ESC GFEN NA Consortium Minutes 032119

ESC GFEN/NA Consortium Minutes from March 21, 2019 Meeting was called to order at 2:05 pm Eastern Time Attendance: Black Hills Energy Bridgett Petzoldt Black Hills Energy Ruth Hietbrink CenterPoint Energy Lance Orton CenterPoint Energy Ann Lovcik ESC Greg Tomsick FMNGA - Clearwater Gas Chuck Warrington New Jesey Natural Gas Denise McQuirk-West Northwest Natural Tom Simpson Piedmont Natural Gas Carl Peterson Piedmont Natural Gas Kirby Lane Southern California Gas Co. Melisa Marks Southern Co Charles Morgan Spire (Missouri Gas Energy) Beverly Passantino Meet Our New Relationship Manager: Barb welcome the GFEN/NA Relationship Manager, Greg Tomsick, who came on board effective February 15, 2019. Greg has a very strong background in foodservice. He most recently was the Senior Director, Supply Chain, for Boston Market. He is experienced in supply chain and logistics management, strategic planning, associate development, forecasting, budgeting, negotiation, transportation, distribution, cross-dock consolidation, industrial real estate, private brand management, the supply and demand side of energy management and sustainability. Greg has also had experience with PACE Membership warehouse, a $4.5B subsidiary of K-Mart sold to Walmart; and King Soopers, a division of Dillon/Kroeger. Greg’s contact info is: [email protected] and 303-288-0589. Greg shared that he will be attending the upcoming EEI and NRA meetings. His first order of business is to develop an updated contact list for NA as the list we have is very old and outdated. Feel free to reach out to Greg with any questions! TMAF: Barb reminded everyone that registration for the next TMAF is now open. The location is Montreal, CA at the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal; from June 4 – 6. Don’t be alarmed when you see the rate for the hotel, it is stated in Canadian currency. There will be a Kitchen Managers meeting on Day 1, starting at 8:00. This will be followed by the GFEN/NA consortium meeting at 10:00. In the afternoon of Day 1, we will have a Foodservice track. We currently have 4 speakers lined up including the 2019 Blue Flame Award Winner, Belshaw Adamatic. Hope to see you in Montreal. Info on TMAF, including registration, can be found here: https://www.energysolutionscenter.org/events/technology_market_assessment_forum.aspx Customer Care Workshop: The 2019 Customer Care Workshop will be held from August 13 – 15 in Minneapolis, MN, at the CenterPoint Energy demo kitchen. We have been fine-tuning the agenda and are pleased to be offering a great deal of education related topics along with panel discussions. We need to resolve some transportation issues; as soon as that is completed we will be sending out an official agenda and a save the date. Watch your email. Open Discussion: Barb shared that a case study was recently completed on behalf of CenterPoint Energy. The study discusses how rebates offered by CenterPoint Energy helped TopGolf select an array of natural gas appliances. The case study can be found here: https://www.energysolutionscenter.org/consortia/national_accounts_reports_and_case_studies.aspx If your company has a National Account/foodservice success that would make a great case study let Barb know. GFEN Website: Barb was able to connect with PIC (Pittsburgh Internet Consulting) who manages the GFEN website. PIC was able to remove the old link that went to The Flame is On for the rebate query. The GFEN site now points to the Energy Star site (https://www.energystar.gov/rebate-finder?scrollTo=883&sort_by=utility&sort_direction=asc&page_number=0&lastpage=0&zip_code_filter=&search_text=&product_clean_filter=Air%20Purifiers%20%28Cleaners%29&product_clean_isopen=&product_types=Select%20a%20Product%20Category ) You can search for rebates by zip code and can filter your search by type of appliance. We still plan to build a database of rebates so we are asking all members to send any and all rebate info you have to Barb. We will also be asking manufacturers if they would like to send us appliance information so we can create a directory of manufacturers and showcase their appliances. Ann Lovcik has been asked to speak for 15 minutes during Chef’s Connect, presented by the American Culinary Federation. The event will be held on April 1st. Ann plans to promote the use of demo kitchens and the GFEN website. Good job, Ann! The meeting was adjourned at 2:35 PM.