1. Conestoga Energy Partners, LLC
April/May 2012 Conestoga Connection
Inside this issue:
Successful Annual Meeting
Successful Annual 1-2 Conestoga Energy Partners held their annual meeting
Meeting and customer appreciation event on April 3, 2012. It
Syngenta Trial 2 was an extraordinary night and set a benchmark that
will be hard to beat!
Arkalon Ethanol 3 Featured speakers for the evening were Marcus
Safety Meeting Luttrell, Decorated Navy SEAL & Best-Selling Author
Relay for Life 3 of Lone Survivor, and General Wesley Clark, Former
NATO Supreme Allied Commander & Presidential
Candidate.
Introducing Richard 4
Hanson
“When I think back to our company’s first event in
Grandma’s Gals 4 2008 and the 70 or so people in attendance and
Tom Willis, Conestoga’s
compare it to this year’s event and the 525 people in CEO, speaking.
Anniversaries and 5 attendance, I am awe struck with the growth of
Birthdays our team. Our circle of influence has grown
Building Better 6 exponentially. Skeptics have become customers!
Teams Those who originally voiced opposition to our
startup now champion the value we bring to the
community. Within our sphere of influence, the
Contact info: little company that could has become a company
of doers”, Tom Willis, CEO says.
Conestoga Energy Continued on page two...
Partners, LLC
Josh Lopez presenting Marcus Luttrell a
300 N. Lincoln Ave token of appreciation.
PO Box 1178
Liberal, KS 67901
Phone:(620) 624-2901
Fax: (620) 624-2919
The meeting was attended by 525 General Wesley Clark speaking.
employees and guests.

2. Successful Annual Meeting - continued
“General Clark was very clear that home grown renewable fuel has an impact on our nation’s
security and economy. Marcus Luttrell’s comments about “crossing the line in the sand”
and “only the individual can choose whether they accept the challenge if they do cross,” hit
home with me! While there are differences between being a Navy Seal and being part of
Team Conestoga Energy Partners, there are many similarities. Accountability and
excellence are mantras shared by both groups! There is nothing like the feeling of pride that
comes from belonging to a team that never quits! In short, I think our team showed very
well last Tuesday and I would like to thank everybody for the 365 days a year of hard work
that went into making the event such a success.”
Dusty Turner, COO, also spoke on the success of the evening. "I continue to be reminded
frequently as of late, how big of an impact Conestoga Energy not only has on creating an
alternative for independence on foreign oil, but also how big of a positive impact it has on
the lives of our customers, business partners, friends and families here in
southwest Kansas. We had an overwhelming response, mostly due to the
unbelievable effort the Annual Meeting Committee Members put into organizing
and executing the event. I have had so many people express to me how thankful
they were to be a part of the event. It is times like this that make you proud to
represent Conestoga as well as America.”
Marcus Luttrell signing a copy of his
book for Tom Willis.
Garden City’s Junior ROTC Color Nick Hatcher, Conestoga’s Chairman General Wesley Clark answering
Guard presenting the flags. of the Board, speaking. questions after his speech.
Syngenta Trial
On Thursday, April 12th at 6:15 am, Bonanza began grinding the Enogen Corn for our trial with Syngenta. The Enogen
Corn or “super corn” as we refer to it, is an inherent corn-amylase enzyme designed for use in dry-grind ethanol
production facilities. It offers specific benefits to ethanol plants based on its ability to drastically reduce the viscosity of
dry-grind mash. By mid-morning we had completely shut off the supply of Alpha Amylase enzyme to both slurry and
liquid.
We are still in the beginning stages of the trial and have already noticed some changes on how the plant is running.
Slurry pump pressure changed immediately and our slurry strainers are cleaner than they ever have been. This makes it
easier and less of a safety hazard each time one needs to be cleaned. During this trial we will be performing several tests
and gathering a lot of data to support our findings and help us make the changes we need to make this trial successful.
April/May 2012 Page 2

