The 46th Annual Meeting of Members was held at the War Memorial Center in Milwaukee on September 17th, followed by a historic self-guided tour of the memorial and its exhibits.

Notably at this year’s business meeting, three current board members chose to seek re-election, and were voted in for another term.  Gregory Bollum is staying on in the Chairman role, Thomas Hanson remains as Secretary, and Connie Lawniczak as one of our Members on the Board.

James Buchen, Executive Director of WUI, along with Joel Haubrich, Manager of WI Government Affairs for WEC Energy Group, delivered an informative legislative update and election preview. Overall, last session was relatively successful with four of the six bills we supported being signed into law, and none of the three bills we opposed passing. The coming elections are likely to bring change to the Wisconsin Legislature with a possible shift in majority party in at least one house. 

Keynote speaker Brendan Conway, Director of Media and Public Relations at WEC Energy Group, reviewed his company’s current and future plans. He told members the company expects its electricity demand to grow between 6.5 and 8 percent year over year, and to grow by 45 percent by 2030. While data centers are a big part of that growth, under the recently approved tariff none of the cost of supplying electricity to data centers will be passed along to consumers. He also noted that water consumption from the Microsoft data center is expected to be negligible – no more than what a typical restaurant consumes in a year.  He said the company expects to deliver the best risk-adjusted returns in the industry.

Following the business meeting, one of our own Board Members, Bill Finke, gave an enlightening presentation on the history of one of the most renowned military families from Milwaukee, the MacArthurs, of which the War Memorial Center showcases in its exhibits.  We were also honored to have Brian Winski, President and CEO of the War Memorial Center, give a brief overview of the memorials and what to expect on the tour.  After the drawing for the raffle prizes, the meeting concluded with an opportunity for members to tour the War Memorial Center at leisure.