CENTRAL RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
BOARD MEETING SUMMARY
February 4, 2010
The February Regular Meeting of the CREC Board of Trustees was attended by all nine Trustees, CREC staff and CREC’s attorney.
DEPARTMENT REPORTS
The following reports were provided and reviewed by the Trustees as a part of the consent agenda: Connected and Disconnected services, Operations Report, Engineering Report, Corporate Development Report and Safety Report.
CEO SESSION
Mr. Swank reviewed the current outages in other parts of Oklahoma caused by the recent snow and ice. CREC was very fortunate that the ice storm missed its service territory. After the storm, CREC sent two crews to help cooperatives in the Southwest restore power.
Mr. Swank reviewed with the Board of Trustees the preparation CREC had made for the possibility of a catastrophic ice storm in CREC territory. These preparations included posting information on www.crec.coop including the outage map, which was visited by over 2,000 members during the height of the winter storm. David Swank, CEO, recorded a phone message concerning the possible storm that was sent automatically to CREC members. CREC also notified members of the possibility of winter storm outages by SMS text messages, e-mails and Tweets.
Each month the Board of Trustees reviews a section of a planned study series. This month they reviewed Study Series No. 1 Business Acumen. As our business challenges become more complex the importance of business acumen and informed, educated business judgment increases.
Mr. Swank reviewed specific challenges now facing the cooperative and our industry along with the many initiatives currently taking place to assure that CREC is confronting these challenges. These challenges that were reviewed include large commercial loads, multiple new compliance and regulatory issues, business model shifts and technology advancements.
CREC ANNUAL MEETING
The board discussed at great length all Annual Meeting plans for the purpose of encouraging members to attend Annual Meeting, participate in the meeting and continue efforts to have a quorum of the membership present. Two buses will transport members to Annual Meeting from TBD locations of the CREC territory
DISTRICT/AWARE MEETINGS
Three District/Aware Meetings in March include District 6, March 16; District 5, March 25 and District 8, March 30. A meal will be served and a quorum is anticipated due to the combining of District meetings with Aware Meetings.
FINANCE REPORT
CREC’s annual audit was recently completed with very good results. The auditor will meet with the Board of Trustees in April for an in-depth report and review.
FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT
Mr. Caldwell, president of the CREC Foundation, gave the annual CREC Foundation report. He noted that approximately $6,400, 10 percent, of incoming funds is put back for emergency use. Mr. Caldwell
reported that the Foundation received 120 applications in 2009 and 59 of those were approved. He noted that Operation Round Up participation was down to 57 percent and encouraged Foundation Board members to encourage participation at the CREC Aware Meetings.
KAMO REPORT
Mr. Nettles provided a report from the KAMO board meeting held in February. Mr. Nettles updated the board on current generation and transmission issues.