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
