Minnkota and Square Butte hold annual meetings

Minnkota Power Cooperative employees, members, directors and guests filled Minnkota’s Grand Forks conference center on March 27 for the co-op’s 86^th annual meeting, along with the 52^nd annual meeting of Square Butte Electric Cooperative. The theme of the meeting was “Power That Shows Up”– even through a challenging 2025, Minnkota’s people continued to show up and find solutions.

Following opening comments from Minnkota Board Chair Mark Habedank and Square Butte Board Chair Paul Aakre, Minnkota staff shared reports on 2025’s finances, safety metrics, power supply and power delivery. Senior Vice President of Power Supply Andrew Sorbo described the challenges that have come from increased energy market volatility as well as the opportunities ahead surrounding new generation and large load interconnections. Dan Inman, senior vice president of Power Delivery, commended crews on their response to summer storms and spoke of the progress that has been make on several large transmission projects.

Once the visiting delegation voted to elect a new slate of board directors for both Minnkota and Square Butte, Minnkota President and CEO Mac McLennan addressed the audience. His message was one of resilience through an energy era that continues to become harder to navigate, with rising demand, changing regulations, supply chain difficulties and more.

“Adversity is an opportunity in and of itself,” McLennan said. “You're going to learn from the things that happen to you. Challenges will teach you something. Now the question is whether we learn from them or not.”

McLennan said the co-op is heading into “uncharted territory” but must keep its eyes open for opportunities. And pursuing those opportunities will take an enormous amount of teamwork between employees, member cooperatives, industry partners and others.

“We're facing a moment that requires courage and thoughtfulness and long-term thinking,” he said. “Staying united through all of this…trying to find solutions all together and trying to take advantage of opportunities, is what ultimately I think will drive this success.”