A NOTE FROM YOUR BOARD CHAIRMAN:
What a year this has been. No one planned on having our vocabulary expanded with words like pandemic, social distancing, and flatten the curve. We certainly didn’t plan on being locked down with no more handshakes, wearing masks in public, and limited social interactions. When this pandemic was just starting, we were planning your 2020 Annual Meeting. As we implemented our pandemic response plan to protect our members and employees, it was apparent that we couldn’t safely hold our Annual Meeting, so we decided to postpone it until summer. Things still haven’t improved to where the CDC and state health guidelines will allow large indoor gatherings. After much discussion, and guidance from our legal counsel, your board has decided that we will hold the 2020 Annual Meeting in conjunction with the 2021 Annual Meeting in April 2021. This decision was not made lightly. Your meeting is very important to us, as is the health and well-being of our members and employees. We hope that you are staying physically, mentally, and emotionally well during this difficult time and know that we look forward to seeing you at your Annual Meeting in 2021.
Sincerely,
Harold Harms
A NOTE FROM YOUR COOPERATIVE CEO:
You heard it straight from the horse’s mouth, we will not hold our traditional Annual Meeting in 2020. To say the decision was not made lightly is an understatement. Your MLEC Management Team and Annual Meeting Planning Committee followed a long list of electric cooperatives, watching to see how they were handling their Annual Meetings. I will tell you, it was a mixed bag of responses. With venues still experiencing capacity limits through mid-July (with no guarantee the Peace Time Order is not extended again), we talked about a virtual meeting, a parking lot meeting, even a drive through meeting. As you will recall, both the MLEC board seats that were up for election in 2020 were running unopposed; therefore, we determined that with no elections necessary, we would combine the 2020 and 2021 business meetings in April 2021.
As Harold indicated, your Annual Meeting is very important to us. If you have a topic you really wanted to address this year, you will be able to address it next April at the combined business meetings. If your topic is something you want addressed immediately, please feel free to contact me, your elected board member, or a member of your MLEC Management Team at your convenience. We will address your concerns on an individual basis.
We miss having our office open to the public and seeing you all. Interacting with our members is part of what makes our cooperative what it is. With that said, we are going to keep our offices closed to the public until we have more information on the state of the COVID-19 Pandemic. As Harold indicated, the health and well-being of our members, our employees, and the community is very important. If we can do just one thing to help in this crisis, we believe limiting public exposure is our duty. As soon as we have definite information on when our office will be open, we will notify you through our website, Facebook, and our newsletter. Like you all, everyone at MLEC is looking forward to life returning to some state of “normal”. Stay well.
Sincerely,
Sarah Cron