NISC BlogCast with Vern Dosch

The start of a New Year is a time when people make resolutions to make changes or improvements in their life. While I'm mildly successful in following through with these resolutions, I do think about a restart or a new beginning each new year. On my list each year, the usual ones like lose weight, run more and be nicer to Ed Wolff. All three will require focus, concentration and hard work to achieve.  While personal resolutions are important, I've also thought about what resolutions we want for NISC in 2020. After thinking about this for a while, I think I can sum it up in a simple statement. I want NISC to be better at the end of 2020 than at the start. Of course, there are hundreds of ways to make this happen. They all require focus, concentration and hard work to achieve. We are here to serve our members. We're here to find better and innovative ways to serve our members. This might be an improved process in RDQ that results in more throughput of changes and products or the new member value team, both will get NISC to a stronger position.  The most important part of any change is improvement, is talent and employees who have a single focus to better the organization in their everyday jobs. My hope for the new year is the vision is clear and the challenge exciting. Together we will accomplish many things that we will look back on and think, yes, we are in a much better place than this time last year. We are committed to making NISC an exciting, challenging and rewarding place to build our careers.  I thank you for all you've done during 2019 to make NISC successful and I look forward to the New Year with great anticipation of what we can accomplish together.  Happy New Year, Dan

It was June of 1986. At that point in my career, I had gratefully worked in the industry for ten years. And I remember thinking to myself that I had found my calling, and I could see myself retiring from this industry. My phone rang. I picked it up, and I immediately recognized the voice on the other end as Ray Clouse, the CEO of NCDC. I had worked with Ray and his staff over the years as a member of NCDC and often times as a beta test site for their products. My conversation with Ray was short and to the point which was typical for Ray. "Dosch, get your butt over here. I've got a job for you." No interview, no personality test, no background check, no reference checks. He had made up his mind and would not take no for an answer. To be honest, my first reaction was no and heck no. I was comfortable where I was. It was a secure, well-paying job, and the position that Ray was offering was certainly a challenge, but the financial and market position of NCDC at that time was tenuous at best. They were a struggling startup, strapped for cash, struggling to get a foothold in a difficult, undefined, and volatile market. My head was screaming no. But my heart. And my intuition said this is exactly where I needed to be. So much to the disappointment and against the advice of my father. I took the job, and as they say, I have never looked back. In retrospect, next to marrying Lynn, this was the most impactful decision I had made in my life. That unlikely turn in my career has opened up opportunities, allowed me to travel to all 50 states and the world, has stretched me personally, intellectually, and physically. It has taught me important life lessons, allowed me to fail and recover, but, most importantly, has afforded me the opportunity to establish critical, life-changing, and enduring relationships and friendships. In addition, it is provided for my family, made house payments, paid tuition, covered the birth of our children, and broken bones and stitches that go along with raising a young family. But it has also given me the opportunity to retire and to refocus my life when I still have my health and the opportunity to participate in the lives of our children and grandchildren. But back to my story. Ray was a man's man, a marine, a cowboy, an opinionated, hard-drinking, no-nonsense leader who was a bit short in the compassion and empathy realm but excelled in defying the odds and dispelling the naysayers when life presented challenges. His favorite saying was "lead, follow or get the heck out of the way." Some would rightfully say that Ray's management style was authoritarian or autocratic. During those early years, we didn't have time to browse the Community or participate in a virtual employee meeting, attend to Meetup or listen to an NISC minute. We were fighting to survive as an organization. And Ray. Well, Ray was just the man to lead us. His management style was well suited for the years we spent as a struggling startup. All of those memories were running through my head as I headed west on Interstate 94, traveling to a small town of Golva, North Dakota, to the funeral of my friend, my boss, and the person who believed in me when perhaps I didn't believe in myself. Ray Clouse. It had been 26 years since Ray walked out the door of NCDC and headed into Retirement. He was drawn back to the ranch, the beauty and the majesty of the North Dakota badlands where he grew up. It was here herding his cattle on a horse, listening to the quiet of the prairie where he found his peace far away from the hustle, bustle, trials, and tribulations of being CEO of a technology co-operative. The church was full. The service was poignant, and it was comforting to see Ray's kids, who had grown two adults since the last time I had seen them. His wife, Judy, stood stoically surrounded and supported by her children. Ray had lived an amazing life, a life that was full of adventure, laughter, family, and friends. There were few tears on this day. Rather, the air was full with laughter and stories. Ray stories. Everyone who knew him had a few. Ray would not have tolerated any sadness or sniffling, rather. Today was the day that his friends pulled out the good stuff, the Pendleton whiskey, to toast to Ray and his colorful and impactful life. I believe that certain people come into our lives for a reason. And I, for one, am grateful that Ray came into my life to radically change its direction and set me on a course that was most unexpected. We gathered at his gravesite on a cold and blustery North Dakota fall morning. The fall sun warmed our faces and our hearts. The ever-present North Dakota wind gently move the prairie grass that surrounded the gravesite. A military contingent conducted a 21 gun salute. Ray would have liked that a fitting end to a strong and committed soldier who loved his family, his country, and his God. Thanks, Ray Clouse, for what you have done for me and my family. Rest in peace, my friend, and may this final ride into the sunset bring you the joy and assurance of a life well-lived. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

Vern: More than 44 years ago, when I started my career, I never imagined that someday I would have the opportunity to sit in the CEO’s chair.  I was a wet behind the ears, idealistic, naive newbie to the industries.  I knew very little about the Utility and Telecommunication and even less about the cooperative business model. Many of you know that my career began at Capital Electric an NISC Member. And For a young college graduate, capital offered a good wage, excellent benefits and much needed stability in my life after four years in college. I will be forever grateful for the start that Capital Electric Cooperative provided for me, and that experience of being a user of NISC’s technical solutions was one that I would carry with me for my entire career.  Now While I cherished my time at Capital, something was stirring inside of me. Something that told me that there was more out there I should be doing. And with that, I followed my heart and took a giant leap of faith and ventured on.  The rest, they say, is history, the challenges of a struggling start-up technology company, The development of iVUE … The merger of two competitors … Two cultures becoming one … Offers came to buy NISC – name your price, they said … And yet, we embraced our roots our Members and employees and remained a Member-owned cooperative. Our employee base has doubled in the past five years.  Our Membership spans all 50 states and beyond. Today, we offer an enterprise solution that rivals the best of breed solutions offered by Fortune 500 companies. And yet I believe we’re just on the cusp of launching the most revolutionary software solution to ever hit our industries …  we call it iVUE Connect. Now Make no mistake, NISC is not even begun to reach its full potential. Our future projections show a thoughtful and calculated growth. A steady path of improved efficiencies, service and economies of scale. One could say, there’s never been a more critical time for NISC. And a more promising time. … And, a time to reflect on it all, breathe in an overwhelming sense of gratitude, and step back and transition NISC into capable, committed and devoted hands. It seems crazy to transition away from an organization that I love, co-workers that I respect and admire and a Membership base that it is an absolute honor to serve.  NISC family, I have submitted my notice to the NISC Board of directors of my intentions to retire beginning in January of 2020. My wife Lynne and I have been contemplating this decision for several years, and it comes after a great deal of discussions with the NISC leadership team, board and my family. I am so proud of what the NISC family has accomplished, and I leave on an extremely positive note, knowing NISC is in excellent hands, and in a position of strength. The criteria the Board placed for my successor ensured that NISC’s next CEO would: 1) Uphold and strengthen our culture. 2) Be a servant leader and 3) Value, maintain and build upon our relationships – throughout the employee-base, Membership and industry partners. I must underscore that we have been aggressively preparing for this day. The NISC board has been actively developing a CEO Succession Plan for the past 24 months. While the Board was confident in our talent and succession planning pipeline here at NISC, they also took their fiduciary responsibility extremely seriously. As such, they utilized a respected search firm and conducted a nationwide search. After this careful and diligent search, I’m pleased to announce that Dan Wilbanks  NISC VP of RD&Q and our Chief Operating Officer was selected as my successor. To me this board action underscores the belief in and commitment to our employees, and the boards determination to honor our employees and promote from within, too often we have seen organizational cultures destroyed and turned inside out by someone comes in and does not understand the values, culture and mission, but not here at NISC. We have much work ahead of us, so we must not lose sight of our mission and the responsibility we have to serve our Members / Owners and each other as colleagues. As I begin this next chapter in my life, you need to know that I am not going anywhere, my focus will be on being part of a successful and uneventful transition, and I am willing to stay engaged for as long as that takes and as long as Dan deems necessary. One more thing: I feel like the luckiest man in the world, my wife Lynne our kids Zachary, Brittany, Jordan mean the world to me and I’m looking forward to being part of our six grandchildren’s lives, and in my spare time perhaps checking off a few things from my bucket list like hiking the Sangre De Christo  in Spain, the Appalachia Trail on the east coast and the Pacific Crest trail on the west coast.  There are national parks to visit and fish to tame with my flyrod, trails to explore on my mountain bike and rivers and streams to kayak but I will tell you this while all of that might sound fun and fulfilling: My single greatest accomplishment and single greatest joy next to my family is the team that we have assembled here at NISC and the company that we have built together,  a company that we can believe in and be proud of. You have inspired me, you have energized me, question, prodded, coached and admonishments me to do the right thing always and that has, made me a better person, husband, father, grandfather and hopefully CEO.   The memories of my years here at NISC will soon fade, but the culture and quest for excellence will continue and propel this organization to new heights.  I have had an opportunity to work with Dan Wilbanks for the past 19 years. I acknowledge the decades of his service to this organization. In all honesty I have never met a more committed, humble, dedicated and determined individual than Dan, and it has been an absolute privilege to call him friend, colleague and to serve NISC alongside of him. Knowing that NISC is in such trustworthy and experienced hands allows me to feel very good about this transition.  And now, I’d like to welcome your next CEO, Mr. Dan Wilbanks. Dan: Thanks, Vern for the kind words. I am so honored to be sitting here with you today.   BTW this is the first time we talked, and you didn’t ask me about a project deadline. I want to thank the NISC board of directors for the opportunity to take on this role. I look forward to the challenge.   NISC, has accomplished great things under Vern’s leadership. He will be leaving NISC with a bright future.   I will do all I can to continue the path of success and service to our members.  NISC greatest asset is all of you and the work you do for our member each day. The VP team and I are committed to keeping NISC a great place to work and build a career. I assure you my commitment to our culture is a top priority.   Our culture is what we value.   Things like Service to our Members, hard work, and building strong relationships internally and externally.  It’s what makes NISC a special place. Over the next few months I will meet with all the teams and we will have the chance to get to know each other better.  Together we will keep the momentum going and take NISC to exciting places. Our Members will be counting on a smooth transition and Vern and I will do everything we can to make sure that happens.  Vern,  Thanks for all you have done for NISC Thanks for showing us how to lead with integrity. Thanks for your mentorship. Thanks for your friendship. Thanks for being Vern, which in itself is amazing. I  promise that we will take good care of the organization you love.  Vern: Thank you, Dan. It’s been an honor working with you throughout our history, and even more, I treasure your friendship and your commitment to doing the right thing, always. It’s going to be fun although a bit hard be on the sidelines and to watch NISC grow under your leadership. You are surrounded by a very competent and dedicated Vice President group and supported by an engaged Board of Directors, so I am very confident of your success.

For the past 50 years, NISC marketing and industry personnel have been driving down I-94 through Montana. About 150 miles from the North Dakota border is a small town by the name of Forsyth. A rugged Montana town sustained by local farming and ranching. It's a part of Montana where miles upon miles separate farms and ranches. A part of the country where broadband and telecommunications services are vital and literally the critical link between those hearty Montana souls and the rest of the world.  It is a harsh and many times hostile part of the country. Harsh winters, unrelenting heat in the summer, certainly not an easy part of the country to serve an isolated membership with state-of-the-art telecommunication and broadband services.  As you travel down this sparsely populated Main Street, there is a bright spot. A vibrant business a pillar of the community a critical link from this part of the country to the rest of the world. A resilient bridge across the technology divide in rural America. Its Range Telecommunication. A pillar of the community that has been serving eastern Montana for the past 65 years.  This rural telephone co-operative is an excellent example of the typical NISC member, but unfortunately, Range has never been a member of NISC. It has not been for lack of trying as year after year we've made overtures, work to build relationships with one CEO after another to no avail. It was frustrating for us, but we were determined to continue our efforts looking forward to the day where we could welcome Range into the NISC family.  We have always said that this is a relationship business. Doors are open by relationships and kept tightly closed when they are absent. Recently, we saw a glimmer of hope. A relationship with a newly minted CEO who indicated that he may be interested in visiting with us. It was a relationship that opened this door, and we were determined to use this opportunity to present our organization and demonstrate that we were worthy of their consideration. There were several hurdles and roadblocks, but in true fashion, one after another, our employees stepped up and provided solutions that kept the process moving forward.  It was a Friday afternoon, and I was weary from a week of travel that took me to multiple cities in multiple NISC offices. I was in travel mode, laptop open and connected, working through a week of e-mail that had accumulated. I was focused on getting home that Friday evening. My phone rang as I was boarding the plane and after a polite greeting and some small talk we got down to business. Had she talked to the CEO of Range.? Yes. Had they made their decision? Yes. And drum roll...NISC has been selected as their I.T. partner. I wanted to jump up and cheer. We had waited so long. Our patience was wearing thin, and some said it would never happen. But they were wrong.  Relationships and determination and the tenacity of NISC paid off, and it felt very good. No. It felt incredible. I settled into my seat on the final leg of my flight with a smile on my face. It was going to be a great weekend.  Once again, my confidence in this organization had been strengthened. The power of relationships had once again been confirmed.  I love it when a plan comes together even if it takes 50 years.  Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

The year was 1992 and I was given the opportunity by our board of directors to be NCDC CEO.  I was young, inexperienced, and frankly very naive.  As I was sitting in Ray Clouse's office on his last day as CEO. He gave me one final piece of sage advice. "Dosch" he said "this is a damn lonely job." I nodded my head to acknowledge his final words of wisdom but my inner voice was saying well it may be lonely for you Mr. Clouse but not for me.  Today, 27 years later I must admit that Mr. Clouse was absolutely right. Sometimes this is a very lonely job and I don't say that looking for sympathy because there are so many attributes of this job that are wonderful and amazing and engaging and fulfilling. But yes Mr. Clouse was right. There are times this can be a lonely job.  I remember so clearly the first day in this position. I waited until after 5:00 o'clock to begin moving into that corner office so as not to seem too anxious or pretentious. And I finished moving in at about 8 o'clock and that evening I know I was the only one left in the building at that time and I sat in the big chair for the first time. And it is difficult for me to explain the overwhelming sense of responsibility that I felt. In the years working next to Mr. Clouse there were times when I did not agree with his decisions or his strategies but I always kind of brushed those off as knowing that, you know, the CEO was ultimately responsible for the success or failure of this organization, not me.  But today that had changed and I was reminded that it was President Harry Truman who kept a sign with the phrase "The buck stops here" on his desk and that phrase truly became a reality and a not so subtle burden that would become my ever present companion for the next twenty seven plus years.    In those early years I felt the responsibility of having to be knowledgeable about virtually every facet of our business. This perceived requirement was truly overwhelming as I struggled to keep up with what was the growing scope of our business. The reality that I faced in those early years was that I thought in order to be a successful leader of NISC you needed to be strong in accounting and finance. You needed to be a champion and an advocate of our employees. You needed to carry the NISC brand into the marketplace in an unrelenting effort to keep our pipeline of new business full. You needed to be an extraordinary technician always staying abreast of emerging technologies in their application to the NISC enterprise. You needed to have a keen legal mind protecting our organization from undue risk. And a very important responsibility was to have the ability to translate the ever changing requirements of our members into products and services that would expand the NISC enterprise. Managing a complex schedule of implementations being a expert on project management and providing mission critical support to our members were also perceived responsibilities of this job.  They say that wisdom comes with age and the realization that it was impossible for myself or virtually anyone to truly carry out these perceived responsibilities led me to understand that in order to provide the leadership that NISC would require meant building a strong and diverse Vice President group, a competent managers group, an emerging talent represented by our team leads. To be effective these groups would bear much of the burden of this organization. They would bring their subject matter expertise, their strong and diverse opinions, and most importantly a sense of servant leadership to our organization.    Putting this leadership group together is and will be a painstaking process. It was to be a group of Type A personalities driven, committed, and selfless. The reality was that this unique combination of leadership would take years to assemble with several misses along the way. Always looking for the correct seat on the bus for each of these leaders.  Today, when I think of our accomplishments here at NISC. I don't think about the products or our facilities. It's not our membership base or our financial position. Rather I believe our greatest accomplishment is the management team and our base of employees that has been and is being built. The vice presidents, managers, team leads who provide leadership, guidance, mentoring, innovation, discipline, and inspiration to our organization and to the entire group of NISC employees who are focused on serving each other and serving our members. Together each of us with our own unique personalities and skill set share the responsibility of delivering technology and support to over eight hundred members systems across the country.    I am not the smartest person in the room and the burden of leading this organization is not just on the CEO shoulders, thank goodness, but this leadership group and the incredible collection of thirteen hundred and forty eight employees have demonstrated that we are a force to be reckoned with. Competing with some of the largest and most powerful software companies in the world and winning. Yes, winning. Creating a culture that although is not perfect is strong, unique, compassionate, focused, and driven is our most important strategic initiative. If we get that right well then NISC will continue to grow. Continue to improve the level of products and services we deliver to our member owners and continue to nurture and evolve a culture that allows our employees to grow in their skills and abilities and be fully engaged in truly meaningful and impactful work. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern. 

During our 50 year history, we have experienced and successfully navigated through an amazing transformation of the telecommunications industry as they went from plain old telephone service to delivering robust broadband. In the utility industry, we have watched and assisted in the transmission from a sleepy analog industry to a dynamic, smart grid-enabled enterprise powered by fossil fuels as well as renewables like wind and solar. Although NISC is not immune from the global, political, and economic volatility of the industries we serve. We have a great deal to be thankful for as we consider the historical stability of our organization. We are seeing a growing number of companies that we have competed against for 30 plus years simply go out of business or make a last-gasp effort at a merger, consolidation, or a sale. Without a doubt, we are seeing a massive consolidation in this industry, and there will certainly be winners and losers. And make no mistake we are laser focused on being a winner. The deployment to iVUE as well as our recent acquisition of EDD and Affinegy are increasing the scope of the breakthrough innovative products that comprise NISC enterprise solution. In the marketplace, our brand has never been stronger or more relevant. Our commitment to delivering an elevated member experience is unwavering and emphasized by our "Membership Amplified" advertising campaign. While we have our challenges, member expectations, employee expectations, and deadlines to meet, my confidence in our organization has never been greater. We are nearing the end of our fiscal year, which will once again be record setting with highest revenues, margins, and a robust pipeline of new business. The best in our history. How cool is that? While those financial metrics are very important as an organization, we have chosen a different path. We have chosen to embrace a culture that places emphasis on the well-being of our employees both at work and at home. Working to create and build a healthy and productive work environment as well as supporting the work-life balance of our employees at home. It's a tough balance, especially in this 24 by seven world that we operate in and admittedly we don't get this balance right all the time. But we are relentless in working towards that goal. I have come to understand that our ability to continue building and improving the member experience, the robustness of our products, and the strength and consistency of our culture is all based on the quality of the individual contributions of each of our employees. Our People Services Division and the Vice President group is continually questioning if we're doing the right things, If we're doing enough focused on the right things the pay, the benefits, the policies, the employee events, the amenities. Are we focusing on the things that really matter to our employees? Our quarterly Pulse survey gives us a good indication if we're making progress in those areas and where we need to improve. For the past 16 years, we have held our breath when the Computerworld Best Places to Work survey results were released hoping upon hope that we would once again see NISC name on that coveted list. This year's survey did not disappoint as NISC was ranked 19th in the midsize company category. It should be noted that this was the first year that NISC was moved up from the small company category to midsize and we can only expect that as our employee population grows and we move up in the categories, the competition will get stiffer. There are many best of surveys out there. The majority of them require you to purchase advertising or pay a designated amount to be included in the list. As NISC, we have chosen to avoid all of those surveys as we do not believe that they accurately represent the sentiments and perspective of our employees and tend to be biased and not entirely honest. On the other hand, the Computerworld survey directly and independently surveys our employees. NISC has never made any payment to Computerworld and is very confident that the results have a great deal of integrity and credibility. On another note, my thanks to Brett Wetzel. Shannon Bogren, Joe Vonarx and Amy Gietzen for the role that they played in the red letter video that was posted today on the community. If you haven't seen the video, I strongly recommend that you take a look. Their stories are heartfelt and the production by our Communication Division, as we have come to expect, is simply outstanding. So today we celebrate our Computerworld ranking with a traditional red-letter day. Our way of saying thanks for the commitment each of you has made, the contribution of your skills, experience, dedication, and imagination to this organization. We are very grateful. We will never take your contributions for granted, and we will work tirelessly to create a workplace and a culture that is challenging, invigorating, provides career and learning opportunities, and a place that you are proud to work for. A place that treats you with the respect that you deserve. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

