The 81st Annual Meeting of Wood County Electric Cooperative, Inc., (WCEC), was originally scheduled to be held Friday afternoon, October 9, 2020, at Quitman’s Governor Jim Hogg City Park. In this time of pandemic, it was clear that it would not be prudent to meet. The health and safety of our members and employees is foremost.
Instead, members can be updated via a detailed online brochure in the form of an expanded annual report. It includes the results of the director’s election, a financial update announcing the retirement of $2 million in capital credits, announces staff changes, and offers a look at operations and some outage issues. This report also offers a peek at how we care for the communities we serve. It can be found at wcec.org and will remain through the year. http://www.wcec.org/resources/annual-meeting/
The election for board of directors was held per usual mail ballot. Burke Bullock was re-elected to represent District 2 and Kenneth Langley for District 3, and Freddie Ray Jones was elected as a first-term director for District 7. With the passing of Pat Lindley, WCEC had an unexpected vacancy in District 1. Per the bylaws, a vacancy shall be filled by affirmative vote of a majority of the remaining Directors. After review of several candidates, Mark Sustaire was appointed to that position and he will serve the remainder of the regular term, which is up for reelection in 2021.
In other business, the board voted to retire capital credits of just over $2 million this year. This is 32% of 2019 margins. In total, over the last 31 years more than $28 million has been returned to our members. This year, capital credits will be returned to eligible members as credits on their December 2020 bills. Any credits that are more than $300 will be mailed to members as a check.
About the business update, Trey Teaff, CEO and GM at WCEC, said, “We want every one of our members to know that we are here for them. Annual Meeting is a time we set aside to meet members and converse about shared goals. While the in-person event is not possible this year, we invite all members to review the data provided online. If there are questions, or anything they wish to discuss, we invite them to give us a phone call or send an email, and we’ll do our best to provide answers.”
Lastly, those members that voted in the director’s elections were entered into a prize drawing. Twenty names to each win a $100 electricity credit were pulled by the elections administrator, Survey and Ballot Systems. Also, one lucky early bird prize winner was selected to win a $500 Visa gift card. Those winners are:
$100 Electricity Credit Winners
Name | Region | Region | Region |
---|---|---|---|
Eugene Bagby | Quitman | Jim Kickerbocker | Winnsboro |
Hoy Bryson | Canton | Mary Lawler | Alba |
Patricia Burch | Mineola | Deanna McCullah | Winnsboro |
Bruce Campbell | Winona | Pauline Robinson | Quitman |
Jerry Cryer | Mineola | Amanda Sisk | Winnsboro |
Charles Davidson | Quitman | Sarah Spence | Grand Saline |
James English | Mineola | Catherine Wadkins | Quitman |
John Ferguson | Jamestown | Jeanetta Watson | Yantis |
Narwin Gaby | Alba | Henderson Young | Ben Wheeler |
Bill Hamilton | Winnsboro | Red Springs/Sand Flat Comm Ctr | Red Springs |
$500 Visa Gift Card Winner
Courtney Seelbach, Mt. Vernon