Last week, Wolverine retired $3 million in patronage capital to its members. Sounds great, right? But what in the world is patronage capital? So…here goes my attempt to simplify one of the mysteries of the cooperative world! As I’ve discussed in previous blogs, Wolverine is a non-profit corporation. We exist to serve our members, not [...]
Suzetta Pfeiffer’s first sight of America was the Statue of Liberty. She sailed from Rotterdam to Ellis Island before stepping onto New York’s chaotic streets, unable to speak English. Age 16, she had to find Central Station to buy a ticket to Muskegon, Michigan. Suze was strong, generous, supportive, and the wisest, most perceptive person [...]
Contractors swung into high gear this week on the Cadillac headquarters project, and Mother Nature blessed us with great weather. We are right on schedule with a number of important initial project milestones. This week’s focus included final soil compaction, foundation work, driveway construction, and installation of temporary construction electric service. Tim Martin is Wolverine’s [...]
Imagine waking up in the dark on a minus-35 degree morning like we had last winter. You turn on a kerosene lamp, pump some water, get wood burning in your kitchen stove, and finally after 30 minutes, get a little water boiling for coffee. That was life in rural America — until electric cooperatives, that [...]
I talked about the importance of Peaking Generation in my last post. Wolverine operates peaking generation in Tower, Gaylord, Hersey, Vestaburg and Sumpter Twp. Our plants are very well maintained, and in most cases, in very good condition… and we need more! Why do we need more Peaking Generation? The primary reason is that older [...]
You all know that the purpose of a generator is to make electricity. So what is Peaking generation? Think about how you use electricity during the course of a day. You use a lot in the morning as you get ready for work and kids get ready for school. Then the house is pretty quiet [...]
Each year Wolverine updates its debt rating with Standard & Poor’s (S&P). S&P is one of several well-known rating agencies (including Moody’s and Fitch) that will, for a fee, rate the riskiness of a company. In theory, this creates a common ranking system so lenders can determine how safe a loan may be as compared [...]
Wolverine had a really good year in 2014. One of our quiet, but very important success stories relates to long-term power supply. Our mission comes down to two words: reliability and affordability. Power supply gets at the affordability part of our mission, and long-term is important because we want price stability for our members. Turn [...]
Thanks for checking into my blog. If you asked me five years ago, I’m sure I would have sworn that “blog” is a word that I would NEVER use, let alone ever DO! So with a great deal of surprise, and admittedly some fear, here goes. Why a blog? Let’s start with the easy [...]