At NISC, we have always taken succession planning very seriously. Each January, the Vice President group and I update a comprehensive matrix that identifies at least three possible candidates for every team lead manager senior manager vice president and the CEO of NISC. The succession matrix is presented to the NISC Board of Directors at our January strategic planning session. This valuable exercise helps us to accomplish several objectives. The first, is to identify a successor in the event of a departure or a retirement for every supervisor here at NISC. The second purpose is to identify those areas in our organization where we need to initiate development plans for those designated employees. In other words, the employee identified as a possible successor isn't quite ready. They may be missing certain skills, experience, or the abilities that they need, and they need some assistance to be strengthened in those areas. So we put together a comprehensive development plan for that employee to help them move closer to the next career opportunity. And the final reason we go through succession planning is to identify and coach those employees that are included in the succession plan. We want them to understand the level of confidence that we have in them and the potential we believe that they have to take the next step in their career eventually. Now, with the departure of Jasper, we turn to that succession plan. It was an early morning conversation with Susan Imm, then NISC Manager of Utility Business Development and Sales. In the succession plan, Susan had been designated as the successor for Jasper. When I asked her if she would be willing to assume the responsibilities of the interim Vice President of Member & Industry I was relieved when her response to my request was "Vern, absolutely, If you feel that I can bring value to NISC I'm all in." Susan's reply produced a great deal of relief for the vice president group and me as this is such a critical position in our organization. We knew that we had to act decisively to provide the appropriate leadership for our employees in the division and so as not to disrupt our relationship with both our existing and prospective members. Susan has 25 years of experience in the utility software industry, She has led the utility sales team here at NISC for over six years, and she has demonstrated not only her effectiveness, as an integral part of growing NISC pipeline of new business, but more importantly her actions have demonstrated the effective and sincere way in which she has embraced the values and the culture of our organization. In her interim role, she was quickly and confidently recognized as she became an effective and trusted participant in our Vice President deliberations. In this case, our succession planning efforts identified a candidate in whom we have full confidence that has the required experience, skills, and most important values to step into this position. In her short time as interim Susan has demonstrated why she had been identified as a possible successor. I am so pleased to announce that we have decided to remove the interim part of her title and that she has also been selected as a member not only of our Vice President group but also of NISC's Strategy Committee. At NISC, we have a great tradition of promoting from within and providing career opportunities for our employees. The selection of Susan as Vice President of Member & Industry continues that important tradition. With this decision behind us, we will now begin the process of posting for Susan's former position, the Manager of Utility Sales and will start the interview process shortly. Please help me in congratulating Susan Imm. Thank you. I appreciate you, Vern

For those of you who have been at NISC for a while, you have heard me talk about Jim Collins and the book Good to Great. I first read this book in 2001 the year that it was published and I must say that of all the business books and all the authors I have read, in my career, This one made a profound impact on me and the culture of NISC. Many business books are simply the author's opinion and we all have an opinion including you and I. But what always impresses me with the writings of Jim Collins is that his conclusions were not his opinions, rather, they were the findings of his extensive research. Since this book Good to Great was originally released in 2001 it has sold millions of copies and today, 18 years later, over three hundred thousand copies are sold annually which, to me, makes it a very relevant and impactful book. Now to write this book Collins and his staff of 20 started with 1435 companies. They examined their performance over 40 years and based on that research they identified companies that successfully made the transition from good companies to great companies and in the process distinguish themselves from their competitors. This is where I disagree with Mr. Collins. The majority of the criteria for determining if a company was great or not when compared to their peers, financial measurements. Financial metrics like a stock price, market share, return to the shareholders in terms of dividends which I all agree are important financial measurements but for our culture here at NISC, they are not the only measurements. For us, the satisfaction and engagement of our stakeholders consisting of our member-owners, our board, and our employees are at the top of our list right next to the financial performance of NISC. Being a good corporate citizen, giving back to our communities, creating a healthy and ethical work environment, while building a culture of trust. These are all metrics that we believe are also very important. I do not believe that trading our time and talents just to maximize financial performance is really very motivating. Rather we believe that while financial performance and stability are very important because any business whether for-profit, nonprofit, or cooperative will not be able to deliver on their mission and vision if they are not financially strong and stable and producing a consistent margin. But there just has to be a greater purpose and cause for doing what we do the traveling, the deadlines, the pressure, the stress, our desperate attempts to balance work life, almost lead us to a greater cause or it simply isn't worth it. In the 1960s there was a famous singer named Peggy Lee who is born in Jamestown North Dakota in 1920. Her most notable song was titled "Is That All There Is". So we work ourselves to the bone, we make significant sacrifices for our families for what? A bigger bottom line? More dividends to the shareholders? Really? Is that like Peggy Lee would say all there is? The culture of NISC says "no that is not all there is". There is more to our lives than just financial metrics it's about family, it's about providing for our families, It's about our communities, It's about doing meaningful and impactful work that makes our world a better place to live like delivering electric power to some of the most difficult and remote places in the United States and providing broadband which helps us to bridge the digital divide in our country. That is why we get out of bed in the morning. Our work gives us purpose and meaning beyond just a paycheck. So although I may disagree with the criteria for measuring greatness I am absolutely a student of Jim Collins and his definition of great leadership and great companies is so important to me and to NISC. So imagine my excitement when NISC was recently asked to participate in a small group of about 12 individuals to have a direct conversation with none other than Jim Collins. I felt like a small boy meeting a storybook hero. I don't want to be overly dramatic but seriously this was one of the most important events in my professional career. The atmosphere at this meeting was intense. Mr. Collins peppered us for two hours with questions while he took copious notes. While I would rank the professional stature of Mr. Collins right up there with Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, Peter Drucker, Peter Senge, Ken Blanchard, and Simon Sinek I was absolutely taken back by his humility. his directness, and his intense passion. It was clear to me that this leadership icon achieves that stature because he was passionate and he was a perpetual student of leadership always learning and always asking the hard questions. Now while some of the companies that Jim Collins identified as great companies in 2001 have since gone out of business or disappeared into oblivion, It was clear to me from listening to him that Jim Collins had moved on and his views of leadership and greatness had evolved as well they should. He wrote a sequel to good the great entitled "How the Mighty Fail" which drove home the point of how tenuous greatness is and how difficult it is to maintain your leadership position for an extended period of time in any market. I think there's a lesson there for our organization. So there you have it. A face to face meeting with one of my most influential mentors. Can you see the big smile on my face? And by the way, if you're in the neighborhood, stopped by my office. I would love to show you my brand new copy of good to great with, you guessed it, a coveted signature by none other than the author himself. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you. Vern

NISC is an organization that is dedicated to delivering enterprise technology solutions to our member-owners. These mission-critical components are essential for our member-owners to operate their business in the most efficient manner, improving their customer experience and maintaining their competitiveness and to do that they embrace the power of NISC technologies. Now the best analogy that I could present is that NISC enterprise is the virtual heartbeat of our member-owners organization. As employees, it is for us to understand the significance of our work whether you're designing, developing, implementing, or supporting the various modules of the enterprise or maintaining the infrastructure. We all need to be mindful that these 7 by 24, always on, nature of our business and solutions is all-consuming in its responsibility. Without our solutions, our members are dead in the water. They can't issue a bill, settling accounts payable, pay their employees, or serve the members at the end of the line without the NISC enterprise. Gone are the days, when the system was shut down at 5 o'clock for a four and a half hour backup making the system inaccessible. Today If the systems we provide even begin to slow down it's a crisis. Did I mention to you that the work you do is very important? Now over the years, we have built our enterprise methodically one function, one module at a time. Our board has supported our efforts, year after year, by approving our ever increasing research and development budget and never once, not once, have they not approved our request for building or increasing our staff. As you consider our enterprise arguably 90 percent of our solution has been designed, built, installed, and supported by NISC employees. With each addition to our enterprise, we go through that build versus buy analysis. The question is, is it best long term if we build the solution ourselves or should we buy or partner to secure the intellectual property that would be required? Partnering with ESRI for our geospatial system and Information Builders for our business intelligence tools are examples where we have partnered with a leading provider, and we've taken their solution and embedded that technology seamlessly into our enterprise rather than build it from scratch. For the last ten years we have partnered with Electrical Distribution Design or EDD, as they are known, for critical components to our operational analytics product. EDD is a 20-year-old company closely associated with Virginia Tech and staffed mainly with a group of individuals that have their masters and PhDs in electrical engineering. This staff has largely been devoted to smart grid research, many times funded with grants from the Department of Energy. Several years ago we began our relationship with EDD working closely with their staff developing an understanding of how their products could bring value to our membership. EDD strength is research and solving the evolving challenges in today's modern electrical system. However, they do not have the in-house expertise required to monetize their products like marketing, communications, legal, cyber, software distribution, project management, and educational services. It is those critical skills that NISC, along with our significant national brand recognition, can bring to this partnership. About three years ago we purchased 21% of EDD that transaction gave us a board seat and the availability to develop a better understanding of the organization and its products. Within the last nine months, we received word that several of the original shareholders wanted to liquidate their shares and sell the company. NISC was selected as one of the bidders. Now I'll spare you the emotional ups and downs in negotiating tactics of the last several months only to say that in the end NISC has been selected by the shareholders of EDD as its new owner. Our accounting, legal, people services, and product teams have been working on due diligence for the last several weeks. Last week we conducted an on-site EDD employee meeting in Blacksburg Virginia the location of EDD's office. Our presentation included the history of NISC our culture, present market, and financial positions and in general what it means to be an NISC employee. We also took the time to meet individually with each employee to answer their questions and develop a better understanding of their responsibilities and the role that they play in that organization. Now if all goes according to plan, we should close this transaction on March 1st at which time EDD will become a wholly owned subsidiary of NISC. I cannot express our excitement and our confidence that this bold step will significantly advance the value of NISC enterprise and be a strong differentiating factor between NISC and our competition. Could we have developed these solutions on our own within NISC? Yes, I'm confident that we could, but frankly, we didn't have the knowledge or the staff to develop these solutions in a timely fashion. The need for these products is real and immediate and for NISC to bring them to market very quickly and efficiently by way of this transaction will be a real coup in the marketplace. So stay tuned. I'm confident the acquisition of EDD will be a significant development in NISC continuing efforts to grow our enterprise and increase the value that we deliver to our member-owners. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

Over the years, no doubt, you've heard me use the phrase "only the paranoid survive". It's a popular quote that has been credited to Andy Grove, the first CEO of Intel. But what you may not know is that is only part of the quote the entire quote is "success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive," and it is that entire quote that I'd like to talk about today. At NISC we are on a rather long string of success. Literally, for the past 15 years, we have seen revenues, margins, cash, our employee base, and membership base steadily grow on a methodical climb. We have come to expect and in some cases to take for granted our progress and success. Over the past 15 years, iconic companies like General Electric have seen their share price go from 60 dollars a share to under 10 dollars today. Sears is gone from 115 dollars a share to less than a dollar today, and companies like Compaq, E.F. Hutton, Paine Webber, MCI, WorldCom, Enron, Woolworth, Arthur Andersen, and TWA have all met their demise. Now historically if you started a company in the 1920s, you generally had a 67-year run rate before another company would enter and disrupt your business. Sixty-seven years to ride the wave and enjoy prosperity. Think of how long Sears was successful only to be disrupted by Amazon. Today you start a company and, for example, MySpace is worried about Facebook, Google Plus or Instagram and what it is that will disrupt your proven and successful business model. The fact is that the disruptive cycle has gone from 67 years to 15 and 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies on the S&P 500 today will no longer exist in 10 years. Well, guess what. NISC is 15 years into our cycle of prosperity. We have come to expect our strong growth in financial improvement and growing market share. We approach every prospect with the confidence and the expectation that we will win the business and more often than not we do. Our success in recruiting smart talented and in many cases experienced employees is at an all-time high, and that factor alone is having a significant impact on our progress, our rate of growth, the efficiency of our operation, and our development. But will we be able to defy the odds and continue our progress beyond that ominous 15-year mark? All in all, I am very confident that we will. And if I had to make a call or a prediction, I would say that we're in about inning two of a nine-inning ball game with plenty of runway for continued progress and growth and that's good. That's great for our members, and as NISC employees it is very good for our careers. But having made that bold, positive prediction, I would qualify those comments by saying we will be able to defy the odds only if we stay focused innovative. Always looking for efficiencies and improvement and never getting complacent and always remaining paranoid in a very good in a vigilant way. If our success breeds complacency and a sense of entitlement or if we start slacking, getting lazy, losing our hunger and our drive, losing our resolve, and our humility we could be heading for a demise like has happened to so many good companies before us. We have worked so hard to get to this place of strength. We simply cannot let it slide away. Today we are at a pivotal place with our iVUE releases. These next six months will determine if iVUE Connect will be a game changer launching us to new levels of success or if it will be mediocre, stumbling, pathetic, a comedy of errors in the launch that will shake the confidence of our members and our prospects. Which will it be? Anyone who thinks we are at a place where we can coast is not paying attention. Honestly, we are in a competitive battle for our lives and for our future as is every one of our competitors. Having said all that I have every confidence that we will be successful beyond our most optimistic projections but it will take an extraordinary amount of focus, passion, innovation, drive, and it will take the contribution and the dedication of every single one of our employees to pull this off. Are you in? Can I count on you? Because remember success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. And only the paranoid survive. And yes I am paranoid, and I hope you are also. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

A couple of weeks ago the vice president group and I spent several days with our Board of Directors for our quarterly board meeting and also our annual strategic planning session. We left those meetings exhausted but encouraged grateful and determined. I can't tell you how thankful I am to have those vice presidents, every one of them, involved with our board meetings and our critical strategic planning sessions. Their confidence, their expertise that allows them to be active participants in this process has built an incredible amount of trust between the executive staff and the Board of Directors which is critical in the effective operation of our organization. Now, these vice presidents have many responsibilities but in my mind where are the most important is that they are tasked with the challenge of executing good leadership within our organization. We expect them to lead by example. We expect them to lead from the front, just like the generals of the medieval War era, and these vice presidents represent every employee of our company no matter what designation they hold or where they are on the organizational chart. In our business, we have come to understand that every phone call or email can be a member in crisis with problems that need to be solved and at times it's our responsibility to pick up the pieces and rebuild the confidence of our employees and our member-owners. Anyone who thinks this is an easy business hasn't worked here. But make no mistake of the incredible sense of achievement and accomplishment when we do solve those problems, when we deliver extraordinary products and provide support and assurance to our members when they are in need. It's a great feeling when we rescue our members from those tenuous positions sometimes created by their own actions or inactions and sometimes we need to fall on our sword when we have created the problem or delivered a disappointing outcome to our members. You know it's hard for me to express in words the pride and the gratitude that I feel when I'm visiting with my members across the country and when I have an opportunity to listen to the things that they say about our employees and their impressions of the culture of our organization. This week was an example as I visited members in Georgia. In conversations with them, they would say things like "where does NISC get these extraordinary employees?" And it's not just one. It's everyone that we interact with. That's just music to my ears when I hear things like that. But many times I hear of the heroic activities when our employees have gone above and beyond the call of duty and typically I hear these stories from our members, not our employees. And I have truly come to appreciate the humility and the dedication of our employees. They don't do these things for pats on the back. They do it because it's the right thing to do, to take care of our members and I couldn't be more proud of them. This Sunday we will leave for our Telecom annual meeting in New Orleans. Soon to be followed by the Utility annual meeting in Orlando. As we approach these annual meetings which are a gathering of Board Members, CEOs and key employees of our member systems, we have made a conscious decision to take a different path with our message this year. Typically our annual meeting has focused on our operational performance including multiple illustrations and charts showing our growth in membership, growth in employees, and the general critical aspects of our financial position. But this year we will focus our message on answering this question, which often is posed by our members and rightfully so when they say, "NISC, what have you done for us lately?". Now we have tasked the vice president group to identify initiatives within their respective divisions that have improved the functionality and stability of our products, strengthened the personal delivery of our support and improved the consistency, timeliness, and quality of our implementations. We will also talk about our efforts to make certain that we are communicating the value and the specifics of each software release and the new learning opportunities which are presented by the many training initiatives launched by our National Learning Center. In general, our annual meeting will be less about us as NISC in our operations and more about our focused efforts to successfully meet the requirements, the wishes, and the expectations of our member-owners. Improving our member experience regarding implementation, support, and the general satisfaction with our products and services is at the very heart of everything we do here at NISC, and we are counting on every employee to keep this objective top of mind with every single member interaction. It's going to be an exciting couple weeks, and when we get through this annual meeting season, I will share my thoughts and experiences with you once again. I want you to know that I truly appreciate your efforts as we work together, all of us, to continually improve our organization. Thanks for listening. Take good care. I appreciate you, Vern

State of the Cooperative - January 2019   Introduction 2018 was a year of success and milestones for our cooperative. It was also a year of celebration as we recognized our 50th Anniversary. Preparations for this event included an extensive effort to digitize and catalog photos, videos and other items accumulated over the past half century. It’s important that this critical material, which documents the legacy of our organization, is preserved for future generations. Throughout the year we experienced strong, calculated growth in our Membership and employee base. Exceptional and accelerated demand for NISC solutions and services resulted in challenges and efforts to increase our capacity to meet this demand. Record investment in research and development continued to advance the NISC enterprise solution. The accelerated deployment of broadband by both the telecommunications and utility industries has allowed NISC to leverage our 50 years of telecommunication expertise for the benefit of our utility Members and their efforts to deploy broadband connectivity to underserved areas of the country. We believe that measuring our progress is the very best way to ensure accountability. As we monitor metrics for Member satisfaction, employee engagement and financial performance, we are encouraged by the progress we are making and determined to advance the journey of continuous improvement in all areas of our organization.             Member/Owners The primary focus of our organization is to meet and exceed the expectations and requirements of our Membership. Rapid advances in emerging technologies and increased competition have required both the telecommunication and utility industries to adapt to an unparalleled pace of change. With much of this transformation being driven by technology, our Members are counting on NISC to leverage these emerging technologies to improve efficiencies and enhance their ability to be competitive and relevant in a rapidly-changing market. In 2018, we made significant progress as we continued enhancing our economies of scale. This year marked the eighth consecutive year in which we were able to “hold the line” on the core rates we charge our Membership. We consider this to be a significant feat considering the increased competition for technical talent which is placing pressure on NISC’s cost of operations, due mainly to increased pressures on technical wages. Tariffs have also increased our cost of doing business as many of the technical components we purchase – as we work to improve and strengthen our infrastructure and Cooperative Cloud environments – have seen considerable price increases. In 2018, we were fortunate to add 14 telecommunications and 17 utility Members to our Membership base. Our combined Membership base presently reached an all-time high of 828.  The addition of these new Members and the resulting revenue stream have enabled NISC to meet our growing operational costs without the need to increase prices to our existing Membership base. At a time when our Members are experiencing increased pressures on their bottom line, NISC’s ability to continue to deliver our products without increasing rates is a key factor in making certain we are not only a good technical partner but also a responsible fiscal partner. While growing our Membership and improving our economies of scale is an important responsibility, making sure that we are maintaining a strong and transparent relationship with our existing Members is also a strategic initiative. Over the years we have built an amazing group of regional business managers (RBMs) whose charge it is to make personal, face-to-face visits to our Member’s sites. We affectionately refer to these visits as blocking and tackling (BT) visits, referring to the fact that these visits are important components of building the basics of the vital business and personal relationships we feel are critical to the way we do business. We have also implemented processes to document these visits, distribute this information to the appropriate NISC staff and coordinate any required follow-up on issues identified during the BT visit. During 2018, we completed 425 of these on-site visits with our Members. As NISC’s enterprise solution continues to become more robust, we are focused on leveraging technology to improve the efficiencies of our Members’ operations. We have seen an increasing number of case studies within our Membership where savings delivered by the NISC enterprise is exceeding the actual fees paid to NISC.  As we move into our 51st year of operations, we understand that never before in our history has a strong, collaborative relationship between our Members and NISC been so critical to fulfill the vision of delivering reliable and low-cost electricity and broadband connectivity to the 85% of the geographical United States that is served by our collective Membership. It is clear, the work we do in partnership with our Members is a key component to strengthening our economy and improving the quality of life of the 13.5 million consumers we serve at the end of the line.           Employees As an intellectual property company, NISC’s most significant risk is our ability to attract and retain the technology talent we require. As the economy continues to improve, we can feel the labor market tighten and pressure on wages increase. In 2018, we saw our attrition rate increase slightly to 7.9% which is a concern, but given the market pressures, somewhat expected. We have expanded our NISC recruiting staff to handle the increased velocity at which we are expanding our employee base. Our efforts to enhance the professional development of our current and future leaders continues to be a major strategic initiative for our organization. Additional coaching tools, educational resources and training sessions have been put in place to strengthen this important undertaking. As our organization continues to grow, we have kept a watchful eye on the span of control for our supervisors. Currently, we are working to address several areas in our organization where we need additional team leads and managers to more adequately provide the supervision, guidance and coaching that is required for our employees. Continued efforts to improve and strengthen our succession planning efforts have been top-of-mind for our Board and vice president group. At NISC, each team lead, manager and vice president, as well as the CEO, has a specific succession plan and potential successors identified.           Financials 2018 once again was a year of strong financial performance for NISC. We ended the year with a margin of $9,048,664 and an increase in top-line revenues of 7.2%. New records were set with an ending cash balance of $35,054,136 and an equity level of $60,946,749 (58%). Appropriately managing our strong balance sheet for the collective benefit of our Membership and the stability of our organization has been a major topic of discussion at our Board meetings and strategic planning sessions. In addition to holding the line on our existing rates, the Board has taken additional action to reduce our automated mailroom charges assessed to the Members and increase the retirement of allocated capital credits from 21% of current year’s margins to 30% for our Members. We are also working on a proposal that would provide for the retirement of prior-year capital, that to this point was allocated but not retired. NISC’s strong financial position has also allowed us to accelerate our investment in research and development to a record $43 million this year, as well as increase the size and scope of our employee base to close the year at 1,280 employees strong.   Products In 2018, our singular strategic initiative was the design, development and deployment of iVUE Connect. Currently, we have 159 Members who have implemented the initial phases of iVUE Connect. By the end of the first quarter of 2019, we will deploy iVUE Connect: Service to a telecommunication Member. This will be a critical milestone for our organization, and a positive step in enhancing our multiservice capabilities as well as unifying our telecommunication Subscriber Information System (SIS) and our utility Consumer Information System (CIS) into a single, customer care and billing platform. This strategic move represents a significant evolution for our organization and will distinguish NISC in the marketplace as a multiservice provider. Product, usability and development resources were also allocated to the personas of billing coordinator, marketing, operations, payroll HR, dispatcher and capital credits. Our research and development efforts to move the NISC enterprise to a web-based technology stack hosted in the Cooperative Cloud will continue through 2021. 2018 also saw an increase in resources assigned to design, development and deployment of our engineering and operations solutions. Major enhancements and advancements in MapWise2.0, Unified Work Management, iVUE AppSuite, Outage Management and Operations Analytics are part of our three-year E&O development pipeline. NISC SwitchTalk2 and NISC’s newly-released business intelligence tool, iVUE Mosaic, have also received significant attention to ensure that these important initiatives will continue moving forward.   Professional Services (Implementations/Project Management) In January 2018, we completed a realignment of our organization. The main objective of this initiative was to combine all NISC product implementation responsibilities into a single division, with the goal of standardizing our implementation practices and processes for all NISC solutions and services. While this was not an easy task, we are seeing significant progress and improved efficiency in moving our organization toward a consistent, enterprise approach of delivering products to our Members.   Support NISC’s 2018 realignment also included the consolidation of all NISC’s service centers into a single div

