2025 Annual Meeting

Ash­ley Lang:

Wel­come to York Elec­tric Cooperative’s 84th Annu­al Meet­ing, what the employ­ees here call their Super Bowl! I’m Ash­ley Lang. I co-host WRHI’s PM with Lucas McFad­den every Mon­day- Fri­day from 6 a.m.- 9 a.m. You can catch us on FM 100.1. AM 1340 on the app, web­site, CN2 and social media. We are hap­py to join you vir­tu­al­ly to update you on your coop­er­a­tive. At this time, YEC’s Ener­gy Ser­vices Advi­sor Shane Bak­er will offer our invo­ca­tion.

Shane Bak­er:

Heav­en­ly Father: Lord, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for your word and for your faith­ful­ness in keep­ing your promis­es to your peo­ple. For­give us Lord for how we fail you and fail one anoth­er. Lord, we are thank­ful for the many bless­ings and cel­e­bra­tions that you allow us in this life, as well as the mer­cy, joy and com­fort you give us in our tri­als, sick­ness and loss. Lord, we thank you for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve our fam­i­lies, our com­mu­ni­ties, our coun­try and the world. Help us to be good stew­ards of our time, and the gifts you have giv­en each one of us. Lord, today we live up the lead­er­ship and the employ­ees here at York Elec­tric. Lord, con­tin­ue to give us wis­dom and dis­cern­ment in the ser­vice to our mem­bers, the use of the resources that have been entrust­ed to us and nav­i­gat­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges we face togeth­er in the future. Lord, we love you and trust you in all things. We pray this in the name above all names, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ash­ley Lang:

Thank you, Shane. And now YEC Line­man James McClain will lead us in the Pledge of Alle­giance. James served as a Staff Sergeant in the Unit­ed States Marines with 8 years active duty and 2 years in the reserves, includ­ing tours in Iraq, the Gulf War and Desert Storm. Please wel­come Sgt. McClain.​

James McClain:

Please 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.

Ash­ley Lang:

Thank you, James. And now I would like to intro­duce YEC Board Chair­man, Tom Set­tle­myre.

Tom Set­tle­myre:

I’d like to offi­cial­ly call the 2025 Annu­al Meet­ing of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive to order. YEC has cer­ti­fied proof that 60,987 indi­vid­ual reg­is­tra­tion cards were mailed to invite its mem­ber­ship to the 2025 Annu­al Meet­ing. The total num­ber of reg­is­tered mem­bers for the 2025 annu­al meet­ing has been record­ed as 4,777*. The required quo­rum to host the meet­ing is 3,066, which has been met with the num­ber of mem­bers present. We also have an action item to approve the 2024 annu­al meet­ing min­utes. Are there any objec­tions to approv­ing the min­utes? Hear­ing none, the 2024 annu­al meet­ing min­utes are approved as pre­sent­ed. Now, YEC’s Pres­i­dent and CEO, Craig Spencer, will pro­vide a report on your coop­er­a­tive.

Craig Spencer:

Thank you, Chair­man Set­tle­myre. Before I begin, I want to thank every­one who par­tic­i­pat­ed in this year’s dri­ve-thru Annu­al Meet­ing and helped us cel­e­brate 84 years of ser­vice. This was our third year offer­ing a sec­ond reg­is­tra­tion and vot­ing loca­tion in Fort Mill, and this year, 1,585 of you chose to attend that loca­tion. No mat­ter where you reg­is­tered or how long you’ve been a mem­ber, I hope you’ve seen that every­thing we do is root­ed in one sim­ple com­mit­ment: look­ing out for you, the mem­ber. In the next few min­utes, I’ll overview this year’s key accom­plish­ments and chal­lenges. Through it all, we’ve hon­ored that com­mit­ment.

Our team’s ded­i­ca­tion has remained a con­stant through lead­er­ship tran­si­tions, weath­er events, and indus­try chal­lenges.

