2026 Annual Meeting Recap

Lucas McFad­den (Host)

Wel­come to York Elec­tric Cooperative’s Annu­al Meet­ing of mem­bers where we are cel­e­brat­ing 85 years of being root­ed in ser­vice and pow­ered by com­mu­ni­ty.

I’m Lucas McFad­den. I’m the cohost of WRHI Radio’s Pal­met­to Morn­ings Show as well as the anchor for CN2 TV News.

We are hap­py to join you vir­tu­al­ly to update you on your coop­er­a­tive.

 

Invo­ca­tion – Bri­an Bevilac­qua

At this time, York Electric’s Sys­tems Spe­cial­ist, Bri­an Bevilac­qua, will offer our invo­ca­tion.

Thank you, Lucas. Let’s pray.

Father God, we’re so thank­ful for you today, Lord, thank­ful for the grace, love, and mer­cy that you pour into our lives every day, Lord. And espe­cial­ly thank­ful for anoth­er suc­cess­ful annu­al meet­ing. Thank you for keep­ing our mem­bers and our employ­ees safe today, Lord. We pray that you would guide us and lead us as we close anoth­er meet­ing today. Lord, we ask all this in your holy, pre­cious name, Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Lucas McFad­den

Thank you very much, Bri­an.

And now York Elec­tric Line­man James McClain will lead us in the Pledge of Alle­giance.

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.

Thank you.

 

Lucas McFad­den

Thank you, Sgt. McClain.

James served as a Staff Sergeant in the Unit­ed States Marines with 8 years active duty and 2 years in the reserves. His ser­vice includes tours in Iraq, the Gulf War and Desert Storm.

Once again, thank you.

And now I would like to intro­duce York Elec­tric Board Chair­man, Rick Sadler.

 

Rick Sadler (Board Chair­man)

Thank you, Lucas.

I’d like to offi­cial­ly call the 2026 Annu­al Meet­ing of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive to order.

York Elec­tric has cer­ti­fied proof 62,071 indi­vid­ual reg­is­tra­tion cards were mailed to invite its mem­ber­ship to the 2026 Annu­al Meet­ing.

The total num­ber of reg­is­tered mem­bers for the 2026 annu­al meet­ing has been record­ed as 4,985.

The required quo­rum to host the meet­ing is 3,114 which has been met with the num­ber of mem­bers present.

We also have an action item to approve the 2025 annu­al meet­ing min­utes.

Are there any objec­tions to approv­ing the min­utes?

Pause.

Hear­ing none, the 2025 annu­al meet­ing min­utes are approved as pre­sent­ed.

Now, York Electric’s Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Craig Spencer, will pro­vide a report on your elec­tric coop­er­a­tive.

 

Craig Spencer (Pres­i­dent and CEO)

Thank you, Chair­man Sadler. And thank you to every­one who joined us as we cel­e­brate 85 years of ser­vice to our mem­bers.

At York Elec­tric, we are more than a util­i­ty. We’re your neigh­bors, your friends and your fel­low mem­bers. And as a coop­er­a­tive, we’re owned by the peo­ple we serve.

That means every­thing we do is ground­ed in a shared respon­si­bil­i­ty to look out for one anoth­er.

We are root­ed in ser­vice and pow­ered by com­mu­ni­ty. That’s not just some­thing we say.

It’s how we approach every day and every deci­sion.

No mat­ter how long you’ve been with York Elec­tric, that com­mit­ment to you stays the same.

In 2025, our team con­tin­ued to deliv­er on that com­mit­ment. We com­plet­ed thou­sands of con­struc­tion and ser­vice jobs, main­tained and strength­ened our sys­tem,

and respond­ed when our mem­bers need­ed us most as your elec­tric provider and your com­mu­ni­ty part­ner.

You’ll find exact num­bers – like the near­ly 1 mil­lion miles we drove and the over 80,000 phone calls we took –

in this year’s annu­al report, and I hope you’ll take a few min­utes to look through it.

Those num­bers help tell the full sto­ry. But what they rep­re­sent is sim­ple. Every day, we show up to serve you.