The other day I was walking through the cafeteria and bumped into an employee that I have long admired. I describe this employee as hardworking, engaged, always grateful. He's an interesting success story. He came to NISC without a degree and began in a very entry level position and without fanfare or much drama. This young man completed his undergraduate degree, got married, started his family, completed his master's at the top of his class, and after a couple of lattice moves had worked himself into a position of responsibility here at NISC. He's a low maintenance, accountable employee who has over time won the respect of his peers and has been identified as a high potential employee by his supervisor. He is just one of the many success stories here at NISC. Although my encounters and conversations with this employee were few and far between. I always sought him out when our paths crossed because I was so impressed with his optimism and his positive demeanor. But today was different. Something was wrong. His eyes were downcast, he was fidgety and noticeably uncomfortable. My heart sank. "Everything okay?", I asked. There was a painful and awkward pause. "Not really," he said. I motioned to a table off in the corner. He followed. We sat down, and I looked at him, and I said: "what's going on?" "Oh, nothing." He said. "Just a bit upset and concerned." "Anything I can do to help?" I responded. Up until that point he had not even made eye contact which was highly unusual. He looked at me, and there was a deep-seated pain in those blue eyes. He spoke slowly with measured words. "There was a termination in my department this week," he said. "No explanation. Just packed up his personal belongings and he was ushered to the door. It really caught me by surprise. I just wish I knew what was going on and it makes me wonder if I might be next. You see, Vern, mine is the only income in our family. My wife is a stay at home mom, and I'll be honest we live paycheck to paycheck, and if I were to get fired from NISC, we would be out of money in less than a month." The pain and the concern of this young man were evident. He was shaken to the core. Concern for his career and his ability to provide for his family. Now I will tell you in all honesty that in my career there is no question that the most difficult and dreaded situation that we deal with is when an employee just does not fit into our organization, and there needs to be a separation. It may be a performance issue or an attitude. It may be a lack of willingness to embrace our shared values or an unwillingness to serve our members or to treat their colleagues with dignity and respect. I remember reading a book entitled "Straight From the Gut" by Jack Welsh. Jack was the former CEO of General Electric, and the part of this book that really bothered me was a practice that was orchestrated and promoted by Jack when he was CEO, whereby every supervisor in that huge organization was required to rank their employees from best to worst each year. Then at the beginning of the new year, they would lop off and terminate the bottom 10 percent of the workforce. Jack said, "it kept the employees on their toes and kept the workforce fresh.". I just can't imagine what it would be like to live in constant fear of losing your job. Everyone at GE knew that if they ended up in that bottom 10 percent they were out, no questions asked. No excuses accepted. Now in contrast at NISC, we have a tradition of being very paternalistic perhaps to a fault. When an employee is in trouble, we go to great lengths to coach, encourage, to perhaps provide a lattice move trying desperately to find the right seat on the bus for this employee. We initiate a performance improvement plan. We tell them what they need to do to improve and then, and only then when all alternatives have been exhausted. For the good of the Organization, for the good of their fellow employees, and many times the employee themselves we have the dreaded separation discussion. Now one thing is certain by the time we work our way through this process and the employee is actually released there should never be a surprise. Never. And in fact many times when the handwriting is on the wall the employee will actually leave the organization on their own. But I will never get over the feeling of failure on NISC's part when there is a termination. I find myself second guessing the process of interviewing, hiring, screening, checking references, onboarding, coaching. WHERE DID WE GO WRONG? What was the root cause of this? For the good of the employee, for the good of the NISC. What are the lessons learned and how can we prevent this from happening again? In the end, I always have this hollow and frightful feeling inside. And the question. Could this happen to me? Could I be on the wrong side of a separation conversation? The most difficult aspect of this dreaded process is when an employee is terminated, you will never hear the rest of the story from NISC. We will never disparage an employee as they leave the organization. It's our goal to let them leave with dignity and the confidence that we would never share the specifics that led to their termination. If there ever was a time where the employees needed to trust management, it is in the case of a separation. You can rest assured that we have done everything possible to salvage that employee, to work with them, to coach them, before there would be a termination. And in the end, we have a responsibility not only to the terminated employee but also those around him and to our members who may be adversely affected by the performance or the demeanor of that employee. While there are no guarantees for any of us as employees, myself included, I am reminded that the average tenure for a CEO is less than 36 months. But our employees should feel comfortable that they can go about their work serving our members without the distraction and the concern of losing their job. If there is a problem, you will know about it months in advance, and you will be given every opportunity to correct the situation and get your career back on track with termination being only the very last resort. The fact is this, with almost 1,300 employees, there are bound to be times that, for whatever reason, there is just not a match between the employee and NISC. And when that happens, we admit that there was a mistake that was made and we allow NISC to get on with our business and the affected employee to get on with their lives. Our employees should rest assured that providing a stable work environment is one of our most important tasks. As I consider our history and how volatile the work environment is in corporate America. I have seen the historic stability here at NISC to be our very best predictor of the future. As we parted, I shook this young employees hand and in my heart I had hoped that our conversation had provided the reassurance to this troubled employee that would allow him to roll up his sleeves and throw himself back into his work with the assurance that his job and his ability to provide for his family was secure. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern.

Recently I received a note from Mary Ellen who drew my attention to a post that we did back in the days when we actually did blog posts rather than these audio BlogCasts as we do today.  It warmed my heart to read this blog that was first posted in September of 2013. Much has changed since that posting over the last five years. We've added about 140 members systems, 350 employees, and have been through 15 versions of our core product offering.  Sometimes the pace of change is a bit dizzying but what is most interesting to me is that some things, like the foundation of our organization and our culture, have remained virtually unchanged. Our statement of shared values, first develop by our employees in 2000, has remained intact as has the fact that although we're a technology company our business remains a relationship business.  I continue to believe that one of the most appealing aspects of our work here at NISC is the fast pace of change, evolution, and the challenge that that change brings. But there is some comfort that amidst all of this change there is a set of values and principles the foundation of our organization that remains constant and provide predictability, stability, and at times a refuge during our frantic days.  During this Thanksgiving season I thought it would be appropriate to share this post once again. Although five years old it is as relevant today. Perhaps even more relevant than it was back then.    What it is, is a relationship The connection is what matters   We listen. We talk. We absorb our Members’ experience. We learn from and teach our Members. When we design new products we ask –  How will this help? Does this product deserve to exist?     If this were my company, what would I do? Is it about the money?   No. It’s about making a difference.  It’s about being a part of something greater than ourselves.     We embrace Member ideas and suggestions,   but we make hard choices.  If you try to do everything, you achieve nothing.    We focus on the important things. We work to make what we do enhance every life we touch.  We focus on our priorities and hold on to our values. At NISC, we do the right thing – always.   We don’t believe in coincidence or dumb luck. The harder we work, the luckier we get. We balance our personal and work lives. We know what has true value – family, Members, colleagues, our  community, and friends.   We’re engineers, accountants, programmers and artists, craftsmen,  communicators, inventors, and researchers.   Most of all, we’re problem solvers.   We sign our work with dedication to each of you. You may rarely look at it, but we hope you feel the “heart” of NISC.. This is our connection to you. And for NISC employees, it means everything.   Thanks for listening.  I appreciate you,  Vern

Over the years we have made a point, as a Vice President group, to periodically select a book that is required reading by the entire group and then discussed what we've learned from the book and try to figure out how it would apply to improve NISC. Some of the great books we've read over the years are "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni, "Leaders Eat Last" by Simon Sinek, "Built to Last" by Jim Collins, and "The Ideal Team Player" by Patrick Lencioni. Presently we're reading a book entitled "No Ego" by Cy Wakeman. I need to give Dan Wilbanks the credit for offering this book up and suggesting that we read it as a vice president group and as I make my way through the book it's clear why Dan thought that this book could be important reading for our entire group. Now over the years as we have read these books I can't say that there has been a single book that I would call a silver bullet, a book that has all the answers, a book that we necessarily agreed with every statement or conclusion within the pages of its covers. But I will say that we have learned something from each book and based on our willingness and our hunger to learn we have and are establishing the culture of NISC based on best practices and best ideas of other successful companies characterized in these books and based on our own experience which spans the 50 year history of NISC. Now the single most impactful thing that we learned from the book Good to Great is that the predominant characteristic of a successful leader is humility. Humility. And it would stand to reason that the opposite of humility would be ego. Buddha is quoted as saying ego is the source of all suffering and the book no ego very clearly sets a bullseye on waste, inefficiency, and drama in an organization and, you guessed it, it says the source of all of those negative things is ego. Now the author gets right to the point when he states that facts common sense self-reflection and accountability make Eagle very nervous. For me, the facts of our organization are often delivered by way of the quarterly employee Pulse survey. I want you to know that we read every comment and we share the results of the survey with our management group, The employee base as a whole, and also our Board of Directors. Sometimes the results are encouraging and the trends are positive and the comments affirming. Other times the scores are disappointing and a harsh commentary on the ineffectiveness of our leadership, pointing out areas that we are sorely lacking with comments that are pointed and discouraging. But every survey, good, bad, or indifferent, has helped us construct, evolve, and refine the culture of our organization. There's one thing though that I have noticed over the years of doing these surveys that I believe is the most important thing we've learned from this effort. Often we will specifically ask open-ended questions about how we can improve NISC and the responses from the employees will inevitably fall into two very distinctive but telling categories. The first category of employees I would call the Ego Category and the second category the Accountability Category. Let me tell you what I mean. When asked how we can improve this organization, employees that would fall into the Ego Category make comments like "higher pay, better benefits, more employee activities, larger offices, more paid time, of more holidays, more flexible work schedules, and the list becomes quite extensive. And it's curious to me that with this type of employee every one of the suggestions that they would offer up is all about them, their ego, their comfort, their enrichment, and their development. Now don't get me wrong every one of these topics is very important to each of us as NISC employees and monitoring our competitiveness and market conditions in each of these categories is one of People Services most important responsibilities. Now responses from what I would call the Accountability Group of employees. They offer up a consistently different list of suggestions. Suggestions that are focused on making NISC better, stronger, more efficient, and more effective. Suggestions like additional staff members, balancing the workload in critical areas, better onboarding strategies, better communications at all levels of our organization, suggestions pointing out waste and inefficiencies or frustrations with fellow employees not fully pulling their weight. Suggestions on new technologies new tools or processes which would improve our productivity and consistency throughout our organization. So the question is this. Which suggestions should be given priority? It's a bit of a chicken and egg debate. Shouldn't we concentrate on those things that are not ego-driven first so that NISC is financially strong enough to be able to improve the employee compensation, benefits, and policy considerations? It's clear to me that the accountability group of employees understand the concept of a rising tide raises all ship or in other words, if NISC does well, well then the employees will also do well. I hope that our historic actions regarding pay, benefits, and policies demonstrate that this is true and it's truly something that we aspire to do, It's not just happy talk. So the question is this which employee group do you fit in to? The first that is ego driven, self-centered comfort, and benefit. Or is it the second group that believes in accountability and a selfless servant leadership? We'll be discussing this book and its principles during our November Leadership Forum and also during upcoming employee meetings. I look forward to learning more as I listen to the impressions and observations and opinions of our employee group after they have had a chance to read the book. One thing I know for sure is developing strong leadership and a strong resilient culture in our organization it's hard. It's messy work and getting the right employees in the right position in our organization or in the right seat on the bus, as says Jim Collins would say, requires the active, relentless, egoless, selfless, participation of all of our employees from every discipline. Each of us is impacted by the effectiveness of NISC leadership or lack thereof. So it makes sense that we should all be engaged and take an active role in building an organization that is efficient, fair, accountable, and honors the opinions and perspectives of our employees while at the same time being courageous enough to call out those times when ego-based, unrealistic comments hurt and tear down what we have worked so hard to build. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

Thomas Edison was born in 1847 and died in 1931. He truly was an American inventor and a businessman. He was often described as America's greatest inventor. His inventions included the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting practical electric light bulb which had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was a prolific inventor holding 1093 U.S. patents. His talents eventually led him to found 14 companies including General Electric; still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. Now let's take a few minutes to look at the history of this American icon of a company, General Electric, and see what lessons that we as NISC may learn. So General Electric is an industrial giant with a storied list of products from appliances, jet engines, marine engines, military engines, locomotive engines, financial services, real estate, power generation and distribution, renewables including solar arrays and wind turbines, Energy storage, Healthcare, Oil and gas production, Software Design and Development, mining, and the list goes on and on and on. The point is this General Electric over the years has become one of the largest and most diversified companies on the planet. Their management training programs are legendary. At least 16 former G.E. management types are now CEOs of U.S. publicly traded companies including huge companies like GM and Home Depot. The unprecedented culture and training program that would produce that many outstanding leaders from just one company is perhaps the most fitting tribute to the culture of G.E. It's fair to say that working at G.E. was one of the most coveted and promising careers in corporate America. Now you could say that G.E. had it all. They were financially strong, they had an amazing market share, they were diversified, they had a strong culture and a very deep bench of talent. At their peak, General Electric was one of the largest valued companies in the world. But today it seems as if General Electric has lost its luster. They have struggled mightily, financially. They have sold off many of their assets and companies. In 1988 their share value was sixty dollars a share placing the value of their company at six hundred billion dollars. But today they are barely a shadow of that company and their value is under 100 billion dollars. The share price is about 12 dollars a share. Ouch. I hope you don't have too much of G.E. stock in your 401k account. So what happened? How did this mighty icon of a company fall so far? And could that happen to NISC? Did G.E. get too comfortable? Did they lose their hunger and their drive? Did large margins allow them to get sloppy and inefficient? Did they take the loyalty of their customers and the engagement of their employees for granted? Did they stop learning and stop innovating? What can we learn from this tragic fall from grace as they have gone from being one of the most admired companies in the world to a bit of a laughing stock? I wonder what Thomas Edison would say? Today as we look at NISC we can say we enjoy a strong financial position, we are leading the industry in market share, we are winning as we compete in the marketplace and our competitive prowess has placed our competitors on their heels, we have a diversified product mix, and have made good progress in developing and strengthening the bench of our talented employees. Does all of that sound familiar or parallel the history of G.E.? While it's taken almost 50 years for us to get NISC to this place I would submit to you that we will have even more challenges to manage our growth, to maintain our culture, and to make the necessary organizational changes that will be required as the scope of NISC continues to grow. Our goal at NISC is simple; to be the best in the industries we serve, to be the most innovative, and have the most robust enterprise solution in the utility and telecommunications space. We want and we're working towards a solid reputation and a 100 percent reference ability among our member-owners. We aspire to be a place where the employees can trust and believe in management and our board of directors. A place where doing the right thing is not only understood but expected. Maintaining a sense of organizational humility and a determination never to be satisfied with our products, our position in the market or the engagement of our employees is something that we must absolutely stay focused on in order to maintain our leadership position. While we have made progress we still have much work to do to achieve those lofty goals. General Electric was once a great and an admired company. Today, not so much. Let that never be said about NISC. We have worked too hard to build this organization into what it is today. Let's keep growing, keep improving, keep learning, keep innovating, and never lose our resolve to be the very best at serving our employees and serving our members. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern.  

My career at NISC has provided many amazing experiences and opportunities and for those milestones, I am very grateful. But at the top of my list, without exception, is the opportunity to represent our organization during the general session of our Member Information Conference. It's hard for me to put into words the emotion of stepping on that stage to represent the hard work and the dedication of our employees. Each year, I am reminded what a privilege and an honor it is for that moment to be the spokesman of our organization. In a very real way, I feel unworthy to have the honor to be in that position. As I approached the stage I am reminded of the dedication and sacrifice of our employees that have been required to build NISC into the organization it has become. My wish would be that each of you would have the opportunity to feel the rush of emotion that I have experienced when I step on that stage. Blinding Lights in your eyes, butterflies in your stomach, The sound of your voice projected over thousands of attendees anxiously listening to every measured word that comes out of your mouth. I'm reminded of an old Kris Kristofferson song that went like this. "Why me? What have I ever done to deserve even one of the blessings that I've known?" Thanks for all you do to make NISC such an amazing organization. I am grateful and humbled to be your spokesperson. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

There seems to be a constant stream of articles and news stories regarding the current workforce and their sense of entitlement. Rather than appreciating the opportunity to have a job, like our parents and grandparents did, it is said that employees today act as if it is their right to have virtually unlimited choices when it comes to their jobs and the amenities of those jobs. Now in a way this makes sense since they are children of the baby boom, a time of unprecedented prosperity and hope in our country. We all get accustomed to the fact that a search on Google is free and that we enjoy an unlimited amount of information at our fingertips. We can interact with Facebook for free and as an NISC employee our paychecks have magically appeared in our bank account without fail for the last 50 years. There has never been a time when our employees have not been covered by a comprehensive medical plan and there is comfort in watching our retirement plans grow. Today I find myself in the fourth quarter of my career. I think about these blessings often and feel a profound sense of gratitude. But let's be honest, I can't say that I felt that sense of gratitude when I was in my 20s or 30s or 40s or embarrassingly even in my 50s. But today I do so in a very profound way. I think it's unfair to characterize our workforce, the young ones in the workforce, as entitled. Rather I believe that as we make our way through the circle of life we seem to move from a mentality of entitlement to one of being grateful. Recently, as a vice president group, we have talked a lot about the balance of building a culture here at NISC that creates a challenging, fast paced, learning environment that is stable and sustainable, filled with opportunities for our employees. But we have to balance that view with the responsibility that we have to serve our members. The challenge is to balance those sometimes conflicted goals between the employees and the members. The question is this "is NISC in business to serve our employees or are we in business to serve our members?". The answer is yes, we're in business both serve our employees and our members. Now over the last couple of years, I've read some interesting books on topics about this. Titles like "The Customer Comes Second" by Hal Rosenbluth and "Employees First" by Vineet Nayar. The premise of these two books is that you should focus, as an employer, you should focus on the employees, and if you take care of them, they will take care of the customer. Now while that concept listens good, I think everyone who believes that taking care of our members is not our primary focus, is tragically wrong. It goes like this if we take care of our members if we do an exceptional job our business will grow and that business will generate the resources required to take care of our employees. Not the other way around. While the compensation package that NISC provides is very important to all of us, as employees, one of the great things about working here at NISC is the relationships that we have built over the years, and we do not take those relationships for granted. This is not just our co-workers, they are our dear friends, and when they go through challenges and struggles in their life well then we share that pain and we always have their backs. I would say regarding our members we are not just a vendor and they are not just our members rather they're our friends, and we have this sense that we are in this together and that this is so much more than a job it is a dedication to a cause of delivering technology to rural America. I'm not sure why but in the recent months there seems to be a rash of current and retired co-workers and members who are truly dealing with devastating health challenges and when I see their pain, and I hear their stories I find my perspective on life and my priorities changed in a profound way. I feel my attitude moving from entitlement to gratitude. As I think about my daily challenges problems and frustration I would classify many of them as first world problems and this is what I mean, My cell phone battery is running too low too quickly, The lines are too long in security at the airport, My flight is delayed ten minutes, they don't have the right cut of meat at the supermarket that I wanted for our weekend grill out, I'm delayed in traffic, The Internet connectivity is not as fast as I would like, and my GPS has recalculated just one too many times. Those are all first world problems. I have a good friend and mentor who once said to me when you're healthy you have 100 problems, and many of those are these first world problems, but when you're not healthy when you're fighting for your life, you have only one problem. And if you, or someone close to you, is having health issues you know exactly what I mean. Without your health, these first world problems seem small and insignificant. So this morning, I decided that the battery life on my cell phone, the Internet connectivity, lines, traffic, or the grocery store, my paycheck, my health insurance, these are not entitlements. Rather they are indications of the blessings in my life. First and foremost, I am grateful for my health and the relationships that I have with my fellow employees and the members that we serve. Everything else is a minor inconvenience. One of my favorite authors of all times is Charles Krauthammer, a wicked smart political commentator, and author. While in his first year of studying medicine at Harvard Medical School, Krauthammer became permanently paralyzed from the waist down after a diving accident. Now some say how terrible, how cruel, how unfair that such a smart and promising young man within entitled Life would be dealt such an unfair hand. But rather than feel sorry for himself Charles, during his life, was determined never to let his disability be a hindrance or something that garnered sympathy. He went on to become a Pulitzer Prize winner and in my humble opinion one of the most influential authors and political pundits of our time, and it was his sense of gratitude, rather than entitlement, that endeared him to a nation of admirers. In June of 2018 at the young age of 68, it's interesting that what I consider Young has increased dramatically over the years, but anyway at age 68 Charles's life came to an end after a battle with cancer. When you look at his life, you could say that he had reason to be bitter or feel sorry for himself, but it really was the contrary. Weeks before his death he penned the following letter. "I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life full and complete with great loves and great endeavors that made it worth living. Yes, I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I have lived the life that I intended - Charles Krauthammer". I wonder if all of us would be able to write a letter like that at the end of our lives. Thank you, Charles, for your wisdom and inspiration. Thanks for teaching us that entitlement should have no place in our lives, rather we should be filled up, to overflowing, with gratitude for our jobs, and our lives, and our families, and our friends, and the opportunity to serve our members in each other and build relationships that will endure the challenges that the circle of life may bring our way. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you,. Vern