In 2024, we com­plet­ed more than 3,500 con­struc­tion jobs, inspect­ed over 5,300 poles, and drove more than 750,000 miles to serve our mem­bers. Our team answered over 87,000 calls, mailed near­ly 700,000 billing state­ments, and wel­comed more than 10,000 of you to our events. These num­bers reflect some­thing sim­ple but pow­er­ful: we show up, every day, to serve our mem­bers with excel­lence. We’ve also remained good stew­ards of your co-op’s resources. Even as mate­r­i­al costs rose dra­mat­i­cal­ly and whole­sale pow­er rates increased, we’ve kept our con­trol­lable expens­es among the low­est of any util­i­ty in the state, and even in the coun­try. Since 2019, the cost of essen­tial mate­ri­als like under­ground cable and trans­form­ers has more than dou­bled, and lead times have stretched to near­ly a year. Despite these cost pres­sures, York Elec­tric absorbed almost half of last year’s 11% whole­sale pow­er cost increase through strong finan­cial man­age­ment. Still, after over a decade of sta­ble rates, the time came for action. To cov­er the cost of doing busi­ness, our Board approved a 6% rate adjust­ment that went into effect this Feb­ru­ary. It wasn’t a deci­sion made light­ly, and it cer­tain­ly wasn’t made for prof­it. It was made to ensure we can con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the safe, reli­able ser­vice you expect and deserve. At the same time, we’re giv­ing back. This month, we’ll return $2.7 mil­lion in Cap­i­tal Cred­its to mem­bers who received ser­vice in 2004, 2005, or 2023. This match­es the record-high amount we issued last year, and it reflects your co-op’s finan­cial strength and sta­bil­i­ty, even amidst chal­leng­ing cir­cum­stances. And speak­ing of strength, I’m proud to share that York Elec­tric received the President’s Safe­ty Award for SC coop­er­a­tives.

This recog­ni­tion goes to the co-op with the fewest lost time acci­dents and the strongest com­mit­ment to safe­ty. That cul­ture of look­ing out for one anoth­er was also on full dis­play this March when we host­ed the South Car­oli­na Lineman’s Rodeo for the first time. Line work­ers from across the state came to com­pete, and our own crews made us proud. But as proud as I am of our suc­cess­es, 2024 also brought one of our great­est chal­lenges yet. On Sep­tem­ber 27, Hur­ri­cane Helene swept through our ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry. By the end of that morn­ing, more than 34,000 mem­bers, rough­ly half of our entire sys­tem, were with­out pow­er. Across the cen­tral and west­ern parts of our area, we faced downed trees, bro­ken poles, and destroyed lines. Our team worked around the clock to restore pow­er to all affect­ed mem­bers with­in six days of the storm. We then sent help to oth­er affect­ed co-ops in the state over the fol­low­ing weeks. This chal­lenge reminds us of what sets coop­er­a­tives apart: Local peo­ple show­ing up for each oth­er. A team that nev­er gives up. York Electric’s com­mit­ment to our local com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to run deep. Last year, mem­bers gave near­ly $400,000 through Oper­a­tion Round Up to local non­prof­its.

Through The Bur­rell Foun­da­tion, we dis­trib­uted more than $80,000 to indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies in cri­sis. Whether it’s a job loss, a med­ical emer­gency, or just a tough sea­son, we’re proud to sup­port peo­ple across our ser­vice area. As we look to the future, we’re con­tin­u­ing to invest in our sys­tem, in inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies, and in pro­grams that strength­en our com­mu­ni­ty and pro­tect the reli­a­bil­i­ty of your pow­er. Your co-op is strong, resilient and your co-op is always look­ing out for you. Thank you for trust­ing York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive to pow­er your homes, lives, and futures.

Ash­ley Lang:

Thank you, Craig. We’d like to fin­ish the busi­ness por­tion of the meet­ing at this time. First, is there any old busi­ness to come before the meet­ing this after­noon? Hear­ing none, we’ll move on to report­ing on the elec­tion results. For the 2024 elec­tion, there were 3 uncon­test­ed trustee seats. William Roy “Will” Mitchell ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 1. Kevin Tol­son ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 2. And Richard B. Sadler ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 3. With a total vote of 3,959**, these gen­tle­men have all been reelect­ed to serve 3‑year terms. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all of you. Addi­tion­al­ly, mem­bers cast­ed votes on whether or not to adopt a Bylaw Amend­ment for sec­tion 4.02. This would require can­di­dates run­ning for the Board of Trustees to share infor­ma­tion about any cam­paign dona­tions, busi­ness con­nec­tions or poten­tial con­flicts of inter­est for pub­lic review. Fail­ure to do so would lead to dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion or removal from the Board. There were 3,891 votes in favor of adopt­ing this bylaw amend­ment, and 82 votes against adopt­ing this bylaw amend­ment. With major­i­ty vote, the mem­ber­ship approved of this item. There­fore, this lan­guage will be added and updat­ed to our exist­ing bylaws which can be found on our web­site. That con­cludes the busi­ness meet­ing for the 2025 Annu­al Meet­ing of Mem­bers for York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. With­out any fur­ther objec­tion, is there a motion on the floor to adjourn this meet­ing and con­tin­ue with the prize draw­ings?

Tom Set­tle­myre:

So moved.

Will Mitchell:

Sec­ond.

