We believe that employee engagement begins with a culture in which employees are free to speak their minds. Our Chairman, Mike Morris, has advocated and fostered an unprecedented level of openness that has changed our culture for the better. Employees have many opportunities and forums to discuss issues with each other and with management and are encouraged to do so. While ground rules require that discourse be respectful, employees feel free to comment on anything – including the Chairman’s blog posts. And they do.

Our company intranet, called AEP Now, is the main vehicle for employee communications, including blogs, community pages, personal profiles, company news and business information and tools, such as time reporting and print services. AEP Now was visited approximately 9.4 million times in 2010, slightly down from 2009 due to the staff reduction. On the basis of employee feedback, the site was redesigned to make it more user-friendly last year.

We held 27 employee webcasts last year on issues ranging from gridSMART® to copper theft and transmission strategy to transformation of our Generation business. Employees are encouraged to call in or submit questions in advance, which executives answer live on the air.

We organized a weeklong Energy Sustainability Week to help our employees better connect sustainability, their jobs and our business strategy. More than 60 events were held at 30 work locations in seven states. We collaborated on the effort with peer utilities through the EPRI Sustainability Interest Group.

We discontinued printing an employee newsletter because of advancements in technology and feedback from employees. By not publishing the newsletter, we save time, money and resources.

AEP Chairman & CEO Mike Morris, left, Dale Heydlauff, vice president of corporate communications, and President Nick Akins during a webcast to employees.