Most of you know that I have a passion for reading and over the years I have learned a great deal from authors like Tom Peters, Jim Collins, and Simon Sinek. From my years here at NISC and what I have learned from my readings I would summarize my entire wisdom, of my career, with the following statement; Hard is soft and soft is hard. Let me explain. Hard. These are the financial reports that we share each month with our board and our employees. It's the supporting budgets, the forecasts, the endless PowerPoints. and projections. Hard includes the surveys and the dashboards that we use to track our performance as an organization and as individuals. Hard is the balance in your bank account, your 401k statement, and the number of candles on your birthday cake. Hard is, for the most part, black and white with little room for interpretation. Soft. Soft as the people of NISC. Now that's not to say that I think you're soft. We actually have to be pretty tough and resilient to survive and thrive here at NISC. What I mean is that our relationships the relationships that we have with one another and our members. It's the culture of our organization. It's understanding what's serving each other and our members really means. It's believing that "do the right thing, always" is more than just a quaint statement. Rather that statement is at the core of how we do business here at NISC. Our shared values may be considered soft but it is how we do what we do. But we all know that soft is hard. It's hard to build relationships and a strong culture and enduring values. It's hard to build, nurture, maintain, and consistently follow these important items. Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronic, once said and I quote the capacity to develop close and enduring relationships is the mark of a leader. Unfortunately, many leaders believe their job is to create the strategy, the organizational structure, and the organizational processes and then just delegate the work to the people, remaining removed from those people. I know from experience that that method that disengagement from the employees is not successful over the long term. Here at NISC it's critical that we focus on relationships and building the trust with our members and our colleagues that's so critical. So those soft skills are very important. But as our Vice President of research and development Dan Wilbanks recently said to me "our hard-technical skills are also very important. We are a technology company and every single NISC employee from our most recent hire to the CEO needs to be continually upgrading their technical skills to stay relevant. It's not effective for a supervisor just to be a manager of people rather they need to be technically hands-on." In other words, those hard-technical skills are also important for the progression of your career. Back to the phrase soft is hard. You get things done around here on the basis of your patiently developed network of relationships both inside and outside of NISC. The stronger and the broader your network the more value you bring to our organization. That's why here at NISC our focus is on people not stature, not titles, not things. NISC is nothing more and nothing less than people, our employees, serving people each other as colleagues of NISC are member owners and the communities that we serve. Anyone in leadership or anyone who aspires to leadership here at NISC must understand that when you're in leadership you are in the full-time people business. It's all about people, Leaders serving people our employee members in our communities. Another lesson that I have learned is that developing soft skills takes time and patience. Simply put you cannot speed up the soft stuff to try to do so is a design for disaster. Relationships are built on trust and trust is established over time. Difficult projects, members, and employees’ situations where you have to prove yourself and over time establish and strengthen those relationships based on your proven track record. So in summary I would say that the hard part of NISC is not the numbers, the financial reports, wins and losses, employee recruiting and retention. Rather the hard part is the soft stuff. Relationships, trust, credibility, and consistency. Although this approach to our business may seem a bit unusual it is how we do things around here. It is what has made us successful for the past 50 years and what will make us successful in the future. Because you see, here NISC, we pride ourselves in being Wired Differently and we understand that hard is soft and soft is hard. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern  

One of the most important and impactful quotes I have come across in my career is “only the paranoid survive” a statement by the Andy Grove the first CEO of the Intel Corporation, arguably one of the most successful and impactful technology companies in history.  We have used this quote many times here at NISC as we talk about our strategies and position in the market, and in my humble opinion, this statement and admonition is more relevant here at NISC today than ever in our history. Perhaps some of you are thinking, lighten up Vern, because , t the risk of sounding full of ourselves,  the facts are that NISC is strong financially, our pipeline is full, we have a larger market share than any of our competitors and we have assembled an impressive group of technologists and subject matter experts in both the telecommunications and Utility industries unlike any of our competitors, and we are delivering the most comprehensive enterprise solution in the market … why be paranoid, why now  For the past 50 years, NISC has traditionally been a lean, hungry, focused, and determined organization, those attributes have propelled us on an unrelenting journey to improve and strengthen all the aspects of our organization from the status of our products, to the depth and breadth of our employees’ base, to our financial stability and resources.  This was and is not an easy journey, and I hope that not a single one of our employees feel we are at a place where we can relax, let-up, and coast across the preverbal finish line. If ever there was a time for us to be paranoid, it is now, we have worked so hard to get to this place of success and prominence,  and with that success comes the fact that we have a very large target on our back, every one of our competitors is gunning for us, and there is nothing they would like more than for NISC to stumble, let up, be distracted, or lose our focus, giving them an opportunity to recapture market share that then have lost to us over the past several years. The sense of urgency here at NISC should palpable, we are in a battle every day to win the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of our existing Members and those whom we are working to add to our cooperative family.  And never before have we had such a profound opportunity to meet unmet needs of our Members, to provide technology solutions that enable them to offer new services, and products to their members at the end of the line.  The industry is taking notice of NISC’s growing strength and success in the market and without question, this is our time … the question is, do we embrace the urgency, do we have the intestinal fortitude, the desire, the determination to Capri Diem – to seize the moment.  I am convinced that the only way for us to be successful is for every employee at NISC from the newest employees we hired yesterday to our most tenured employees at 45 years of service to feel this incredible and overwhelming sense of urgency.  We have been very clear that our singular strategy, our focus for this fiscal year is to successfully bring iVUE Connect to market.  This initiative is without a doubt the most complicated and challenging project we have ever tackled in our history, and I have every confidence that we will be successful.  But to be successful will require a sense of urgency on the part of every NISC employee unlike we have ever seen in our history, this is not just happy talk, rather it is the reality we face, the opportunity that has presented itself. The future of our beloved organization, the careers of our employees, and our ability to effectively meet the expectations and requirements of our Members / Owners and our reputation are dependent on whether or not we can pull this off. Make no mistake about the power, capabilities and potential of 1200 NISC employees focused on a single goal a single initiative, with a sense of urgency that cannot be matched by our competitors … are you in … I am, let’s do this, and do this  very, very well. Thanks for listening I appreciate you Vern

As I was driving through our city this morning, I saw a billboard announcing that a particular hospital in our city was the very best hospital in the state. A little further down the road was an eating establishment advertising that they, and only they, were the home of the world's best hamburger. Now you've all seen the articles in Forbes and U.S. News declaring that certain businesses, cities, and states are the best of something or other. Many of these 'best of' declarations, in my humble opinion, don't hold much credibility as they can be manipulated and in some cases outright purchased through the investment of advertising dollars or sophisticated public relations initiatives. So it's fair to say that I view many of these 'best of' employer rankings with the same skepticism. You've heard me say, many times, that perhaps our most significant risk, which could threaten the business of NISC, is the risk of attracting and retaining the talent we need to meet the demand for our products. Financially we're very strong and secure. We have been so fortunate that our pipeline of new business is overflowing and our challenge is to manage the overwhelming demand for our products. It's a good problem to have but to meet those challenges takes smart, innovative, and dedicated employees and that is why our recruiters and peoples services have placed over 150 new NISC colleagues here, in our organization, since January of this year. So to have our organization recognized as the 'best of' is a very valuable tool when we're working hard to distinguish our organization from the crowded field of companies searching and competing for the same great talent. Having said all of that, today we are celebrating a Red Letter Day here at NISC because our organization has been recognized by three, in our opinion, very credible organizations as a great place to work and we feel these three designations have credibility because of the methodology that was used to determine the rankings. Now, for 16 years NISC has been recognized as a best place to work in I.T. by ComputerWorld. Besides being one of the most credible publications in our industry, we appreciate the manner in which Computerworld conducts this study. To determine these rankings Computerworld interfaces directly with our employees. NISC has no control involvement or influence in the survey process and that arm's length methodology gives the results, in our opinion, a great deal of credibility. Also, on a local level, the St. Louis Post Dispatch recognized NISC as a top place to work in the St. Louis region and the Bismarck Mandan Young Professionals have recognized NISC, for the 10th year, as a place that has been successful in executing strategies to attract and retain young professionals in our community. While this recognition is wonderful and flattering, what really matters to us are the sentiments and the perception of each individual NISC employee. That is why we faithfully conduct a quarterly Pulse survey of our employee base. We ask hard questions like "is our compensation package fair, comprehensive, and equitable?", "Is the management of NISC effective and efficient?", "Is your work challenging?", "Are we investing appropriately in your career?", "Is our culture conducive to a positive and engaging work environment?", "Is the coaching you are receiving from your supervisors helping you to advance your career?" In our opinion the answers to these questions matter more than the recognition of any 'best of' award. I want to assure each of you of our determination and desire to be an organization that is continually evolving, improving, and flat out making this a better place to work. We know that you have options and we are focused every day on earning the right to be your employer for the rest of your career. So today we celebrate the recognition from Computerworld, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, and The Bismarck Mandan Young Professionals as a best place to work. To our employees, "Thanks". Thank you for believing in us. Thanks for forgiving us when we mess up and being understanding when we make well intended decisions that just don't turn out very well. It is our desire to make the decisions that are in the best long term interest of our Member owners, our employees, and our organization and as you know that is a very delicate balancing act. Please know of our resolve to do the right thing, always. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you Vern

For the last several years we have followed a strategic planning process where we identify between seven and 10 major strategic initiatives. These are projects or goals for our organization to be accomplished within the next fiscal year.  It's been a very good process and one that we've been able to use and refine and perfect year after year. I believe our board of directors is comfortable with this methodology and it's also a very good way to help our employees understand how they fit into and can contribute to the future success of our organization.  Now as we close out this fiscal year and report on the progress of our initiatives for the fiscal year 2018, our planning process for the fiscal year 2019 is also well underway. We always try to discipline ourselves and limit the number of strategic initiatives. We found it is very easy to get all carried away and end up with more initiatives or goals than even in our most optimistic view for the next year we can reasonably accomplish. Our experience is that when we have too many goals we end up thrashing in actually spending more time when reporting our progress or lack thereof than we actually do working on the goals.  With that in mind, we have made the decision to enter this fiscal year with a single goal. One. This goal is to be a rallying point or a mantra for our employees. And the goal is the acceleration of iVUE Connect. Every single employee at NISC should know the answer to the question What is the most important initiative for our organization in 2019? The answer should be a consistent and a unanimous iVUE Connect.  While we have tackled many projects here at NISC. I'm comfortable in saying that iVUE Connect is by far the most significant development effort in our 50-year history. This project is combining our industry-specific solutions into a unified product that will serve both telecommunications and the utility industries. The efficiencies that iVUE Connect will bring our organization are very significant. Gone are the days when we have two of everything, two customer care, and billing products. Two e-commerce, mobile, and engineering products. iVUE Connect will develop and deliver a single multi-service product.  Will this be easy? Certainly not. It will be by far the most complex project we have ever tackled and I'm guessing there are skeptics some saying that this simply cannot be done. But there were many naysayers inside and outside of NISC. When we made the decision to have a single accounting and business solution that serves both industries. Not only was that a successful initiative but today that Accounting and Business Solution product is the most widely distributed and the largest installed base of any product that NISC has brought to market. A single product serving both industries.  So iVUE Connect will be the most robust configurable product in our history and make no mistake. Every one of our competitors is on the same path and has the same aspirations for a multi-service product. The question is who will be the first to successfully bring this product to market? The demand in the market is already there today. Our members are patiently sometimes not so patiently waiting for this product.  It is very important that every NISC employee understands that this race to bring iVUE Connect to market is like a war. It's a horse race, it's a battle, just choose your analogy but our ability to focus all 1200 employees on the single goal of iVUE Connect is an advantage that no other competitor can muster, But NISC can. We have the subject matter expertise and 50 years of experience in both industries to successfully bring this product to market before our competitors can.  Our ability to deliver a quality comprehensive product to market with a solid reference-able base of sites using the product will without question establish NISC as an industry leader, the number one provider in both industries. You may ask why is that important.  The success of NISC and our continual progress in the marketplace is one of the single most important factors in establishing NISC financial strength and stability. I cannot think of an organization that was able to significantly cut or slash their way to prosperity. That's why growth at NISC is so important and its growth in a consistent, calculated manner where we pay as much attention to the satisfaction of our members in the engagement of our employees as we do to the bottom line. And this type of culture, this philosophy will ensure that our next 50 years will be even more successful than the first and that NISC will be a market leader.  Now I know all this talk about being a leader in the industry, well it sounds like bragging. Something that doesn't fit well with our culture here at NISC. We prefer to let our members and employees do the talking about their perceptions of our organization because we learned a long time ago that having our members and employees speak positively about our organization in the long term much more effective than us trying to toot our own horn.  The reality that we are dealing with is that everyone loves a winner and no one wants to be associated with a loser. When a company is recognized as having the premier product whether it's a vehicle, a food, an eating place, a piece of software, or technical hardware, and the product is getting great reviews by third parties there is a piling on effect. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Everyone wants that product and in many cases, they're willing to pay more for the product because it is viewed as best in class. That's why people camp out in front of an Apple store to get the latest iPhone or why 600,000 individuals put a thousand dollars down, sight unseen, and are willing to wait 24 to 36 months for a Tesla Model 3. Now I don't expect any of our members or prospective members to be camped out in front of our office waiting for the release of our unified product iVUE Connect.  I do know that being first to successfully bring a multi-service product to market will absolutely solidify and NISC is a market leader and that will be very good for our members, our organization, and ultimately our employees.  In that same respect, I believe our employees want to be working for an organization that is viewed as the leader. No one wants to work for a loser organization, a company that is number two, because who we work for, the organization that we devote our time and talents to, is a direct reflection on each of us personally.  We are at a critical point with iVUE Connect. Multiple teams are concurrently working on various parts of this product across all NYSE locations. This project requires a very high degree of collaboration and work across not only the industries but also the disciplines of customer care and billing, accounting, and engineering. And unfortunately, it is in our human nature to be a bit territorial and to spend too much time talking about and debating how we used to do things as separate industries rather than what we need to do for the future. All of this bantering and resistance slows the project down and jeopardizes our ability to successfully bring this product to market.  On December 6, 2000, I received an email from Dan Wilbanks our vice president of research development and quality. At that time we were in the early stages of iVUE development and frankly, we were struggling. Struggling with dissension within our newly merged organization. There was the St. Louis way of doing things and then there was the Mandan way of doing things and many times those perspectives were in direct conflict. This email is the longest email I've ever received from Dan and he concluded towards the end of the mammal and I quote "We have to strengthen our decision making. It currently seems that there are too much committee and too much compromise. Is this the reason we aren't making more progress? I don't know for sure.".  Well, I think if we are all honest with ourselves back in 2000 the answer to Dan's question was "absolutely yes". Our inability to make critical decisions quickly and comprehensively was slowing the project down. What is concerning is that almost 17 years later, on an equally as important project, it appears that we are making some of the exact same mistakes. Progress is being slowed. We're trying to make every decision by committee and every decision has to be a compromise. Look this is not our first rodeo. Within the ranks of NISC, we have some of the very best subject matter experts in the business. Individuals that have gone through multiple iterations and generation of software development and we have to trust their judgment. This is time for decisive leadership where individuals stand up with conviction, make decisions, break Juggernauts, and keep this project moving. Will all of the decisions we make be perfect? No, certainly not. We'll make some mistakes. I'd rather make a few mistakes along the way mistakes that we can refactor and correct than I would have this project be paralyzed and brought to a crawl because we feel all decisions need to be made by a committee and we refuse to move on without a complete consensus on every topic or every piece of functionality in question.  Now please understand. These are general observations about this project. I'm not directing my comments towards any individual industry, but I do see the incredible possibility that we have to position NISC in the market as a leader with this product and I want to make certain we're successful.  Now, not all of you may feel that you are directly involved in this project. You may not be working on the design, the usability, coding testing, implementation of iVUE Connect, or support of that product.  But the truth is that we are all involved, and all have an essential role. If you work in a service center, or you're adding enhancements supporting our legacy iVUE product, you have a very important role in making sure our members are taken

Every grade school kid has a vision of making it to the pros. And every parent with what they believe is a prodigy child firmly believes that that is a distinct possibility. But the facts would indicate otherwise. Of all high school seniors only .03 percent will eventually have the opportunity to turn pro, and once they make that transition, the career of a professional athlete is rather short. Let Me tell you what I mean. The average professional golfer last 3.5 years. Basketball player 4.8, football 3.3, baseball 5.6, hockey 5.5, golf 3.5, and tennis at 9.5. So the statistics say that on average a professional athlete has a career of between three and ten years. That's rather short when you consider our average life expectancy is now approaching 80 years. One Of the most gratifying realities of working here at NISC is the longevity of our employees. For a technology company in an industry that is notorious for a high turnover that at times approaches 25 percent a year. NISC, even with a considerable number of employees who are reaching normal retirement, has a turnover rate of a modest 6 percent. What that means is that we have a significant amount of employees that have been here 20 plus years as evidenced by our 20 year Wall of Fame. Within the last month we have recognized employees for 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and even 45 years of employment at NISC. Retired employee Larry Estell presently holds the years of service record at 45 years and four months. That's just about half a century and is simply amazing. But current employees Linda Bass and Rick Wilman are not far behind and will surely break Larry's record. Few employees in any company have the experience of working their entire adult life for a single employer. But yet, here at NISC, it is relatively common.  Recently I was talking to a friend who works for a huge corporation that has a long and storied history of hiring rapidly then riffing off employees in a somewhat predictable cycle. He told me that the best part of his Friday afternoons, at his current place of employment, was not getting a pink slip because then he could relax for the weekend knowing that he had a job for at least another week. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be in constant fear of losing your job. But having said that, I don't think we should ever take for granted the stability that NISC has afforded our careers. I am grateful that here at NISC we can focus on serving our members and each other rather than being in constant fear of losing our jobs. Having a long career at NISC has also allowed us to witness strategies come to fruition, projects being completed, and software lifecycles playing themselves out, sometimes multiple times. Perhaps one of NISC longest and most arduous strategies is our goal to be a national player in the telephone and electric industry. I recall that in 1987 NCDC/CADP's average sized telecom and utility was 3,600 meters. Our largest site had just shy of 20,000 customers. In 1996 I was in a meeting with the CEO of a major competitor of ours who shall go unnamed, and he said and I quote "we'll take the big ones (meaning the big rural electric cooperatives) and you all NCDC and CADP can take the little ones." That comment has always stuck in my craw because what he was insinuating was that our software lacked the features, functionality, and stability to meet the demanding requirements of large, sophisticated sites. And the sad part was, the truth was that at that time in our history, that's exactly the way it was. And that really hurt. Fast Forward 20 years which include the formation of NISC and our relentless, aggressive investment in research and development in quality, our determination to deliver a full enterprise solution, and the way we embraced project management to improve the quality and the consistency of our implementations. You put that all together, and it's no accident that today NISC count as its members 8 of the ten largest rural electric cooperatives in the country and we are working with the other two as prospects. On the telephone side of our business, within our pipeline, are some of the largest independent telcos in the country. Today we serve organizations in excess of three hundred thousand users, and although we serve some of the smallest systems in the country, our average size is now over 20,000 meters and subscribers. My how those numbers have changed since 1987. The CEO's organization who made that bold, if not irritating, statement about NISC taking care of the little ones are nowhere to be seen in the top 10 sites. I must admit that, in a dark moment or two, I thought about calling that CEO and asking how that plan worked out for him. But that would be rude and arrogant, and I think we'll just let our progress quietly speak for itself. What an amazing accomplishment for our organization and reaching that national prominence in our industries gives us all the more confidence for the future. While many of us had aspirations for a career as a professional athlete or to see our mug on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the alternative has been a long and amazing career here at NISC. During that career to witness and be part of an incredible transformation of our organization from a small struggling startup regional provider to a national powerhouse. Whether you have been here at NISC for 45 days or 45 years, you are a part of this amazing story. The power of possibilities. Thanks For listening. I Appreciate you, Vern.