Ash­ley Lang:

Hear­ing a motion and a sec­ond, we will adjourn.

At this time, we will begin our prize draw­ings. Here are a few things to remem­ber:

If your name is called as a win­ner, we will record your infor­ma­tion, and you will be con­tact­ed by your co-op on Mon­day to coor­di­nate claim­ing your prize. Let’s get start­ed!

YEC’s stak­ing engi­neers Thomas Wilk­er­son and Michael Dick­son will spin the tick­ets in the hop­per from our Tega Cay Cataw­ba Park reg­is­tra­tion for our first 3 draw­ings.

While those gen­tle­men get the tick­ets mixed up, I’d like to intro­duce Miss Ava Wal­lace Gable who will help us select each win­ner out of the hop­per. Ava Wal­lace is the daugh­ter of York Electric’s Vice Pres­i­dent of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Out­reach, Porter Gable and her hus­band Jor­dan. Ava Wal­lace, can you tell us how old you are?

Ava Wal­lace Gable:

Five.

Ash­ley Lang: She is five. Can you tell us about what you’re going to do this sum­mer? What are you going to do this sum­mer, Ava Wal­lace?

Ava Wal­lace Gable: Go to the swim­ming pool.

Ash­ley Lang:

Go to the swim­ming pool. Can’t wait. Your mom told me you have a pet at home. What kind of pet do you have?

Ava Wal­lace Gable:

Fran­cis.

Ash­ley Lang: Fran­cis? What is Fran­cis? Is Fran­cis a cat?

Ava Wal­lace Gable:

A dog.

Ash­ley Lang:

And what do you love to do with her?

Ava Wal­lace Gable:

Play out­side with her.

Ash­ley Lang:

Play out­side. Alright, are you ready to get it start­ed? You think we’re good? Alright, let’s do it! Ava Wal­lace will draw a tick­et for each win­ner. After­wards, Thomas and Michael will mix them up again for the next prize draw­ing. Mem­bers who reg­is­tered and vot­ed at our Tega Cay loca­tion have all been entered in a spe­cial draw­ing for (1) $500 pow­er bill cred­it.

And the win­ner is: Clyde and Sal­ly Hawes

Mem­bers who reg­is­tered and vot­ed at our Tega Cay loca­tion have all been entered in a spe­cial draw­ing for (2) $250 pow­er bill cred­its.

And the first win­ner is: Jen­nifer L. Pow­ell

And the sec­ond win­ner is: Fred­dy Tripp

All of these mem­bers will remain in the hop­per for the addi­tion­al prize draw­ings.

Now, Thomas and Michael will place the remain­ing reg­is­tra­tion cards from our York loca­tion into the hop­per. Ava Wal­lace will place the win­ning tick­ets from the Tega Cay loca­tion back in the hop­per as well. All mem­bers who attend­ed either annu­al meet­ing loca­tion are eli­gi­ble for the fol­low­ing prizes.

A $100 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of CEEUS. And the win­ner is Rose Car­roll How­ell.

A $100 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ners are Keny­on and Shayli Brems.

A $100 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Pamela J. Brun­son.

A $100 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Randy B. Way.

A $100 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Daniel Joye.

A $100 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Jeff Slage.

A $50 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Susan Lock­wood.

A $50 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive And the win­ner is Fred­er­ick James Reedy, Jr.

A $50 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ners are Christo­pher and Joan Houli­han.

A $50 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Robert E. Byrd.

A $50 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Ter­ry White.

A $25 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Angela Zia­ma.

A $25 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Randy O. Clin­ton.

A $25 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Car­olyn E. Wray.

A $25 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Kathy Cal­houn.

A $25 Visa Gift Card, donat­ed on behalf of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. And the win­ner is Christo­pher S. Chapin.

All of these tick­ets have been record­ed and now Ava Wal­lace will help us place all of them back in the hop­per for the grand prize draw­ings! And now for the grand prizes!

A $500 pow­er bill cred­it goes to Matthew White.

And a new zero-turn Kub­o­ta lawn mow­er goes to Dou­glas and Tere­sa Adkins.

As a reminder, if you won a prize today, some­one will con­tact you by phone on Mon­day to remind you of what you won and coor­di­nate you claim­ing your prize. Thank you for join­ing us and for allow­ing York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive the oppor­tu­ni­ty to look out for you. I’m Ash­ley Lang. Make sure to catch us on WRHI FM 100.1, AM 1340 and CN2. Thank you!

*The fig­ure in this tran­script reflects the final­ized num­ber of reg­is­tered mem­bers.

**The fig­ure in this tran­script reflects the final­ized num­ber of votes for the uncon­test­ed trustee seats.