SteadyState for electric cooperatives
Board governance software for electric cooperatives
A G&T seats one director per member system, a statewide association seats directors from every co-op in the state, and both govern by numbered board policies and resolutions their own retention schedules keep permanently. SteadyState records each resolution as a voted, locked decision, inside the Microsoft 365 your cooperative already runs.
A typical cooperative in SteadyState
A nine-member board, one director per district, meets monthly – in the boardroom and on Teams – with a Chair, a Vice Chair, and a Secretary-Treasurer who signs the minutes, and the CEO/general manager, CFO, and board attorney at the table without votes. Committees for finance and audit, policy and governance, and engineering and power supply do the work between meetings; a G&T or statewide runs the same shape with a bigger table. SteadyState holds that structure as it exists: the committees, the votes, the locked resolutions, and the follow-ups attached to them.
A year of decisions
6 decisions, oldest first| ID | Decision | State | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEC-2026-002 | Accept the audit engagement letter for the annual audit | Approved | 14 Jan |
| DEC-2026-005 | Approve the operating and capital budget and confirm debt-service coverage targets | Approved | 11 Feb |
| DEC-2026-009 | Approve a wholesale power adjustment, with monthly reconsideration | Approved | 11 Mar |
| DEC-2026-012 | Pass a Member Resolution authorizing the G&T to develop a battery storage resource | Approved | 8 Apr |
| DEC-2026-016 | Amend the numbered board policy on director onboarding and continuing education | Approved | 13 May |
| DEC-2026-019 | Adopt the records retention policy, keeping board minutes and resolutions permanently | Submitted | 10 Jun |
The problems this solves
The industry told itself the minutes are the deliverable
A governance task force commissioned by the sector's own national association supported co-ops posting or distributing board meeting minutes or summaries to members – and the 2018 report itself circulated to voting members only. Meanwhile an independent transparency project in Alaska writes its own board-meeting summaries because official minutes "don't appear for at least a month and are often very bare bones."
Federal audit rules put two board acts on the record
For RUS borrowers, 7 CFR Part 1773 requires the audit engagement letter to be formally accepted by the governance board and requires the CPA to report all audit findings to the board of directors. That is a recorded acceptance and a follow-up loop – the exact shape of a decision record with actions attached.
Your own records policy says permanently
Co-op board records policies keep a retention schedule, and a published one lists "Board meeting Minutes and Resolutions – Permanently", with member access by written request, view only. Permanent retention plus controlled access is precisely the promise a locked decision register keeps.
How it fits
- Sized for G&Ts and statewides
- One director per member system puts 16 to 41 directors at the table before staff are counted, and some statewide boards run past 50. A seven- to fifteen-director distribution board qualifies once the CEO/general manager, CFO, and board attorney join the count.
- Resolutions and the policy book
- A committee recommendation reaches the floor as a drafted decision, a Member Resolution authorizing the G&T is recorded like any other vote, and an amendment to a numbered board policy is a voted decision that supersedes the prior approval – which stays in the register.
- iVUE and the ops stack stay
- NISC or Meridian remains the operational system of record. SteadyState is additive to the Microsoft layer your co-op already runs – co-op board minutes already record meetings held via Microsoft Teams.
- Not election software
- Director elections are member-level votes at the annual meeting, by secret ballot, proxy, or mail. That is a different job and stays out of scope. SteadyState records board and committee votes, attributed by name.
What it costs
A G&T or statewide association seats one director per member system – 16 to 41 directors before the CEO, general counsel, and board secretary join them. Thirty-two seats comes to $640 a month at the public rate of $20 per user per month, with a 10-seat minimum. A nine-director distribution board with its staff lands near the floor. Each seated user also needs Power Apps licensing from Microsoft, about $5 per user per month. Members never use SteadyState and need no license. The full math is on the pricing page.
Questions boards ask
- How long should an electric cooperative keep board meeting minutes?
- Co-op retention schedules list board minutes and resolutions as permanent records. SteadyState records live in your cooperative's own Microsoft 365 environment, so the retention policy you already maintain covers them.
- What does the board have to formally accept under 7 CFR 1773?
- The audit engagement letter, accepted by the board or an audit committee representing it, and the CPA's audit findings, reported to the board. In SteadyState the acceptance is a locked decision and each finding's follow-up is an action with an owner and a due date.
- How does voting work in SteadyState?
- Each body sets its own policy – unanimous consent, majority of votes cast, or two-thirds. Co-op minutes overwhelmingly read 'carried unanimously,' and unanimous consent records that exactly; when a board does split, the tally lands on the locked record instead – "Carried 6–3 · 2 abstentions · 1 recusal · 1 absent · 13 eligible (majority of votes cast)." Directors can abstain or recuse, which is what your conflict-of-interest policy expects to see minuted, and a rejection requires a written reason.
- Does SteadyState run director elections at the annual meeting?
- No. Member elections are secret ballots and belong to election vendors and the credentials committee. SteadyState records board and committee votes only, attributed by name.
- Does SteadyState replace iVUE or our CIS?
- No. Billing, metering, outage, and accounting stay where they run today. SteadyState handles the board and committee record only.
- Is SteadyState an OnBoard alternative for electric cooperative boards?
- For the decision record, yes. OnBoard also builds board books and drafts minutes, which SteadyState does not do – a board that needs the packet workflow can run both. The difference is where the record lives: SteadyState locks the decision inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant, at a published price. The OnBoard comparison has the detail.
- Can a resolution be changed after it passes?
- Only by a voted amendment. The amendment is its own decision, linked to the original, and the original stays in the register marked superseded – the same way a numbered board policy carries its amendment history.
See it before you decide
The demo walks a decision from draft to locked record, including what happens when someone tries to change it after approval. It takes a few minutes and runs in your browser.