Board Meeting held on May 14, 2026

Record High Attendance for Annual Meeting

Member survey responses highlighted breakfast and MPE updates and information

The Board and senior staff reviewed the 76th Annual Meeting, held on May 2, 2026, at Middle Park High School. 

Attendance continued its upward trend, reaching 297 this year, up from 274 in 2025 and 224 in 2024. Survey responses from 62 members in attendance showed an overall event experience rating of 4.62 stars out of 5 stars. Nearly 84% of survey participants gave the free breakfast buffet a 5-star (“Very Satisfied”) rating. The breakfast was also mentioned in the open-ended question for what was most liked about the event, along with the opportunity to socialize with fellow community members and MPE representatives, and the value of the information  provided and MPE updates. 

The theme of the meeting—“Power You Can Count On. Rates You Can Understand.”—invited members to “get nerdy” with the Board and MPE employees. This included interactive activities during breakfast, such as the Pedal Power Energy Bike, Watt Prices is Right Game, and Lineman Activity Stations. During the meeting, speeches and a roundtable discussion examined how MPE designs its rates, not only through independent cost of service studies, but also in alignment with each of MPE’s mission priorities – safety, reliability, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. 

This year’s Board of Director elections, which included districts 2 and 5, were uncontested. Incumbent directors Cray Healy (District 2) and Mike Sjobakken (District 5) were the only candidates to file. 

The annual meeting is typically held on a Saturday morning in late April or early May. The breakfast and raffle prizes are supported by donations from MPE vendors. 

Other Board Meeting Items

  • In updates to the Board from the Operations and Engineering departments, it was noted that incoming customer job requests are currently below recent years’ numbers by this time of year. Line crews remain busy, however, as system maintenance began about a month earlier than usual due to unseasonably warm temperatures. As a result, significant progress was made in April on pole replacements identified through annual inspections, as well as correcting anomalies identified in last year’s aerial system inspection. 
  • Thanks to recent precipitation across MPE’s service territory, all fire protection settings that were implemented on some devices around April 1 have been returned to normal. If dry conditions return, devices will be reset to higher-sensitivity settings as an important wildfire mitigation measure. To learn more about fire protection settings and other wildfire preparedness efforts, visit our website: 
    https://www.MPEI.com/wildfire-mitigation. 
  • MPE’s year-to-date kWh sales are nearly 14% below what was budgeted, primarily due to historically low heating degree days—a measure of how often outdoor temperatures were cold enough to require heating. Other cooperatives serving mountain communities are reporting similar trends in lagging kWh sales.

View the May 2026 Board Meeting Bulletin PDF

Archive of Board Meeting Bulletins