PERRY BAIRD
	COUNTERING KATRINA
	Commentary
	Wisconsin Favorites Heavenly Host of Angels

PERRY BAIRD
25 Years of Co-op Communications

Perry Baird has seen Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News through major changes over the years. His leadership as editor has morphed the publication from a black-and-white tabloid newspaper into a full-color, glossy magazine. The production process has gone from pasting up strips of copy to fully electronic, utilizing the latest computer equipment and sophisticated software.

However, Perry’s not one to forget where he came from. Stacked in his office next to the software manuals and piles of CDs are chunks of wax, X-acto knives, rolls of border tape, and other tools of a bygone era, kept within reach for old-time’s sake or, as Perry jokes, “just in case this whole computer thing turns out to be a fad.”

That’s our editor—forging ahead without forgetting the past, a combination of qualities perfect for leading a progressive publication with a long and proud history.

This year marks another milestone in the rich history of the Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News, as Perry Baird marks his 25th year of service to this publication. For a quarter of a century, his sharp writing, thoughtful observations, and enlightening analyses have helped Wisconsin’s electric cooperative members keep pace with the complex maze of issues that have affected the industry over the years.

Territorial integrity, retail wheeling, electromagnetic fields, stray voltage, renewable energy: These are just some of the complicated issues Perry has tackled in the pages of this publication. His news stories and succinct editorials have addressed heated topics sensibly and sensitively, adding touches of humor or gravity as needed.

Grounding in Government

Perry Baird began his career with the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association (WECA) in 1980 as director of government affairs. He came to the position with a wealth of legislative experience, having served as an administrative assistant in the Wisconsin State Senate for six years under two Senators. His experience in legislative research and analysis would serve him well in his new post, as a registered lobbyist working extensively with WECA contract lobbyists on state legislative and regulatory matters pertaining to electric co-ops.

In addition to his duties in the Capitol, Perry was responsible for penning the government affairs pages of what was then the Wisconsin R.E.C. News, breaking down the legislative and regulatory issues he lobbied into meaningful explanations for readers. He continued in this capacity until 1986, when he was introduced to readers of the R.E.C. News as news editor.

Perry continued as news editor until October 1987, when he became the sixth person to hold the title of editor of this publication since it was founded in 1940 as the voice of the fledging rural electric cooperative program. First known as the Wisconsin REA News, the newspaper was launched under Editor Harvey Schermerhorn’s leadership to combat inaccurate, anti-cooperative propaganda spread by the nation’s investor-owned utilities. It was the first of what would become a national network of rural electric statewide publications.

Maintaining Tradition

Perry’s first editorial in October 1987 set the tone for the type of editor he would be: humble, often humorous, and always mindful of the publication’s significant role in the history of the rural electrification program. Instead of introducing himself and reciting his own qualifications, Perry used his first editorial space to pay homage to his predecessor, Les Nelson, whose own impressive career at the R.E.C. News lasted 34 years. Perry noted in his first editorial that bound volumes of Les’s contributions measured 8 feet in length.

“The historical perspective is not lost on this editor,” he wrote. “Les has left a tremendous historical record of the past three decades and more of the rural electrification program.”

His own historical record may not quite measure 8 feet, but that’s partly because a format change in the midst of Perry’s editorship resulted in physically smaller publications. The historical record within those pages, however, measures up to the magazine’s respected tradition.

Perry has also maintained the publication’s tradition of sharp, quality writing. He could cover an entire wall with the 14 writing awards he’s won from the National Electric Cooperative Editorial Association over the years. However, self-promotion has never been his style; the certificates stay tucked out of sight in a file folder.

Guiding Through Change

While maintaining much of the tradition set by its first five able editors, Perry has also guided the publication through major changes.

First came desktop publishing at the end of the 1980s. Embracing what was then state-of-the-art technology, Perry and his staff were among the early waves of journalists to master MacIntosh SE computers with their six-inch black-and-white screens and a total storage capacity that would hold just one or two of today’s individual documents.

