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Doug Bechtel
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A new year brings a lot of things. It brings end of the year book-keeping challenges. It brings in a new budget, and it also brings in our planning for our annual meeting. I hope that by now everybody understands that OPALCO is a cooperative. That means that OPALCO is owned by the nearly 8000 members who buy power from us. From the largest user to the smallest, every OPALCO member has an equal say in the affairs of the cooperative.
I want to spend some time talking about the planning process that leads up to our annual meeting. OPALCO has seven directors represen-ting four districts. This year the two directors from the Lopez District and the single director from Shaw are up for reelection. The Board of Directors has appointed a nominating committee from each district to select candidates. The nomina-ting committees are urged to nominate two members for each of the positions. Incumbent direc-tors who wish to remain on the board are automatically eligible to run for reelec-tion. If you are interested in serving on the Board of Direc-tors, please call Carol Merrill at 376-3520 and we will pass your name along to the committees.
After the nominating committee does its work, the names of the candidates will be posted in our offices and published in the news-papers. Any individual who wants to run for the board but was not nominated can have their name added to the ballot by submitting a petition signed by 15 OPALCO members. The OPALCO annual report is then printed and mailed to each OPALCO member. Inside this annual report is a ballot that will enable you to vote for the directors of your choice. Even though the directors live in and represent a specific district they are elected by all of the members of OPALCO.
As in the past, OPALCO's annual meeting will be on a Wash-ington State Ferry. The date selected for the annual meeting is April 29th. The trans-portation arrangements will probably be the same as in prior years. We must have 100 members attend the annual meeting to have a quorum and to make the whole process official. Remember, this is not 100 people, but 100 members (a husband and wife usually count as one member).
At the annual meeting you will hear reports on the cooperative's activities over the past year. You will also have the oppor-tunity to ask questions. It is the one day a year that OPALCO needs your help.
One of the things that really surprises me is how few people mail in the ballot. We normally receive less than 10% of the ballots back from our members. Most cooperatives get 20% to 30% or even 40% of the ballots returned without any special effort. I am looking for any ideas that people have to help us improve the number of ballots returned. We had a 35% return on our recent questionnaire on the roundup program. Let's do as well or better on our annual meeting ballot this year.
Anyway, mark April 29th on your calendar and plan on attending our annual meeting.
Doug Bechtel
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