I must admit the older I get, the more and more I have come to realize that there is so much more that I need to learn about appropriately and effectively managing an organization. Much of what I have learned about leadership is from great examples of leaders in my own life starting with my father and also from more business books than I care to admit. I did a quick search for business books on Amazon, and it came up with over 2 million plus titles which is a bit overwhelming. Every former CEO or college professor seems to think that they are a subject matter expert on the topic of being a successful leader. Honestly, in 44 years, I don't think I've truly figured it out but one thing I do know for certain there is no secret sauce. There is no silver bullet, and for the most part, the methods that are suggested in these books are so incredibly complicated like "50 Priorities of a Successful Leader" or "Twenty Five Steps to Build Your Leadership Career."  As I have pored over these books, I can say that there is not a single one that I have felt entirely comfortable with so, I guess you could say that I've taken a few nuggets out of each one. And together we have developed the part of our culture that I would call the NISC Leadership Model. For starters, our model is not very complicated. In fact, I would call it rather simplistic. But as we all know, simple is not necessarily easy. From my perspective, your effectiveness as a leader or a potential leader is all about Relationships. Let me say that again your effectiveness as a leader or a potential leader is all about relationships. You show me a strong and effective leader, and I will show you an individual that has slowly, methodically, built credibility, trust, and in the process a strong, diverse, and cohesive network of co-workers, business associates, contacts in the community. As well as a strong and dependable group of friends that have been tested over time. I have read that your relationships both personal and professional are one of the most important contributors not only to your success in the workplace and at home, but relationships are a major contributor to your longevity or lack thereof. There is a personal example that comes to mind that emphasizes this important point. My mother is 87 years old and struggled for years with a multitude of medical challenges. Our conversations were dominated by her tales of aches and pains and medical concerns. Then most unexpectedly into her life came in a 94-year-old man who befriended her. They made popcorn, and they watched movies almost every night. They debated politics and often ventured on public transportation to eat at their favorite places. This relationship was life changing from my mom. Her demeanor took a 180-degree turn. Now she was optimistic and cheerful. Gone were her medical concerns. She was now an absolute joy to be around, and the depressing conversations of her medical modalities had gone away. What changed? Simply put, her relationships changed. From a personal perspective one of the most effective leaders that I have known, someone I'm fortunate to not only call a friend but also has been an instrumental mentor in my life, has a Rolodex to die for. That's right; I guess we don't use Rolodexes anymore. But you know what I mean. He is so connected and respected not only in our community but also in the industries we serve. He has made a concerted effort to build relationships and build his reputation, and he has accomplished that amazing feat not by some magic formula or top-selling business book but rather as they used to say at Smith Barney "we make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it". His reputation his credibility and his generosity have been established over decades of consistent, good, selfless work. He has earned his reputation. Sometimes when I'm talking with a negative, self-absorbed individual, it feels as if the energy is just being sucked out of me. I found it very uncomfortable, and I owned the fact that many times I find myself avoiding this type of individual. So put strong, positive relationships at the top of my list as a key ingredient necessary for a successful life and effective career in management. Now I am far from a social butterfly. I'm an introvert. So relationships do not come easy for me, but I will tell you I have learned that the very best relationships I have are built on trust. So what is trust? Well, I believe it is a willingness to be vulnerable and to take risks. Let me tell you a story many years ago a group of NYSE employees and myself loaded a chartered King Air 200 with equipment and we headed to Holyoke Colorado for a software demonstration at a prospective member site. Our pilot, I didn't know him, but I did know of him. He was a former World War II pilot. Tinted glasses, a pocket protector, a rather odd looking dude but yet we were trusting our lives to this relatively unknown pilot basically because of his proven ability and his reputation. After a successful couple days of demonstrations. We loaded the plane once again to head home. It was a hot August afternoon, and as we charged down the runway, we were about 150 feet off the ground when the left engine came to an abrupt stop. The next couple of minutes were a bit of a blur, but at the end of a rather rough ride, we found ourselves still all alive sitting in the middle of a cornfield in a plane that had been destroyed. It was later determined that the skill of this seasoned pilot, in a very difficult situation, had most probably saved our lives. And it was his reputation that caused us to trust him. So it boils down to this. To trust someone and begin building a relationship there need to be three things.  First ability. A track record of accomplishments. For our pilot, it was years of flying for the military and the private sector. For you, it may be becoming a subject matter, recognized expert here at NISC in a particular area. The second is benevolence a selfless kindness which brings to mind an Abe Lincoln quote in which he said: "to ease another's heartache, is to forget one's own." The people I trust most in my life are those who are willing to give of themselves. The selfless ones. Here at NISC our benevolence committee and the involvement of our employees in the community, as well as the way our employees support each other, stand up for each other, take care of each other in need, is an example of benevolence. An example of the people that I trust.   And the final is integrity. An individual with a solid, consistent set of values. Someone I can relate to and share a common view of life and our responsibilities here at NISC and our dedication to faith and family and our community. So success in our personal and professional lives, I have come to understand, is based on relationships. We build those relationships with trust, and we establish trust by aligning ourselves with individuals that have proven ability, a sense of benevolence, and finally integrity. That very simply is what I have learned about leadership and continue to learn in my career. I appreciate you, Vern

I normally do not like to bore you with aspects of my personal life, but last week I experienced a trip to Disney World with all five grandchildren.  Some of you with the blessings of grandchildren in your life will understand the magic, no pun intended of this type of trip, and others will understand the importance of the Disney lessons I learned, many of which apply to the work we do here at NISC and the culture that we are working together to build. First of all, a couple of practical lessons learned for those of you who have a Disney trip in your future.  The first thing you need to do is take that $100 alert off your credit card.  It will be much less stressful, just accept the fact that it will be an expensive day.  Next, download the My Disney Experience App, it is a wonderful guide and will be a very valuable tool to maximize your days on Disney property.  Learn to use the Fast Pass system, you don’t want to spend your time standing in lines which sometimes can approach two hours, Fast Past allows you to move throughout the park with very little time in dreaded lines.  You need to get over the shock of the cost of the park entrance fees, no there is no way for you accountants to calculate a return on this investment, the time with your family is absolutely priceless, but wait there is more, whatever you pay for entrance fees, just double that amount to take into account for your hotel room, that goofy hat with the big ears, that souvenirs which will absolutely end-up in that overflowing toy box within two days of returning home.  And You have never lived until you pay $12 for a Disney hotdog and $5 for an ice cream bar with ears.  If you have little ones in tow, expect that there will be meltdowns and tantrums, and remember you are at Disney world, not church, Tantrums are well part of the entertainment. If you have little ones, take at least 5 extra diapers in addition to what you normally would use … just trust me on this one.  Guys, stop trying to be macho and think you are going to carry those kids all day, just go and rent the biggest baddest stroller you can find, in addition to a great place for those all-important naps, and I’m talking about for the kids, not you, it will become this massive flotilla of water bottles, hats, coats, sunscreen, snacks, again for the kids, not you. Pick your rides carefully, during the bug life event, I spent the entire time trying to cover one of the little granddaughter's ears with one hand the other one over her eyes … delightful … just delightful. As I went through the day, I couldn’t help observe the true business magic of Disney, their use of technology that was invented at Disney, from the transport system that meets you in the parking lot, to the fingerprint scanners at the entrance of the park.  The ability to feed and entertain 56,000 visitors a day or 20.4 million in 2017 is absolutely extraordinary.  The attention to detail and perfection like the pressed white uniforms or costumes as they are called at Disney of the people picking up trash, by the way, you will never be more than 30 feet from a garbage bin, The amazing detail, and design of the cast members costumes and the fact that I can absolutely say that in two full days on Disney property I did not once encounter an employee or cast member that did have an authentic smile on their face.  By the way, there are 70,000 cast members at Walt Disney World making them the largest on-site employer in the world. Every question or inquire was not only answered completely and professionally, but they always make a point of asking if there was anything they could help you with.  Every one of these cast members was absolutely focused on making certain that every guest not only had a good experience but an exceptional experience.  Can we say we have that very same attitude with every encounter we have here at NISC with our Members and each other as employees?  One afternoon, during naps for the little ones, I struck up a conversation with an elderly gentleman standing stoically as a security guard.  We talked about the training they received at the Disney Institute and I asked him about the most important thing that he learned during that training he said it was keep it simple so that everyone understands.  Interesting but this also reminds me of a Steve Jobs quote – Simple software design is much more difficult that complex software design.  Would our Members say our software is simple, intuitive, or is it difficult and complex?  The answer to that questions is one of the most important factors in our future success. There are a couple other business lessons that I learned during this Disney visit (1) You don’t have to be the lowest price to be successful, customers are willing to pay for quality, and they are willing to pay much more if you can deliver extraordinary value (2) it is very important to sweat the details, every detail, every time (3) Place yourself into the customer experience – stand in lines, eat the food, get out of your office and cubical and get with the customer, experience their world, their challenges, their frustrations.  Sounds like very good advice for our organization, in particular, our usability teams At the end of the second day I was absolutely exhausted, one of the little granddaughters one stood at my feet with their arms reaching up wanting to be picked up, she gave me a strangling hug, held my face in her hands and said, grandpa, I am such a lucky girl, this was the best day in my life, and I love you very much.  Ok, my credit card had almost melted down during this visit, but my heart was also melted and full of gratefulness and love and whatever it cost … it was absolutely worth it.  I felt so fortunate to be able to provide the grandkids with this experience, the truth is that grandpa and grandma had a better time than the kids Here at NISC we can learn a great deal from observing other successful businesses and individuals and bring that important information back to our work environment.  What the grandkids taught me this week is that whatever the cost and whatever the difficulty we have been through, a sincere word of thanks and appreciation can make all the difference in the world.  We have all had those days that were difficult and frustrating, travel was impossible, everything that could go wrong did go wrong, our list of things to do was longer at the end of the day than when the day started. But it could be an encouraging word or pat on the back from a grateful co-worker or Member and we understand that whatever effort was required today, the outcome was encouraging and absolutely worth the effort. I return to the office today, refreshed and excited for what I had learned during my Disney Experience. Oh yes Hakuna Matata -\ – no worries Thanks for listening I appreciate you Vern

Recently I picked up a new book by Satya Nadella. Hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. He is the current CEO of Microsoft and the name of his book is "Hit Refresh." I found his book to be very fascinating and although the scope of Microsoft is much different and broader than NISC, there are many similarities and many lessons that we can learn by watching the transformation that is going on or the refresh that is going on at Microsoft. Here are a few observations. For starters, I don't know about you but from time to time, as I have visited with my fellow employees, one of the comments they have made is that as NISC has grown in size, they feel it's much more difficult for them to make a difference, for their work to be noticed, or acknowledged, or appreciated. And you know I absolutely understand how an employee could feel that way and to be perfectly candid, there has been a time or two in my career when I've had some of the same feelings. One of the reasons that I feel so strongly that that isn't true, that we can't make a difference, is just to look at what's happened at Microsoft since 2014 when Satya assumed his new role as CEO. Now Microsoft has about 120,000 employees. So, from an employee perspective, they are a hundred times larger than NISC. But yet, when Satya, one of 120,000 employees took over as CEO of Microsoft, their stock price was at $37 a share and for a publicly-traded company that's one of the most important measurements that points towards the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the CEO. Today, four years later, that same share of Microsoft stock trades at around $92 a share, a 250% gain in four years or about 62% a year increase in value. Now I think that any of us would welcome that type of appreciation in our 401k account. But as important in that amazing gain in their share price, I would say that in the last four years there has been a notable improvement in their product quality and innovation. And certainly, the culture of Microsoft, a very large ship, has been changed dramatically in the last four years, and there is no question that the major catalyst for that change was because of Satya. One of 120,000 employees. Now I speak these very complimentary words of Microsoft knowing full well that I've spent some time in these BlogCasts talking about Apple, and I'm kind of a self-proclaimed Apple bigot. Just ask David Aichele. And one other comment about David. Although I have teased him for years about Microsoft, he has been a constant advocate and supporter of that organization and even when the brand was tarnished, he stuck with them. And you know, I respect that loyalty. Now David can bask in the glow of "I told you so." Good for you, David. But I still say the quality of a Surface is no comparison to an iPad or a Mac Pro. I'm just saying. But back to the topic of making a difference in the workplace. In all the material that I have read about Satya, there is a constant assessment of his leadership qualities. He is described as being humble. Imagine that. There is that humility quality again. He is said to be forward-looking and pragmatic, meaning that he deals with challenges very sensibly and very realistically and not a lot of drama involved. For NISC to succeed in the digital age, I think that we have to be very realistic and we have to understand that the computing industry has never been more complex. An example would be when iVUE was released, there were about 6 million lines of code. Today the NISC Enterprise comprises over 30 million lines of code. Many companies, besides NISC, are doing innovative work in the industries we serve. There are companies like SAP, Oracle, SEDC, and Innovative and the crowd of competitors is crowded and fierce.   The exciting fact is this. That despite all this rapid change in our industry we are still truly at the very beginning of the digital revolution, or as they say "we haven't seen anything yet." Think of all the time that we and our Members spend manually organizing, performing mundane activities from scheduling meetings to generating billings, receiving payments, paying accounts payable, processing payroll, scheduling work, keeping a smarter grid, and the broadband networks humming. I am convinced that artificial intelligence will have a tremendous impact on our daily work activities and that block-chain will dramatically change the way we transmit sensitive data, bill for services, and process payments, as well as buy products like electricity and broadband.  Our challenge here at NISC is to figure out how these emerging technologies like AI and Blockchain will fit into and improve our Enterprise solutions. The number of technical challenges we face every day here at NISC continues to grow at a very rapid pace, but so too the opportunities that each of us has to truly make a difference in the work that we do. We may be one of 1,200 but make no mistake about the dramatic impact your experience, dedication, and innovation can make for our organization. And yes, each of you has an opportunity to reinvent, to refresh NISC, your co-workers, and most importantly the Members we serve. Thanks for all you do and for listening to these rambling thoughts. I appreciate you. Vern Vern.

You have heard me say many times that ours’s is a relationship business.  Yes, we are a technology company and our products are comprised of the intellectual property of our software and technology that our enterprise solutions deliver to the market. Every company I know has a mission statement or a listing of their corporate values, it’s the politically correct thing to do, the question is, are they real, are they part of the fabric of the organization, are the employees engaged and to they understand how important those values are to the success and future viability of their employer. The answer to that question is not what management would say, or people services would tout to recruits they are perusing, the true answer would be verbalized by our employees who are betting their careers on the culture and success of our organization, and most important by the Members we serve would say. For the past 50 years, we have been so fortunate to have Consolidated Telephone of Dickinson North Dakota as a Member.  They were one of our early adopters, they believed in us even when our first product had not yet been released to the market.  Over the years as a very progressive Telecommunication Member of our organization, they have rolled up their sleeves and participated in advisory committees, have beta tested our software and in the process have pushed us, prodded us and causes our organization to improve and expand our products offering.  There have been some rocky times when we unintentionally disappointed them when they were frustrated with our performance and product delivery timeframes.  But we worked through those uncomfortable times, and never, never once did we doubt their commitment to our organization, nor did we let up on our determination to improve our products, services, and dedication earning the right to be their Information Technology provider. As part of our 50th celebration, we deliver a plaque to the CEO of Consolidated, thanking them for this amazing 50-year partnership.  The following is a message I received from the CEO: Thank you for the recognition of 50 years with NISC, it has been a relationship that I can honestly say is the ONE we revere within Consolidated.  Working with organizations that are true to their principles is a rare occurrence these days, however, NISC has always been an organization that espouses integrity, honesty, and commitment.  That is why we value our relationship so fondly.  We are proud to have been affiliated with NISC over these past 50 years, looking forward to 50 more.   WOW all I can say is WOW   You know, we are not a perfect organization, but make no mistake Every product we deliver, every service we provide, every phone call, e-mail, Member visit we schedule, every class we provide everything is directed to serving our Member and doing that well … and doing that exceptionally is what will make our organization successful and provide long-term career opportunities for our employees. This message from the CEO of Consolidated is confirmation of our efforts and the importance we have placed on culture and values in our organization, and until such time as every single of our Members would feel comfortable sending a heartfelt message like Consolidated our work is not done. Thanks for all you do to diligently and tirelessly serve our Members Thanks for listening I appreciate you Vern

Almost 10 years ago we made one of the most important organizational shifts in our history. It was the formation of NISC's Operations Committee or OC as it has come to be known. The purpose of this internal committee was to establish a cross-divisional representation, which was tasked with breaking down what was truly a frustration for all of us. And that was the divisional silos that we saw being built up in our organization. We also asked this committee to address some of the operational challenges that we were experiencing at the time and also to address challenges that certainly would present themselves as NISC's operation and product offering grew and expanded. I remember the Vice President meeting when we kicked this initiative off. All of the Vice Presidents understood that if we were to operate as efficiently as possible, well then we needed to lead by example and demonstrate what it means to remove any divisional or territorial considerations that sometimes caused us issues. The OC has been comprised of members of our Vice President group, including Dan Wilbanks as its chairman, Doug Remboldt, Ed Wolff, David Bonnett, Todd Eisenhauer, Jeff Nelson, and Jasper Schneider with Tracy Porter and Kari Reichert brought into the discussion whenever their expertise was required. I am so proud and grateful for the selfless actions of our Vice President group and how the OC's effectiveness has grown and the respect through this organization of this group has been strengthened. To be honest sometimes it's difficult for me to sit on the sidelines and defer many of the operational decisions to this committee, and I can say that I haven't always agreed with their outcomes and their decisions. But I will tell you this without exception, I absolutely trust the OC, and I know for certain that their decisions and actions are made with only the best interests of the long-term entirety of our organization, our Members, and our employees. Building on their reputation of fairness and servant leadership, we have decided to take the next step in strengthening our organization and that is the formation of a strategy committee. NISC and the industries we serve are moving so fast. In fact, without a doubt, the pace is accelerating and to truly be successful in the future, our organization must be able to place a greater emphasis on the development of strategy and the implementation of innovation as well as strengthening our operations. The operations of our organization going forward is no less critical than it has been in the past. It's making sure that we take care of our Members. It's advancing our products, creating an environment and a culture in our organization that encourages our employees to advance their careers. But strategy - strategy is setting the course for the future of our organization. And when things get hectic, as they often do here at NISC, we seem to postpone our strategic discussions and dive right into the operational concerns. Steve Jobs is quoted as saying "innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." I think all of us want to be leaders. We want NISC to define and to lead the industry, not just to keep up with the competitors with a "me too" mentality. So with this organizational change the operations committee will stay in place with the same objective of improving cross-functional operational issues. But there will be a new cast of leaders serving NISC in this capacity. The initial members of this committee are managers, and they were selected to represent the major operating divisions of NISC. The new members of the OC are Mike Weber, Greg Jahner, Nate Boettcher, Jim Rapp, Rick Willmann, Susan Imm, and Amanda Peterson will join the group as her legal expertise is required. We fully expect that over time we will rotate other employees into this committee, so that they too can contribute to the committee and also grow from the experience of serving on this important NISC management group. The Vice Presidents on the present OC will transition to the Strategy Committee or SC, where they will spend the majority of their time developing strategies for future products, partnerships, staffing, approaches to the market, competitive positioning, and the continual process of fine-tuning NISC's organizational structure. I am very excited to involve more leaders in our organizational-wide operations, and I'm thrilled to have our Vice President team focused on future strategies, laying the course for our organization in a well thought-out manner for years to come. I am certain that these changes will be the driving force in our continual improvement and increase the velocity of our innovation and momentum of NISC's flywheel. I ask your support for this change as it will be critical to both the OC and its important role here at NISC and for the SC to effectively point NISC and our products in the right direction. Like Steve Jobs said "innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." At NISC, we all aspire to be leaders. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you. Vern

Our fiftieth BlogCast on our fiftieth anniversary. This is such an amazing coincidence that we would be delivering our fiftieth BlogCast on the eve of NISC's fiftieth anniversary. I do believe that sometimes things happen for a reason. Well this has been quite a week. It began with our travels to Nashville for NISC's utility annual meeting and our fiftieth celebration, which we hosted on Sunday at noon. And a celebration it certainly was! Once that event was finished, we dashed to the airport, headed to Austin, Texas, and the telecom annual meeting and fiftieth celebration, which we hosted on Monday afternoon. While we have hosted each of these annual meetings literally for the past 50 years, this year presented some unique scheduling challenges. The utility annual meeting has always been held in conjunction with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association's (NRECA) annual meeting and Expo, and the Telecom annual meeting is held in conjunction with the National Telecommunications Association's (NTCA) annual meeting and Expo. So NISC really does not have a whole lot to say on the dates that they select. Rather we're beholding to these two national associations and the dates that they give us. So consequently this year these sessions literally ended up on top of each other, which meant that we had to divide our staff and conquer in order to be literally in two places - Nashville and Austin - at virtually the same time. Considering the unique scheduling challenges this year, we could not be more pleased with the outcome. Our communications, events, learning center, and technical teams executed masterfully covering for each other, in some cases pulling double duty but always being professional, determined, and I will say as I watched them in amazement as they delivered on their assignments, they were so impressive. Our sincere thanks for their work. They certainly made all of us as NISC employees proud. But there is one aspect of these events that make me very uncomfortable. While I have not written a single line of code or installed a single piece of NISC software or even taken a support call, I have the distinct honor, and it truly is an honor, of being on the stage representing our organization and presenting a report to our Membership on what truly are your accomplishments and contributions to this organization. For me, I've got to be honest, it feels very uncomfortable because I would not and could not take credit for your accomplishments. I would feel much better if all 1,150 of our employees were on the stage with me. While I have the distinct privilege of delivering the annual report, I will never forget it is all of you that I represent. I'm so grateful to tell the story of your progress, your accomplishments, and your contributions to NISC. I could not be more humbled or proud or grateful to be the spokesman for our organization. Thanks for all you do. Which places me in such a favorable position of telling an amazing story, the story of NISC's growth and the journey from being a good company to a great company. There are times when I feel like I don't deserve this honor. I appreciate you, Vern.

