The 81st Annual Meeting of the Members of Farmers Electric Cooperative, Inc. was held at the Adair County 4-H Building, at 9 A.M., on the 17th day of September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was conducted with only directors, key staff, election committee, Sarah with CIPCO recording, and legal counsel present. The meeting will be posted on the cooperative Facebook page and the cooperative’s website for members to view. The meeting was called to order by Dan Westphal, President of the Cooperative, who presided.
Attorney Fred Dorr referenced the Notice of Meeting and reported that he had checked the registration and at least 5% of members had sent their ballot in to the cooperative for the election, thus constituting a quorum of the members of the Cooperative. There were 456 total ballots returned.
The minutes of the Annual Meeting of Members held September 17, 2019 was printed in the program. Because the minutes were printed in the newsletter and sent to each member, the reading of said minutes was waived. The minutes were accepted, and the Secretary was directed to file the same in the records of the Cooperative.
The annual report of the Treasurer was printed in the program and was accepted and directed to be filed in the records of the Cooperative.
President Westphal gave his report to the members, which included reports on services that the cooperative received from our generation and transmission cooperative, CIPCO. He also spoke about the recent impact of the derecho event on CIPCO and some of its member cooperatives.
President Westphal called upon Manager Charlie Dunn for his report. Manager Dunn thanked Dave Shike, Dave Hennigar and Pat Held for their dedicated 30 years of service with the Cooperative, praised Garrett Thompson on his tenure as Director of Finance and Accounting, thanked Director Robert Newton for his leadership and guidance on the board, and welcomed two new employees to the co-op. He also thanked employees that helped neighboring utilities during the recent storm. Charlie also reviewed the new Construction Work Plan. Dave Shike, Director of Operations gave his report on the year so far with the line crews. Garrett Thompson, Director of Finance, gave his report on the year 2019 and on the Power Cost Adjustment (PCA). Holi Weston, Director of Member Services gave her report on the Rebate Program and on Operation Round Up.
Attorney Fred Dorr then read the Certificate of the Inspectors of Election certifying that the following members having received the highest number of votes cast, had been duly elected directors of the Cooperative to hold office for the term specified and until their successors shall have been elected and qualified: Janelle Peiffer (East District), Kris Petter (Central District), and Kevin Tanner (West District).
The president directed the Secretary to annex the Certificate of the Inspectors of Election to the minutes of this meeting and thereupon declared such members duly elected directors of the Cooperative to hold office for the term specified and until their successors shall have been elected and qualified.
President Westphal thanked all the directors and employees for their dedication and service and recognized retiring Director Robert Newton for his 18 dedicated years to the Board of Directors. Robert spoke of his tenure on the board as one of the most fulfilling things he has done and thanked his fellow directors for their friendship.
There being no further business to come before the meeting, the meeting adjourned.
Drawings for prizes were held.