Wood County Electric Cooperative Inc. Celebrates 75th Anniversary and Annual Meeting

Prior to the 75th Annual Meeting of Wood County Electric Cooperative Inc. (WCEC), a free concert featuring The Quebe Sisters Band set a lively and festive tone. This world known Fort Worth group is composed of sisters Grace, Sophia and Hulda Quebe; guitarist Joey L. McKenzie (the sister’s fiddle instructor and vocal coach and a world champion fiddler); and upright bassist Gavin Kelso. Beyond the toe-tapping music, attending WCEC members also enjoyed a special anniversary treat in the form of red velvet cupcakes. These desserts were baked by a local celebrity business, Food Network’s Cup Cake Wars Winner, The Luscious Crumb. Adding to the festivities, special guest CFL Charlie an energy efficiency superhero, greeted members.

Leading the meeting, Debbie Robinson, CEO/General Manager of WCEC, welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming. Following, she spoke about the cooperative’s rich history and accomplishments and then focused on the expected advances for the next 75 years. In particular, she noted, “On behalf of the employees and myself I am most grateful for the new headquarters facilities the board and you the members have allowed us to build. We knew we must improve our home base environment to fully take advantage of new technologies. You have given us a strong foundation to build upon for the next 75 years.”

After her address, Robinson introduced Board President and District One Director Pat Lindley. Lindley conducted the business portion of the membership meeting, saying in part, “This year the Board of Directors of WCEC voted to retire $1.M in capital credits, which is 25% of 2012 margins. Checks will be mailed out this December. In total, over the last 25 years, I’m pleased to say that over 21 million dollars in capital credits have been returned to the members. This has a tremendous positive impact on our local economy.”

Lindley also announced the results of the Board of Directors election, which was held by mail ballot. Those elected to serve a three year term were Cathy Roberts to serve as Director for District 5 and Jane Robertson to serve for District 6.

Once the annual report was given and the business meeting closed, the prize drawing commenced. WCEC’s Director of Operations, Rusty Mask, acted as emcee. This year’s prizes ranged from a beautiful wooden rocker, to an ipad mini, to various electronics, gift cards and household items. These prizes were made possible through the generous donations of WCEC’s vendors. Prior to the annual meeting, four lucky members were awarded $250 in credit to their electric bills. These names were pulled from those members that returned ballots by the deadline. Those winners were: To be named.

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In addition to the many prizes during the drawing, to celebrate the 75th there were two grand prizes. First, there was a 47” LED High Definition Energy Star Rated Smart TV, which was won by to be named. Then, for the “grandest” prize, the final drawing was awarded to to be named and it consisted of 12 monthly credits of $75.00 to be applied to a WCEC members bill, with a total value of $900.

Of the event, Robinson said, “The annual meeting is something the management and employees of WCEC look forward to every year. I’m so grateful and proud to have been a part of this meeting on this special anniversary. Our employees work hard every year to put this event together and I congratulate them on another great day, as well as another successful year.”

Wood County Electric Cooperative, Inc. is a not-for-profit electric cooperative with the mission of providing member-customers reliable electric service at a reasonable rate. WCEC serves over 33,000 meters in parts of nine counties throughout northeast Texas, including Camp, Franklin, Hopkins, Rains, Smith, Titus, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Wood.