In the spring of 1990, the publication took its first step away from the classic, black-and-white tabloid format that had served so well for half a century. Working with a noted graphic designer, Perry led the paper through a redesign that maintained the tabloid newspaper size, but introduced more color, larger photos, more flexibility in page designs, and a then-modern look.

In 1994, Perry guided the conversion from a tabloid paper into a full-color magazine. Records from that year show the conversion was not without its growing pains; not all of the state’s electric cooperatives were convinced it was necessary, and the effort required diplomacy and persuasion as well as skills with the pen. However, in May 1994, the very first Wisconsin R.E.C. News issue to appear in magazine format rolled off the press to rave reviews.

Changes in both the electric cooperative community and the publishing industry led to the magazine’s most recent conversion. In February 2002, after a year of study and input by a committee of co-op volunteers, the Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News was introduced. In his February 2002 editorial, Perry pointed out, “The magazine sports a name that reflects the expanded energy services now being offered by the state’s electric cooperatives; a design, appearance, and readability more in keeping with modern communication pieces; and content more focused on challenges and opportunities for co-ops and their diverse memberships.”

The new format was also the first produced completely by electronic means, resulting in sharper reproduction and endless possibilities for graphic design. Despite becoming versed in digital technology, however, Perry retains some loyalty to the old tried-and-true methods, preferring to write out his stories longhand before pecking them out index-finger style on the keyboard.

National Honors

Again, the newest version of the traditional publication earned heaps of praise, culminating with presentation of the George W. Haggard Memorial Journalism Award for 2002.

Given each year since 1959 to a single publication judged the nation’s best statewide rural electric magazine, the Haggard Award recognizes and commends the publication demonstrating “the most lucid, forthright, and effective presentation of ideas advancing the objectives of electric cooperatives and the issues that affect them and their consumer–owners.” The 2002 Haggard Award was Wisconsin’s fourth, the most recent previous one having come in 1974.

One judge said of the magazine, “It has a good balance of general interest stories and solid energy/cooperative issues.” Another praised its “informative coverage of important issues such as nuclear waste disposal, hydropower, and farm energy safety.”

Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), said, “When co-op consumers read this publication, they know they have a voice.”

In accepting the award at the 2003 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Annual Meeting, Perry deflected praise and instead credited “the collaborative effort among our staff, the committee members, and local-page editors who put a heroic amount of work into this project.”

A collaborative effort it was, but with one leader, as there has been for the past two decades. There has been just one Perry Baird, and after 25 years, it’s safe to say he’s no fad.—Mary Erickson

Countering Katrina
Wisconsin Co-ops’ Labors Praised

Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana-Mississippi border and blacked out a geographical area the size of Great Britain—including the service territory of Washington-St. Tammany Electric, a rural cooperative with 35,000 members north of New Orleans. In the course of four weeks, 3,000 co-op workers from across the country—including 78 from Wisconsin (see list)—answered the call for help and completely rebuilt a power-distribution system that had taken more than 65 years to construct. Billy Gibson, communications director for the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives sent us the following description of his encounter with the last group of Wisconsin volunteers.

I walked up to a group of 20 or so men from Wisconsin who were unwinding from their day's work and sitting in a circle in their folding chairs and settling in for one final evening before heading back home the next day.

Several of the men, though bone-weary from their toil, jumped right up and shook my hand with gusto and offered me a beverage. I was a bit flummoxed at first until I realized what was happening: These people were actually thanking me—thanking ME—for the "privilege" of coming down here and helping our state get back on its feet!

The more I conversed with the men, the more ecstatic and demonstrative they became. I told them I wanted to take some pictures and they immediately whipped out their rallying flag and ran it up a bucket truck like we were at Iwo Jima or something. A dozen of them handed me their disposable cameras so they could get their own copy of a group picture. That's how rightfully proud they were of themselves, their state, and the job they were doing. Heck, it made me want to become a badger.

I talked to crew leader David Woyicki of Riverland Energy, who expressed his sympathy for the people in this region whose lives have been ripped apart.

