Attach to Form 990 or 990-EZ.| Identifier | Return Reference | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| F990_P01_S00_L14 | Form 990, Part I, Line 14 | The instructions for the 2011 Form 990 clarify that "benefits Paid to Members" should include the amount of patronage dividends paid to the members of Section 501(C)(12) cooperatives. Consistent with the clarification in the instructions, Great Lakes Energy has reported on Part I, Line 14 for the current year, the amount of patronage dividends paid and/or allocated to the cooperative's members for the 2011 calendar year. Since Part I summarizes both prior and current year data, Great Lakes Energy has chosen to also report on Part I, Line 14 for the prior year the amount of patronage dividends paid and/or allocated to the members for the 2010 calendar year. Because the instructions for the 2010 form 990 did not provide such clarification, the 2010 form 990 prepared last year was not prepared in this manner. However, since Great Lakes Energy did in fact allocate patronage dividends to its members for the 2010 calendar year, we believe that both the prior year and current year columns of Part I should be prepared consistently in order to reflect that the cooperative has a pre-existing obligation to allocate and does allocate all margins in the form of patronage dividends to our members for each year that we operate - for the benefit of our members. |
| F990_P06_S0A_L06 | Form 990, Part VI, Section A, Line 6 | Great Lakes Energy is a Cooperative with all electric "customers" of the Cooperative required to be members. |
| F990_P06_S0A_L07a | Form 990, Part VI, Section A, Line 7a | Great Lakes Energy is an electric cooperative utility. All members/customers vote for candidates to fill the 9- member Great Lakes Energy Board. An election is held annually. Board Directors serve three year terms and must be re-elected to serve longer than three years. |
| F990_P06_S0A_L07b | Form 990, Part VI, Section A, Line 7b | Certain Bylaw changes must be ratified by the general membership. This ratification is voted upon in conjunction with the annual board election. There were no bylaw changes proposed for ratification in 2011. |
| F990_P06_S0B_L11b | Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b | The GLE Board of Directors were mailed a questionaire in June used to assist Management in completing pertinent sections of the 990. At a subsequent Board meeting, the Board reviewed the preliminary 990 and discussed specifics of the 990 return. |
| F990_P06_S0B_L12c | Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12c | A questionaire was delivered to each Board Member and Officers asking each to verify that they had received and read the policy and to certify they had no conflicts of interest. These certificates are on file with the supporting documentation for this 990. |
| F990_P06_S0B_L15 | Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 15 | GLE contracts with a nationally recognized compensation consultant to determine salary levels for the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer along with certain others in the Company. The consultant performs an annual market survey and position evaluation utilizing comparative financial data for the industry and company size. The results are confidentially disclosed to the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Board sets the salary levels for the Officers each year. |
| F990_P06_S0C_L19 | Form 990, Part VI, Section C, Line 19 | GLE makes company bylaws available to the public on line at www.gtlakes.com and with printed copies upon request. 2011 audited financial statement summaries were mailed to members with the June 2012 Country Lines magazine. They are also available upon request. GLE does not make the conflict of interest policy available to the public. |
| F990_P07_S0A_L05 | Form 990, Part VII, Section A, Line 5 | Amounts listed for CEO, CFO and all employees on Part VII in column F include (per 990 instructions) amounts associated with health care employer premiums, excess life insurance premiums, and employer contributions to a qualified 401k plan. It should be noted that these benefits are available to all employees of Great Lakes Energy and therefore these are not discriminatory benefits. Amounts included for actuarial increases in defined benefit pension plans are also included as Other Compensation provided to Great Lakes Energy by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) which administers the multi-employer pension plan. It should be noted that these actuarial amounts are much higher than the actual cash paid to the plan. The actual cash paid to the plan for the employees listed was 25% less than the actuarial value as reported in column F as Other Compensation. The 25% difference is due to the multi-employer basis of the NRECA defined benefit pension plan. This benefit is also available to all Great Lakes Energy employees and is nondiscriminatory. |
| F990_P09_S00_L04 | Form 990, Part IX, Line 4 | The instructions for the 2011 Form 990 clarifies that the amount of patronage dividends paid to the members should be reported on Part IX, line 4. The phrase "patronage dividends paid" refers to the process, subsequent to year-end by which Great Lakes Energy allocates patronage capital to members and therefore operates at cost to our members. Please note however that because patronage dividends is the process by which Great Lakes Energy operates at cost with our members, and thereby it is a key component to accomplishing the exempt purpose of the cooperative, Great Lakes Energy has reported the amount of our 2011 margins that has been allocated to our members subsequent to year-end. Such amounts are an expense for Form 990 reporting but are not an expense for financial statements prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). As a result, the difference between Great Lakes Energy's GAAP-basis financial statements and the revenue less expenses reported on Part I Line 19 is the amount of the patronage dividends reported as benefits paid to members. |
| F990_P11_S00_L05 | Form 990, Part XI, Line 5 | Reductions to equity not included in net margins (net income) are from Patronage Capital refunded to members ($4,157,544) and a reduction of donated capital ($708). Additions to equity not included in net margins (net income) are from a sales tax refund ($68,432) and rounding of $1. These non-income/expense adjustments reduced equity by the net amount of $4,089,819. Expenses on the Form 990 are to include Capital Credits Allocated, see Part O - Form 990, Part IX, Line 4 explanation. Capital Credits allocated and included in expense on Part IX, Line 4 are properly not included in the audited financial statements as an expense in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP). In 2011, the amount of Capital Credits allocated and included in Expense that needs to be added back to Net Assets is $9,084,372 |
| Software ID: | 11000129 |
| Software Version: | v1.00 |