Business Meeting Transcript
Lou Green:
Welcome to York Electric Cooperative’s Annual Meeting, celebrating 81 years of serving you. Every member. Every time.
We are happy to join you virtually to update you on your cooperative.
At this time, Rev. William Buie, serving First Calvary Baptist Church in Rock Hill, will offer our invocation.
Rev. William Buie:
Good afternoon. I great you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us pray. God we thank you so much for your grace so sufficient, as evident as our presence. We thank you for your mercy. We pray now that your spirit’s presence would bless us as we go into the Annual Business Meeting for the year 2022, the year of our Lord and Savior. Bless our time together. This is your servant’s prayer. Receive now. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.
Lou Green:
Thank you, Rev. Buie.
I’m going to ask YEC employee Steve Clinton will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Steve Clinton:
Thank you. Let’s stand.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Lou Green:
Thank you, Steve. Now if you will, please give your attention to YEC Board Chairman, Tom Settlemyre.
Tom Settlemyre:
Thank you, Lou.
I’d like to officially call the 2022 Annual Meeting of York Electric Cooperative to order.
YEC has certified proof 57,792 cover wrapped magazines were mailed to invite its membership to the 2022 Annual Meeting.
The total number of registered members for the 2022 annual meeting has been recorded as 3,464.
The required quorum to host the meeting is 2,921, which has been met with the number of members present.
We also have an action item to approve the 2021 annual meeting minutes.
Are there any objections to approving the minutes?
Hearing no objection, the 2021 annual meeting minutes are approved as presented.
Now, YEC’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Basha will provide a report on your cooperative.
Paul Basha
Thank you, Chairman Settlemyre.
I would like to thank everyone who came out this year to our second drive-thru Annual Meeting celebrating our 81st year of serving you.
Most of all, I want to thank our Lord for another year without a major injury or large-scale outage.
I’d also like to thank our Board of Trustees. Thank you for your dedication and how you serve the membership.
And thank you all who continue to participate in Operation Round Up. The Trust Board has allocated $3.4 million back to our community since inception.
You know, for years, we have kept our increases in electric rates reasonable.
Actually, for the last eleven (11) years, our rates have either had no increase or a slight decrease. This year we continue that trend with no increase. And good news – we do not expect any rate increases for the next two years!
You may have received in your mailbox recently, this year’s capital credit rebate. This year’s is the largest ever! Our board of trustees voted to return $2.5 million to members through capital credits showing the financial health of your cooperative.
I’d also like to brag on employees. YEC recently got one of the highest published scores in the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
You know, consistency in providing excellent service to you is a good thing. The last five surveys have ranked YEC in the top tier of over 700 companies like Ruth Chris, Chick-fil-a and Southwest Airlines. We received a very, very good score of 94; the average co-op got a 73.
We’re working for you to continue planning a brighter future for you and our communities. We’re are working to shape our future by incorporating new, innovative technology.
This includes:
- Upgrades to 11 substations with equipment that helps us locate and restore power more quickly during outages.
- Researching, developing and implementing special rates and services for electric vehicles.
- Providing in-home smart devices, such as smart thermostats, that help our members monitor energy use and save money.
We also know having reliable power is important. That’s why we are proud to invest in two new 100 kV transmission lines that will serve two of YEC’s substations: Flint Hill near Carowinds, and our India Hook substation in Rock Hill.
Lastly, let me update you on our Rural Internet project.
Since last year, we’ve worked to provide access to high-speed Internet to 1,500 members who did not have this service a year ago. Construction continues, which will provide access to the remaining unserved members in the next 14 months.
In summary, rates are down, rebate checks are large, rural internet is being installed, and electric service reliability is excellent. Your Cooperative is in great shape.
Now, I’d like to introduce York Electric’s attorney, John Tiencken, to continue the business meeting and announce the election results.
John Tiencken
Thank you, Paul. Good afternoon.
First, is there any old business to come before the meeting this afternoon?
Any new business to come before the meeting this afternoon?
Hearing none, we’ll move on to reporting on the annual election and the election results.
I’ll go through each individually.
The first will be the election results for the uncontested elections in Districts 1 and District 2.
Mr. Will Mitchell and Mr. Marion Comber ran unopposed and have been re-elected. Congratulations to these gentlemen.
In District 3, there was a contested election:
Incumbent Richard B. Sadler’s seat was contested by Mr. Thomas “Lee” McClellan. Mr. Sadler received 1,753 votes and Mr. McClellan received 1,117 votes.
Congratulations to Mr. Sadler.
Those are the total votes and those have been tabulated and certified by our Credentials and Election Committee. They do an outstanding job for York and we appreciate the work they have done today and yesterday.
Without any further objection, is there a motion on the floor to adjourn this business meeting and move on to the rest of the program?
Hearing a motion and a second. We will adjourn. Thank you very much.
Lou Green
Thanks, Mr. Tiencken. And now, we’ve come to that part in the meeting where we’re going to give away prizes. Thank you for staying with us for that!
At this time, we will begin our door prize and grand prize drawings. YEC’s Purchasing Agent Benjamin Hall and his sons, Easton, Bennett and Hampton will spin the roll cage and help draw the winners. We put in all of the tickets for those who registered at the meeting and here we go!
(All door prize drawing winners will be listed in a separate document.)
- Air Purifier – CEE US
- $100 Visa gift card – CEE US
- $50 Visa gift card – provided by Cooper Power Systems, Southeast Transformer Co.
- $50 Sabor gift card
- $100 Lowe’s gift card – Boarder States / Shealy
- $50 Roasting Company gift card
- $50 Captain Steve’s gift card
- Cooler gift set – Comporium
- Stihl gas blower – Turner Communications
- $50 Outback gift card
- $50 Outback gift card
- $50 Longhorn gift card
- $50 Longhorn gift card
- Cordless vacuum – valued at $130
- Amazon fire tablet – valued at $120
- Tower fan – valued at $75
- Solar powered Bluetooth speaker valued at $130
- Electric blower and trimmer combo – valued at $150
- Igloo cooler with wheels – valued $120
- Air fryer – valued at $120
And now for the grand prizes! We have placed all tickets drawn back into the hopper. The winners for the door prizes are all numbered.
The first $500 power bill credit goes to James R. Zeggert!
The second $500 power bill credit goes to Julie Matlock!
And the truck goes to William Eagan!
If you won a prize today, you will receive a phone call on Monday to remind you of what you won and how you should schedule your prize pick up.
All three grand prize winners will also receive phone calls on Monday to discuss your winnings.
Thank you for joining us and for allowing York Electric Cooperative the opportunity to look out for you.