We also kept our focus on the future. In 2025, we installed more than 15,000 enhanced meters,

giv­ing mem­bers bet­ter insight into their ener­gy use and more con­trol over their month­ly bills.

In 2026, we plan to install an addi­tion­al 20,000 of these meters.

We also made steady progress on sys­tem upgrades to keep your pow­er reli­able.

Sig­nif­i­cant projects includ­ed com­plet­ing our Spring­maid and Banks Street sub­sta­tions in the Fort Mill area,

as well as bury­ing more than 4 miles of pow­er lines in hard-to-reach areas of our ter­ri­to­ry.

We also saved our mem­bers mon­ey and improved effi­cien­cy by han­dling all under­ground util­i­ty locat­ing ser­vices in-house instead of hir­ing con­trac­tors.

We know afford­abil­i­ty con­tin­ues to be top of mind.

The cost of elec­tric­i­ty, like every­thing else, has gone up.

Today, about 72 cents of every dol­lar you pay goes toward the cost of whole­sale pow­er, which is our largest expense.

As a not-for-prof­it coop­er­a­tive, we don’t prof­it when you pay more on your bill.

We are owned by you, and our job is to pro­vide safe, reli­able pow­er at the low­est pos­si­ble cost.

That’s why we work every day to man­age the costs we can con­trol.

We oper­ate effi­cient­ly, make care­ful finan­cial deci­sions, and work with oth­er coop­er­a­tives to get the best pos­si­ble val­ue for pow­er and mate­ri­als.

We can’t con­trol every cost, but we can con­trol how we respond. And we’re com­mit­ted to mak­ing the most of every dol­lar and doing every­thing we can to lim­it the impact on our mem­bers.

While your pow­er bill comes once a month, afford­abil­i­ty is some­thing we work on every sin­gle day.

Even in a chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ment, York Elec­tric remains strong. This year, we will return $2.8 mil­lion in cap­i­tal cred­its to our mem­bers.

That’s one of the ways we make sure the val­ue of co-op mem­ber­ship comes back to you.

Of course, none of this would be pos­si­ble with­out our employ­ees and our Board of Trustees.

Their ded­i­ca­tion to safe­ty, ser­vice and good gov­er­nance is what pow­ers this orga­ni­za­tion.

They take pride in their work, and it is reflect­ed in the way they serve this com­mu­ni­ty every day.

That same spir­it car­ries beyond the grid. Through Oper­a­tion Round Up and oth­er com­mu­ni­ty efforts,

we con­tin­ue to sup­port local fam­i­lies, schools and orga­ni­za­tions, strength­en­ing the com­mu­ni­ties we serve.

As we look ahead, we do so with con­fi­dence. Eighty-five years lat­er, the mis­sion is still the same.

We are root­ed in ser­vice and pow­ered by com­mu­ni­ty- this com­mu­ni­ty, the one we all share and the one we proud­ly serve.

Thank you for your trust in York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive.

And now, Lucas McFad­den will con­tin­ue with the busi­ness por­tion of our meet­ing, announce the elec­tion results, and fin­ish by announc­ing the win­ners of our prize draw­ings.

 

Lucas McFad­den

Thank you, Craig.

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 elec­tion results.

 

Lucas McFad­den – Elec­tion Results

For the 2026 elec­tion, there were 3 uncon­test­ed trustee seats.

Tom Set­tle­myre ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 1.
Scott Good ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 2.
And Jack Corn­well ran unop­posed for Dis­trict 3.

These gen­tle­men have all been reelect­ed to serve 3‑year terms.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to you all.

Addi­tion­al­ly, mem­bers cast­ed votes on whether or not to adopt a Bylaw Amend­ment for sec­tion 4.02.

This amend­ment helps to tight­en the qual­i­fi­ca­tions required by per­sons serv­ing as York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Trustees.

These changes add clear­er stan­dards around edu­ca­tion, back­ground checks, con­flicts of inter­est, atten­dance and pri­or employ­ment with the Coop­er­a­tive.