3. Arkalon Ethanol Safety Meeting Minutes - March 6th 2012
 Present: Benito Alvidrez, Jesus Moreno, Ben Garner, Aaron Garcia, Jeff Gilbert, Eswin Leon, Cindy Hagemeier,
Helene Garst, Jeff Bach, Juan Cuevas, Jose Avila, and Tom Griebel
 Severe Weather -Discussion on planning and implementation of severe weather drill.
 Communication - check radios, are they reliable, where do we go?, head counts, and plant wide alarm.
 Leads will be responsible for communicating to the entire plant when a watch is issued.
 We discussed the possibility of having an alarm system throughout the plant. Tom Griebel will check with the alarm
company for severe weather alarm for every building.
 Grains - Jeff Bach and Benito Alvidrez – once a warning is issued all grains personnel are to be brought to the
process area and kept out of grains until the warning is cleared.
 Operations - Designate someone for total head counts from each area of the plant-maintenance, ops, lab, grains,
inbound scale, wetcake trucks on site, grain trucks, vendors, contractors,
Chapparal, and Frontier.
Quote of the Month:
 Scalehouse will be advising incoming trucks of any warnings issued. “It is a bad carpenter
 County map for quick reference should be posted in control room for leads who quarrels with his
monitoring weather. tools. It is a bad
general who blames
 For the drill, we will use timers to see how long it takes to get to process from
grains. his men for faulty
workmanship.”
 DRILL- was Thursday April 5th Mahatma Gandhi
Relay for Life
“iRelay” is the theme for For Life of Finney County
this year’s Relay For Life will be held August 10th at
in Finney County. The 6:00 pm at Memorial
theme was chosen for Stadium in Garden City. To
everyone to remember the date, our Relay For Life
reason they participate in Team has raised over $600
the Relay For Life. Many not including the sponsor
of us know someone who donation. We plan to have
has or is battling cancer more fundraisers this
and this is a way to show summer to reach a goal of
“To date our Relay For we care. $2,500. If any employee or
family member would like
Life Team has raised
The Bonanza Public to participate on our team,
over $600 not
Relations Group and please contact Angie
including the sponsor
Conestoga Energy Partners Richardson to register.
donation” together as sponsors made Cost is $10 to register and
Angie Richardson a $1,000 donation to the includes a T-shirt for the
event. This year’s Relay 2012 Relay For Life.
April/May 2012 Page 3

4. Introducing Richard Hanson- Production Manager
I want to say “Hi” to all of the Conestoga Energy Partner’s Team. As some of
you may or may not know, I have been here at the Arkalon Energy site since
April of 2011. I came to the site as a contractor through WB Services to help
support Jeff and the operations team. I was welcomed into the plant during
that time, and when the offer came in November to join the Conestoga Team, I
didn’t hesitate.
I grew up in the small town of Montevideo, Minnesota. As a city kid I spent my
summers at our family farm in South Dakota. My career in the corn milling
industry started in 1981 with Minnesota Corn Processors in Marshall,
Minnesota, now ADM, a corn wet mill plant producing dry starch and corn
syrup. It was not until 1987 during a plant expansion with the construction of
the ethanol plant that my career path changed to the ethanol industry. When
MCP expanded and built the plant in Columbus, Nebraska, I became part of
the engineering, construction and start up team and moved to Columbus. I later left MCP to branch out into the dry mill
ethanol industry. Through the years, I have been fortunate to work at several production facilities of various engineered
designs. To expand my knowledge in the industry, I continued to work in plant construction, start up, operator training,
plant management, plant performance, research and development, and the piloting of new products for the ethanol
industry.
My wife Kathy and I moved to Liberal last April from North Carolina just in time to enjoy last year’s hot and dry summer.
I have been blessed to be able to say that I have been married for 32 years. We have two grown children and four
grandchildren. Our son Rick and his family live in Shabbona, Illinois where he works for Goodyear Tire and Rubber. Our
daughter Ashley and her husband live in Wichita, Kansas and they both work for Hawker BeechCraft Flight Safety
International.
Grandma’s Gals - By Sharla Arrington
My sister and I are walking major surgery and a very and will reach a training
in the Avon Walk for Breast difficult recovery, but she peak of 22 miles and 10
Cancer, located in the won the battle. Our miles the following day, Sharla appreciates
Rocky Mountains in Grandma passed away in within the coming your support to help
June. It is a 39.3 mile walk the Fall of 2011. She was weeks. The Walk takes place her meet her goal of
over 2 days. The first day kind, caring and a big- the weekend of June 23-24, $2,500 dollars!
we will walk a full hearted woman who 2012 between Keystone and
marathon (26.2 miles), committed everything she Breckinridge, Colorado. We
followed by a ½ marathon had to our family. This is are greatly looking forward
on Sunday (13.1 miles). our tribute to her and all to this exhilarating goal!
other men and women that
We are taking this are affected by breast
challenge in memory of our cancer.
Grandma, Louise Evans,
and also many friends and Our training has
relatives that have battled increasingly gained
breast cancer. Our intensity over the last few
Grandma Louise battled months. We have worked
breast cancer over 40 years up to 14 miles (our furthest
ago. She went through a distance at one time so far)
April/May 2012 Page 4