I spoke with Brian Jiskra, a young lineman at Dunn Energy Cooperative, who dang-near made me tear up as he described how he and a couple other linemen from his co-op heard about the widespread loss of property and life that Katrina caused and literally jumped at the opportunity to help even though it meant leaving their homes and families and coming to a place rife with dysfunction and danger.

I expected grumbling about the grub and the bugs and the weather and instead I got an overabundance of honor, grace, and kindness.

I left that group wondering what a great place Wisconsin must be. I also wished they could all stay because over the next months and years my state is going to need men who know how to roll up their sleeves and put in a hard day's work, men who won't wilt under the pressure that this natural disaster has brought—men who not only are completely unafraid of meeting a challenge but actually welcome the opportunity to step up and take the test.

We've seen our share of hardship here in Louisiana, but I think we might just make it—thanks to folks like the linemen from your great state of Wisconsin. We'll never forget the sacrifice you made to help us.—Billy Gibson

 

Wisconsin Co-ops’ Task Force

Adams-Columbia Electric Co-op
Jon Ebert (crew supervisor), Mike Pate, Mike Meinhardt, Jacob Kallies, Pete Gabryshak, Jason Kirn, Kevin Wegner, Chris Campion, Jon Trzesniak, Brian Salm, Adam Reiche, Tony Orth, Jason Hooker, Dan Bielmeier, Jim Wyttenbach, Bill Kerns, Mike Frinack, Steve Lois, Lester Wilson

Barron Electric Co-op
Sherwin Newman, Glenn Hanson, Nate Steines, Brian Schultz, Jeff Sando

Central Wisconsin Electric Co-op
Denny Magee

Chippewa Valley Electric Co-op
Dennis Harm, Kevin Scheidler, Terry Capek, Frank Hakes

Clark Electric Co-op
Jeff Block, Scott Bailen, Troy Bauer, Mike Hackel, Ken Martini

Dunn Energy Co-op
John Hestekin, Pat Rhude, Brian Jiskra

Eau Claire Energy Co-op
Donald Draeger, Beau Blade, Brian Yohnk, Terry Gilbertson, Bob Henrichs, Dan Anglemeyer, Rich LaPointe, Josh Vaningan, Nate Nodolf

Oakdale Electric Co-op
Joe Engel, Stewart Walters, Todd Duncan, Dan Moore, Andy Steele, Bob Thompson, Scott Brookman

Pierce Pepin Co-op Services
Ryan Moore, Shawn Skelton, John Halverson, Mike Mountin

Richland Electric Co-op
Shannon Clark, Jeff Joseph, Ed Keller, Kevin Smith

Riverland Energy Co-op
Dave Woyicki (crew supervisor), Zach Bell, Rob Sosalla, Larry Skoug, Todd Anibas, Dale Kircher

Rock County Electric Co-op
Steve White, Scott Manogue, Chris Tullar, Ed Koch

Scenic Rivers Energy Co-op
Merlin Breihan, Andy Kilcoyne, Troy Dahl, Kurt Teshel, Bob Olson

Taylor Electric Co-op
Dan Fuchs,Randy Gale

Commentary
by Dave Hoopman

Perry Baird’s ideas customarily fill this space, which he has previously surrendered just once since 1987. This month he does so a second time only because his colleagues, in an affectionate mutiny, have commandeered much of the issue to salute Perry’s 25 years’ service to the rural electric community.

He’s only the sixth person so far given editorial custody of the nation’s original statewide rural electric publication, founded 65 years ago by a Grant County newspaperman who realized that unless electric cooperatives had an independent ability to tell their story, it might be a very short one.

Created to inform and mobilize the Wisconsin co-op community, this publication spearheaded a nationwide network of statewide rural electric magazines now numbering 31 and serving some 8.4 million members.

Our editor’s keen appreciation for that history animates our thinking about the content of this magazine, especially the views expressed on this page.

Self-Help, Self-Defense

Electricity was first commercially available in the 1880s, but didn’t reach the American countryside for another half-century and wouldn’t have then, except that strong, self-reliant people concluded if they didn’t do it no one would, and they formed the cooperatives.