VERN: Welcome. This is the tenth in a series of podcasts that we've been doing for our employees. My name is Vern Dosch and with me today is David Bonnett, the Vice President of Product within NISC. This is a relatively new discipline that we have in our organization, very much defined by David and his people as NISC kind of grew and matured as an organization. We got to a place where we asked the question "Who owns the products?" Is it research and development? Is it implementation? Is it support? Who owns products? Is it our advisory committees? And it became very clear to us that we needed a group of individuals that was absolutely focused on gathering input from all the stakeholders, be it our Members, be it our employees in the service centers that work with our software but also had a responsibility for looking into the future. And so, David, we count alot on your crystal ball as you keep in touch with things that are going on in the industry, directions of the industries, and just a critical part of NISC in helping us make sure that we are devoting the assets that we have - the development assets, the implementation, the support assets that we have - in the correct and most efficient way. So you've got a long list of things. We've got a smarter grid. We've got telephones moving from being telecommunications company to broadband company. You've got electric utilities getting involved in the broadband business. All of that has a technical solution or has technical requirements. How do you kind of sum that up, David, in terms of you look across the landscape of your division and the different product managers you have. What do you see as the biggest opportunities right now for NISC from a product standpoint? DAVID: Well there's a number of significant opportunities right now. I would start with the ones with our current Membership. Our Members know us well; they trust us and that tends to be sometimes the biggest opportunity for us. And to that end the big trend that we see staring at us so closely here is our utilities that are getting into the broadband business and the need for applications that can support that business opportunity. That's one of the biggest opportunities I think we see. With that said we also see a tremendous opportunity with new business, particularly as we move beyond the co-op market, particularly into the public power sector. And that's yet a whole another opportunity that I think relates to supporting multiple services, in particular not just electric but other traditional utilities and in some cases even telecom services. So we are seeing a lot of interest there as well. Those would be the two biggest opportunities I see right now. VERN: Okay. Just a lot of developments in the industry with the advent of a smarter grid. There's certainly all kinds of product expectations and product opportunities for us. And then when you talk about this unification of telephone and electric that you referred to, knowing that you're working hand in hand with research and development to bring those industries together. Not an easy task, right? DAVID: Yeah, it's very exciting, Vern. It's exciting because I think we bring something to the table that is really first of its kind. We really don't see any substantial competition with companies truly committed to bringing that unified solution to the table. So yeah, I mean to your point, the challenges are substantial. Mostly because this is an opportunity for us to build software in a way that dramatically changes the paradigm and the user experience. Really just build a much better product and that means more useful to the consumer, but also more and more cloud-friendly. So we're really both architecturally as well as usability wise, I think we're bringing a solution to the table that's much more contemporary and much more appealing in the market. And so moving to that new model involves a total change in the way we go about building software. It involves not only usability, which is a major new component of our team here at NISC, but also a much more agile process in terms of the release sprints that we're now faced with. That allows us to be much more flexible, responsive, get feedback from Members more quickly, as we get products into the field. It's just a very different process than having a couple major releases a year, a more traditional waterfall approach to the release cycle. So a totally different process, Vern, I think is probably the biggest challenge that we face as a product team as we move forward with iVUE Connect. VERN: I see that, David, as I watch and I listen to your group. I mean you're out there, you're talking to advisory committees, you're talking to our Members that are calling into the service centers, gathering their input. You're looking at what's going on in the industry, and quite frankly what's going on or isn't going on with our competition, and all of that makes for opportunities. You know we have a strategy, right? We have kind of a roadmap. You've been very transparent with that roadmap. We've, as an organization, tried to be more accountable in telling our Members what we're working on, giving them target dates of when those releases are going to happen, and then being accountable for that. But I don't know about you, but this urgency - to get these products to market, to beat our competitors, to give our Members the tools that they need to be competitive out there and to be viable into the future - I don't know about you but I've never felt the urgency, the pressure to get these products out there, to do it right, to do it right the first time, and to meet the expectations of our Members. You feel that? DAVID: Yeah it's funny Vern. Yesterday I was at a site out in the Atlanta area. This is actually a prospect, and this is relatively a large utility, 30,000 plus meters who had just gotten into broadband and they have less than maybe a thousand subscribers. They're trying to use multiple systems to handle both their telecom part of their business and the utility side of the business, and it's just not working. In fact, I would say a new CEO there is even concerned that maybe they shouldn't even be in the telecom business; they just can't pull it off. So I think to your point, it's very motivating when you have an opportunity to solve a business problem that might even mean life or death for a Member of ours trying to get into a new business like broadband. We're able to solve that challenge and give them a solution that can really seamlessly support both those businesses that are crucial to their success and to their communities success even in terms of getting broadband maybe into underserved areas. So I think that does bring a level of excitement, particularly with this whole idea of having a unified product, particularly to some of these new sites that we're working so closely with that are relatively new entrants into the broadband business. VERN: So David, it's very clear the expectations of our Members out there and the urgency to get these products as we say "to carpe diem, to seize the moment." And so we've got a plan but over the last couple of months this Vice President group has really recognized that we need to accelerate that plan. Perhaps in some organizations management comes down and says these timelines aren't acceptable; you need to speed them up you, you just need to work harder and longer. And while there's certainly some of that in our culture our Board, as we talked about this and strategic planning, we said "look guys, we're going to have to add people. We're going to have to add resources. We're going to have to add infrastructure. We need your approval as a Board to be behind us with the financial support, up to five million dollars, up to an additional 50 employees to really meet this urgent opportunity that we have." So, David, when we talk about the acceleration strategy that has been approved by our Board and that we've been talking about here, how does that affect product? How does that affect your people? How does that affect your ability to not only meet the timeframes that we've established and that we've promised, but also to accelerate some of those areas that frankly we just couldn't get to? DAVID: I think the big part of the acceleration challenge that I see is how quickly can we scale our teams using this new agile process that we talked about earlier. We're really building software one persona at a time. As we do so we've got to make sure we have that business leadership who knows that persona, knows it well, who's able to provide those requirements, is able to work with our usability team upfront to make sure we're building the right product if you will. And that's where I think we're just resource constrained and that's where in terms of growth we've got a tremendous need - whether they become ultimately long-term members of our product team or whether we're tapping people on the shoulder who are maybe serving in a more operational role today but have tremendous expertise. We need that help and we need that leadership, that product leadership. So whether we're talking about trouble tickets or capital credits or regulated voice reporting, that's the challenge - staffing up very, very quickly to make sure we've got that business leadership and that input our development team so when this product comes out of the oven it's a beautiful thing. I think that's the biggest challenge we have, Vern, is scaling these processes and making sure we got that business leadership needed to move at the rate we'd like to get this product to market as soon as possible. VERN: Boy I agree with you, David. I so appreciate the work that your people do, the work that they put into our products to make sure as you said, that when they come to market, when they come out of the oven that they're ready to go, and they're embraced by our Members and by the marketplace. So much of NISC's future success rea

VERN: Hello and welcome to the ninth in a series of podcasts that we are doing for the employees of NISC. The main purpose of these podcasts is to help our employees understand a pretty significant piece of strategy that has been implemented and approved, and now we're tasked with carrying it out and that is called an acceleration strategy. And with me today I have Todd Eisenhauer, and Todd wears two fairly distinctive hats in his responsibilities here at NISC as a Vice President. He's in charge of product for engineering and operations, which is an area of growth for us, an area where there's just alot going on with the emergence of a smarter grid and opportunities that we have to better serve our Members. The other side of Todd's responsibility is on the strategy side. We have found that over the years, and this has kind of morphed over the years, but making sure that we're establishing strategies, establishing a direction for this organization and then making sure that we're carrying it out, that we're accountable back to our employees, back to our Board of Directors, and certainly back to our Members. Todd is kind of the glue that holds all that together. As all of us have strategies and responsibilities throughout the organization, it's Todd's area that kind of brings that together in a way that produces a dashboard that we know exactly where we are in terms of our strategies and who is responsible for what. There's certainly a really important accountability piece. So within NISC Todd has very much become kind of the strategy champion. And you know, Todd, the strategy piece really kind of precedes our budget, right? We get that in place. We agree with our Board of Directors that these are the main strategic initiatives for the year. And then based on those initiatives is how we kind of go into the budgeting process and build a budget, and we've done that. We did that in early 2017. We've been carrying that forward starting July 1st of 2017, and the fiscal year ends at the end of June in 2018. But we kind of threw you a curve ball I think this year where strategies were in place. We have talked about some of the very dynamic and volatile things that are happening in the marketplace, the strength of NISC financially, the strength that we're seeing in our pipeline.    It really caused us as a Vice President group to step back and say "you know what, I think we have to be fairly agile here; I think we need to reassess the strategies that were put in place like 18 months ago." So, Todd, you're going down the road pretty well following and tracking these strategies, and then we kind of did a time out on you. We said we really need to accelerate our development. We need to accelerate the level of support that we provide. We need to accelerate the capacity that we have in this organization to meet the demands that we're seeing in the marketplace for our software, which is a very good thing. So like I said, that kind of tossed you a curve ball, but you're a veteran here and a trooper in understanding the importance of not only having a strategic plan, but also realizing that from time to time we have to be able to shift gears. That's exactly what has happened with this acceleration initiative. So, Todd, tell us what does this do to the strategy area of NISC for the next 12 to 18 months?  TODD: Well, Vern, you know as you mentioned, we had a lot of initiatives in place and every area was responsible for items going on. We were tracking, whether it was in Capturis, or in our cybersecurity area, operations, etc. But as we went through our planning this year in December with managers and leaders in the organization, this thought, this idea, just started to emerge on how we really needed to, not really a pivot, just put more definition and focus around it. And I think the acceleration plan encompasses alot of initiatives we had going on, especially as we talk about Connect and operation solutions and moving those ahead. But it really has helped define and focus that. I think if we were honest with ourselves it would be hard pressed to name all the initiatives that we had going on as an organization, and this is a great opportunity for us to recalibrate and refocus. Everybody is rolling in the same direction because it is our acceleration strategy. Had we taken advantage of these changes in the market. And the last time we probably had something like this was with Project Discovery, when we first began to think about iVUE. At that point in time we were on the wrong side of having to change our software out. Today we're on the right side of that, and it's just a great opportunity for us to move ahead. As I said, focus everybody in the organization on developing the killer app, the really killer enterprise for our industries, which is the multi-service utilities provider - utility being from trash can pick up to broadband communications and natural gas and electric - the whole nine yards. We've got an opportunity now with this to really do what nobody else is doing. VERN: Todd, you mentioned the early days of iVUE, back then we called it Project Discovery, and we're in such a different place today. I just can't help but think of, I mean we had half the employees, actually about a third of the employees, that we have today. The financial resources are deeper. I mean we really have the ability to be assertive in this project like we've never been. I think my favorite saying out of all these discussions, Todd, has been the phrase "we're moving from defense to offense." We have always been kind of a defensive organization, and this is a time for us to lead, for us to be offensive, for us to be more aggressive in the marketplace, for us to be more aggressive in our product development. I look at the engineering area, Todd, and the development that's going on there. I look at our partnership, our equity ownership in EDD, and how that really is bringing products to market that aren't a "me too" product but literally a product that we've never seen before, that the industry has never seen. So it's really defining the industry. We have an opportunity to be on that leading edge, to be on the offensive. So what does this acceleration program do for product development in engineering and operations? TODD: Well, kind of along the same lines as the strategy, we're really focusing. So the operations area, whether it's the EDD solution that's providing tools that our Members have never seen before to even AppSuite and getting that out so we have more and more operations staff utilizing that on their day to day. As those applications have grown, it pointed out some problems, things we're not doing really well. But everybody is onboard with this, "Hey I'm doing enterprise. We're doing this together. We're building a crew." When somebody in ABS "Well, that's the same crew we're using in OMS, that's the same crew we want to utilize in our Trouble Ticket, we want to utilize in AppSuite." Bringing those solutions together, it's allowing everybody to see the benefit, just the idea of do it once and it goes everywhere. On the EDD front, our distribution analytics, we're seeing today that if you haven't heard the word smart grid, you've probably not been watching much in the industry. It is providing the tool to allow us to allow our Members to be progressive in their areas, to provide solutions. I was reading a little article the other day, and we had a system in Iowa that took three Iowa State students all summer long to do a solar planning study that EDD would allowed them to do in about 30 minutes. And so we're going to provide tools that the industry hasn't seen. It's fun. Technology is moving in a hurry. What people do in the field today is not what they did five years ago and for sure not what they did 20 years ago. VERN: What was the saying, Todd? It's easier to create the future than predict it. (Laughter) I mean that's really what we're looking to do for our people. The talent of our people and the opportunity that they have to truly do work that's important work, is creating some great opportunities for all of us. You agree? TODD: Most definitely. I mean this is really allowing us to bring us as an organization together, like creating the future. We're bringing talents together that thought "you know, this is my area. This is the industry I work in." Guess what? There's things your industry needs that my industry needs. There's things that you're doing that we've been doing for a while. You're just starting so how can we bring that together? So these opportunities that we're looking at, we've had discussions on Trouble Management and iVUE Connect phase three, it's a great opportunity to bring not only functionality out of Outage but Trouble Management. And guess what? Provide that to municipal Members who have natural gas because what our Trouble Management is today for a communications company is great for these other type services. So it's just the sharing of knowledge, bringing things together, working with the AMS composition group. We know a lot of our electric Members have spent a lot of time and effort because that paper bill is still the one monthly touch point they have with their membership. It's that key touch they have in making a great impression. We're leveraging some of that knowledge in the 600 or so electric bill prints, and how can we enhance what's happening for our telecommunications bill prints? Just provide that X because their business is changing; it's not how many long distance telephone calls that I make. It's what's my internet usage like? What's my broadband usage? Who in my house is hitting my data cap? Those types of things. Bringing those together is just really exciting. This is a unification plan for us in a way too.  VERN: I remember in the early years of NISC bringing those organizations together, blending the culture was important. Our goal there was to kind of move all of our utility customers to

VERN: Hello, this is Vern Dosch, and this is the seventh in a series of blogcasts that we're doing to help our employees understand what the acceleration strategy means for the respective divisions within NISC. I've had a chance, Jasper, to talk to six of the other Vice Presidents, and we continue with that discussion until we work all the way through the nine of them. But a couple of things that I wanted to talk to you about because certainly, your division is front and center on what we mean with acceleration. I think one of the most effective things our Board of Directors has ever done, and we need to give credit to our Board because that's exactly where the idea came from, was the concept of the Regional Business Managers. Under David's leadership and most recently under your leadership, you have built out an extraordinary team of Regional Business Managers that are spread across the country. And their primary goal is to be the liaison within NISC to make sure that we're taking care and we're listening to those Members. Now, this last year we instituted what we called blocking and tackling. You deployed those RBMs out literally to every site of NISC, all 800 and some. An enormous effort but we gathered such good information. And now you've built on that; you have strengthened that agenda for when the RBMs go into our Member's office. There's a format that we follow. There's a report that comes out afterward that keeps us all informed. There is a Member metric that tells us how engaged that Member is. When I think about acceleration, I think about what we're doing in that area to better serve our Members and to make those RBM visits more effective and something that really bring value to our Members. As you're thinking about acceleration and as we've been working on this and you've been talking with your staff, tell us, Jasper, how you think this is going to enhance your ability to really make those RBMs effective? JASPER: This is such an exciting time to be a part of NISC, Vern, and when I think about the Board's guidance earlier this month with the acceleration and the vision of you and the Vice President team to seize the day, I am so thankful when I look back over the past six to 12 months that we are this far along with the realignment and doing things like we did with the RBM team in asking them to focus on the Member. This is such a dynamic organization and exciting time. I think we can have our cake and eat it too. I think we can absolutely go out and capture the market opportunities that are in front of us but serve the Member in ways that we never have before. We have a dedicated Regional Business Manager team today whose sole function is the care and feeding of our Members. We've just upgraded the team tremendously with some new talent assisted by some real veterans on that RBM team, and they're armed with tools that they didn't have before. You know we're a data organization. You mentioned the Member metric, Vern. You think about the data that we have available on our Members through Salesforce, iVUE Support, the Community. We can make for a higher-valued site visit. And this is a continuation of the Member engagement initiatives three years ago with the establishment of the Member Engagement Division, two years ago with blocking and tackling, and this past year with a dedicated RBM team now armed with new tools. We're serving the Member in ways that we haven't before because we're utilizing that data we have with them to make for a more engaging conversation, providing more value. When we can walk into a Member site, Vern, show them this is how we measure you internally, we can look at them and say this is how you're competing with your neighbors. This is why you're scoring as such. By the way, one of the ways you could increase your score - there is a regional workshop just down the road that your folks could attend. There's one coming up. There's a CEO webinar coming online. There's Pathways available to you. There's the MIC. Perhaps you're interested in running for a Board seat. These are CRs that are open, but by the way, these are the CRs that have closed. We have all that data accessible to us today, and thanks to some clever tools, we now can make that available to the Member as well. VERN: We've made such great progress. I'm so proud and so appreciative of that group and the impact, the positive impact, they are having on our Members. You know, Jasper, as I travel around the country and talk with our Members, inevitably the CEOs, in particular, will bring up the RBM visit and how grateful they are for the RBM visit and what a good meeting it was. You know it's not always positive. Right? I mean sometimes the RBMs are out there, and they uncover something that's a frustration for our Member. But at least we're uncovering it, we're identifying it, and we're able then to put some things in motion to take care of it rather than just letting it fester out there. That's just a cornerstone to good service to our Members. JASPER: Yeah. Mission critical positions. They're the face of our organizations out in the field, and they're interacting with our Members on a daily basis, We've just got a great team of men and women that are doing it every day. VERN: So let's shift gears a little bit, and let's go to your sales force. As you said, a dedicated sales force. It used to be they were sales/RBM, and they were kind of conflicted because are they taking care of our Members or are they selling. We said "well both" and we know that doesn't work very well. So you've gone through the process of dividing those responsibilities. I think that's going to be really important. But some really fascinating changes in our industry particularly as it relates to our competitors. We see some of our competitors that literally, we've competed against for 30 years fading. Right? I mean we're picking off their customers, their members, one at a time. We've seen a situation where one of our competitors just sent a letter to all their customers saying we're getting out of the business. You guys are on your own. Find your way. All of that creates opportunities for us. And we've seen one of the major competitors on the electric side of the business purchase another competitor. So they're realizing now what we did perhaps in 2000 that you need economies of scale; you need to bring those organizations together. I'm really glad, Jasper, that we have about a 17-year head start on this. So you've got a focused sales staff. There's tremendous opportunities in the marketplace. We know the importance of continually improving our economies of scale. You guys are on the leading edge of that. When I look at you at the Vice President meetings and say "Jasper, we've got this huge army of people that install software, a tremendous capacity to install software, is the pipeline full? Are we going to be able to keep these people busy out into the future?" And your response to that is... JASPER: Absolutely. And economies of scale is the keyword, Vern. You look at the market opportunities that are in front of us. But the growth that NISC has experienced, it'd be easy for someone to say why keep growing. Haven't you had enough? We have an obligation to our Membership. They have invested in this software year after year. If we can take that software and share it with their peer systems and maximize the revenue and grow our economies of scale, that has absolute benefits to our Members. Whether it's keeping their rates in check, allowing us to fuel our R and D budget, to continue to innovate on their behalf. We're seeing the success of that. You mentioned the 17-year headstart. Our market position, the realization of iVUE Connect, a true unified platform, that was the real vision of the consolidation 17-18 years ago. We are here, and it's happening precisely at a time where we're seeing an acceleration of things like utility broadband. And NISC is in such a strategic position to pounce and take advantage of those opportunities, not for the sake of going out and winning and saying we've increased our sales goals and revenues, but absolutely to the betterment of our existing Membership. And you look across the market opportunities, whether it's in the utility industry or the telecommunications space, we are at such a strategic advantage to grow this organization - not aggressively. This is going to continue to be organic growth; we're going to pick our partners carefully. But one by one we're going to continue to grow and NISC's Membership both in the utility and telecommunications space, and we're going to be a better organization as a result as our Members. So this is an exciting time, Vern. I know our dedicated sales team on both the telecom and utility space are excited to get to work. Frankly, the folks that have developed iVUE Connect in RDQ and product, it's a pleasure to go out and sell that product. It shows so well our Members are asking for it. Prospects love it. These are exciting times, and we have to be prepared these next couple of years to take advantage of the opportunity that's there in front of us. VERN: Well said. You know, Jasper, one of the things that I think about is where we've come from in regards to the staff we have to tell the NISC story. You know it wasn't that long ago that we didn't have any communications people. We all thought we were writers. Right? We all thought we could do that on our own. We produced the newsletters on our own and things like that. We really have come to understand the value of the communications people we have of being able to tell the story of NISC and to be able to get the word out on new products and new initiatives. I look at even communication within People Services of what has been done to better communicate with our employees and better onboard our employees. We have done an extraordinary turnaround in improving the way we bring new employees on, and it's all about communication, it

VERN: Hello and welcome. This is Vern Dosch, and this is the eighth in a series of podcasts that we're doing for our employees. The topic is the acceleration plan that has been put in place that has been approved by our Board of Directors. Literally this plan will affect every single NISC employee, every single division, directly or indirectly. And so the purpose of these podcasts is to answer that question. What does the acceleration plan do for my division? How possibly could it impact me?  So with me today we have Dan Wilbanks. Dan is the Vice President of Research, Development and Quality, NISC's Chief Operating Officer, and a 30-plus year employee. And, Dan, I think it's fair to say that the acceleration initiative has a pretty significant impact on research and development. Of course, this isn't your first rodeo. Right? I mean you've been through multiple generations of software, and that experience is absolutely invaluable to the process. So as you think about the discussions over the last couple of months with the Vice President group as we prepared this strategy and then went into our Board in January and received their approval, in terms of research and development, obviously we're talking about Connect. Connect is the next greatest thing in terms of development, the next generation of software within NISC. What is your vision, Dan, for Connect?  DAN: So the vision of Connect kind of hits a bunch of different areas. It started out as a new process for development for us, to develop in a role-based manner so we could focus the business processes to that role. It's also a new process where we have the Members involved more. Our user experience team has been actively for a couple of years going out and visiting Members, and as new things are prototyped, they go out and talk with them. So it's a whole new process.  For utility the vision for Connect has been a little bit different. We're using the utility base, and it's going to be really less disruptive for them and that was the whole plan - that our Members on utility side could put in Connect one person at a time, one group at a time, one role at a time if they want. They don't have to go through a big conversion, which we all know they don't like and we don't necessarily like.  On our telecom side it's a little bit different. The vision for Connect is to combine and unify the platforms for utility and telecom. We're upgrading some technology on the telecom side; we currently have a progress database, and we're getting away from that. We're moving into the Oracle database, so there's a number of things going on on the telecom side as well as a whole new interface and many new features for the telecom side. So telecom vision overall is new features and new technology. It's a chance you don't ever add new features and redo a big project like this without looking at the technology also. So it's a chance for us to upgrade the technology and to get us more Cloud-friendly for moving to the future.  VERN: Dan, when I listen to you describe how you're going about the design and the development of Connect, how the Members are involved to a large extent early on, before we're doing any coding at all. I think back to the last generation and the mantra was, right, we're not going to write a single line of code until the database is designed, until the reports are designed, until functionality is designed, until all screens are designed, and for the most part our Members didn't even see a screen until they were getting ready for their conversion. Today that's flipped around completely. I mean you're kind of using an iterative process; you're involving the end user early on. I mean their fingerprints are all over this software and that has to be a pretty major change for you and your employees. Can you talk about how that's impacting the way you're looking at these projects and moving forward with the projects and how potentially it impacts our Members also?  DAN: Well yeah, from the Member's side, what we found is they love to be involved and they love to help us. They'll take time when our product team will go out and do some research with them. They take time when our user experience team goes out and does testing. They free up people and they're very excited about it. And what we're finding, Vern, is that when we do send out these screens, there's very little fine-tuning to do with them. We know they went through the click-through prototypes and they work and they make sense to them. We've done some fine-tuning. Basically the way things used to be as we'd get them done, then the fine-tuning was done with the first 5, 10, 20 Members that go on and you have a little bit of upheaval during that. We're finding with iVUE Connect there's a lot lot less of that and it's more focused. And the Members have input. They like that.  So we're not going back to the old ways. I think we've proved that this is the right way to go, and it's the right way to build software. The discipline that we have to have when people like myself and others have been here for a while we tend to say "yeah, I kind of know what they want." No, we've got to back off of that and say "let's have them prove to us what they want and tell us what they want." That's what the new process is all about, and we're moving through in every area including H.R. on the ABS side. The billing products - we're in a good pattern now of getting our Members involved almost weekly.  VERN: I see that from my perspective also, Dan. I remember when we would go into those first sites - Central Indiana, the first site for iVUE. You go in there, you'd be live, and then there would be this mass rush where we would go back. No - the screens didn't kind of flow correctly. The user didn't like them.    It was uncomfortable. It was clunky, and we ended up going back and refactoring and redoing alot of those screens. I've got to tell you as you've gone into these beta sites with phase 1 and now phase 2 at United. I've been kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's like "OK we're live." Now comes this absolute flood of "no, we need to change this, we need to do this," and we're really not seeing it. I mean there's always some fine-tuning that we're doing; it's an iterative process. But to me this has really been powerful where we've been able to do it, do it once, do it well, and then move on without having to redo things one, two and three times - huge efficiencies.  DAN: Yeah, it makes a big difference to do it upfront. We were out at a Member site using Connect two weeks ago, and we just did a discussion on what we found out there. The biggest thing we found is they want more - they want more Connect features, they want more things in Connect, and that's really what we want. I mean because that's all on our roadmap to get those out there. It's not saying "well, we don't like this." It's more about give us more. And so that's our pressure and that kind of leads us back to our plans that we talked to the Board about. We're getting a lot of interest from both telecoms and utilities and utilities getting into broadband. They want more. And that's what's kind of driving us is to try to hit this window where we can keep our Members satisfied with getting iVUE Connect to them faster.  VERN: So, Dan, you know this is the tough time. Right? I mean this is a critical time of the software life cycle. You're working your way through development. We've announced it to the Members. They're anticipating it, and we're kind of in that in-between time where our sales people are saying "do I show the old stuff or do I show the new stuff?"  We had Sam Houston, our very first site that went live from a customer service persona on iVUE Connect only; they didn't train their people on the legacy software. That was a milestone, but I'm guessing this puts a little pressure on you and your teams because boy, is there an urgency. Our Members have seen it. They want it. We're starting to develop a backlog of new implementations to Connect. And so this is when the pressure is really on you, and I'm always amazed. I mean you've got such a large group, 300 plus people in research and development, a very diverse group, and you're able to manage multiple projects and multiple initiatives with a very diverse group of employees. What's your biggest challenge in that regard?  DAN: Well, you know, so many things going on is the biggest challenge, right? I mean we've got phase 3 things for Telecom - the data center, the call detail processing, while we are still working really hard on some of the things for the utility side - the delinquent role, we're deep into the cashier role now. So we've just got so many balls in the air, and there's so many people involved now. When you first start something like this out, it's kind of small, it's a smaller group, and it's a lot more controllable. But now there's no way we could scale without everybody helping and pitching in. But the project has scaled and is scaling even more. We've got a number of new developers that are getting their feet on the ground so we've got to bring them up to speed also.  But just the size of the projects and the people involved from product to implementation - Ed's group. Doug's group is in the support area;    they're having two of their people starting to work with QA now so they can learn iVUE Connect and start supporting it, which is great. There's more people to bring in, keep them going, and keep them up to speed and everything. So it's just the magnitude of the project. When we did iVUE years ago, it was the same thing. You start small and at some point we had over 100 people probably working on iVUE, and Connect is going to be even bigger than that. We're a bigger company; we'll probably have double that number when it's all said and done.  The other big challenge we have right now is bringing the industries together. When we think about that, there's really nobody in our market t

