we did. We saw a lot more kids than we probably have ever seen, at least since I’ve been here, at the annual meeting. So that was super fun to see. Lots of great interaction. And Sharilyn got some great photos of the kids at the touch a truck and the magic show. But yeah, we also ran a post annual meeting survey, and with that, we kind of just asked some demographic information. Of course, the 65 and up are going to be always our majority, but we definitely saw an increase in like the 25 to 40 and so on. So we definitely got the the younger generations. We got their attention.

Andy Johns: And Courtney, part of that shift was moving it from what y’all had it on a Saturday morning before, and you moved it to kind of a right at the end of a workday to make it more convenient for some folks. Right?

Courtney Stone: Right. We changed it to a Thursday afternoon. We opened the doors at 3:30, although we had people there much earlier than that. And we moved from the energy expo into the business meeting around 5:30, and then had dinner shortly after that. And it was all over with for the most part at 7:00. But we had people who were really excited to come. You asked about the interactive booths earlier, and Will was touching on our touch a truck and Dan, The Magic Man, who does essentially an electrical safety demonstration. It’s geared for children. He has this cool zap board that he uses for that. But we also had our linemen lined up to use our electrical safety demo trailer. And I think most people know people know that electricity is dangerous and that you ought to stay away from it. And so they mostly do, which is good. But everybody’s curious about what does it look like. You know, when a transformer arcs or something catches on fire or whatever, and you can see all those things happening.

Andy Johns: Yeah, sparks are cool.

Courtney Stone: Right, with the safety demo trailer. So that was a big hit with our members who wanted to learn more about safety and see it up close in person. So I definitely recommend it. If you’re thinking about changing up your annual meeting, education, of course, is a core pillar of cooperative values and something that we use to inform how we created our booths for the energy expo. But having that interactive element is essential, I think, to get new demographics in to see what you’re up to.

Andy Johns: And Will that shift from Saturday to Thursday, it also helped with kind of the staffing element and the employees getting involved as well, right? That was kind of, I don’t know if it was unintended or not, but that certainly seems like a an easier ask for employees as well to staff the event.

Will Tutvedt: Yeah. No, it definitely was. And I think just the aspect of this annual meeting being brand new got a lot of attention internally too. So a lot of people were just genuinely interested and kind of wanted to see it firsthand. And being involved and hands on was a great way to do that.

Andy Johns: Perfect. Well, this may be an impossible question, Courtney, but get the crystal ball out for me if you don’t mind. And then Will or Sharilyn, feel free to jump in. Where does it go from here? Is this the kind of thing you think you guys will repeat next year and stay the same, change, grow? Where do you see it going?

Courtney Stone: Gosh, just ask me all the easy questions this morning, Andy. First of all, you know, as we continue to think about all the new ways that we’re going to have relationships with our members, as we think about virtual power plants and asking members to turn EVs and home storage batteries back onto the grid to help us during our peak load times here, all those factors indicate to me that we will continue to work on our energy expo component of the annual meeting. The success we saw this year, we’re going to build on. We did a lot of in-house debriefing. Will led lots of sessions with our co-workers to really get their honest opinion. We had a debriefing session also with senior management and our trustees. We sent out a survey that Will referenced earlier asking our members what they thought about it. And, you know, it wasn’t all roses and daisies. There were parts of it that members did not like. And we will take that too, that feedback and make a better annual meeting next year. So I don’t imagine that the hard work aspect of it really will change, but hopefully we won’t have to start a whole year out with standing meetings like we did last year when we met every single Wednesday to talk for hours about what we needed to do next so. But we’re looking forward to the challenge. I mean, community outreach is what our department is all about and communicating with members, and so we’re here for that.

Andy Johns: Perfect. Well, let me wrap up with just, and we do this on a lot of episodes, but we’ll start with Sharilyn, then Courtney, then Will and just go down the line. You know, let’s say there’s somebody listening to this episode, and they’re thinking, yeah, our annual meeting is kind of dwindling, kind of losing energy and size as well. What’s something you guys learned along the way this time doing it that would [be] advice you could give to somebody who’s in the spot where you were a year or two ago?

Sharilyn Fairweather: I would say that probably what we’ve learned as far as in the interactive portion of the energy expo goes is that if you can engage the kids, you’ve got them, like you’ve got the parents. So, I think our yeah, our biggest hits were the ones that were interesting to kids and also relevant. It was really cool to see our linemen interact with those kids. And, yeah, that’s a big win. So yeah, I would say the electric safety trailer demo with the linemen was a highlight in my books.

Andy Johns: Yep. Now, Courtney, I know that y’all were very thorough beforehand measuring out spots. I think you said between electrical outlets just to try to make everything go as smoothly as possible, but there’s always a few things here or there. What’s a couple of things that you learned this time that you would offer for advice to somebody else looking to do something similar?

Courtney Stone: Right. Yeah. Being organized from the very beginning, having very clear, strategic, measurable goals that you can take back to your trustees and your senior management. Those are all things that we’ve touched on that were really critical. But I also would offer that we came up with a communications plan very early on. Our annual meeting is held in mid-April, and we had that communications plan ready to go by January. And that’s part of being organized. But it’s also easy to lose sight of the fact when you are consumed by a project, and it takes up every single one of your workdays, that may be the rest of your 58,000 members, maybe they will have no idea how much work you put into it, and how excited you are to welcome them if you are not reaching them early on through every communication channel possible. And so we were very intentional with our newsletter, with our social media, with all of our local newspapers, radio, TV. I mean, we pretty much did everything but send homing pigeons out to our members, letting them know that there was this new and exciting event and that we really hoped to welcome them to it. So don’t forget to get organized about that and start early with your communication efforts. If you’re going to change up a meeting in a big way, that would be my advice.

Andy Johns: All right, Will, so you heard it. Go ahead and put it down in the notes for next year to have the pigeons involved to go out and help bring people in.

Will Tutvedt: Yes.

Andy Johns: What’s something – I know you were you were deep into the the nitty gritty details of all of it. What’s something that you learned from this that you could pass on as advice for somebody else looking to do an event like this?

Will Tutvedt: I would say it’s all about the food, really, at the end of the day. No, just kidding. But really.

Andy Johns: You’re not wrong.

Will Tutvedt: To a lot of our members, yes, that is the truth. But realistically, I would say do your research, ask your members going to this or going into this. We had our annual members survey, which is totally unrelated to our post annual meeting survey. We actually surveyed our members, asked them about the annual meeting, the upcoming annual meeting. It was a big driving force in how we kind of came about this redesign. I mean, at the end of the day, it pointed us in the right direction as far as dates and times. So from that Saturday to Thursday, we saw that our members preferred a weekday, in the later hours of the day to so they can come after work and so on. Also kind of just what format they want. So we offered them up various options of formats as far as our routine Saturday morning breakfast. We even threw in do we want to have it at our local baseball games? Different venues and so on. So asking your members, getting that data kind of just boiling it down and figuring out what works for your members and going from there.

Andy Johns: Yeah. And I think you touched on a really critical point there. Don’t just ask them, but listen. And it certainly sounds like y’all did that so. Well, congratulations on a on a fantastic event. I’m excited to hear that it went well and that y’all will be looking to even build on that next year. So Will Tuvedt, Courtney Stone and Sharilyn Fairweather. Thank you guys for joining me and kind of sharing your story.

Will Tutvedt: Thanks for having us.

Sharilyn Fairweather: Thanks for having us.

Andy Johns: Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Andy Johns with Pioneer. You’ve heard from the Flathead Electric Cooperative team on this one. And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story.

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