Directors and management share role in media relations.

• Author: Ohlemeier, Bill J.

Among the responsibilities of my position with the electric cooperatives which serve in our state is the opportunity to attend the member-systems' annual meetings. Since 1976, I've attended more than 200 meetings and have been asked to participate in most of them.

Generally, the meetings go without any problems. However, an incident at a member-system's annual meeting in the early 1980s remains in my memory. The cooperative was a distribution cooperative and a member of a generation and transmission cooperative which was in the process of purchasing into a nuclear power plant. It was apparent there was something afoot, because the manager and president of the cooperative were obviously agitated when I arrived. As it turns out, a news reporter had come to the meeting.

Sure enough, there was an individual standing off to the side in the auditorium awaiting the start of the meeting. He appeared just as uneasy as the cooperative officials. I immediately went over and introduced myself and asked if there was something I could do.

The young man seemed grateful for my assistance. It turns out, he was the sports editor of the local paper. The paper had been notified that the cooperative's membership would be passing a resolution withdrawing its membership from the generation and transmission cooperative. Furthermore, the cooperative would then make "a firm commitment against the use of nuclear power." He added that the newspaper was "told" to have someone in attendance to report these happenings. Since the editor had other commitments and the one news reporter was also preoccupied, it fell upon the shoulders of the sports editor to cover the meeting. Needless to say, he knew very little about the electric cooperatives and was not familiar with the events which were to take place.

As in many cases, one of the principal staff members of the generation and transmission cooperative had accompanied me to the meeting and was scheduled to participate. I introduced him to the reporter and the two of them sat on a piano bench near the stage and visited for some time.

The sports editor did not stay for the entire meeting. There was an attempt to introduce an anti-nuclear resolution from the floor, but it did not get anywhere. The rest of the meeting was uneventful.

A few days later, there was a front-page story in the local newspaper which explained the local electric cooperative's participation in the nuclear power plant. The cooperative, the generation and transmission cooperative and the nuclear power plant project were presented in a factual and positive light. Needless to say, the cooperative was pleased with the article.

Why does the presence of a news reporter intimidate a cooperative's board and management? Why does it signal that...