VERN: Hello and welcome to the sixth in a series of podcasts that we're doing to help our employees understand the impact of what we're referring to as the acceleration strategy. And with me today I have Jeff Nelson. Jeff has kind of a wide variety of responsibilities as a Vice President within NISC. First and foremost it's legal and risk mitigation for our organization, but it's also the internal infrastructure that we have and cybersecurity.  So, Jeff, you've been involved in all of these planning sessions as we talk about acceleration, and that's stepping up how we take care of our existing employees, the tools that we provide the existing employees. It's also preparing your division for kind of an influx of new employees also so let's talk about that.  I know there's a number of things that you have underway - you're going through a normal rotation of desktops, you're launching a new ACD for our phone system, you've expanded the capacity of lines that we have, an inner connection between our facilities. Can you talk about some of the discussions with your people and some of your plans in terms of accelerating the service that you provide to our existing employees in terms of infrastructure?  JEFF: Sure. I think the big thing here is we're going to talk about a lot of new employees that need to be supported from the Helpdesk on the infrastructure side and to support those people we want to make sure that the service that we're providing to all of our employees doesn't go down. So we have to be able to make sure for 50 or 100 new people that we can provide the same level of service. We're going to have to look for efficiencies in ways we can serve our employees as well or better with sort of the same staffing we have right now with some growth that we have planned in there. And on top of that, in addition to providing the support, there's going to be 50-100 new machines that we rolled out and there's actually a lot of time involved with rolling out these new desktops or laptops. We also have to make sure that we're providing the tools that all of our employees, new employees and existing employees, need to actually do their job. And part of this is as we look to recruit a lot of new employees, many of which are you know younger millennial types, and we wish to retain employees, some of it is we have to make sure we're giving them the "cool technology."  VERN: So wait a second. Are you saying the old guys like me don't like cool stuff?  JEFF: You may be an exception to the rule, Vern. You definitely like the stuff. But you know part of that is and sometimes it seems like maybe that's trivial, but I don't think it is to people to make sure that we are providing them those things that they're used to using or that they know their classmates are using at their job - things like that. I have to make sure we're staying up with the technology.  VERN: And so cool and efficient right? And more and more, you know, our employees are traveling; they are working from the road. We've got 120-some employees that are virtual. And that kind of falls on the shoulders of you and your staff to make sure we keep all those humming along, right?  JEFF: Yeah and a lot of this, the move to Office 365 and some other cloud things, are also helping people work more efficiently and easily remotely from the places that they need to work from or want to work from.  VERN: By the way I love that. I'm so glad that we bit the bullet and made that migration. That has made a huge difference so thanks because I know that was a huge effort.  Well, Jeff, let's shift gears here a little bit and talk about the legal side of your responsibilities. You've got a great amazing legal team - Amanda, Rachel, and yourself. We have centralized all contracts at NISC. I mean everything from who's going to put the coffee out at the member conference to some of the most sophisticated contracts that we may have with large vendors like Oracle or some of our Capturis customers like the Walmarts of the world. I know that we've come from a place where literally we had a unique contract with every single Member. So we had 800 and some contracts out there, almost impossible to manage, almost impossible to keep updated. You've gone through a major initiative here to make those contracts more contemporary like other software companies. Right? Can you talk about that and what that efficiency has done to your area and how it's accelerated, right, our ability to take care of new Members as they come onboard and the vast array of vendors that we deal with?  JEFF: So unfortunately in many times the legal department is like the Department of No or The Roadblock to Getting Things Done. And that's certainly not what we want to be here. So really over a year ago I think it was, we started looking at the contract process and how could we be more efficient and really went from a one-off contract that you negotiate with all of our Members. We did this in the context of we're a cooperative, and we're different from some of these other companies. So we treat our Members the same. We can have a contract that's fair to all of them. They have representation on our Board; we're not going to put anything in our contract that's trying to get one over on our Members because our Board are our Members you know that do it.  So we've moved to this idea of not quite a click-through license that you would see in some software, but getting to that point where we have standard terms that are posted on the website. Then when we go and we get a new prospective member in, we don't have a long negotiating process or drafting a new contract for all of that. It's really here are the terms, and we go through the explanation of where it is. I think that's, you know, if we have a 800 Members now, we want to get another 800 Members. That's difficult to do when you have a lengthy one-off contract and then tracking those where you've granted this exception to that Member but not to this Member. You have to have a mechanism to track all that. In the end of the day get to a place where is that the right thing or the fair thing to do in the co-op model, and I think we're on the right track there for our contracts with our Members.  But like you mentioned, we do other contracts just besides our Members. We have contracts with vendors. We have partnerships. We have OEM agreements, potentially MNA-type agreements so we have to make sure that we're continuing to look at those processes and make sure that we're efficient so we're not the reason why those aren't getting done when we need them to be done. Because under this new plan we have to do things quickly so we're going to have to be efficient in reviewing those.  VERN: Okay. Very good. Let's talk about the final item and everybody's favorite topic. Right? Cybersecurity. And we've gone from a place where cybersecurity used to just mean making sure we had the office to the mainframe or where the mainframe was located that we had that door lock. We did that man. We were secure because we weren't connected to anything.    Today we've got more computers and servers than we have employees. Every single one of those is some way or form connected to the internet. Everyone is a vulnerability. Every time we add employees we have more mobile devices, we have more vulnerabilities. And so you've taken us through this time and you know we just finished a survey one year into our push to step up our cyber initiative. But we wouldn't have been able to do that without the cooperation of every single employee and that gets frustrating. Right Jeff? I know you're on the receiving end of that. We have complex passwords. We have, you know, all kinds of things that in some ways have made it more difficult to connect; for example, to our Members and to be able to take care of our Members. Now we jump through a couple of hoops, but I think everyone understands the importance of that. Everyone understands the risk of a breach. If there's one thing that you know could jump up and bite us and really jeopardize this organization, it would be a massive breach. And so I know you go home at night worrying about this stuff and hoping upon hope that we get the cooperation of every single NISC employee to help us make sure we're as secure as we can be because we know it's a moving target. Right?  So, Jeff, I know it's been a tough part of your job. I know you've kind of been baptized by fire there in this area, but we're making progress and that is because of the help and the participation in the engagement of our employees. But what does this mean when we talk about growing our employee base, growing the number of Members, growing our connectivity points across NISC? What does that do to our cyber concerns?  JEFF: I think we're going to go back to the mainframe days, Vern. We're going to lock it, and you're going to have to bring a disk in to do it manually.  VERN: Good luck with that.  JEFF: Actually that just reminded me just this morning or yesterday I saw another article talking about our missile command system that runs the nuclear missile arsenals run off floppy disk drives and how they're afraid to upgrade it because it's almost hacker proof because the technology is so analog and not connected. I think it said the machines have like maybe eight megabytes of storage and it's like kilobits of ram that they have.  VERN: So, Jeff, if they need any more disks, I mean if they can't get them, I have a couple in my bottom drawer of my desk.  JEFF: So given that we're probably not going be able to go back to that disconnected mainframe-type world, there are a number of things we have to do. One of the big strategic initiatives we've had, along with all the technical things that we're doing, has really been this idea of creating and enhancing a culture of cybersecurity. So when we bring 50-100 new people on we have to make sure that those people see that security is an important part of their job a

VERN: Hello. This is Vern Dosch and welcome to the fifth in a series of podcasts talking about the acceleration strategy here at NISC. You know, Kari, thinking about it from the standpoint of an employee, you hear the last couple podcasts talking about how this acceleration strategy affects implementations, affects our financials, affects how we support and service our Members. But I don't know; we're all employees. What does this mean for us, Kari? What does the acceleration strategy mean for the existing employees? KARI: I think it means a few things. You know I think there might be some initial thought of "wow - more faces." You know there's a lot of new faces, and I hear occasionally that you know there's people I don't recognize. And we want to provide opportunities for our employees to get to know each other. Relationships are such a key piece of who we are as an organization. And so we've done I think a better job in the last couple of years of introducing all of those new employees, putting a face to the name. We want to make sure we have opportunities for our employees to interact, get to know each other across divisions. So you'll see us promote our socials and other employee events so that we can continue to build those relationships even with the numbers that we have. But I think mostly this is a really exciting thing for our employees in a number of ways. I mean anytime we have growth that reflects a new opportunity for employees, and I think all of us have the chance to continue to build our skills and grow in different ways as we have different solutions and different teams. We want to make sure that we are helping our employees take advantage of those opportunities. So with our Employee Learning Quarter this year we're going to be focusing on employee development and making sure that everyone is aware of the tools that we have available to them and letting them know about some new resources that we're going to be rolling out. And I think also encouraging the dialogue with their supervisor. I think if you're interested in growing in a different way or looking at a new opportunity that conversation is really important, so Situational Leadership will be taught as part of our Employee Learning Quarter this year. I think that'll help us all speak the same language and have even better conversations about career development. VERN: I really appreciate those comments because I think when people think about the acceleration, there is a tendency to get caught up in the new employees. We talked about 50 additional employees over the next 18 months in addition to the 50 that are already in our long-term financial forecast. And I think it's easy to get caught up in that. But at the end of the day for me, one of the most important parts of this acceleration is the focus on the existing employees. I mean you mentioned a number of things, Kari - Situational Leadership, the Leadership Pipeline Institute, Employee Learning Quarter. You've implemented a brand new tool called Cornerstone to help us as supervisors be better coaches and to facilitate those coaching sessions. So this is about focusing on our employees, developing our employees. I mean, Kari, we've had more retirements in the last two years than we probably have in the previous ten. And when we look out over the next couple of years there is a surge of retirements. Now I think we've worked hard at succession planning. I think these tools and these initiatives, these leadership development initiatives that we've talked about, have put us in a pretty good place. And quite frankly I think we've got a ton of great employees who are anxious and ready for the next step in their career. And so the acceleration is saying from a succession planning standpoint we've got a push here to make sure that as these retirements happen, they're seamless, that it provides opportunities for existing employees, but it doesn't negatively impact our Members. Okay. Having said that, the surge acceleration also means adding additional employees. Talk about the discussions within People Services. How are you going to handle the additional requirement expectations that this is placing on your division? KARI: I'll get to that in a second, but you said something that I think is pretty important. That is with the transition of not only some of our senior employees but with the acceleration of all of the projects we have going on, there is a lot of opportunity for employees across the board. And Ed likes to point out that the ABS 1x to 2x conversion project wouldn't have happened without our employees that have been here for just a couple of years. They were instrumental so I think it's important to look around and see the opportunities and put your hand up and say "hey, I can help with that." And I think you know empowerment is one of our values. And there are going to be opportunities across the board. And I think that's true also of leadership. There are employees who are interested in leadership positions, and as the organization grows we have to have more leaders. And so when it comes to leading others and if you're interested in people leadership, I think we've added 10 new team lead positions in the past six months. It's a pretty significant number of employees that are stepping up and saying "hey, I want to coach others. I want to build people here to do the work." And there's also the individual contributor leadership type of positions where people want to lead projects, and they'll have that opportunity as well. You don't always have to be leading others to be a leader in the organization. And so I think there are lots of opportunities with this, but also some challenges as you mentioned. How are we in People Services going to respond and make sure that we get the people we need here? So recruiting has become a big area of emphasis. In fact one of the things we're doing is focusing our team so they can be laser-focused on the recruiting and onboarding effort, and some team members can be focused on just taking care of existing employees. We want to make sure we're doing that as well. So with recruiting certainly you're going to see a number of new positions, even more than we usually have, and we are always looking for employee referrals. Our employees are our best source of candidates and hires so we offer a referral bonus. Right now it's a thousand dollars for each candidate that's hired. But you may see us increase that number as this acceleration moves forward because again it's really the most critical source of candidates for us are our employees. They know the kind of people we need. We also have shared our career fairs on the community so all of our employees can see that. If you know anyone at any of the colleges we will be attending, please send them our way. We're also going to increase our social media presence. In the past we have maintained corporate accounts, and our communications group helps us manage corporate accounts for sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We want to showcase our employees and let our potential candidates know what it's really like to be an employee here at NISC, so we are working on building out accounts for those social media sites that have more of an #NISClife focus. We'll be sharing some information with you about those as we roll them out and maybe even asking you if you're so inclined to post to those accounts or to tag us so that we can see what it's really like to be an employee here at NISC. VERN: You know, Kari, one of the things that you said about really all of us being involved in recruiting. I think that's so true. And it's going to be all hands on deck. I mean I know that you are strengthening your recruiting team, you're adding to that and that certainly is important, but all of us right are recruiting all the time. It never ceases to amaze me, Kari, as I travel around from site to site. We gather the new employees together that have come onboard since the last time I was there. And I've just kind of made it a practice to say how many of you are here by way of referral. You knew someone here or someone reached out to you and said "hey, you should apply to NISC" and more often than not it's around 50 percent, you know half the people are here. And I'm thinking how powerful that is to have a thousand NISC employees out there always being, you know eyes wide open right, looking for good candidates. And you know our employees know what it takes to be successful here. They know the culture, they know the people that would excel here, and maybe some that wouldn't embrace the culture and probably wouldn't be a good fit. So I always look at an employee referral as being you know a really important factor as we consider these new applicants. I think the other thing that we're going to be really careful of is the priority of taking care and developing existing employees. The second part is to expand our workforce. And when we have an expectation on your division that says "Kari, we're going to need 100 people," I think there's a tendency to rush to the gate a little bit and almost frantically start filling those positions. This is the challenge that I'll extend to you and your people, and that is don't dare compromise the quality. We'd rather go a little short than just bring warm bodies in. Don't compromise the quality of the employees here at NISC. KARI: I think that's a point well taken. You know we can find people, but it's finding the right people and the people that are going to fit our culture that we all want to work with and will share our commitment to service to our Members. Back to this employee referral, I think it's a huge compliment I think to NISC when one of our employees takes the time to let one of their colleagues know that that this is a place they may want to work. But I think it's also an endorsement of that individual if one of our employees says "hey, this person is someone you should take a look

VERN: Welcome. This is Vern, and this is the fourth in a series of podcasts that we're doing to try to help our employees understand the ramifications and the strategy associated with what we're referring to as acceleration. You know, Ed, I'm so pleased to be with you today. We had an opportunity to work together for a lot of years, and about six months ago we asked you to take on a pretty formidable task, and that was to oversee all of the implementations, and we're looking for consistency, and we're looking to do a better job of presenting NISC's enterprise as a single company rather than a series of companies with different products like E&O and billing and accounting, so no easy task. You know, Ed, I think back to when Brian Wolfe was here, and the first step in this process was really to introduce project management, and we've done now throughout the organization. That has made an incredible difference in the quality and consistency of our implementations. But this next step is arguably even a bigger and a tougher step, and that is to normalize the way we do these implementations across NISC. Probably one of the most difficult things we do, as the vice president group talks every Monday morning and as the OC gets together every Thursday, probably the most challenging balancing act we have is balancing growth with taking care of our existing members, the members that we already have. These employees have heard us talk often, Ed, about the fact that one of our strategies is to hold the line on our prices and that's not easy when wages, benefits, and cost of operations and everything is going up. But, Ed as we've been able to do that since 2009. We've been able to grow the organization, kind of in a calculated way, without increasing the cost to the members and we've done that with growth. A couple years ago we called it "the Surge" where we worked to improve our capacity, to build our capacity. We've got this huge engine right now, in your division, of being able to do multiple implementations. I always am fascinated when I hear you talk on Monday mornings, and you'll say, you know, this week we have 15 implementations, this week we have 20 implementations going on around the country. It's just amazing what we're accomplishing. You know we've struggled right with balancing our capacity with the market and although we have aggressively increased the number of personnel in implementations and work to increase our capacity it seems, Ed, that the market and the demand for our products continue to outpace our ability to meet that demand in a reasonable time. And some would say that's a fantastic problem to have. And it is, but we want to be really responsive to our members. So when we started talking about acceleration a couple months ago and formulating our plan to go to our board and to get permission to do something pretty radical and that was to really be aggressive in the marketplace and really be aggressive in our efforts to improve the quality of the implementations we're doing. So, it's kind of like be careful what you ask for, and the dog caught the car here, and the board said "Absolutely we believe in you. Go for it. You've got dollars, you've got resources to improve the current state of your implementations, and also to improve your capacity, increase your capacity." So, Ed, had that kind of comes back to you. And I say Okay Ed, if you've been given as much flexibility as you ever have in your division in terms of access to resources how do you approach that? How is this going to affect your division and the employees that are already in that division? ED: Yeah, Vern, good question. It has a big impact. It's an interesting time. We're always talking capacity, talking about meeting the member needs, and we're talking about Connect, and last year, at this time, we said boy we're going to announce Connect the telecom membership at the MIC, and we know that demand's going to drop. And we kind of planned on that and started reallocating resources. As we look at our upcoming 12 months and we look at our pipeline right now, it's never been stronger. So what a fantastic story but that creates challenges right? So, we're trying to adjust our staffing and our capacity to move to connect while the orders keep coming in and it's a problem, It's a good problem, but it's still a problem right? So we're adjusting with how we do our implementations. You talk about consistency as one division we're constantly how can we work together how can we be one face one product and how can we do it more efficiently and we're slowly making improvements in that area. So what we're doing right now as we look at this surge or Acceleration project we're going okay, What did we learn in the past that helped us get to where we are today? So one of the projects that I was involved in that was just so much fun that there was 50 to 100 people involved in 7-8 years ago is moving 1x to 2x for ABS, moving into 600 members, And we learned a lot in that process. What we learned is we have to really all be focused on a single goal. So at that time we would work with RD&Q every day and say when we make this change the product does that mean the rollout? What does that mean to the conversion of existing members? And that focus, Vern, really helped us talk about how we're going to release this? How we can get it out in a way that we've never done before? And by coming up with this Acceleration plan and having this focus on Connect, we're doing the same exact thing. Every decision we make in the software. How does it impact the way we roll things out? How does it impact the way we convert it? How does that impact the message that we're building for the members that are eventually going to have to go through the process? So what we're doing to meet this need is really tighter collaboration with product, tighter collaboration with conversions, tighter collaboration with tech. One of the things we learned in 2x is how many things we were doing and our implementations that were kind of manual and we could build scripts around that sort of thing. So we really are working to leverage lessons learned in the past. We're also watching support really closely, so today support has the pod concept. We think there's something to be learned there from an implementation perspective. Looking at rolling out connect to our telco members, 250 members. We have the advantage we convert from our data to our data, right? It's not like foreign conversion. We know there's a lot of different disciplines from SwitchTalk to plant to payments, billing, and accounting. We're thinking do we take a number of people from different disciplines put them in a pod and then implementation pod rolls through a group of members just like we did 1x to 2x, but in a pod concept. So, you ask How are preparing. We're or preparing by being more coordinated, by more tightly collaboration with all the groups that are involved, looking at new concepts that are already tried and proven in other areas, and then working on a communication plan. We're just kicking off a project now to say we're going to roll out Connect in 12 to 16 months to our telcoms what does that mean a custom programing? And what does that mean to customer reporting? And we're digging in and looking at those today. So all this focus helps us be very proactive and really helps us in the planning process. And we believe that's all going to add to the professionalism, the quality of the projects, along with the capacity. VERN: And isn't that the goal, right? I mean as you just outlined the goal. Ed, when I think about going through this with iVUE, back then we had roughly 400 employees. Today we have about 1,100. But the challenges that we're facing or maybe we should call them opportunities. The opportunities that we're facing, it's a bit of a tsunami. You have 200 and some telecom members that will be converting to Connect, and that is a conversion. You have 500 and some electrics that will be converting to Connect. You have a whole new piece of business that really hasn't been on our radar screen before, and that is Broadband. I mean my goodness we have 60 members, utility members, that are in various stages of discussing or implementing Broadband. So you have all of those three anomalies and then the normal course of business, right, of adding x number of new members, a year to continue improving our economies of scale and allowing us to keep our prices in check. So those are pretty lofty goals, and I think the neat thing, and as I was talking with Doug in the last interview, we're in such a different place this time. This time we are able to say yes we've got some opportunities here some real opportunities in the marketplace and we've also got the financial strength to address it, and that really was the message from our board of directors is that they very keenly recognized the opportunities that we have. I think they feel good about the strength of NISC and they're basically saying "You've got a strong bottom line. Turn that around power right back into your organization, develop our employees, improve our processes, add resources where you need to, add infrastructure where you need to. And all of those things are critical for you to be successful in this." ED: Absolutely, I think what I would add to that is you look at that dynamic and, you know, all these things come together, Perfect Storm, and it's a positive thing, so I don't know I want to use storm but we've got this high demand on the utility side, We got the new market with broadband, we're also moving into the muni market and gain traction there, we've got the existing numbers to invert, and I just said we have a stronger pipeline than we've ever had in telecom at the current product. When you lay the current product next to the Connect product, I think Connect products going to outsell the current product two to one, so you know the board's point about investi