This amend­ment also helps clar­i­fy the actions that may be tak­en if a trustee fails to make required dis­clo­sures in a time­ly man­ner.

Over­all, this amend­ment aims to improve trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty, ensur­ing Trustees are inde­pen­dent and qual­i­fied to serve.

There were 4,143 votes in favor of adopt­ing this bylaw amend­ment.

There­fore, this lan­guage will be added and updat­ed to our exist­ing bylaws which can be found on our web­site.

 

Adjourn­ment – Lucas McFad­den

That con­cludes the busi­ness meet­ing for the 2026 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?

Hear­ing a motion and a sec­ond, we will adjourn.

 

Prize Draw­ings – Lucas McFad­den

At this time, we will begin our prize draw­ings.

In hon­or of our 85th year, your coop­er­a­tive will be draw­ing names for 20 win­ners that will receive an $85 pow­er bill cred­it, in addi­tion to the grand prize offer­ings.

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.

Here are a few things to remem­ber.

York Elec­tric stak­ing engi­neers Michael Dick­son and John Good will spin the tick­ets in the hop­per from our Tega Cay Cataw­ba Park reg­is­tra­tion for our first spe­cial draw­ing of a $500 pow­er bill cred­it.

While those gen­tle­man get the tick­ets mixed up, I’d like to intro­duce Miss Annabelle Cham­bers, daugh­ter of York Elec­tric mem­bers Katie and Cory Cham­bers and grand­daugh­ter of York Elec­tric employ­ee Car­ol New­man.

Annabelle, come on up, friend.

So, Annabelle, tell us how old you are and what grade you’re in in school.

Annabelle Cham­bers

I’m 10 and I’m in 4th grade.

Lucas McFad­den

What’s your favorite sub­ject in school?

Annabelle Cham­bers

Read­ing.

Lucas McFad­den

And why are you excit­ed to be help­ing here today?

Annabelle Cham­bers

So I can be here for my grand­ma.

Lucas McFad­den

Ah, your grand­ma, I under­stand. And what do you call her?

Annabelle Cham­bers

My meemaw.

Lucas McFad­den

Aw, yep, we all love our meemaws, don’t we? Alright good deal. Well you’ve got an impor­tant job and one peo­ple will love you for if you call their name!

So Annabelle will draw a tick­et for each win­ner.

After­wards, Michael and John 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.

 

Prize Win­ners

Spe­cial Draw­ing – Tega Cay:

• $500 pow­er bill cred­it: Lewis Tull

$85 Pow­er Bill Cred­its (20 win­ners):

• Win­ners:

  1. C.G. Adkins

  2. Hen­ri­et­ta Brown

  3. Leon Tay­lor

  4. Robert and Nan­cy Cirasa

  5. Anil Son­awane

  6. Jef­frey Gall

  7. Deb­o­rah Mar­tin

  8. Price Clea­tus

  9. Frances Cor­da

  10. Diane and Joseph Kletch

  11. Dar­lene and Ronald Boll

  12. Ash­ley Renee and Jonathan Stan­field

  13. Greg Lawrence

  14. Gwen Gollmer

  15. Hul­dah Latchans­ingh

  16. Bar­bara Car­pen­ter

  17. Rus­sell and Lor­rai Watkins

  18. Philip and Toni Pis­tun

  19. Michael Cox

  20. Toir­net­ta Aki­la McCoy

 

Grand Prizes

• $250 pow­er bill cred­it: Diane Pul­cher

• $250 pow­er bill cred­it: Valerie and Robert Whit­ney

• $500 pow­er bill cred­it: Nery Illu 

• Kub­o­ta zero-turn lawn mow­er: Bren­da Chan­dler 

 

Final Remarks – Lucas McFad­den

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.

If you won a bill cred­it, your cred­it will appear on your June billing state­ment.

Thank you for join­ing us and for allow­ing York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive the oppor­tu­ni­ty to look out for you.

I’m Lucas McFad­den. Thank you so much. Have a good day.