How We Serve: Strategic Planning and Communications

Employees at Basin Electric understand their role as stewards of service to the members of the cooperative. The “How We Serve” series highlights an employee and their work group and explains how they serve our members every day.

Andy Buntrock has worked with the cooperative family for over 15 years. He has held several positions at Basin Electric including manager of Financial Forecasting, director of Commodity Risk, director of Dakota Gas Financial Services, and director of Strategic Planning and Communications. In 2022, he was promoted to vice president of Strategic Planning and Communications. Buntrock has served on several charitable boards, including the Bismarck Cancer Center. Currently, he serves on his township board, as well as on the BisMan Chamber Economic Development Committee and the Energy Subcommittee. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and retired from the North Dakota Air National Guard after serving for 21 years. Buntrock and his wife, KariAnn, and their two daughters are avid conservation and wildlife enthusiasts and, along with the help of family and friends, have planted over 45,000 trees on their property south of Menoken, North Dakota. In 2017, they were presented with the Burleigh County Soil Conservation District Tree Care award by Basin Electric Class C member Capital Electric Cooperative, who also supplies the Buntrock farm with their power

Buntrock discusses his role and the role of the Strategic Planning and Communications team, and how together their purpose has strengthened Basin Electric’s dedication to serving its consumer-owners.

“The Strategic Planning and Communications team helps to ensure that the strategic direction of the cooperative is developed, and that what we do is aligned in that direction. We also make certain that we are communicating the positive attributes of the cooperative value proposition,” Buntrock says. The team understands that consumer-owners are at the start and heart of everything they do.

When it comes to strategic planning, staff hosts regular meetings with the board of directors, which represents members, and the Senior Leadership Team to have ongoing conversations as the utility industry evolves, disseminates timely information, and communicates transparently with the membership. Buntrock says the communications team works closely with all departments throughout Basin Electric to ensure members receive the information they need about their cooperative. The team also provides resources to members to assist with their communication efforts.

Buntrock has worked for different companies and agencies prior to joining Basin Electric. “This place is different; it gets in your blood. There is a servant leadership environment here that you don’t see in other places. The members we serve may live on a rural gravel road in Iowa and could be on a fixed income or they might be a single parent from North Dakota, working to provide for their family in the face of skyrocketing inflation. When you are owned and managed by the members that utilize your products and services, it gives a whole new meaning to member service and being part of the cooperative family.”

Buntrock challenges cooperative employees to take a look at what they do every day for the members of the cooperative. “Whether working on a pump at Dakota Gas, running the operating board at Laramie River Station, or closing the monthly books in the Financial Services department, everyone is working toward one thing and that’s the member at the end of the line. The more thorough and efficient we can do our jobs, the better we satisfy that member desire for affordable and reliable power,” Buntrock says.