Attach to Form 990 or 990-EZ.
Go to www.irs.gov/Form990 for the latest information.
| Return Reference | Explanation |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section A, Line 7a | Great Lakes Energy is an electric cooperative utility. All members/consumers vote for candidates to fill the nine 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. GLE has nine districts with one Board Member from each district. |
| 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 significant bylaw changes in 2022. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b | The GLE Board of Directors were provided with a questionnaire in April 2023 which was used to assist Management in completing pertinent sections of this 990. At a subsequent Board meeting, prior to filing, the Board reviewed the preliminary 990 and discussed specifics of the 990 return. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12c | A questionnaire 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. |
| 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 level for the CEO each year. The CEO, using the afore mentioned consultant, sets the salary level for the CFO each year. |
| 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. 2022 audited financial statement summaries were mailed to members in June 2023 Country Lines Magazine. They are also available upon request. GLE does not make the conflict of interest policy available to the public. |
| Form 990, Part VII, Section A, Line 1a | (Directors) Amounts listed for Directors are primarily per diem compensation amounts for services provided to Great Lakes Energy (column D), Great Lakes Energy Connections (column E), and for one Director the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association (combined in column C). Per Diem amount levels for Directors are benchmarked with data from over 900 other electric cooperatives though the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and also benchmarked with over 35 cooperatives from the Association of Large Distribution Cooperatives (ALDC) representing the peer group of Great Lakes Energy. 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 increase in defined benefit pension plans are also included as Other Compensation and were 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 49% less than the actuarial value as reported in column F as Other Compensation. The 49% 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. |
| Form 990, Part VII, Section A, Line 1d | Compensation from related organizations are amounts related to Great Lakes Energy Connections, for-profit internet provider wholly owned by Great Lakes Energy Cooperative, paid by GLE and reimbursed by Great Lakes Energy Connections. No 1099's or W-2's were issued by Connections. However, to provide transparency, Compensation for both Directors and Employees were broken out between GLE and Related Organization (Connections). Therefore, Compensation listed for GLE and Connections equal the total amounts reported on 1099's or W-2's, for those Directors/Employees, from GLE. |
| Form 990, Part IX, Line 4 | The instructions for 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 patronage dividends is the process by which Great Lakes Energy operates at cost with our members, and thereby is a key component to accomplishing the exempt purpose of the cooperative, Great Lakes Energy has reported the amount of 2022 net margins allocated to our members, subsequent to year-end, as an expense on this 990. 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. |
| Form 990, Part XI, Line 9 | Changes in equity not included in Great Lakes Energy's net margins consists of Employee post-retirement health benefits and Directors' pension plan adjustments, required by FASB 158, recorded in the financial statements as Other Comprehensive Loss - $385,261 increase; patronage capital refunds to members - $208,914 decrease; donated capital from members - $2,264,605 increase; unrealized gain on interest rate swap - $3,790,515 increase; and capital credits allocated and included in Part IX, line 4 that are not recorded in the Cooperative's audited financial statements as an expense in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) - $11,177,265 increase; rounding decrease of $2. The net increase to Net Assets is $17,408,730. |
| Software ID: | 22015720 |
| Software Version: | v1.00 |