VERN: Well welcome to this third in a series of podcasts that relate specifically to what we're referring to as the Acceleration Program here at NISC. With me is Doug Remboldt. Doug heads up all of the support areas of the service areas within NISC, whether it's accounting, billing, engineering, or telecom utility. So that's a pretty big wheel house, Doug, and when we talked about this acceleration plan in my mind, the first thing I think about is our focus is on improving what we already do, for the members that we already have. 820 members, literally thousands of calls coming into your service centers and one of the major goals of this acceleration plan is to improve what we already do fairly well, but we know it can be better. We look at the HDI scores, right, every day. So part of this acceleration program is me going to you and saying "Doug, I want you to talk to your managers. How can we help you? Where should we be investing? Where do you need additional resources to make that support function a better customer experience a better member experience?" You know we look at how we're perceived as NISC, and it's about our products, are our products robust? Do we have an enterprise solution? It's about the price of our products. But at the end of the day, we are defined, I believe this Doug, we are defined by the level of service we provide. Great service covers up a lot of sins, right? No (laughs), great service is really how people remember and the impression we make on our members, so it's so critical. So all the discussion of acceleration for me comes down to this, how can we better serve our members through providing a higher level of support? So you know when we started having these discussions Doug, and we said: "Doug, tell me what you need." Tell me what you were thinking and what your goals are for this acceleration initiative. DOUG: Well my first thought was whatever number we need we're going to have to scale that back to some extent because we're never going to have as many resources as we all want, right? And so our discussions as we thought about how we can make a difference with some increased staff and how we can do a better job of being there for our members was really to figure out how we can interject a couple people into a couple of key areas and get them up to speed without compromising the service to our members today. One of the things in support that really is very difficult is bringing new people onto the team and getting them up to speed. So putting a whole bunch of new people under one team actually can decrease the service we're giving to our members because we've got to take time and we owe it to those new employees to spend time training them, so part of our plan here is to interject people slowly, and so part of what we're doing with the acceleration plan is bringing a couple of people onto some very specific different areas but really our plan is over the next 24 months how are we going to grow and expand and cross train and do a better job of serving our members, so part of it is adding some people now. The other parts will be adding some people into next year's budget and the year after as well. So we're trying to spread that around and make sure that not only are we growing that staff to take care of our members but we're not doing it at a pace that compromises the service to our members every day either. VERN: Makes sense. So Doug when we talk about the maturation the growth the evolution of our software products, a lot of that comes through your service centers. A lot of it comes from NISC support people talking to our members our members convey "I wish the software would do this" and they're recommending changes and that's been a very important part in how our products have evolved. But we're at this, and this isn't your first rodeo You were here for the rollout of iVUE, but we're at this precarious place where we've got a new product coming to market, iVUE Phase 1 is already there, Phase 2 is in the beta site, Phase 3, you know out there are little ways but it's coming quickly, and we're at this place where we always have to say do we put that functionality, those changes, those enhancements, in the legacy product or do we wait for the new product and put them in the new product? Because we know if we put them in the old we're going to have to put them in the new too. So you have a lot of redundant work. That's probably one of the most difficult parts of managing a software lifecycle is when you're in transition like we are right now trying to make the best use of the resources that we have in RD&Q and support, sometimes we have to make some hard decisions and say you know we're not going to put it in legacy we're going to put it in Connect which probably means you're going to have to wait a little bit longer, but that's really a challenge isn't it to balance with our members? DOUG: It really is, and we're very fortunate in that regard because if we communicate our plan to our employees and we communicate that same plan to our members, everyone's really on board with helping us trying to accomplish that mission. And so even though no one ever wants to hear no we can't do that right now. Our members really understand, and they're really good to work with on those things and are support people understand as well. One of the challenging things about being a support person is that you ultimately want to please the member, and you want to do as much as you can to help that member accomplish what they're trying to do or to effect change in the software in a way that they feel is positive and will help not only that member but are other members. And so as a support person it can be very hard to say "no" or "not now." But we all know as an organization if we're going to accelerate the development and the deployment of iVUE Connect, we are going to have to be disciplined. And so support will absolutely play a role in that. We've already begun talking about that as managers within the support team and focusing on what pieces of our product are really in pretty good shape right now that we can dedicate some resource to some other place and leave that piece of the product as it is for the next 18 months as we really work on new things so as a support team we're excited to be a part of that solution. It's a difficult conversation sometimes to have, but in the end, it's for the betterment of NISC's products and to our members. VERN: Great answer. Now just the execution of that, right? DOUG: It is a lot easier to talk about it than it is to it. But again our members are partnering with us, and sometimes they get a little frustrated or excited about it. But at the end of the day when they take a step back, and we take a step back we can all agree that we just got to be together on the priority. VERN: Ok. Final question. You know, Doug, if we go all the way back to the 2000s, you know I mean the beginning of 2000, we had multiple, we had five utility pieces of software we had two telecom pieces of software I view is very much about consolidating that into one utility piece of software and one telecom, and we accomplished that and I think part of the strong financial performance that we see is because of the efficiencies from that. So Connect is really a groundswell because it's taken that final step. It's moving telecom and utility into a unified product. That's not easy, but you know when I think about the possibility, Doug, of focusing all of our employees on a single product, I mean there's a lot of work to get there but, that's pretty exciting. So as we're developing the software and moving in that direction what are you doing in support? Because as our software platform changes so too, the support structure has to change because all of a sudden your support people, and I don't want to scare your support here, are going to be you know taking questions on a bundle of telecommunications service and a time of use rate on utility. I mean we're really going to have to work to develop our people to develop a skill set that will make them effective in that unified environment. Tell us what you're doing to get ready for that. DOUG: That's a really good question, and we're doing a lot of things, but we aren't doing any of them quickly. We're really working on moving into this environment in a pace that is sustainable, and it's not overwhelming for our employees. We don't have any expectation that six months from now everybody that is currently supporting our telecom SIS product is an expert and utility services and functionality. Same with utility knowing and understanding everything that goes on in telecom. Because it is a common product, it will give us a common framework to begin learning those things together. And so are already working, just this week, we have a telecom group that has been working with United in Missouri on phase 2 has spent the entire week working with our support team helping bring them up to speed on the differences between just a normal multiservice and utility and what goes on at United as it relates to their telecom type services. So we're beginning that process we're working on who we can bring in to the telecom group that understands the backend processes and utility, the delinquents, and the way we calculate bills because we know that functionality is coming from the utility side as we move into iVUE Connect Phase 3. So we're doing it in small pieces. We also know at the end of the day if our members are specifically geared toward telecom they want to talk to a telecom expert and the same is true on utility but we also know that there are some members of ours that do both. And so we're going to be working on bringing those together so that we have teams of people that can do both. But we're also always going to have, at least for the foreseeable future, teams that specialize in utility and telecom. VERN: Ok. Well Doug thank you very much for shedding some light

VERN: Well welcome. With me today is Tracy Porter, CFO. Longtime CFO, can I say that Tracy? TRACY: Yes you can. VERN: Twenty-five years, is that right? TRACY: Just hit 25. VERN: Just hit 25 years, that's a milestone. And so Tracy we're doing a series of podcasts and the first one we released to the employees just kind of told them about some of the activity that happened at the board meeting at our strategic planning session. And I said in the podcast, and I truly believe that it was pivotal for NISC. I mean we are going down the path of a very aggressive plan with iVUE Connect, unifying our telephone and electric platforms, a lot of activity in the marketplace, Lot of excitement with Connect the demand is high. We're having great success in the marketplace bring in new members on so you add that all together in about 18 months ago and we are putting this budget together and we're fairly conservative but fairly optimistic also. And you know 12 months into this Tracy we're looking at this and we're seeing all these changes in the marketplace, and we're seeing strong margins from NISC, and it really caused the VP group to go in to this board meeting, this strategic planning session, with kind of an extraordinary strategy something we've never done before. We went into the board and said look we've got some great opportunities. We need to make some strategic investments in our people, the development of our people. We need to add additional resources in certain areas. We need to make substantial investments in infrastructure, our cloud infrastructure, the NISC network all of that takes money and you hold the purse strings to NISC and you were also here in 2000, 2002, 2003 when we were rolling out iVUE, and we were in a little different financial shape at that point which made that project a lot more challenging. Can you talk about that, Tracy? I mean it's such a great story the way you have followed this organization and the way you have guided this organization, financially, through some pretty tough times to where we are today. TRACY: Absolutely. When you look back to the early years of NISC, and we were not in a financial position to do a lot of things we were, you know, begging and borrowing to get the capital that we needed to produce the products that we knew are going to make a significant impact on our membership, but we weren't in a position to be able to do a lot of those things ourselves, so in the early days of NISC with the plan to develop iVUE, we ended up creating a member loan program where we were borrowing money from our members. We were borrowing money from CFC and using those dollars to fund software development. And today as we look at this we're coming off our five best years ever as NISC. Fiscal year 18 is going to be our sixth best year ever. As we continue to show really strong financial position and as we sit here today and talk about bringing connect to the market faster and better than what we think we can. It's an investment in our future, it's an investment in those products, and it's an investment for our membership. And today we have the financial ability to do that. VERN: It's just a whole different environment isn't it? I mean I know we were wringing our hands a lot back in the early 2000s because we knew the urgency to get iVUE to market but we just didn't have the resources to do it as quickly as we needed to. Today it's different. You know when we talk about this acceleration program that we proposed to our board of directors, I mean the price tag on that, over and above the financial forecast that we've already submitted and they've already approved and that financial forecast includes about 50 new employees a year over and above that, this acceleration plan is going to be in the 5 Million Dollar neighborhood, an additional 50 employees over the next 18 months over and above what was called for in the financial forecast. A lot of investment in the cloud. We just approved half a million dollar investment in the cloud at this board meeting. That's real money Tracy and to be in a position where we can fund that ourselves out of our own funds. What does that do for the CFO of NISC? TRACY: Well it's a great position to be in, and we don't take that lightly. We know that our members count on us and we know that in the position that we're in today we always look to have about a 5 percent margin on the bottom line. That's kind of always been our goal. And with that goal, that puts us in a margin range of you know six to eight million. And what we're saying, you know the investment that you talked about with 50 people and basically equating that to about five million dollars that means our margin potentially could be in that 1 to 3 million range. And what a great position for us to be and to be able to make this investment and still have a nice bottom line that we can contribute back to our members who are earning the patronage that they want from the software services that they get from us. VERN: You know Tracy and the thing that just is so exciting for me is as we talked about this and got our strategy together as a vice president group and we basically looked at every one of those vice presidents and said we've got a great opportunity here. What do you need to seize that opportunity? What do you need to carpe diem? And I think it gave them a whole different view of their responsibilities saying OK if we're going to step up implementation, if we're going to step up support, if we're going to step up development, what do we need? What kind of resources? And we didn't give them, you know, just an open checkbook but we gave them more latitude than perhaps they've ever had and they were just excited, going into the boardroom, and you know to have our Board say "We trust you, Go ahead, Go for it, Be aggressive in the marketplace, invest in your employees, invest in improving our support, invest in improving our capacity, and implementation, invest in our ability to deliver great software quicker." I mean all of that was just a rallying cry. I came away, as I said in my blog, I came away as invigorated as I've ever been. TRACY: You know we talk about what a great place to work as a cooperative and our mission is to serve, and our mission is to take care of our members. You know, this decision that we're making right now in iVUE Connect, in a for-profit software company, it might not be a decision that gets approved because if you look at that just the true bottom line return on investment on this I don't think we can say this is going to make NISC more money. I think what we can say is this is going to take care of our current 800 members that are already using our products, it's going to bring better service to them, but it's also going to open up some market doors for us, that's going to allow us to grow our future because our financial plan for the last eight years has been to grow our membership base instead of growing our rates. We haven't had a rate increase. How many software companies can say they haven't had a rate increase in eight years? We can say that because we're growing our membership base, so this is a win on both sides, it's a win for our current members, It's a win for our markets that we're going to try and get better penetration in, And I think this is a win for our employees. VERN: So Tracy over the last 25 years, as I said, you have done an amazing job of kind of guiding us. You've been our conscience, right? In the decisions, we've made and helping us understand how far we can push in terms of growing this organization based on our capabilities with our balance sheet. So when you look at the opportunities you sit in those VP meetings, you listen to the marketing reports, you listen to Dan, and research and development. You know some of the challenges where we have to improve this organization. And so when you look at NISC financial situation and I know you're a fairly conservative guy, can I say that? We go back to the question that we ask ourselves all the time, Tracy, if this were your company if NISC was your company would you move forward with the acceleration program? TRACY: Absolutely. I think in the markets that we serve, the co-operative space, the rural and independent telecom space, and growing public power space. I absolutely think this is the right move for us. VERN: Well there you heard it. You heard it directly from NISC CFO, and you know the old saying "if there is no margin there is no mission," and we are focused on this mission of serving our members and developing our employees. The cool thing is, Tracy, we've got the margin to do it. So the acceleration program is a go. We want our employees to be informed about this. And you'll hear more in a series of podcasts with the other vice presidents. Tracy, thank you very much for taking some time to be with me today and thank you for twenty-five years of amazing stewardship to this organization and friendship appreciate that a lot. TRACY: Thank you.

During the second week in January we had a quarterly board meeting as well as two days of strategic planning with our board of directors and our vice president group. Our strategic planning session is always very intense with a series of presentations delivered by our vice presidents on topics such as employee recruiting and retention, market developments, market share comparisons, and trends. We talk about product roadmaps and delivery schedules for new products and enhancements. In addition, we spend a lot of time analyzing and discussing technology trends as well as the overall Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats to our organization. When we come out of these sessions we are literally exhausted but always invigorated by the progress we're making and the opportunities we have in the future. But this year, this year the tone of our discussions was very different. It's clear that our board of directors recognize that we are formulating future strategies for it and I see from a position of strength unlike at any time in the history of our organization. I think it's fair to say that for the first 50 years of NISC, we have operated from a very defensive position. We were undercapitalized from the start, cash was always scarce, and it was very difficult to build the equity and the financial strength that was required to make bold moves in the industry, moves that would differentiate us from the competition. It seemed as if we were always playing catch up with our competitors in the marketplace. NISC was just a bit late, and our members were always pushing us faster and harder than we were capable of delivering the technology that was so critical to their success and efficiency. But over the last 50 years our cooperative business model and a true partnership that we have with our members has made all the difference and allowed us to slowly, incrementally grow financially stronger and deeper in our technology expertise and prowess at a time when so many of our competitors were going out of business or have been bought and sold multiple times. We built the strength and the subject matter expertise of this organization. The hard way, we earned it. No stock sale, no venture capital, no angel investor, just a determination and a tenacity to be good stewards, to be frugal and to ask the question over and over again as we made critical decisions, "If this were my company what would I do." And so dollar by dollar member by member employee by employee together we built NYSE into an organization that is strong financially and deep in technology and the industry talent required to meet the increasing expectations and requirements of our member-owners. The theme that came from our strategic planning session this year was clear. NISC was making perhaps one of the most significant, pivotal moves in our history. We were moving from defense to offense, leveraging the depth of our financial and talent strength, Our board gave us specific instructions to move ahead confidently, aggressively and yes to move from defense to offense. Rather than always being obsessed with our competitors, some of them small niche players others some of the largest and most formidable technology companies in the world like SAP and Oracle. It's true what Andy Grove the former CEO of Intel said "Only the Paranoid Survive. But this, this is a new day, and we are determined to up our game and to aggressively invest in emerging technologies working side by side with our members to define the direction of technology for these industries rather than being an employer that did a good job of hiring and training our employees only to lose them to more aggressive organizations, Our directive from our board is to aggressively invest in the development of our employees, making NISC a clear long term career choice and preparing our employees to lead this organization into the future. Over the next several weeks we will be posting a number of BlogCasts to the communities that will include candid interviews with each of the vice presidents talking about how this offensive strategy will impact their respective divisions. Although we have significant challenges before us, I must tell you that in my entire career I don't know that I have ever felt so inspired and confident about the future of our organization. We have been grinding it out, and I do mean grinding it out on defense for 50 years, and this this is our time to shine. The unfailing support from our board, the partnership with our members, and the dedication of our employees have brought us to this place. And everybody knows that our offense is much more fun and exciting than defense. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

It’s New Year's Eve. And time once again for our traditional New Year's resolutions. And at a time when so much of our attention here at NISC is focused on coaching, leadership, deadlines, marketing wins, our bottom line, recruiting and onboarding new employees, development schedules, our capacity to meet the demand for our products, One on One sessions wage and salary matrixes, strategic initiatives, and all the rest. I have decided to take a little different approach in my final BlogCast of 2017. One of my favorite places on the planet is right on my own patio watching the geese and the eagles fly overhead listening to the relentless motion of the Missouri River. Often I think about the fact that in 1904 Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery walked along the banks of the Missouri River less than a hundred feet from where I'm seated. Many of you know that I am a Lewis and Clark fan and I basically read everything I can get my hands on regarding their amazing adventure which over a two-year timeframe took them from St. Louis just a few miles from our Lake St. Louis office to the Pacific Ocean and back. You cannot read about Lewis and Clark without getting to know Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and largely was responsible for commissioning the Lewis and Clark expedition. I am fortunate in that I have a good friend here in Bismarck by the name of Clay Jenkinson, a brilliant man who has literally spent the last thirty years studying the life and philosophies of Thomas Jefferson. I've learned a great deal from listening to Clay. He has made my view of life and politics, well as they say more fair and balanced. So today I'd like to share with you my resolutions for 2018 which have largely been formed after reading the latest biography of Thomas Jefferson and also visiting at length with my friend Clay about what President Jefferson's take would be on the current state of our country. So here are my resolutions for 2018. This year I will work to renew old friendships. Facebook has made it possible to make connections with long lost friends at the far margins of our lives and the older I get the more I realize the importance of those relationships. I will be taking more long walks with my faithful companion Rusty, our golden retriever. I am determined to temper the fierce political debates in my life by turning off the radio and TV particularly MSNBC and FOX and CNN and Glenn and Sean and savage and Rush. I have a large stack of books on the corner of my desk and I plan on reading more much more. And not just business books. I'm going to take an online class and it will have nothing to do with technology. I will do my best to try to imagine the points of view of those with whom I most disagree and I will make a concerted effort to embrace the art of a respectful argument. I'm going to eat less and better. I'm going to run my first road race in over ten years. I'll be writing letters and notes on real paper, with a pen, in my own handwriting much to the chagrin of my fourth-grade penmanship teacher. Think about this. We are referred to as mankind. MAN KIND. I'm going to make every effort to be kinder to my fellow human beings and I'm going to try really hard to believe in the goodness of humanity no matter who they are. Hispanics, Caucasians, Muslims, blacks, American Indians, transgender, right or left Democrats or Republicans, independents, socialists, Iranians, North Koreans, Jews, Christians, all people truly not that much different from me. Although they may prefer Android to Apple or a Harley Davidson, Ford turbo F-150 (Ed Wolff) rather than a Tesla or run a Surface (David Aichele) rather than a macro. In the grand scheme of things, all of these distinctions are rather insignificant when it comes to life and to happiness. As John F. Kennedy said in his speech at American University on June 10th 1963. He said "For in the final analysis, the most basic common link is that we all inhabit this rather small planet. We breathe the same air, we cherish our children's future, and we are all mortal". Thank you President Kennedy. What a great statement. In 2018, every morning that I have the ability and the health to get out of bed and embrace a new day I will do so with gratitude. Because I've come to understand that without your health nothing else matters. Here's to a wonderful 2018 and I resolve that in this year I will work to live a life of joy and gratitude and respect and harmony. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern

CEO Vern Dosch talks about the past year and pauses to give thanks over this Christmas season as we head into our 50th year. If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch talks about how how Uber's recent actions has caused shaken the foundation of their culture and potentially the loyalty of its customer base.

CEO Vern Dosch talks about the impact that Brian Wolf is still having in our organization to this day. If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch talks about all of the reasons we have to celebrate, especially the launch of our new iVUE Connect Phase II at our first member site! If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch talks about all of the recent events and milestones that make this day a Red Letter Day! If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch talks about the individuals ("Fire Fighters") who have stepped up in times of crisis here at NISC and how the rest of our employees can support and sustain that effort in the future. If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch thanks employees for a strong and successful year, and emphasizes the value in continuing to raise the bar for the benefit of our Members. If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch reflects on what Labor Day means to him and to our employees here at NISC. If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch reflects back on the former employees that recently attended our first annual Alumni Luncheons and the impact that their loyalty and hard work has made on the environment and culture we know as employees today at NISC. If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)

CEO Vern Dosch talks about the role that each of us play here at NISC when it comes to winning the ongoing battle in the world of cyber security. If you would like to receive these BlogCasts on your mobile device, you can subscribe using podcast software on your phone with the URL:  http://niscmedia.libsyn.com/rss.  New episodes will automatically be pushed out to you. Information on the Apple Podcast App(iPhone) Video on Podcast Addict App(Android) Site for BeyondPod App (Android)