5. Anniversaries
Four Years
Joshua Foster May 7th Arkalon Plant
Tyler Patterson May 19th Bonanza Plant
Michael Lillman May 30th Bonanza Plant
Randy Tatro May 30th Arkalon Plant
One Year
Rigoberto Arias Jr May 2nd Arkalon Plant
Matthew Paxson May 4th Bonanza Plant Five Years
Griselda Deleon May 9th Corporate Office Matt Presley April 9th Corporate Office
Vincent Lovato May 16th Arkalon Plant Matt Durler April 9th Corporate Office
Sharla Arrington April 23rd Corporate Office
Two Years Thomas Griebel April 30th Corporate Office
Ryan Klaus May 29th Corporate Office
Michael Nelson May 5th Bonanza Plant
Dale Gannett May 29th Bonanza Plant
Levi Richardson May 21st Bonanza Plant
Three Years
Martin Harrison May 11th Arkalon Plant Six Years
Thomasina Johansen May 18th Bonanza Plant Dusty Turner May 1st Corporate Office
Birthdays
April
Julian Hernandez April 7th Bonanza Plant
Ben Bach April 7th Arkalon Plant
Richard Hanson April 4th Arkalon Plant
Gabriela Guereca April 4th Arkalon Plant
Griselda Deleon April 30th Corporate Office
Jason Dale April 29th Corporate Office May
Dusty Turner April 26th Corporate Office Martin Harrison May 8th Arkalon Plant
Randy Tatro May 4th Arkalon Plant
Terrilyn Chandler May 3rd Arkalon Plant
Cindy Hagemeier May 31st Arkalon Plant
Amber Franklin May 30th Corporate Office
David Ramirez May 30th Arkalon Plant
William Widows May 29th Bonanza Plant
James Mitchell May 28th Bonanza Plant
Rigoberto Arias Jr May 24th Arkalon Plant
Tom Willis May 20th Corporate Office
April/May 2012 Page 5

6. Building Better Teams Through Trust: Steps You Can Take
John leads a high performing, profitable manufacturing plant in the mid-west. As a star performer, John likes to be in
the spotlight and is concerned about being upstaged by his teammates. He often keeps information to himself, thinking it
gives him power and control. What he is really doing is breaking trust.
Trust is the foundation of a team's effectiveness. Without trust, a team will not do more than just go through the motions
of teamwork. In John's case, the team members' distrust cost him his job.
“Trust is built - or destroyed - by our behaviors. People earn the trust of others when they demonstrate three forms of
Transactional Trust™”, according to Michelle and Dennis Reina of The Trust Building Institute. They use the term
"Transactional Trust" because it is reciprocal in nature. "You have to give trust to get trust," Michelle explains.
Contractual trust sets the tone and direction of the team. If you have ever been disappointed by someone who did not
do what he promised, then you've experienced a betrayal of contractual trust. Maybe you schedule team meetings, notify
people well in advance and get to the meeting on time, yet find yourself waiting for the same people who are consistently
late. Or perhaps someone made an unreasonable request of you, putting you in a bind. To strengthen contractual trust
among team members, you will want to:
 Manage expectations  Establish boundaries.
 Delegate appropriately  Encourage mutually-serving intentions.
 Keep agreements  Be consistent
Communication trust establishes information flow and how team members talk with one
another. How willing are you to share information with others on your team? How do you decide
what to share and what to hold back? What happens when someone questions the truthfulness of
others? How team members communicate with each other and how they speak about each other
are clues to the level of communication trust. Guidelines for fostering communication trust
include:
 Share information Tell the truth
 Admit mistakes  Give and receive constructive feedback
 Maintain confidentiality  Speak with good purpose
Competence trust allows the team to leverage and further develop skills and knowledge. Micromanaging is a sign that
competence trust is lacking on your team. Maybe you've felt micromanaged or underutilized, or perhaps you rarely allow
others to make decisions, assuming that no one can make decisions as good as yours. To build competence trust it is
important to:
 Acknowledge people's skills and abilities  Allow people to make decisions
 Involve others and seek their input  Help people learn skills
A starting point for building trust within your team is to ask yourself, "Which of the three types of trust am I best at
cultivating? Which of the three types of trust is my weakest area?" Think of specific examples that show your capacity for
building trust and those that reveal ways you diminish trust.
"So often we don't look at trust as something to improve on as leaders or in our teams," says Reina. "But we do choose to
behave in ways that either support or undermine trust in the workplace." Sure, it sounds great to build trust and lessen
the impact of betrayal at work. But Michelle Reina argues that building trust is also a smart business move.
"Business is conducted through relationships, and trust is the foundation of effective relationships," says Reina.
"Whatever your strategic priorities may be - leading change, improving collaboration, fostering employee engagement,
recruitment and retention - trust (or lack of trust) is playing a part."
Reina also cites research that shows organizations in which front-line employees trusted senior leadership posted a 42
percent higher return on shareholder investment over those firms where distrust was the norm (Watson Wyatt
Worldwide Study, 2002, 2004).
Good news, until you consider that roughly half of all managers don't trust their leaders
(Robert Hurley, HBR, "The Decision to Trust", September 2006). "The research on the level
of trust in our organizations is sobering," says Reina. "Fortunately, we can each take steps to
build trust in the workplace."
- Article submitted by Betsey Upchurch , CEO of P4 Consulting
April/May 2012 Page 6