Investor-owned utilities’ (IOUs) disinclination to serve thinly populated areas meant more than indifference; it meant hostility. Vilifying cooperatives as the thin edge of international Bolshevism was a common tactic, as was the building of “spite lines”—electric distribution lines entering rural areas no IOU had any intention of serving—to provoke territorial fights aimed at thwarting a co-op that did intend to serve.

Mutual interest in a reliable, interdependent electric grid has since doused most flare-ups between co-ops and IOUs, but other challenges abound.

Recent tests include a utility-restructuring movement that threatened to extinguish small providers until it crashed and burned itself; utility merger-mania jeopardizing access to affordable power; the permanent struggle to fend off regulatory overreach seeking dubious benefits at large expense; and the fight to preserve local co-op control of utility public-benefits fees.

Tools and Tides

This magazine and a reputation for credibility unsurpassed among organizations engaged in state or federal lobbying have been our co-ops’ primary survival tools.

But we wouldn’t significantly illuminate our issues by parroting what you’ll find virtually everywhere else in the media. We serve best when we report things others leave out. Not everyone likes that.

Occasionally there’s a letter from someone who must imagine us greeting each sunrise asking: “How can I swim against the tide of history today?” He’ll object to one-sided reporting, though it’s obvious we’ve angered him by undermining one-sided reporting, raising some aspect of a story the major media have relentlessly ignored.

We recognize the need for humility about what we know and don’t know, but having witnessed the strength of co-op people and the folly of their antagonists, we’ve seen enough to know one man’s tide of history is often another man’s debris floating downstream.

Back to you, Perry, and here’s to another 25.

Dave Hoopman is a frequent WECN contributor and serves as director of regulatory affairs–electric for the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives.

As the holiday season looms, most Wisconsin folks’ thoughts turn to pumpkin pie, gifts under the tree, parties, Santa Claus, or those most ethereal of creatures: angels. Though religions differ in their opinions of these heavenly beings, nearly everyone can appreciate them as the embodiment of grace and beauty.

That’s the philosophy of the Angel Museum in Beloit. The institution—billed as the world’s largest angel museum—emphasizes its collection as symbols for joy, nobility, and good, rather than promoting religion or a theology of angels.

The collection began almost accidentally in 1976, when Lowell and Joyce Berg stopped in an antique store to kill time. They came out with two angel figurines. By the time they began decorating for Christmas that year, the Bergs realized they’d purchased several angels, so they began actively seeking them as souvenirs on their travels. By 2001, the couple was recognized by Guinness as having the world’s largest privately owned angel collection, now numbering some 13,000 angels.

Today, the Berg Collection forms the backbone of the Angel Museum, founded in 1998 in the former St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Beloit. The building is now a Beloit historical landmark and home to thousands of angels, with the space to display some 7,000 angels at a time. Since its opening, the museum has attracted more than 51,000 visitors from every state and from 30 nations.

Those who visit are awed by the variety of the Berg Collection. There are angels from many cultures, made of a vast array of materials, from crystal and porcelain to metals, stained glass, cornhusks, and even spaghetti. There are large angels, miniature angels, and angels made into planters, bells, music boxes, and other items. There are even angels that depict various holidays by bearing hearts, shamrocks, or turkeys.

A second collection that shares the spotlight with the Berg Collection is the Black Angel Collection. Donated by Oprah Winfrey, this collection boasts more than 600 black angels—most of them sent to Ms. Winfrey by her fans after she inquired of her viewing audience whether there were any black angel collectibles available.

To jump-start your holidays, look and marvel at all the heavenly beings in the Angel Museum. Then visit the museum’s gift shop to buy one—or a whole choir—to enhance your home décor. Depart with thoughts of beauty, peace, and joy. That’s what angels are for.—Linda Hilton

The Angel Museum is located on Highway 51 (656 Pleasant St.) on the northeast side of downtown Beloit. It is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10–4 p.m. The museum is closed most holidays and the entire month of January. For more information, visit www.angelmuseum.com or call 608/362-9099.